FBI to interview 200 Iraqi-born Las Vegans

Thursday, March 20, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

The FBI will be interviewing about 200 Iraqi-born people living in the Las Vegas Valley during the coming days, an official said.

The interviews are meant to seek information about Iraq and to let residents and visitors know about the agency's interest in combatting hate crimes, Special Agent Daron Borst said.

"It's really a two-fold goal of gathering information that may support the war effort and letting people know that they can report hate crimes to the FBI," Borst said.

The agent said interviews will be conducted nationwide, as they were during the Gulf War.

There about 90,000 Iraqi-born people living in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit.

The agency will be selecting people to interview based on such criteria as family ties to Iraq or having held positions in the government or military, Borst said.

But national Arab-American organizations and civil liberty groups say the move smacks of profiling and puts people of Iraqi descent in harm's way -- as well as being an ineffective use of government resources.

They are sending information about the interviews to communities nationwide, advising Iraqis and Middle Easterners in general of their rights and sources of help.

"It's a double-edged sword," said Jean Abinader, managing director for the Arab American Institute, a Washington-based organization. "On the one hand, they say 'We'll help you if you give us help.'

"But on the other hand, it gives the people notoriety that may make them targets for hate crimes."

Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the interviews are inappropriate because they profile people based on nationality.

"They can be viewed as another example -- of which there are many since Sept. 11 -- of government harassment of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians," he said.

The ACLU official also questioned the policy's intent.

"In light of the fact that the government has admitted that Iraqis are in this country because they're escaping from the regime ... this is an ineffective and wasteful use of already overextended government resources," he said.

Abinader said he met with FBI Director Robert Mueller Feb. 28 to talk about the interviews.

"We encouraged them to meet with leaders of the Iraqi community and to do the interviews as user-friendly as possible," he said.

Borst said the interviews will be voluntary.

"We're going in with the attitude that these people are living here by choice and are just as patriotic as any other American," he said.

But Peck said that few people would turn a federal agent away if asked for an interview.

"They may call this voluntary, but as a practical matter it's not," Peck said. "In this climate, it is certainly unlikely that most people will feel free to say no."

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a national organization, has sent an e-mail to 25,000 individuals and organizations around the country advising people of Iraqi background of their equal protection and due process rights -- including the right to say no to the interview, or to select the date, time and place of the interview.

The interviews may put thousands of people in a difficult situation, said Laila Al-Qatami, spokeswoman for the organization.

"Let's say you're in a position where you're opposed to the war -- and you say this," she said. "Then the undercurrent is that you're in favor of the regime. Or, if you're in favor of the war and that makes it back to Iraq -- and you have family there -- it could put your family at risk."

Al-Qatami said neighbors or fellow workers of anyone being interviewed will assume that person is guilty of something, which could make him or her a target of harassment or violence.

"The same people who can protect you can also put you at risk," she said. "There's a certain paradox there. We most certainly are bracing ourselves for a surge in hate crimes."

Sun reporter

Jace Radke contributed to this story.