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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (1355)	12/10/2001 1:09:06 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Dial F for FBI A veteran D.C. lawyer was most intrigued by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's Nov. 29 announcement of the "Responsible Cooperators Program" for people here or abroad who might have information on terrorist activities. In exchange, visas or green cards may be available. The attorney, who regularly deals with the Justice Department, thought one of his clients overseas might be interested. He checked the Justice Department Web site, which talks about calling the local FBI office. So he did. The operator who answered had never heard of the program but thought perhaps the anti-terrorism task force might be the place to go. "I don't know why they sent you to us," a task force member said, "we're dealing with anthrax." More transfers yielded nothing. So the lawyer called the counsel's office at FBI headquarters. Zippo. Then the national security folks. "You'd think we'd know," said the agent, "but we don't." Then the main FBI press office. "Didn't have a clue," our lawyer said, and "they sent me to the administrative office." Nada. "So I called over to Justice. They transferred me to the Civil Rights Division, then to the Criminal Division. There, we all agreed this was the wrong place. So I call back to the public affairs office; they were the ones who sent me to civil rights in the first place. Nothing. . . . They said call INS public affairs, they deal with immigration." After more than a half hour of this, our source gave up. "This program is for people overseas or illegally here," our lawyer said. If a lawyer here can't navigate the bureaucracy, "can you imagine if I were some Pakistani with a thick accent? In Des Moines?" A Justice Department spokeswoman on Friday told us: "In light of your phone call, the FBI is once again going to make sure the field offices know what to do when people call with this information." So call your local FBI. Doesn't sound like the phone's been ringing off the hook. Ashcroft: I Rate. Arab Americans: Irate Speaking of Ashcroft, civil libertarians raised a fuss last week after his sometimes belligerent testimony on actions they said infringed on constitutional rights. But some Arab Americans were concerned even as he gave his opening tally of Justice Department actions since 9/11 in the battle against terrorism. "We have investigated more than 250 incidents of retaliatory violence and threats against Arab Americans, Muslim Americas, ikh Americans, and South Asian Americans," Ashcroft said. "Retaliatory acts?" asked James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "What we're doing in Afghanistan is a retaliation." The attacks at home "are hate crimes, not retaliation." The choice of words, he said, was "at best an inartful expression, at worst worrisome." © 2001 The Washington Post Company washingtonpost.com