MCLEAN, Va. — A Muslim civil rights group wants the Justice Department to investigate the tactics of FBI agents in Portland, Ore., after two local Libyan-Americans were barred from returning to the United States.
Jamal Tarhuni, 55, of Tigard and Mustafa Elogbi, 60, of Portland traveled separately to Libya following the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi. Tarhuni delivered humanitarian supplies with the group Medical Teams International, and Elogbi went to visit family.
Last month, though, both Libyan-born U.S. citizens were barred from return flights to the U.S. and were told that the FBI wanted to question them.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said that it has received three reports of Portland FBI agents’ involvement in travel restrictions for Muslim U.S. citizens in the last six months.
Elogbi said his situation is especially insulting because he went to Libya to celebrate the demise of a regime that quashed citizens’ liberty.
“Now I find myself like in the times of Gadhafi, put in jail for no reason,” Elogbi said in a telephone interview from Tripoli.
Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Portland office, declined to comment.
