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BRIEF: The American Civil Liberties Union says the federal government's latest plan to question thousands of Iraqi nationals may hamper rather than help efforts to apprehend terrorists. The civil rights groups says the FBI is treating thousands of innocent Iraqis like criminals by discouraging them from consulting with attorneys, saying it makes them look like they've got something to hide. Houston's ACLU director, Attorney Annette Lamaroux, has talked to about half a dozen Houston-area Iraqis since the new FBI directed interviews began. Outreach efforts to the city's Iraqi community have been difficult due to the lack of organizations or local leaders to represent them. "I mean that each individual person has to represent their interests on their own, as opposed to having a community spokesman, or a community-wide group to advocate for their rights." This has made it difficult to announce the interviews ahead of time, causing them to come as a complete surprise for many: "Pretty much the universal reaction that I got was 'I can't imagine they're really going to do that,' or that 'That's not going to be a big deal.' So yes, I think that they were pretty much all caught off guard. There was one particular woman I talked to who said the FBI showed up at 8:30 on Thursday morning, and she and her husband were completely floored." The FBI is working from an initial list of about 50,000 Iraqi nationals living in the United States, about 11,000 of whom have been targeted for interviews in the event of a war. 2,000 Iraqis are believed to live in Texas, with 1,000 residing in the Dallas, Fort Worth area. Renee Feltz, KPFT News, Houston. E-mail Renee Feltz at chickpea_@ziplip.com . This story was broadcast on March 28, 2003.