[Mpls] FBI racial profiling in Minneapolis?

[MNMollyS]

This could have gone completely unnoticed due to its being buried in another story, but today's Strib reports that John Ashcroft is asking police chiefs around the country, including here in Minneapolis, to assist with interviewing 5,000 young men who recently entered the country from regions known for terrorist activities.

Hmmm...dragging people in off the streets who are not suspected of any criminal activity and questioning them just because they come from the Middle East. Sounds like racial profiling to me!!  

The article talks about the police chief in Portland OR who flatly refused to participate in the questioning since none of these men are suspected of committing any crimes (Ashcroft openly admits that these men have no suspected terrorist links or knowledge of terrorist activity). At the very end of the article, it mentions that Ashcroft has asked Minneapolis' police department to assist the FBI with this so that it can be completed within a 30-day timeframe.

Does anyone know anything about this? Has the request been formally made? Has the department decided what it's going to do?

Nothing raises my ire more than trampling on civil rights...I smell a good old-fashioned protest downtown if the department decides to go through with this.

Molly Schultz