U.S. Citizenship no Bar to Terror Screening

Five government anti-terrorism agents arrived at the door of Nancy Swift's modest home in a northern Virginia suburb last August, where Swift lives and rents out some rooms. They threatened her with a subpoena. They dispatched agents to her office to ask about her. They took away her garbage in the trunks of their cars, and they questioned one of her housemates. It all happened, apparently, because a neighbor called authorities about one of Swift's tenants in the house, a young Middle Eastern man who had other Middle Eastern friends visit one holiday weekend. The neighbor also turns Swift in to the county government when her grass gets too long. Swift, an information analyst for the Arlington County Government, said 'When it all happened, I was very concerned about what was this 'suspicious activity'?' she said. 'I mean, this is my home. I wanted to know -- only to find out later that the suspicious activity was one of my tenants had friends visit on a holiday weekend?'.Swift's house in Arlington is just miles from the Pentagon. Swift and another former housemate from that time, Judy Horan, said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent Robert Poole threatened Swift with a subpoena, which he never produced. 'He said, 'I am so glad you are being agreeable ... because you know, I have a grand jury subpoena for you,'' Horan recounted. He said, ''I have it right here. But I don't think I'm going to have to use it because you are both being very agreeable.'' Swift said Poole told her that if she did not cooperate, she 'would have to spend the day with the grand jury.' 'Without asking for permission, they took all of the garbage from outside,' Horan said. 'It just felt very strange to me because I had been going through personal papers and things. I don't shred anything. I had never felt anything like that as an American citizen.' [more]