LOS ANGELES (Reuters - 19 Dec) - Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up handcuffed and behind bars.

Shocked and frustrated Islamic and immigrant groups estimate that more than 500 people have been arrested in Los Angeles, neighboring Orange County and San Diego in the past three days under a new nationwide anti-terrorism program. Some unconfirmed reports put the figure as high as 1,000.

The arrests sparked a demonstration by hundreds of Iranians outside a Los Angeles immigration office. The protesters carried banners saying "What's next? Concentration camps?" and "What happened to liberty and justice?."

A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said no numbers of people arrested would be made public. A Justice Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The head of the southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union compared the arrests to the internment of Japanese Americans in camps during the Second World War.

"I think it is shocking what is happening. It is reminiscent of what happened in the past with the internment of Japanese Americans. We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that people went down wanting to cooperate and then they were detained," said Ramona Ripston, the ACLU's executive director.

JAILS OVERFLOWING

One activist said local jails were so overcrowded that the immigrants could be sent to Arizona, where they could face weeks or months in prisons awaiting hearings before immigration judges or deportation.

"It is a shock. You don't expect this to happen. It is really putting fright and apprehension in the community. People who come from these countries -- this is what they expect from their government. Not from America," said Sabiha Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

The arrests were part of a post Sept. 11 program that requires all males over 16 from a list of 20 Arab or Middle East countries, who do not have permanent resident status in the United States, to register with U.S. immigration authorities.

Monday was the deadline for men from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan. News of the mass arrests came first in southern California, which is home to more than 600,000 Iranian exiles and their families.

Officials declined to give figures for those arrested or for the numbers of people who turned up to register, be fingerprinted and have their photographs taken.

"We are not releasing any numbers," said Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) spokesman Francisco Arcaute.

CALLS FOR HELP

Islamic groups and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said they had been swamped with calls for help.

INS spokesman Arcaute said those arrested had violated immigration laws, overstayed their visas, or were wanted for crimes. The program was prompted by concern about the lack of records on tourists, students and other visitors to the United States after the Sept. 11 hijack plane attacks on New York and Washington.

Islamic community leaders said many of the detainees had been living, working and paying taxes in the United States for five or 10 years, and had families here.

"Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register. It is really a bad way to go about it. They are being treated as criminals and that really goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy," Khan said.

The Iranian protesters said many of those detained were victims of official delays in processing visa and green card requests.

"My father, they just took him in," one young man told reporters. "They've been treating him like an animal. They put him in a room with, like, 50 other people and no bed or anything."

Khan said one of those in jail was a doctor, who was being sponsored for U.S. citizenship when his sponsor died.

One Syrian man said he went to register in Orange County with a dozen friends. He was the only one to come out of the INS office. "All my friends are inside right now," M.M. Trapici, 45, told reporters. "I have to visit the family for each one today. Most of them have small kids."

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THE WASHINGTON TIMES - December 19, 2002: The Pentagon is planning to build a second missile-defense interceptor system near the East Coast or in Europe to counter missile threats from the Middle East, Bush administration officials said yesterday.

President Bush announced Tuesday that the Pentagon will build a limited missile-defense system by 2004, situated in the West and primarily aimed at defending the United States against long-range missile attacks from North Korea or China.

The plans call for deploying a single system with 16 interceptor missiles at Fort Greeley, Alaska, and four interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by 2005.

Administration officials familiar with detailed plans for a broader defense system say the plans call for another interceptor site in Maine, oriented toward missile threats from Europe and the Middle East.

Additionally, interceptors could be set up in Britain, Hungary or Poland, NATO allies whose governments privately have indicated they would be willing to cooperate with and provide bases for a missile-defense system.

Deploying interceptors in Europe is likely to further upset Russia, which yesterday criticized the already-announced U.S. missile-defense plans.

Moscow's Foreign Ministry said in a statement made public yesterday that the missile-defense plans, including the use of space for components, have entered "a destabilizing new phase."

The statement said that abandoning the principles of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty "may lead only to a weakening of strategic stability, to a senseless new arms race in the world."

Russia expects the United States to focus on making strategic arms cuts and combating terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the statement said.

"Moscow counts on the United States to pay priority attention to the realization of precisely this strategic partnership program agreed upon at the highest level and to enlist its friends and partners in it, not in a destabilizing race in strategic defensive arms, including in space," the statement said.

China's government has not responded publicly to Mr. Bush's deployment decision. In the past, China has opposed U.S. missile-defense programs as upsetting international stability, and Beijing fears the neutralization of its arsenal of about 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said the initial missile-defense system of interceptors in Alaska and California could be expanded with additional interceptor sites.

"Anything is possible, but there are no firm plans beyond 2005," Col. Lehner said. "After 2005, it may be necessary for adding ground-based interceptors or sea-based missiles or [airborne laser]. But it's just too early to know. All our focus is going to be on this initial capability."

The CIA estimates that Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria could emerge as long-range missile threats and that the initial West Coast system will be unable to knock out missiles from those countries, the officials said.

More interceptor sites therefore will be needed and could be built in the 2010-2015 time frame, the officials said.

Iran has the Shahab-3 medium-range missile that can reach Europe, but not the United States. U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians also are working on an intercontinental-range missile, which the Tehran government has denied.

Defense officials said the West Coast system to be deployed by 2005 could protect most of the United States, with the exception of southern Florida, from missiles launched from East Asia.

The Pentagon announced yesterday that it plans to deploy the first six interceptors in Alaska and four at Vandenberg by 2004. An additional 10 interceptors would then be deployed in Alaska in 2005.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/12/788.htm