Watching the war on terror: the U.S. Army is shelling out more dollars to multicultural advertising.(RoundUps)

Then They Came for the Muslim Girls

In March, the FBI detained two Muslim 16-year-olds who, they claimed, "plan to be suicide bombers." Citing evidence not produced publicly, the FBI insisted that the two teenagers posed "an imminent threat." But one government official told the New York Times that, "No evidence has been found that such a plot was in the works."

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Both girls were released in May, after being held in a Pennsylvania jail for six weeks. One of them chose "voluntary removal" and returned to Bangladesh. The other girl, from Guinea, was facing deportation proceedings in early May. The government has been "targeting boys over 16, and now they're going after the girls," said Shoshi Doza, an organizer with the grassroots organization Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM).

Monami Maulik, director of DRUM, sees the current arrests in a larger context of criminalizing youth of color. "What's happening to South Asians, Arabs and Muslims is part of a longer history of the war on drugs and the war on crime that have jailed and destroyed the lives of so many youth of color."

Battling for Black Recruits

Black youth are increasingly saying "No" when Uncle Sam comes to prey, according to a U.S. Army study released this spring. "More African Americans identify having to fight for a cause they don't support as a barrier to military service," concluded an August 2004 study for the Army. The number of Blacks in the Army's recruiting classes has dropped 41 percent over the past five years, from 23.9 percent in 2000 to 14 percent last year.