Wheaton man soon may learn if he's on terrorism watch list
Akifur Rahman may soon know the truth about why federal agents keep treating him like a suspected terrorist.
The 34-year-old Wheaton man is one of 10 plaintiffs rejoicing in a ruling by a federal magistrate judge that may provide a process for people detained by federal agents to learn why they were questioned.
Rahman is a U.S. citizen who was born in Springfield. He is a Northern Illinois University graduate and owns a computer consulting business.
But Rahman didn't feel like much of a citizen after being detained by Department of Customs and Border Protection agents on four different occasions. During one instance, while crossing the Canadian border, Rahman said agents shackled, cuffed and kicked him during questioning.
That's when Rahman enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union to put a stop to the detentions with a lawsuit.
In essence, the lawsuit seeks to find if Rahman's name is a on a watch list for suspected terrorists. If he isn't on any such lists, they hope to discover what keeps triggering the detainments. If he is on a list, they hope to find a process to remove his name.
"What we want to do is prove that the government is violating the Fourth Amendment, which requires reasonable search and seizures," said Adam Schwartz, an attorney with the ACLU.
"If he wasn't on the list, why was he getting handcuffed to a chair?" Schwartz said. "If he's not on the list, the things that have happened to him are completely inappropriate."
The federal government argued it couldn't divulge the content of such lists because it would compromise national security.
Judge Sidney Schenkier rejected that argument. Federal agencies must now provide Schenkier with an explanation for Rahman's detainments.
Rahman isn't sure if he's on any watch lists, but he said he's not a terrorist and shouldn't have to repeatedly defend himself or suffer detainments when he travels.
"I'll be relieved when I know for sure that I don't have to go through the detentions," Rahman said Thursday. "I have to continue to travel, and I just have a lot of anxiousness when I come home. I've missed flights. I've missed meetings. I've been separated from my family. It's disappointing. It's frustrating. It's annoying."
Ultimately, Rahman and the ACLU blame the Bush administration for creating a policy that unduly burdens innocent American citizens. If the courts agree, Rahman and the ACLU will ask the court to fashion an injunction requiring the government to put a new system in place.