By Mona Eltahawy, The Washington Post
Monday, February 24, 2003; Page A21
"So have you turned yourself in yet?" my brother's friend asked him, with only a hint of a laugh.
They are Egyptian, and between today and March 28 they must register with and be fingerprinted by the U.S. government under the Justice Department's "special registration program."
They had heard, of course, of the hundreds of men and boys from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan who had reported voluntarily to be registered in California in December, only to be arrested and shipped off to detention centers. Many of the arrested were in the United States legally, awaiting final decisions on their green-card applications.
Males 16 and over from 25 nations -- all Muslim or Arab, with the exception of North Korea -- must register under the program, which began in September. It is aimed at temporary foreign visitors who present "increased national security concerns."
