Arab-Americans resent FBI questions
/The FBI has stopped quizzing Arab-American immigrants about potential election-season terrorism. But the fear and resentment linger. "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." In May, according to Angela Albanna of Fairview Park, two agents asked her husband, Taha, about sums of up to $4,000 wired to his Jordanian homeland. In truth, Angela, an American native, said she had wired the money to relatives of Taha, a legal U.S. resident. The agents also wondered if anyone had asked Taha, a trucker, to ship illegal goods. And "they asked if we knew anyone who didn't like Bush . . . that we felt would be a threat against the president," said Angela. Angela, an American-born Muslim and a secretary at Cleveland's Al- Ihsan School of Excellence, said, "It's nerve-racking when you have the FBI want to come visit you." The sweep ran in 100 cities, including Cleveland, from May until the day after the presidential election. [more]
