Are we in communist Russia?? Do we really thing that someone is qualified to spot a terrorist after taking a
45-minute training class and reading a brochure? Two stories on this from the Orlando Sentinal
Some fear 'awareness' could mean profiling By Brian Baskin Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 9, 2004
Local and national civil-rights groups predict that a plan to train firefighters, cable repairmen and others to ferret out terrorism, drug trafficking and child pornography for local police will result in racial profiling and innocent citizens being subjected to terrorism investigations.
"We're afraid law-abiding members of our community will be targeted simply because of their appearance," said Taleb Salhab, president of the Arab-American Community Center of Central Florida.
Chief among the organizations' concerns is a brochure intended to be distributed to Citizen Awareness Program trainees that lists "multiple adult males living together, usually of Middle Eastern appearance and between the ages of 18 and 45, with little or no furnishings," as one of five signs of international terrorism.
Arab-American leaders are worried that racial profiling could result.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar, one of CAP's architects, dismissed charges levied by four groups, including the American-Arab Discrimination Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, that innocent citizens who look Arab could come under suspicion through the program.
"I think this thing will get some legs even though there are some people who are more concerned with being politically correct than saving lives," Lamar said Thursday.
An estimated 5,000 brochures have already been printed, at a cost of $500 to the Sheriff's Office, Chief Steve Jones said.
The sheriff's intelligence unit, which would receive all tips generated by the program, is trained to screen out bad leads, Lamar said. He contends that would eliminate the risk that innocent people will become suspects in terrorism investigations.
Salhab said such safeguards have failed to prevent innocent Arab-Americans from being singled out for surveillance or detention in the past.
"How much heartache would an individual have to go through before they verified that a person is innocent," he said. "Without a doubt, it's going to be our community who will be most affected."
The groups' concerns echoes the fallout from Operation TIPS, a similar program proposed in July 2002 by President Bush, then abruptly withdrawn in the ensuing uproar from civil-liberties organizations.
"Seems like Central Florida agencies . . . are taking a step back and trying things that have already failed at the federal level," said Ahmed Bedir, communications director for the Florida chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations. "It doesn't make any sense why they're doing this now."
Lamar wants to expand CAP to include fire-rescue workers, cable technicians, trash collectors, utility workers and others. Several area companies that would be eligible to participate have their own answer to CAP: They said they already train employees to spot suspicious activity.
Cable-modem installers for Florida Cable are already taught to recognize signs of child pornography on home computers, said Chief Operating Officer John Russo.
The Orlando Utilities Commission also encourages employees to report "unusual situations" when they make house calls, said spokeswoman Samantha Wilson. But she said OUC will not decide whether to join CAP until it is approached by the Sheriff's Office.
CAP participants will receive a 45-minute training from members of the Sheriff's Office intelligence unit. They will also be given a brochure, titled "Citizen Awareness Program, Working Together for a Safer America."
Along with warning signs for terrorism, the brochure lists indicators of drug abuse, ranging from cocaine and heroin to "unusual power bills, high or large spikes in usage" and "unusual odors or chemicals."
Child pornography could be present, according to the brochure, if the home contains a "large collection of untitled video tapes or tapes with sexually explicit titles," "multiple photos of a variety of children, either clothed, partially nude, or completely nude," and "tape, rope, handcuffs, or wire, usually kept in a garage that may be hidden in a closet."
The brochure names Central Florida's Domestic Security Task Force as CAP's sponsor. Lamar is the intelligence chairman of the task force.
Gio Morales, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which created the task force, said FDLE was not involved in any aspect of CAP, though FDLE Regional Director Joyce Dawley is listed on the CAP brochure as co-chair of the Domestic Security Task Force.
Dawley could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Brian Baskin can be reached at bbaskin@orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-5446.
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'Aware' primer will be revised After ethnic-profiling complaints, details on how to spot terrorists will be altered.
By Brian Baskin Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 16, 2004
A program that will urge workers in Orange County such as cable TV installers and firefighters to report suspicious or illegal activities they spot in private homes will be rewritten after complaints the plan would target Arab-Americans.
The Orange County Sheriff's office has already printed 5,000 training brochures outlining the Citizen Awareness Program, which seeks to train workers who regularly enter private homes to identify signs of terrorism, drug trafficking and child pornography. But law enforcement officials will now scrap the brochures -- one week after the Florida ACLU and others labeled the effort as an attempt to create a citizen spy network that would infringe on privacy rights.
The sharpest criticism came from Arab-Americans, who said language in the brochure amounted to racial profiling because it said several adult males "usually of Middle Eastern appearance" who live together with little or no furnishings could be a sign of international terrorism.
The brochures will be rewritten and references to specific ethnic groups will be removed from the final version, said Joyce Dawley, regional director for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and co-chairman of the Central Florida's Domestic Security Task Force, which oversees the program.
"You don't want to focus for a number of reasons on any one group," Dawley said. "A number of different groups out there are willing to hurt people."
Dawley and other law enforcement officials will present a full list of revisions to leaders in Orlando's Arab-American community this morning, said Taleb Salhab, president of the Arab-American Community Center of Central Florida.
Other aspects of the plan will also change, Dawley said, though she would not elaborate.
Lt. Lee Massie, deputy chief of the Sheriff's Office intelligence unit, who designed much of the program, said the brochures were not meant to be a final version, only a draft. But officials said last week they spent $500 on the 5,000 copies and contacted Orange County Fire Rescue Division to talk about starting training sessions.
Massie said the brochure went to print before it was ready and would have been recommissioned anyway to correct design flaws.
"It's common practice not to put a working draft to print," Massie said. "When it came back it was not very well done."
Dawley, of the FDLE, said the program will proceed despite the criticism. Operation TIPS, a similar program attempted at the federal level in 2002, was scrapped after civil liberties organizations objected.
The revisions mark the first time the FDLE has actively participated in designing CAP. Dawley said she approved of the idea when the Sheriff's Office presented it to FDLE shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and has always supported the program.
But though she sat in on planning meetings, Dawley said she had not offered specific suggestions until Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary approached her this week about revising the program.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar, who came up with the initial idea and is one of the program's most vocal supporters, was not involved in this week's revisions, according to Lisa Roberson, a spokeswoman for Lamar.
Dawley said she expected the program would draw criticism, but that she strongly believes that it is necessary and will not intrude on people's rights.
"We don't want to make [trainee] agents of the government, we just want them to be aware of their surroundings," Dawley said.
Mark NeJame, a defense attorney and one of the Arab-American leaders meeting with law enforcement officials today, said the promised revisions are an encouraging sign.
"There's been a healthy ongoing dialogue between certain leaders of the Arabic-American community and certain leaders in law enforcement," he said.
But the Sheriff's Office should have told Orlando's Arab-American community long before the program was about to begin, NeJame said.
"If there were people involved in the onset from the Arab-American community, it might prevent a lot of these reactive measures from having to be taken because they may never have occurred in the first place," he said.
Other groups that were at the forefront of the fight against Operation TIPS are still waiting to give their ideas about the Florida program.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations tried and failed to get a copy of the program brochure from the Orange County Sheriff's Office, according to spokesman Ahmed Bedir. The group is still trying to schedule a meeting with FDLE to discuss the plan.The Florida ACLU is also largely in the dark, said Scott Rost, Central Florida chapter chairman. But he said the Citizens Awareness Program is probably unfixable.
"We think it should die a merciful death in the near future because of public outcry, just like [Operation TIPS] did," Rost said.
Brian Baskin can be reached at 407-420-5446 or bbaskin@orlandosentinel.com.
