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Cleaveland.com - November 19, 2004 Arab-Americans resent FBI questions By Grant Segall The FBI has stopped quizzing Arab-American immigrants about potential election-season terrorism. But the fear and resentment linger. "Why me?" said Matt Daghstani, a Westlake engineer interviewed by the FBI in August. "I have no criminal background. Why would I know more about terrorism than anybody else?" Daghstani, a Syrian native and U.S. citizen, said the FBI agents explained only that "my name came through." In May, according to Angela Albanna of Fairview Park, two agents asked her husband, Taha, about sums of up to $4,000 wired to his Jordanian homeland. In truth, Angela, an American native, said she had wired the money to relatives of Taha, a legal U.S. resident. The agents also wondered if anyone had asked Taha, a trucker, to ship illegal goods. And "they asked if we knew anyone who didn't like Bush . . . that we felt would be a threat against the president," said Angela. Angela, an American-born Muslim and a secretary at Cleveland's Al-Ihsan School of Excellence, said, "It's nerve-racking when you have the FBI want to come visit you." The sweep ran in 100 cities, including Cleveland, from May until the day after the presidential election. "We had nothing but total cooperation," said Gary Klein, the FBI's acting Cleveland chief. But critics said the interviews scared Arab-Americans here and elsewhere, already shaken by mass roundups, secret searches, hate crimes and other un-American assaults since Sept. 11, 2001. "The Muslim-American community is suffering tremendously," said Isam Zaiem, chairman of the Cleveland branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Zaiem accused the Bush administration of talking inclusively but policing selectively. "We try to build trust," said Bassam Khawam, Ohio chairman of the Arab-American Center for Economic and Social Services. "This kind of activity is very unhelpful." Nationally, the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, complained that the sweep coincided with Ramadan, the holiest Muslim month, which began in mid-October. He wondered if "the real intent is to intimidate Muslims into staying home on Election Day." In Cleveland, immigration lawyer David Leopold said, "Since 9/11, racial profiling has been the method of choice. It's not fair. Most of these folks, 99 percent, are strongly patriotic Americans. They voted with their feet. They moved here." The interviews were voluntary, but community leaders said many immigrants were scared to resist. FBI agents solicited the interviews at the immigrants' workplaces or homes, by phone or in person. Some people refused, some brought along lawyers and others spoke alone. Klein said the sweep led to 700 arrests for immigration violations around the country, but no local arrests specifically for terrorism. Since 9/11, the FBI has held several outreach meetings with Arab immigrants in Cleveland and elsewhere. But no local meeting focused on the election interviews until Oct. 20, when they were nearly over. Arab-Americans said they're as eager as anyone to fight terrorism, maybe more so. "Our community does not need the FBI to contact them," said Daghstani. "I'll be the first one to call the FBI if I know anything wrong." http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/110086023740892.xml |