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Have you been to Waziristan, asks FBI
The latest question being put to Muslims picked up at random by the FBI and other security agencies and outfits here is: "Have you been to Waziristan?"
Sounds like a reasonable question to me...
Yaser Alamoudi, a Muslim student at Arizona State University, who was paid a surprise home visit by a campus police officer with members of the local Joint Terrorism Task Force, was asked, among other things, if he knew anyone who had recently returned from Pakistan, anyone who had shown interest in a government building or agency or anyone who had shown extreme hostility toward Americans. Later, the 27-year old Yemeni told Washington Post, "The questions were just ridiculous." He told his interrogators, "You guys really think you're going to get anywhere with these kind of questions?" He was also asked if he went to the mosque. His reply was that he did not go to the mosque with any regularity, "unless they have free food".

All visa applications made by Muslims, no matter from where in the world, are now sent to Washington for security clearance. Almost all Muslim visitors who arrive at American ports of entry, be they airports, seaports or land crossings, are asked a variety of questions, even if they are American citizens. There are two folders with all immigration officers, one blue, one red. It is not clear what the colours signify. However, quite a few Muslims have found their passport placed in one of these two folders and escorted to a special room where they and their documents are subjected to further scrutiny. They are also asked a few or several questions and then either let go or detained for more "thorough going". This correspondent has had his passport placed in a red folder and he was escorted to that special room on two recent occasions when he returned from abroad. In both cases, he was let go but the wait after a long, tiring flight and the humiliation resulting from the awareness that one has been singled out because of one's name, "Middle Eastern looks" and religion do not enhance a person's sense of well-being.
Posted by: Fred 2004-07-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=38413