As dozens of people protested on Rainier Ave., the main thoroughfare in front of the market and transfer company, the cops sealed off the area as workers spent hours loading a tractor trailer with everything from papers to clothing to fresh meat. At one point the cops tried to enter the upstairs premises that house an Aikido center and the Pathfinder Bookstore. They backed off when told by Aikido center personnel that the upstairs premises were not connected with the businesses below.

The Seattle raid was one of several in Washington, D.C., Boston, Minneapolis, and Ohio. The Seattle Times reported that this was one of the first uses of the U.S. Treasury Department's new terrorist tracking efforts and was supposedly aimed at freezing the assets of terrorists.

Protesters, made up overwhelmingly of Somalis, had a different view. Len Ali Nur carried a sign that said, "My father is 90 years old. I will keep sending him $100. This has nothing to do with terrorism."

Nur, a laundry worker who has been in the U.S. for 17 years, explained that she sends money to her family in Africa through Barakat. Another Somali at the protest, Maryan Hassan, heard about the raid on the radio and brought her five children and mother to demonstrate. "I work two jobs to support my family here and send money to my mom and brother back home. Some of my family are in refugee camps. They can't get to a bank--that's why we use Barakat," she said.

Mohamed Fato, a Somali cab driver, was also at the protest. "I've been harassed 10 times since September 11 and last Friday a fare called me a terrorist and hit me with a bottle. The cops didn't do anything. This [raid] is more harassment." Fato carried a sign that said: "FBI and INS out of our neighborhood."

Five rightists, including two Vietnamese carrying American flags, demonstrated in support of Washington's war against Afghanistan across the street from those protesting the cop raid. Their signs said: "God Bless America" and "Pacifism aids terrorism."  
 
 
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