HOMELAND SECURITY FBI halts election-season probe of Arab-Americans in 100 cities

Community leaders said many immigrants were scared to resist the FBI agents' interviews.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The FBI has stopped questioning Arab-Americans in a 100 city sweep to investigate potential election-season terrorist attacks.
Critics said the interviews that ran from May until the day after the presidential election frightened Arab-Americans already shaken by mass roundups, secret searches, hate crimes and other assaults since Sept. 11, 2001.
"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."
Pointing at Bush
Isam Zaiem, chairman of the Cleveland branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 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 Sept. 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 FBI denied choosing people to interview solely by race or creed.
"We thought they might be in a position to have information that would help us," FBI acting Cleveland chief Gary Klein said.
About the interviews
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 Sept. 11, 2001, 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.
"Our community does not need the FBI to contact them," Daghstani said. "I'll be the first one to call the FBI if I know anything wrong."