Agents to mine Muslims for data. Questioning alarms Islamic community

By Ed Blazina, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Members of the Islamic community are expressing concern about an FBI plan to interview 44 Pittsburgh area residents who might have information about a possible pre-election terrorist attack at the same time immigration officials are cracking down on immigration violators.

The FBI and U.S. attorney’s office met with local Islamic leaders at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh Oct. 4. Local mosques notified members about the interviews over the weekend.

The FBI wanted to let members of the Islamic community know the agency would be scheduling the voluntary interviews, said Special Agent Bill Crowley, and assure them that those to be interviewed were not considered suspects.

The meeting was part of the cooperative approach the FBI and the Islamic community have been following since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Although there have been no specific threats, Crowley said yesterday, the FBI wanted to interview members of the Islamic community who might have heard about potential terrorist plans. The agency is acting "out of an abundance of caution" to make sure the election isn’t interrupted.

In March, terrorists bombed a train in Spain a few days before the presidential election there.

Omar Slater, president of the Islamic Council of Pittsburgh, said the organization has an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union, which will represent at no charge anyone who is called for an FBI interview. The council is encouraging local Muslims to cooperate with the FBI but it wants them to be aware of their rights and to make legal representation available if they want it, Slater said.

"People have a nasty habit of going above and beyond what they are asked [when they are interviewed by the FBI], and it can get them into trouble," Slater said. "These people have their reputations and livelihoods to protect.

"We will exercise our civil rights to protect the civil rights of these people by making an ACLU attorney available if they want one."

So far, the ACLU is aware of only one interview that has been scheduled next week.

But Slater is concerned that some of those who are contacted for an FBI interview also could be part of a nationwide crackdown on immigration violations. If they are picked up first by immigration officials, Slater said, the FBI might interview them without giving them an opportunity to have an attorney.

Slater said the FBI told him it didn’t know whether some of the same names were on the FBI list and the list of people the Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement wants for immigration violations. Last week’s meeting broke down when the FBI wouldn’t agree to offer an attorney to anyone they interview for terrorist information who is being held by immigration officials, Slater said.

If the FBI talks to someone already being held by immigration officials, Slater said, that interview may not be "voluntary" and the person could be "squeezed by the FBI" because of the fear of deportation and the lack of an attorney.

"That worries us," said Slater, who is trying to arrange a similar meeting with immigration officials.

"All we want to know is whether we have the right to give these people representation."

Immigration officials couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday due to the Columbus Day holiday. Slater said he believes there could be two or three dozen people in the area being sought for immigration violations, most of them probably students who failed to file appropriate paperwork.

The Islamic Council has little sympathy with anyone who violated immigration laws, Slater said, but that shouldn’t give the FBI free reign to question them without an attorney present.

Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the Pittsburgh chapter of the ACLU, was more blunt. He said cracking down on immigration violations isn’t the best way to build cooperation in the Islamic community.

"We suggested to the FBI in that if they were interested in voluntary cooperation, [immigration officials] should not be scaring people in the community with the threat of deportation," he said. "What’s more important: getting information about a possible terrorist attack or locking people up for not filing the proper paperwork?"

Crowley said the FBI will try to conduct whatever interviews are necessary "to protect the country."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04286/394306.stm