Reuters US Wants to Talk to 5, 000 Foreigners About Attacks WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. government has compiled a list of
more than 5,000 foreign men living in the United States it wants to
question about the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said on Tuesday. Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said the department
is circulating the list, drawn up with the help of the State
Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to the 94
U.S. attorneys' offices around the country. ``It's a list that's been developed of people who might have
information,'' Tucker said, noting that the government was seeking
clues to help find anybody who might have planned the Sept. 11
attacks and prevent future attacks. ``They are not suspects, they are simply people who we want to
talk to because they may have helpful information,'' she said,
adding that the interviews would be ``consensual.'' The people are all males, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United
States on non-immigrant visas after Jan. 1, 2000, from specific
countries. The list of countries was not provided. Tucker said the countries
of interest were not necessarily the individuals' native countries
but were places that known al Qaeda operatives were last in before
entering the United States. The United States has blamed Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden
and his al Qaeda network for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed some
4,600 people when hijackers slammed airplanes into the World Trade
Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. Civil rights groups criticized the Justice Department for the
latest move. ``This looks like someone said make me a list of young Arab and
Muslim immigrant men, but make it look like it's not based on
ethnicity,'' said David Cole, an attorney with the liberal Center
for Constitutional Rights and professor at Georgetown University Law
Center. ``With the possible exception of Germany, every country on that
list is likely to be Arab or Muslim, and those interrogated will be
virtually all Arab or Muslim. This is as close as you get to ethnic
profiling without literally relying on ethnicity.'' Rights groups have been concerned about broad new powers given to
the Justice Department which Ashcroft says is conducting an
aggressive arrest and detention campaign to prevent future terrorist
attacks. In a Nov. 9 memo to U.S. Attorneys and members of anti-terrorism
task forces, Ashcroft rejected the claims. ``These individuals were not selected in order to single out a
particular ethnic or religious group, or to suggest that one ethnic
or religious group is more prone to terrorism than another,'' said
the memo, released by the Justice Department on Tuesday. ``I want all to understand there is no place for ethnic or
religious stereotyping in this plan, or in this nation's campaign
against terrorism.'' USA 'ALL APPROPRIATE MEANS' Ashcroft requested that the interviews be completed within 30
days. ``This is an ambitious schedule but one mandated by the
urgency of the mission,'' he said. ``It has been clear since Sept. 11 that further terrorist attacks
against the United States are likely... These interviews ... will
provide information and leads that will help us identify and
apprehend terrorists in our midst before they have an opportunity to
cause more pain and suffering to the American people.'' In a separate memo, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson urged interviewers to use ``all appropriate means'' to encourage
an individual to cooperate. Thompson sent around guidelines on what questions enforcement
officers can ask and which would be out of bounds. Interviewers are
instructed not to ask, for example, about the person's religious
beliefs. Copyright © 2001. Reuters. All rights reserved. saved from url: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-attack-investigation-list.html
November 14, 2001
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