“What’s your favorite restaurant?” and other National Security Concerns (Civil Rights Leaflet)

“What’s your favorite restaurant?” and other National Security Concerns

 

Large “man-hunts” have been launched by the Justice Department to prevent further attacks.  Foreign students, tourists, and businessmen are being asked questions of dubious value, and in some cases there is verifiable harassment and intimidation by law enforcement officials who then pressure foreigners to reveal the names of Middle Eastern foreigners they know.

 

Since September 11, the FBI has been questioning Middle Eastern students in over 200 college campuses on topics such as “the names of their favorite restaurants” and “their views on Osama bin Laden.”  Students from Arab countries have been interviewed – no students from Germany , the country some of the hijackers came from, were visited.

“One of the reasons they want to know where a student lives is so that they can come find them when necessary or simply watch them,” said Catheryn Cotten, Director of the International Student Office at Duke University .

 

One Saudi student said he was asked about his politics and that he was afraid – “I know they can do anything they want to you.”   The student’s name was provided to the government by two other Saudi students after being detained for taking photographs of their university’s sports arena – they were in a photography class.  The student’s interview ended with government agents telling him to “expect to see us again.”

(Source: “In Sweeping Campus Canvasses, U.S. Checks on Mideast Students”, Jacques Steinberg, New York Times, November 12, 2001)

 

Until September 11, the government had asked colleges and universities to stop sending information on foreign students because “the I.N.S. could not scale the mountain of paperwork.” Now, even though no terrorist student has been found through asking questions about their favorite restaurant, it seems worthwhile to process the large amounts of paperwork.  Schools have no real choice but to cooperate: “By alienating the government, a school could risk losing its authority to request visas for foreign students, most of whom pay full tuition.”

(Source: “In Sweeping Campus Canvasses, U.S. Checks on Mideast Students”, Jacques Steinberg, New York Times, November 12, 2001)

 

There have been very few campus protests in support of the civil rights of foreign students, unlike the outrage expressed when university and law enforcement officials profiled American-born students in the past.  After an assault on an elderly woman in 1992, SUNY-Oneonta provided the state police with a list of every Black and Hispanic Student – this resulted in weeks of campus protest.  

(Source: “In Sweeping Campus Canvasses, U.S. Checks on Mideast Students”, Jacques Steinberg, New York Times, November 12, 2001)

 

What is the result?  Over 300 Saudi Arabian students have suspended their studies in the US and returned home, complaining of “widespread abuse, harassment and maltreatment mainly by government agencies.” 

(Source: “300 Saudi students return home from US”, AFP, Nov 10 2001)

 

What about foreigners in general?

 

Prosecutors around the USA have been ordered by the Justice Department to work with the police to find and question 5,000 male students, tourists, and businessmen between the ages of 18 and 33.  The DOJ refuses to name which countries’ male citizens are being sought after, and spokeswoman Mindy Tucker says, “We've allowed them to come into this country and we expect them to help.”

(Source: “Justice Dept. Widens Terror Probe”, Karen Gullo, AP, November 13, 2001)