In an interview Friday with Evanston Police Department investigators, McCormick senior Hisham Zaid answered questions about whether he knew anyone who had ever trained in terrorist camps or plotted attacks against the United States and if he knew anyone who could help in the fight against terrorism.
But Zaid, who holds a Jordanian passport and is not a suspect in a criminal investigation, said he doubts the information he supplied will be any boon in the war against terrorism.
Zaid was the third NU student questioned by EPD investigators since Attorney General John Ashcroft asked local police departments in the fall to interview men from countries where al-Qaida terrorists live, Cmdr. Michael Perry said.
Investigators questioned Zaid from a standard list of 33 questions used in similar interviews around the country. They also asked Zaid about his education, future plans and travel history.
“(The interviews) are generally a waste of time,” said Zaid, a McCormick senior. “It took a half-hour for them to ask questions that the (government) could have easily verified by checking a few documents.”
Zaid met with his two lawyers for an hour before the interview to discuss and prepare potential answers to the investigators’ 33 questions.
Some of the questions – such as whether he knew anyone who is involved in any kind of criminal activity – had nothing to do with the U.S. investigation into terrorism and were “vague and disturbing,” Zaid said.
Zaid added that the question was worded so unclearly that it could include such activities as underage drinking or smoking marijuana, common on college campuses, he said.
The officers also asked Zaid if he knew anyone who acted in a surprising manner after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“We answered by saying ‘Who wasn’t surprised?'” Zaid said. “Everyone I saw was tragically surprised, just tragically shocked.”
Zaid, a vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, said the police officers did not ask him any questions about his political beliefs or about specific people he might know. But they did ask him if he knew of anyone who could help the United States fight against terrorism.
“I laughed at that question,” he said.
Zaid said the interview was more comfortable because he had two lawyers present. Had investigators asked about his visa or employment status, he would have consulted them.
The lawyers had emphasized the seriousness of the interview, but Zaid said the police officers acted casually toward him, making small talk and jokes before and after the interview.
Zaid also said the interviews could have been worse. One of his lawyers counseled a chemical engineering student during a similar interview. For that student, Zaid’s lawyer told him, it was difficult to respond to investigators’ question about whether he knew anyone with knowledge of bomb-making or chemical warfare – his entire department probably did.
Zaid said he does not expect to be interviewed again.
