November 5, 2001	Monday	haba’an 18, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Nov 4: The largest groups of people picked up by United States law-enforcement agencies following the Sept 11 attack reportedly come from Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

This is claimed in an investigative story published in Sunday’s Washington Post based on an examination of the cases of 235 detainees out of the official tally of 1,147 said to have been rounded up so far.

Of the 235, the newspaper identifies 31 as Egyptians, 30 as Saudi Arabians and 24 as Pakistanis, the rest belonging to diverse nationalities.

The largest number were arrested from states with large Muslim populations and what law enforcement officials describe as Al Qaeda supporters — Texas, New Jersey, California, New York, Michigan and Florida.

None of the 235 has yet been directly charged of being involved in the terrorism plot, and most of them are in detention for various violations of immigration laws.

The operation, which has assumed the shape of preventive detention, is being conducted under great secrecy and at times defence attorneys are prevented from removing documents from court, according to the Post, which says the campaign of detentions is the largest seen in the United States since World War II.

After Pearl Harbour, United States residents of Japanese ancestry were rounded up in large numbers and many of them were “relocated” in special camps.

The foundation of the present, post-Sept 11 detentions is described to be a document signed by a top international terrorism official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that, inter alia, says: “At this stage of the investigation, the FBI is gathering and processing thousands of bits and pieces of information that may seem innocuous at first glance. We must analyze all that information, however, to see if it can fit into a picture that will reveal how the unseen whole operates.”

Arab American and Muslim groups have protested against the wave of detentions, accusing US officials of practising racial profiling.

Authorities argue that with a continuing threat of more terrorist attacks, they should follow every lead, however slender, and that they cannot afford to take any risks.

How the campaign can work is revealed by The Post’s reference to the case of a 28-year-old Pakistani gas station attendant, Mohammad Mubeen, who is being held because he had gone to have his driving licence renewed from the same Florida office which the alleged terrorist plot leader Mohammad Atta had visited half an hour after Mubeen went there.

Mubeen has pleaded in court that he did not know any of the hijackers of the Sept 11 attacks but continues to be held without bail.