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WASHINGTON, Jan 8: US. authorities are preparing to search for thousands of men in the United States from countries with active Al Qaeda cells who have ignored orders to leave the country, a Justice Department official said on Tuesday.
The men are from nations viewed by the United States as harbouring active members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.
The official would not specify the names of the countries. The Justice Department has already implemented a programme to question more than 5,000 young men, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas since Jan. 1, 2000, with passports issued from certain countries defined only as those with active al Qaeda cells. The questioning would focus on the Sept 11 attacks.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday the Justice Department had identified about 6,000 young men for deportation. The official would not confirm the number.
There are about 300,000 “absconders” in the United States — foreign nationals who have remained in the country despite having been ordered deported.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has vowed to crack down on the huge number of absconders living in the United States.
Authorities will focus first on absconders from nations with active al Qaeda cells. The Washington Post said an undetermined number of them will be sought for capture and removal through regional anti-terrorism task forces that include representatives from the FBI, INS and US attorney’s offices.
The Post said the plan to give priority to a group of Arab and Muslim men over other foreign nationals has raised concerns among some Arab American and immigrant advocate groups that the Bush administration is practicing racial profiling in its war on terrorism. The majority of people ignoring deportation orders are Latin Americans, the newspaper reported.
Attorney General John Ashcroft and other administration officials have repeatedly denied that ethnicity plays a role in their domestic campaign to locate potential terrorists.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, told the Post he doubted that focusing on Middle East nationals who have overstayed their welcome would help in identifying potential terrorists. He noted that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were in the United States legally.
KARZAI: Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai was quoted on Tuesday as saying he regretted the civilian deaths from the US bombing campaign but added he would not request an end to the attacks until the “fight against terrorism” was over.
“In no case will we ask the United States to end the bombing, but ask rather that the fight on our side against terrorism in Afghanistan be conducted to the end,” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Wednesday edition.
“Naturally the civilian deaths are very sad,” he said. “But there was no alternative to the military engagement up to now.”
However, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said in an interview on Tuesday that US bombing raids in Afghanistan should be better coordinated with Kabul’s interim administration now that targets were becoming ever harder to find.
He said coordination had not been as close as Kabul would have likd and the newly appointed ministers had brought this up with US authorities.
Karzai told the BBC on Tuesday Afghanistan would not ask the United States to ease up on its bombing campaign until it had hunted down renegades such as Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
He also said if the need arose Afghanistan might ask the international community to provide more foreign forces to patrol cities beyond the capital Kabul.—Reuters
