Our friends, the aclu:
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ACLU Offers Free Legal Help to Arabs, Muslims Contacted by FBI
CNSNEWS.com ^ | 8/16/04 | R0ch Hammond
Posted on 08/16/2004 8:48:04 PM EDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - The American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois -- along with other Chicago-based legal groups -- is offering free legal help to any Muslim or Arab who requests assistance in the Chicago area.
The ACLU recently announced that it is collaborating with attorneys nationwide to offer free representation to anyone approached by the FBI during "its latest round of dragnet interviews" of Arabs and Muslims.
"This dragnet technique used by the FBI is simply racial profiling and violates our most cherished fundamental freedoms," said Dalia Hashad, the ACLU's Arab, Muslim and South Asian Advocate. "Casting blanket suspicion on an entire religious and ethnic community is not a productive means of protecting national security or civil liberties."
Recent press reports said the FBI is conducting interviews with Muslims and Arab Americans across the country, seeking information that would prevent a major terrorist attack in this election year.
According to the Washington Post, the Arabs and Muslims on the interview list will be singled out by intelligence or investigative information, and the people being questioned are not necessarily suspects themselves.
But Edwin Yohnka, director of communications for the Illinois ACLU, said the FBI's approach to interviews has been ineffective and has created "feelings of fear and mistrust."
Donna Spiser, a supervisory special agent with the FBI aid the new, expanded interview process is "absolutely not" racial profiling and that "there are many different possibilities" on why someone may be interviewed.
"Intelligence has dictated who we're going to attempt to contact," she said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that a person is a subject or target."
Spiser added that the FBI interviews are "strictly dictated by intelligence," and that Arab and Muslim Americans are not the only ones being questioned - "that's just misperception," she said.
But the ACLU's Yohnka insists the FBI is targeting broad groups of Arab and Muslim Americans, something that "doesn't give us better intelligence," he said.
Yohnka said it's a "momentous" occasion when someone is contacted for an interview by the FBI, and people who are contacted should "understand fully what their constitutional rights are."
He said Arabs and Muslims contacted by the FBI may need assistance in understanding their rights; arranging a meeting outside of the workplace to avoid "embarrassment"; determining what they can or cannot say;, knowing what an official may or may not ask; and more.
Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the FBI interviews have "undermined the trust we have been delicately developing for the past ten years" with federal agencies.
"The way some of these interviews are being conducted and the questions that are being asked, we don't believe it's going to get them the information they want," he said. "It's sending a chilling effect throughout the community."
Instead, Al-Marayati wants Muslim organizations to act as "intermediaries" between the government and the Muslim community.
He encourages open forums, and voluntary communications so Muslims feel comfortable giving information.
Mark Corallo, spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the FBI interviews and other efforts to gain information are "community outreach more than anything" and have "nothing to do with racial profiling."
Corallo also said that the interviews have been "very helpful" in disrupting terrorism, but he would not divulge details of plots that may have been disrupted.
He said that recent immigrants initially seem "shocked" about law enforcement officers "being the good guys." But, he added, "The more people in these communities get to know [law enforcement], the more comfortable they are."
Regarding efforts by the ACLU, the Muslim Bar Association, Muslim Civil Rights Center, and the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild's to provide free legal assistance, Corallo said Arab and Muslim Americans have every right to legal help.
"They are here, they are Americans, they are part of the fabric of this country...their lives and their liberties are every bit as important as anybody else's," he said.
But Corallo also suggested that the ACLU has a "political ax to grind" and has launched a "campaign of misinformation" about the FBI interviews, the USA PATRIOT Act, and other anti-terrorism, anti-crime legislation.
He defended the FBI interviews and PATRIOT Act, and he said the ACLU has "opposed everything this department has done to protect the American people from terrorism."
... [W]e need to think outside the box, but we are never to think outside the Constitution," Corallo concluded.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192836/posts
"UNDERMINED THE TRUST" I always hear the same thing from these idiots. Its always me, me, me. Hey Salem... why don't you offer to help the FBI, you pathetic leach? Your whining and complaining is really getting on my nerves. You are so "sensitive" and easily offended, just like a child. Salam grow up. Be a man for a change.