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INS CLAIMS TO HAVE MISTAKENLY ISSUED ASYLUM TO ALGERIAN DETAINED ON SECRET EVIDENCE
Anwar Haddam, who has spent the past three years in INS detention based on claims he is a terrorist, and on evidence neither he nor his attorneys were allowed to access, was accidentally granted asylum this week.  As soon as the error was discovered, the asylum grant was revoked. 
His wife filed an asylum application a few months ago and listed Haddam as a derivative beneficiary.  It seems that a mistake was made on the asylum application.  One question on the application is whether the applicant or any beneficiary is in detention or otherwise ineligible for asylum.  It is not known whether the wife made a mistake filling out the application, or whether the INS made the mistake. 
Haddam, an Algerian national, was active in the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front, running for parliament in 1991.  After the party won the elections, the army banned the party, sending many members to jail or into exile.  Haddam came to the US in 1993 and made an application for asylum.  In 1996, the application was denied and Haddam placed in detention on the basis of secret evidence that claims Haddam is involved in terrorist activities. 
Haddam has been tried and convicted in absentia in Algeria, and if returned there now faces a death sentence.