Freedom Allah Siyam - Seattle Filipino activist hounded by the FBI
When Arthur Gotcho Cupp changed his name to Freedom Allah Siyam back in 1998, he had no idea that one day his identity would bring the FBI knocking on his front door. After years of working as a vocal antiglobalization activist in the Seattle Filipino community, Siyam recently discovered that he’s on a government watch list as a suspected terrorist—on October 4, agents showed up at his house bearing a page-long list of names and began questioning his 56-year-old mother. Siyam, his lawyer, and the rest of the Seattle Filipino activist community are afraid they’re about to be sucked into a giant, spiraling investigation that’s an eerie repeat of the widespread government scrutiny of Arab Americans after September 11.
