March 28 —
Ghassan Hanna served the FBI agents tea, and answered their
questions while his 1 1/2-year-old daughter slept on his
shoulder.
Another man was awakened by a loud knock at his door. Still
another couldn't believe the casually dressed man and woman were
federal agents, and asked for another look at their badges.
Thousands of Iraqi immigrants are being questioned this week by
FBI agents. FBI director Robert Mueller and other officials said
Thursday that the interviews have yielded valuable information about
possible targets for U.S. troops in Iraq, including descriptions of
bunkers, tunnel systems and Iraqi military officials, among other
material.
Agents also are trying to get information about possible
terrorists, and reassuring Iraqis that the agency won't tolerate
hate crimes, the FBI has said.
While individual experiences have varied, advocates, lawyers and
those interviewed say agents have been mostly polite and at times
even friendly. Still, that doesn't mean all their visits have been
welcome. Some have used their interviews to chide agents for
singling out Iraqis.
During some sessions, which have lasted from 15 minutes to more
than an hour, agents have read from a list of typed questions.
They asked about people's immigration status, their lives in
Iraq, why they left, if they attend a mosque, the names of family
members and whether they knew of any terrorists in the United
States. Men and women, American citizens and recent immigrants, have
all been interviewed.
The two men in suits who showed up at Hanna's Union City, Calif.,
home got an earful after asking what he thought of Saddam's regime.
Hanna left Iraq two weeks after Saddam came to power to escape a
warrant for his arrest.
"I spent a good deal of time giving them a good history lesson, a
good background," said the 45-year-old engineer.
An American citizen, Hanna said the questioning sends a message
that "U.S. citizenship is nothing more than a piece of paper," that
the government doesn't "trust your loyalty."
Agents have interviewed about 6,700 people so far, with a goal of
speaking to 11,000 people who have traveled to Iraq recently or have
ties to Iraq's military. The names were taken from a larger list of
50,000 Iraqis.
In one case, an agent asked a Miami taxi driver who fled Iraq and
a warrant for his arrest there if he could return to recruit
intelligence sources, said immigration attorney Tammy Fox-Isicoff,
who sat in on the interview. The immigrant declined.
When Mohammed Al-Jaibaji saw two agents, one wearing a ski
jacket, walking up to his house last week, he thought they were
salespeople. After double-checking their badges, Al-Jaibaji, 43,
told them he left Iraq at age 18 to study at the University of
Kansas.
"It didn't bother me," said Al-Jaibaji, a certified public
accountant who lives in San Mateo, Calif. "They were very cordial
and friendly. There was no sense of intimidation or
interrogation."
That wasn't the case for Pishdar Mirawadli, who was awakened by a
loud knocking at his door one morning last week when he was off from
work. When the agents asked him for his immigration documents,
Mirawadli, a clothing store quality control inspector, called his
lawyer.
"They started cussing at me. They told me, 'Shut up,'" and used
an obscenity as his wife and three children looked on, said
Mirawadli, 28, a refugee from northern Iraq who settled in
Harrisonburg, Va.
Basam Alhussaini said the two agents who visited his home on
Monday night were polite, but unwelcome.
"We don't appreciate you coming here asking questions like this,"
the San Dimas, Calif., engineer told them. "We're being profiled
because of our ethnicity and background."
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the interviews are intended to
build relationships with Iraqis "so that there's some solid trust
and a foundation." Officials hope Iraqis will "come to us if they
have information they should pass along to help with our overall
mission in protecting national security," he said.
To Ali Alkoraishi, 53, the agents who sat in his living room
seemed jumpy.
"Every time one of us moved, they were a little bit edgy," said
Alkoraishi, a Saratoga, Calif., psychiatrist, whose wife and four
children sat with him during the interview.
The agents were particularly interested in a picture of
Alkoraishi's medical school graduating class in Iraq, asking him for
names and whereabouts of schoolmates. They also wanted details about
military hospitals in Iraq.
Then, they asked Alkoraishi and his wife what they hoped for the
future of Iraq.
"I told them, 'I've been here 25 years. The biggest change in my
life was to experience freedom, expression of speech," Alkoraishi
said. "We really appreciate the fact you're able to speak your mind
here."
photo credit
and caption:
Basam Alhussaini poses at his
home in San Dimas, Calif., March 3, 2003. When FBI agents
asked Alhussaini, who fled from Iraq in 1982 after his two
brothers were taken by Saddam's security agents, if he knew
someone who possessed weapons of mass destruction, he replied,
"Yes, I do. Saddam Hussein, and you gave it to them." (AP
Photo/Chris Urso)
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