Title: US to question 3,000 foreigners on terrorism
Author:  
Publication: Daily Excelsior
Date: Mar 22, 2002
URL: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/02mar22/inter.htm#7

WASHINGTON, Mar 21: The United States wants to question 3,000 more foreign nationals who recently came to this country, Attorney General John Ashcroft said even though a report on the first round of interviews found few had any information about the September 11 attacks.

At the US Attorney’s Office in Alexandria, Virginia, Ashcroft defended the initial questioning of several thousand foreign men, a program which critics denounced as racial profiling because it targeted young Arab and Muslim immigrant men.

Ashcroft said yesterday the interviewing ensured that "potential terrorists hiding in our communities knew that law enforcement was on the job in their neighbourhoods.

"Such a climate could cause would-be terrorists to scale back, delay or abandon their plans altogether," he said, adding that the US strategy "may well have contributed to the fact that we have not suffered a substantial terrorist attack since September 11th."

Under the program, the Justice Department came up with an initial list in November of about 5,000 men, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas after January 1, 2000, and have passports from countries where Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network has been present or active.

Ashcroft said only about half of the foreign nationals on the list had been located and interviewed. He admitted "serious flaws" in the ability to locate visitors to the United States.

Congressman John Conyers, a democrat from Michigan who is a house judiciary committee member, said, "the suggestion that Arab and Muslim Americans appreciate being singled out and interrogated is a prime example of the Attorney General’s wartime propaganda machine in full swing."

James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said he was "stunned" by the announcement.

"It was a mistake the first time around and it compounds the mistake doing it yet another time," Zogby said in a telephone interview. "The Attorney General I think has misled the public by presenting the first round as a success ... In fact, law enforcement have told us it was not." Zogby said law enforcement personnel, from local police to FBI agents, have told the institute they are reluctant to undertake this program, as it diverts them from pursuing actual leads in the Septembers 11 attacks and erodes trust in communities that police have worked hard to build.

"FBI (agents) made it clear that they did not want to be involved in this, but they simply had to do it because it was coming from the political people at justice," Zogby said.

A Justice Department report on the initial round of questioning concluded that most of those interviewed had no information about the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.

It said some provided leads that may assist in the investigation into the hijacked plane attacks or other planned violence.

For example, one person interviewed recalled seeing one of the September 11 hijackers, the report said. Two other individuals identified acquaintances who had taken flight training. Examples in the publicly released report were heavily redacted.

Fewer than 20 individuals were taken into custody, most for immigration violations, the report said. Three were arrested on criminal charges, but none of the cases appeared to have any connection to terrorism, the report said.

Ashcroft said only a "very small number" refused to be interviewed in the initial round of questioning. "Many of those interviewed volunteered to provide information on an ongoing basis in the future," he said.

Ashcroft said 3,000 individuals who entered the United States more recently will be sought for voluntary questioning over the next 60 days.

"These visitors to our country have been selected for interviews because they fit the criteria of persons who might have knowledge of foreign-based terrorists," he said.

"We believe that these individuals might, either wittingly or unwittingly, be in the same circles, communities or social groups as those engaged in terrorist activities," he said, emphasizing that the 3,000 are not suspected of any criminal activity.

"We are merely seeking to solicit their assistance to obtain any information they may have regarding possible terrorists or potential terrorist acts," he told the Federal prosecutors. (AGENCIES)