Bank customer stirs terror probe

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | Nov 4,2006 | SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM

[Kid Shelleen]

Something about the chubby middle-aged man didn't sit right with eagle-eyed employees at the Commerce Bank in Drexel Hill on Wednesday.

The customer called himself Shahid Batti and pulled out a New Jersey driver's license, a Social Security card and a Pakistani passport, all printed with his given name.

But bank employees thought the identifications looked fake - and it was the second time in just a few hours that the man wanted to withdraw thousands of dollars from the Batti account.

So the bank called the cops, and officers whisked the man off for questioning.

Last night, Upper Darby police were trying to come to grips with a strange case - one that quickly became twisted with post-9/11 suspicions

[CrawDaddyCA]

I think they got themselves a live one. Too many inconsistencies for this not to warrant further investigation.

[Uncle Ike]

"Nothing to see here -- move along folks" (patent pending)

[proxy_user]

He is most likely a crook who is trying to empty a bank account that does not belong to him.

[SauronOfMordor]

Well, they know he was pretending to be the owner of the account, and he managed to get himself some (badly made) fake ID. Whether it's something beyond "theft via impersonation" remains to be seen

[lentulusgracchus]

The name "Shahid" has jihadi significance -- it's the word they use to mean a suicide terror-bomber. Its significance in the movement is "martyr", "bomber", "terrorist", and "dead hero" all rolled into one. Very loaded name.

[flowerplough]

Shahid: means "witness" or "martyr" .

USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts,
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/glossary/term.SHAHID.html

[verbal voter]

If he is quilty of "only identity theft" deport him after a long time in jail. If he had some subversive intent---throw him in Gitmo if he is a non citizen.

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1730468/posts?page=129#129