Arab Americans meet with U.S. attorney general

A Delegation of Arab Americans met on Thursday with attorney general Janet Reno to discuss the issues of airport profiling and the use of secret evidence against Arabs.

Those participating in the meeting said that the U.S. justice department agreed the issue is a cause of serious concern.

A flood of complaints have been compiled and submitted to the department by Arab American Organizations.

The cases involve abusive and humiliating incidents of airline profiling against Arab Americans, American Muslims and those with visas to and from Middle Eastern Nations.

The justice department has earmarked funds for a project to measure the discriminatory effects and disparate impact on Arab American travellers produced by Government-mandated profiles coordinated by the federal aviation administration (FAA).

On the issue of secret evidence, about 20 persons, almost all of them of Arab origin, are currently being held in U.S. jails without charge. Reno told Arab American leaders that secret evidence has no place in the American justice system and offends America's notion of proper law enforcement.

She said that she was working towards establishing new procedures for classifying evidence. She agreed that further safeguards were needed to ensure that the use of secret evidence is not abused and that only highly sensitive and significant evidence should be classified.