FBI Quest Leaves Many Arab-Americans Fearful : Investigation: Officials say interviews are designed to protect as well as gather information.

Paul Bohn had a full load of dirt in the dump truck he drives for the city of Grapevine, Tex., when his dispatcher called earlier this week with orders to report to the police station.

There, an FBI agent flashed a badge, took out a tape recorder, and asked Bohn if he had any Arab-American friends. The truck driver mentioned Victor Nasser, the manager of a San Diego law firm and an active Republican whom Bohn hadn’t seen in four years. The agent produced a file on Nasser and started questioning Bohn about his views on Israel, and those of his friend.

“What’s this all about?” Bohn said he demanded after 30 minutes. “Victor’s no terrorist. You act like he’s going to start throwing hand grenades.”

Agents in the past three weeks have conducted dozens of such interviews with Arab-Americans and their friends, part of what the FBI calls a nationwide investigation to “interdict terrorists.” The conversations have taken place over pancakes at Denny’s in Dallas, in doctors’ offices in Orange County, between sips of Arabian coffee served in living rooms in Los Angeles--polite, though often unsettling exchanges, that have provided the young war with one of its stranger home-front chapters.

While FBI officials insist that their intent is as much to protect Americans of Arab descent as gather information, many who have been contacted have been left fearful that the FBI’s questions are perhaps a prelude to internment, deportation or, at the very least, a tarnishing of the patriotism that many wear on their sleeves. Many Arab-Americans wonder whether the FBI has tapped their telephones or has them under surveillance--tactics some of them came to know and fear in their homelands.

“People are shocked and horrified about the aerial bombardment and they are worried, deeply, about the backlash that might occur here,” said Ali Tabikh, a board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Orange County chapter. “And they’re scared, to death really--I cannot overemphasize this--about the interviews by the FBI.”

Nasser said he was stunned and hurt by the FBI interview with Bohn. A U.S. citizen for 15 years, Nasser had been campaigning for Gov. Pete Wilson just two months ago.

“I don’t understand,” said Nasser, who was born in Palestine and now manages a law firm in suburban La Mesa. “I just cannot digest this. I am a devoted Republican. It’s just not fair. If I knew a terrorist, as an American citizen, I would call the FBI.”

Nasser said he has yet to be interviewed.

As no doubt was anticipated, the FBI campaign has become controversial. Officials of Arab-American, Japanese-American, Jewish and civil liberties groups joined with six members of Congress on Wednesday to call on the FBI to discontinue questioning Arab-Americans about terrorism solely on the basis of their ethnic backgrounds. At a press conference in Washington organized by Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), the group described such interviews as a violation of civil rights, and said it reflects an attitude that prompted the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Edwards, who is chairman of a subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, said the subcommittee might begin hearings on the subject if the FBI persists.

FBI Director William S. Sessions stated Wednesday that interviews of Arab-American business and community leaders “for the most part” have been completed, but added that the FBI would continue to investigate about 3,000 Iraqi nationals believed to be in the United States with expired visas.

“Terrorist acts cannot be prevented by law enforcement alone,” Sessions said. “We must continue to seek the cooperation of any American who may become aware of information that might help prevent a violent act.”

David Najjaab was one of those Americans whose cooperation was sought. The 29-year-old advertising photographer recalled how he eagerly met with an FBI agent at a Denny’s restaurant in North Dallas after the agent called and said he was concerned about Najjaab’s safety. A native Texan, Najjaab is co-chairman of the Arab American Institute, a bipartisan organization that encourages Arab-Americans to participate in American politics.

Over a “Grand Slam” special of pancakes, sausage, bacon and eggs, the FBI agent told a worried Najjaab that, as he would recall, the agency was “concerned about hate crimes against our people.” Then, Najjaab said, the agent began asking for names of the Arab American Institute members and whether he was familiar with any dissident student groups.

“What,” Najjaab said he asked the agent, “does this have to do with why you called me?”

Najjaab said the agent told him he had a second reason for calling-- “to get a handle on the (Arab-American) community.” Najjaab said the agent then asked matter-of-factly, “Do you know of anyone planning to blow up federal installations?”

Najjaab said he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I said, ‘I don’t know anyone like that.’ ”

By the end of the meeting, he said, he was shaken and suspicious. He noted that he is the Democratic co-chairman of the Arab American Institute. His Republican counterpart, he said, had not been contacted by the FBI.

At the same time, some Iraqis who lived under Saddam Hussein said for the most part that they welcomed the FBI interest, explaining that they are concerned Hussein’s security agents might be in the country. Ironically, several of those who were asked if they had heard of any terrorists sympathetic to Saddam Hussein were former political prisoners under Hussein’s regime.

“There are definitely Iraqi agents in the United States and around the world,” said one Iraqi-born businessman from Los Angeles who was jailed under Hussein’s regime 10 years ago. “We kept trying to get the FBI to look for them for years. Now, at least, they are looking. I didn’t mind talking to the FBI a bit.”

Other Iraqi-Americans who have lived in the United States for many years were less sanguine about what they considered unfair scrutiny.

“I was expecting harassments from rednecks or what (do) you call them--skinheads?” said Razak Salman, an Iraqi-born hotel owner from Rancho Palos Verdes who has been a U.S. citizen since 1978. “But not from the FBI. We are American . . . . There is an Arabic saying, ‘If you eat the salt and the bread of the country you live in, you are part of them, you are not their enemy.’

“We are American.”

After his call came from the FBI, Salman said, he was convinced Iraqi-Americans were going to be interned like the Japanese-Americans. He promptly paid off all his credit cards and gave his employees lessons in how to run his business.

The day after the attack on Iraq began, two FBI agents walked into the office of one San Gabriel Valley surgeon, showed their badges to his receptionists as patients looked on, and said they wanted to speak to the doctor.

“They were very courteous to me,” said the doctor, a U.S. citizen who has lived in the United States for 23 years. “But I felt terrible the way they walked in. I had patients waiting, and they (just come in) and say ‘We are the FBI, we are here to question the doctor.’ I love this country very, very much. But I would have appreciated a call for an appointment.”

One Iraqi-born developer from Orange County found two FBI agents at his door in Anaheim last Friday when he rode his bicycle home from his health club. Reflexively, he tensed, flashing back to 1980, when he was arrested by Hussein’s security police, beaten and jailed for two months--all because his wife belonged to a religious group Hussein opposed. He fled Iraq the day he was released, and is scheduled to take his U.S. citizenship exam in two weeks.

One of the two FBI agents was tall and nervous; his eyes darted around the room, making note of knickknacks on the walls. The second was husky, calm and reassuring. Though both were polite, the developer felt as though he had been stopped for a traffic ticket, and a policeman was searching his car for contraband.

As they left, the nervous one craned his neck, peering into the pouch on his bicycle. The calm one, however, wished the developer luck. “I’m surprised by the quality of the people we’re meeting,” the man quoted the agent as saying warmly. “I hope this (war) ends soon.”

Sami Joward, 37, a former Iraqi math teacher who owns a car dealership in Whittier, said he fled to the United States in 1982 after he was jailed and his father was tortured by Hussein’s regime. He welcomed the FBI interviewers.

“They are very polite,” he said of the agents. “Compared to our experience in Iraq, these interviews are nothing at all. This is their right--to protect the United States. I told them, if I find someone who is (a) terrorist, I will catch him and call police.”

Among Arab-Americans the FBI has attempted to contact in San Diego is the longtime city clerk, Charles Abdelnour. Abdelnour recalled that he was on his honeymoon about two weeks ago when an FBI agent called his office and left word that he wanted to question Abdelnour. As of Wednesday, Abdelnour had yet to return the FBI’s call.

“Why would they even want to talk to me? I was born in Brawley,” said Abdelnour, whose father emigrated from Lebanon in 1917. “The closest I’ve come to terrorism is at City Council meetings when land use matters are discussed.”

Nasser, meanwhile, still awaits a call from the FBI, and says he believes all the work he has done as a U.S. citizen--all the get-out-the-vote campaigns and the calls to the White House to express support for a Palestinian homeland--may have been for naught.

Behind him on his wall at law firm, he pointed proudly to a photograph of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy. It had been signed by Reagan in 1984.

“On behalf of the Republican National Committee,” an inscription reads, “we are very proud to present this award in appreciation for the extraordinary commitment and general contribution given by Mr. Victor Nasser, who has done so much to advance our Republican goals of limited government, and greater individual freedom, and a stronger national defense.”

Now, Nasser said, his views about those goals have changed.

“I still believe in a stronger national defense and limited government,” he said. “But I don’t believe this nation is advancing greater individual freedom. Not at all.”

Times staff writers Amy Harmon, Ronald J. Ostrow and Paul Richter contributed to this report.