On Thursday, September 28, 2012 two FBI agents, one male and one female, knocked on the door of a home located in the greater Seattle area. The resident is a US citizen of Afghan descent, who has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years.When she answered the door, the agents flashed their badges, then began asking very personal question without further explanation, eventually bringing the woman to tears. The questions included:

What is your name? (asked three times)

Where are you from?

Do you have any family there?

When have you traveled there?

When did you visit and how long were you there?

Do you call anyone in Afghanistan? Who do you talk to?

What do you think of the Taliban?

Is this your number?

What if the Taliban has your phone number?

While she was responding to these questions, one agent took notes in a notebook. The woman’s adult daughter then approached from inside the house and asked what was going on and who was asking these questions.  Her mother answered that these were agents from the FBI, and then added that she was very scared and had no idea why she was being asked so many personal questions.

At that point, one agent stated: “Well, it looks like you have been here a long time.” The woman agreed, stated that she has been living in the United States for about 30 years, then asked if she was being investigated and why she was being questioned. The same agent replied that she was not being investigated, and that they were just doing community outreach.

The woman replied: “Community outreach? What is that? I have never heard of that before. When was this started?”

At this point, the woman reports that one agent began to turn red and looked very nervous and remained like this until he left. The female agent stated that the FBI has been doing community outreach for a long time with the Somali, Indian, and Pakistani communities. Because the FBI has a negative reputation with many people, the agent explained, they reach out to community members so they will know who to contact in case they have information which may be helpful to the FBI.

The woman replied: “Information? What do you mean? What kind of information?” The agents did not respond. She then asked: “Are we being investigated? Did someone say something? Is there a complaint?” Again, no clear response was given.

At this point, the woman became emotional and explained that she came to the United States when the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and most of her relatives had been killed. Since she does not have many family members left, it is important to her to remain in good contact with those who she does have. Her daughter then spoke up and asked the FBI agents why they were questioning her mother about the conversations she has with her family in Afghanistan. One agent began apologizing and said: “This is not what we were expecting.”

The women then asked again for an explanation about the community outreach program, and why neither of the women had heard about door visits in their 30 years of living here. They were also curious about the reason behind the agents choosing to visit their home in particular on that particular day.

The same agent as before explained that there are only seven or eight people who do home visits and “it takes time to make it around.” The daughter said that she would have appreciated having more information in advance, such as the FBI sending something in the mail or calling her to let them know that the agents would be stopping by. Her mother then asked for a copy of the paper on which on the male agent had been taking notes. He denied and said he could not give her a copy of the paper. The female agent then stated that it would be best for them to leave, and again said:” This is not what we were expecting.” The male agent agreed and the two agents left the residence.

The following day, the daughter called the Seattle FBI office to find out if the visit had been a scam. She spoke to someone who confirmed that the two agents who had questioned her mother were in fact from the FBI. Her call was then transferred to the male agent’s voicemail where she left a message that asked for an explanation regarding the visit to her mother’s home. She also spoke with the outreach program supervisor, who informed the daughter that the agents’ supervisor was not available. Well over a week and multiple phone calls later, neither woman had heard back from the FBI agents that had visited their home. At this point, they contacted CAIR-WA to report what had happened and the lack of response in following up.

CAIR-WA Civil Rights Coordinator Jennifer Gist drafted a letter that was sent to a number of individuals, including: the Director of the FBI, the US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, the Assistant US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, both US Senators, the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, nine different members of congress, Seattle and another city’s Police Chiefs, and a Seattle Police Department Detective.

Click here to read the letter sent by CAIR-WA

Our goal is to bring attention to this occurrence so as to prevent other families from having similar experiences in the future. It may be unlawful for the FBI to gather intelligence under the guise of “community outreach”, and if this is what the agents were in fact trying to do when they knocked on this woman’s door then it is important that the event not go unnoticed.

In the letter, dated October 8, 2012, we gave a detailed outline of what occurred that day as well as the multiple attempts made by the women to follow up with the FBI afterward. We then requested that the FBI provide responses to the questions raised by the women in their interview; provide an explanation of the policies and procedural guidelines for agents in the community outreach program; clarification of the connection between the FBI community outreach program and surveillance or intelligence gathering; explanation of the role of the community outreach program within the FBI’s mission statement; a written apology to the women and their family for subjecting them to offensive questioning at their home and neglecting to return their five phone calls requesting further information; and a guarantee that no retaliation will occur against the women, their family members, or witnesses.

On October 9, 2012, a day after our letter was sent, the daughter received a voicemail from the male agent with whom she had spoken originally. He stated that he had been out of the office and this was the reason that he was only just returning her calls from over a week and a half prior. Upon listening to his voicemail the daughter emailed CAIR-WA to report this. She also stated that she did not intend to call the agent back, and requested that all future communication from the FBI be in writing and sent through CAIR-WA.

Two weeks later, we had still not received a confirmation of receipt or any response in answer to our first letter. For this reason CAIR-WA sent a second letter on October 23, 2012. This was sent to the same recipients as before, and included a notification of the women’s desire to have all future communications sent through CAIR-WA and in writing.

Click here to read the second letter sent by CAIR-WA

We have still not heard back from the FBI and are in the process of formulating a plan of how to proceed. The family has declined to do media work, and CAIR-WA has sought advice from other CAIR chapter offices which have dealt with very similar cases to this in the past.

We will continue to pursue this matter until we believe our message that the unnecessary intimidation by law enforcement agents of members of the American-Muslim community will not be permitted, has been heard.

CAIR-WA commends all families and individuals who report incidents such as the one outlined above and encourages others to do the same. This is just one occurrence in a pattern that civil rights organizations have seen of the FBI’s abuse of their “Community Outreach Program,” which can be employed as a guise for conducting inappropriate investigations.

We are concerned that without drawing attention to this policy abuse, the civil rights of countless Americans are being and will continue to be abused. Though there may not be immediate resolution in this family’s case, such as an issued apology or the termination of the FBI’s invasive Community Outreach practices, it is tremendously important that the family came forward to report their complaint so that we may document and track this ongoing trend and take actions to address it.

Seattle is not the only city to be experiencing this issue. For more information on the problem of surveillance conducted under the façade of a Community Outreach Program, please see a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) here: http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-eye-fbi-alert-community-outreach-intelligence-gathering

Take action

Have you been visited by a law enforcement agent and asked questions you felt were invasive? Tell us your story by e-mailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or calling our office at 206.367.4081.  Each complaint we receive enables us to not just resolve your particular case but to work with law enforcement agencies and other government officials on policies to ensure that other Muslims and communities are treated fairly by law enforcement agencies.

Learn about your rights when encountering law enforcement here: www.cairwa.org/know-your-rights