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Home » News » Archives » As FBI Launches New Round of Questioning, Legal Coalition Mobilizes to Offer Legal Advice to Arabs and Muslims
As FBI Launches New Round of Questioning, Legal Coalition Mobilizes to Offer Legal Advice to Arabs and Muslims For Immediate Release August 12, 2004 CHICAGO - A coalition of Chicago-area legal organizations today opened a telephone hotline for Arabs and Muslims designated for surveillance and questioning by federal law enforcement authorities in a new round of interviews underway across the country. FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General John Ashcroft recently announced their intent to direct a series of dragnet-like interviews involving individuals from the Muslim and Arab community across the United States. Individuals designated for an interview by the FBI who wish to contact a volunteer lawyer can call the ACLU of Illinois hotline at (800) 572-1092 or the Muslim Civil Rights Center hotline at (866) 440-6272 The plan for questioning Muslims and Arabs is reminiscent of programs conducted by the Justice Department in late 2001 and 2002, in which the Department attempted to locate and interview eight thousand (8,000) Arabs and Muslims without any indication that these individuals had any information that might be helpful in the fight against terrorism. The series of interviews never resulted in a single arrest. Rather, the process created distrust and fear throughout immigrant communities. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Muslim Bar Association and the Muslim Civil Rights Center announced that they would again join together to provide basic legal information and representation - at no cost - to any Muslim or Arab who requested such assistance in the Chicago area. "People targeted for investigation are undoubtedly in need of legal counsel," said Harvey Grossman, Legal Director for the ACLU of Illinois in announcing the formation of the coalition. "It is in the highest tradition of the American bar that these organizations and attorneys step forward and offer their services without compensation to these individuals. In so doing, these attorneys also fulfill our fundamental constitutional values." "MCRC's collaboration with the ACLU and other groups will greatly benefit the area Muslims and Arabs who are concerned about being approached by law enforcement agents and need legal representation during questioning," said MCRC President Rasheed Ahmed. The coalition will provide lawyers with a broad range of experience across the Chicago area who will offer legal services pro bono to persons contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or other law enforcement agencies acting on behalf of the federal government, in connection with the nationwide investigation. |
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