The FBI has launched a sweeping probe of 50,000 Iraqis living in the United States to find terrorists and spies – or potential allies – in a military move to oust Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi nationals are being questioned in what appears to be biggest intelligence sweep since World War II, officials said yesterday.
Agents began interviewing Iraqis across the country six weeks ago and will continue for several months, a senior government official told The Associated Press.
About one in every six people of Iraqi origin living in the United States will be questioned.
The interviews are voluntary and being conducted where Iraqis live, work, study and worship.
The goals of the massive probe include uncovering potential Iraqi spies and terrorist cells – as well as those with just-expired visas, officials said.
But the agents are also trying to find Iraqi nationals who might be in contact with other Iraqis, who would consider defecting or providing information that would be useful in a move to topple Saddam.
The FBI is “asking if anybody knows someone who worked with Saddam,” said Aziz al-Taee, chairman of the Iraqi-American Council. The FBI is particularly interested in doctors, businessmen or other wealthy and educated Iraqis living here.
About 300,000 Iraqi nationals – many of them citizens – reside in the United States, particularly in Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Texas, Illinois and Tennessee.
They include 50,000 Iraqis who fled to the United States after the Gulf War.
Among the recent émigrés are people from groups considered anti-Saddam – such as Kurds who fought for independence, and former members of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority who are largely frozen out of political power by the Sunni minority.
But al-Taee said the agents are also looking for Iraqis with possible links to al Qaeda.
“They are asking about terrorist cells,” he said.
Abigail Price, immigration director of the International Rescue Committee, said FBI agents who said they were from the counterterror unit asked her where to find Iraqi refugees. She said some Iraqi Kurds in the Atlanta area were upset by the FBI interviews.
“They come to us because they are afraid. They ask, ‘Are they going to send us back? Have we done something wrong?’
“No matter how nice they [the feds] are, it really is frightening,” she said. Officials said FBI agents have been given sensitivity instructions to assure people the government will protect them from any anti-Iraqi backlash. With Post Wire Services