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FBI reaches out to community leaders

November 20, 2006

www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/crimecourts/article_1359556.php

ANAHEIM – Background checks and house calls by federal agents were among the concerns raised Sunday evening by Muslim and Arab-American community leaders at a town hall forum with the FBI.

The meeting, which was proposed by a Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee working with the agency since 2004, aimed to dispel myths about the FBI and give residents a chance to ask agents directly about issues ranging from counterterrorism to security on the Internet.

"We need to be able to talk to the FBI and not be afraid of the FBI," MCAC member Tareef Nashashibi told an audience of about 80 at the Brookhurst Community Center in Anaheim

The FBI's Los Angeles office – which formed the committee in response to community concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks – held a similar forum in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Stephen Tidwell, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, was peppered with questions on why background checks take so long and what residents can do if an agent comes to their house in an investigation.

The FBI currently receives 30,000 requests a week for background checks from 80 different agencies – outpacing its capacity to process them as quickly as it would like, Tidwell said.

Hadi Raza Khan of Irvine said he attended the forum to inquire about his 70-year old wife, who has been waiting six months for FBI clearance to become a U.S. citizen. "The FBI is helping, but they are sometimes not solving issues expediently," he said.

By AMY TAXIN
The Orange County Register
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