Lawsuit seeks detainee records

NEW YORK -- The Bush administration has illegally withheld records about the treatment of detainees and prisoners held overseas since the Sept. 11 attacks, watchdog groups charged yesterday.

The lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and four other groups against several federal agencies was filed amid a furor over the abuse of Iraqi detainees by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.

It says there is growing evidence that prison abuse by the United States is "not aberrational but systemic."