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CNN Live At Daybreak
Some People Held for Questioning Say They are Victims of Profiling
Aired December 06, 2001 - 06:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Some people who were held for questioning after the September 11th now -- incident, now say that they are the victims of racial profiling. Federal authorities deny that charge. They say they are simply moving aggressively to save American lives. Here's CNN's Eileen O'Connor with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Farouk Ali Haimoud is one of the people who had been held in connection with the September 11th investigation and like 93 others who were publicly charged, he was accused of something other than conspiracy, murder, or terrorism. In his case, it was identity fraud and the misuse of visas after FBI agents found airline catering I.D. cards and what looked like the diagram of an airport flight line in the apartment he shared with two others who are still being held -- an apartment once used by another man linked to al Qaeda.
Ali Haimoud's lawyer Kevin Ernst says the documents belong to a roommate and that normally his client would not have been held.
KEVIN ERNST: What's going on is profiling and profiling based on ethnic background or maybe even religious background, and I think that that, if it doesn't cross the line, it comes awful damn close to crossing the line of civil liberties violation.
O'CONNOR: Ali Haimoud was released. The charges dropped for now. The attorney general denies people are being held with little evidence or that there is any racial profiling, but does not deny that the Justice Department is moving aggressively, he says to protect American lives.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States and its citizens are at war with terror. Our response has been to wage a deliberate campaign and arrest of the -- and detention of violators and suspected terrorists in order to protect American lives. We are removing suspected terrorists who violate the law from our streets.
O'CONNOR: There are people like Luis Martinez-Flores and three others charged with helping several hijackers obtain fake Virginia drivers licenses. According to the affidavit, Flores and the others often vouched for people's residency in exchange for money. Still what they are accused of doing is illegal and did help hijackers Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar accomplish their mission, flying a plane into the Pentagon.
The attorney general likened it to the war against organized crime, which often used charges like tax evasion, in the case of Al Capone, to lock them up.
ASHCROFT: We're going to use every tool in the American judicial system and justice system to protect innocent lives in the United States of America.
O'CONNOR: But Ali Haimoud's lawyer says there is a danger of ruining the lives of the innocent as well.
ERNST: Wreck this kid's life. He was -- his picture was flashed all across the press. His picture was placed up next to people who were suspected with terror -- of terrorist activity.
O'CONNOR: The attorney general insists everything the department is doing from interviewing some Middle Eastern men to listening in on the conversations of some defendants authorities suspect of still being engaged in terrorism from prison is constitutional.
ASHCROFT: This Justice Department will not sacrifice the ultimate good to fight the immediate evil.
O'CONNOR: That say some members of congress is just what they want to ensure. Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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