Posted on 03/21/2002 7:51:11 PM PST by Vigilantcitizen
Gainesville -- Officials at Mar-Jac Poultry said they were shocked to find out Thursday that federal officials suspect the company might have ties to terrorist funding.
Company Vice President Doug Carnes said at least a half-dozen U.S. Customs agents spent all day Wednesday gathering financial records and charitable contribution files. They were "real nice, professional and complimentary," he said, but they didn't disclose the nature of their visit. It was only on Thursday that Carnes was alerted by company officials in Virginia as to what the agents were looking for.
"I'm shocked. I'm in disbelief. I've worked for them for 17 years," he said.
Federal investigators focused primarily on properties in Virginia controlled by Yaqub M. Mirza, listed as the registered agent for Mena Investments Inc. at 555 Grove St. in Herndon, Va. The Virginia Secretary of State's Office lists the president of Mena Investments as Jamal Barzinji, who is also president of Mar-Jac Poultry in Gainesville.
The address in Gainesville for Mar-Jac Poultry -- 1020 Aviation Blvd. -- is also listed with the Georgia Secretary of State's Office as the address for the Gainesville office of Sterling Advisory Services Inc., which lists Mirza as chief executive officer.
Federal investigators reportedly are interested in Mirza's role as an officer of the Saar Foundation, a defunct nonprofit organization started in the 1970s by members of Saudi Arabia's al-Rajihi family, one of the richest in the world.
A former federal prosecutor in Florida alleges that Saar or other entities at 555 Grove St. in Herndon provided funding for groups set up by Sami Al Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who the Justice Department contends is linked to the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Arian has denied the allegations and is appealing his suspension from USF in Tampa.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Saar was established by Muslim scholars and scientists from the Middle East and Asia to raise money for anti-hunger campaigns and educational and technology projects in developing Islamic countries.
Saar helped establish one of the largest poultry farms in Zimbabwe.
According to the Journal, the U.S. arm of Saar was dissolved in December 2000 after posting $12.5 million in assets and raising more than $1.7 billion in its 17 years in the United States.
About 150 officers from several federal agencies executed search warrants Wednesday at 15 offices and homes of groups and individuals active in Islamic causes. They seized computers, files and books but made no arrests.
The Gainesville poultry company was the only Georgia site where records were seized.
The raids have drawn protests from leaders of several Islamic organizations.
"It seems like the government is declaring open season on Muslim-American groups," said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, executive director of the Islamic Institute, based in Washington. The institute was not raided, but Alkebsi helped organize the protests by the groups that were.
Carnes said Mar-Jac cooperated with the federal agents and provided all the documents they requested during the Wednesday raid, which lasted from about 10:30 a.m. until after 5 p.m. The company was not shut down and there were no arrests, he added.
The company issued a written statement that said: "All of Mar-Jac's corporate contributions have been made to IRS-approved non-profit organizations, in full compliance with applicable federal regulations.
"Mar-Jac fully understands the importance of the government's ability to conduct broad and sweeping investigations for leads in the wake of the despicable terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, even when those investigations seek information from companies -- like Mar-Jac -- which had nothing whatsoever to do with those attacks. As a result, Mar-Jac will continue to cooperate with any and all future informational requests from the federal government."
Carnes said the poultry company contributes to about 50 charitable organizations in Gainesville and Georgia, such as the Salvation Army, Good News Medical and Boys and Girls Clubs. He said he did not recognize the name of any of the Islamic organizations raided by federal agents. He said the staff decides which charities get donations.
Mar-Jac Poultry Inc. employs about 1,200 people, Carnes said. It was founded in 1948, when Marvin and Jackson McKibbon built a processing plant to serve local chicken farms.
Many Gainesville residents were not aware the raid had taken place.
At the BP gas station a few hundred yards from the chicken plant, manager Joseph Khan said he was a bit surprised to hear about the raid but that he knew the company has connections to the Middle East, including the export of halal -- blessed -- chicken products to Arab countries.
He said he knows several Muslim employees at Mar-Jac whose job it is to say the prayers before the slaughter of chickens, in keeping with the Muslim faith.
Khan said with the current atmosphere, "it wouldn't surprise me if they came and raided us." Of Pakistani descent, Khan has lived in Georgia more than 20 years.
The South's poultry industry has had ties to the Arab world for more than two decades. In 1988, Iraqi Airways received U.S. approval to fly cargo planes three times a week into Atlanta for the purpose of shipping hatching eggs back to Iraq.
In one 14-month period, Iraq bought more than $100 million worth of eggs from the United States. Tuskegee Institute in Alabama helped process freeze-dried poultry and ship it to the Arab world.
I work in the trade show,exhibit business.
June of last year, the Poultry show was here in Atlanta.(Peta did a big demonstration).
I'll bet 60% of the exhibitors of LARGE processing equipment were of ME descent.
One comment I made to several, in my Gawga drawl," I did'nt know chikin's had fangers."
Hmmm, aren't chicken eggs used to incubate viruses and bacteria?
Yea, who're they trying to fool? All them eggs and NO bacon.
Lanier is a Lake in the Chattahoochie river chain, just above Atlanta.
Lanier and the Chattahoochie are THE source of water for about 3 1/2 million people.
I have some friends who live on Lake Lanier. Their dog suddenly started getting sick when he would go swimming in the lake. They sent blood samples to the UGA and Auburn vet labs, but turned up no toxins, bacteria, or virus.
This dog has been in hundreds of different kinds of water, along with my lab, and has never gotten ill before.
After this trip, he got sick.
Besides that no idea on this company, but I've heard of it of course. I hope there's no legitimate connection with the terrs.
In one 14-month period, Iraq bought more than $100 million worth of eggs from the United States.
Newstracker connect-the-dots bump. All the eggs might not have been just because Iraqis like omelettes. They're used as a growth culture medium for production of biological warfare agents. Wonder if they're still mass-buying eggs in the so-called Food for Oil program.
Better get your smallpox vaccination, when/if ever they become available.
From http://cns.miis.edu/research/cbw/smallpox.htm:
Soviet Weaponization of Smallpox
* Kanatjan Alibekov (a.k.a. Ken Alibek), the first deputy director of Biopreparat, defected to the U.S. in 1992 and revealed the Soviet weaponization of smallpox.
* Initial development of smallpox as a weapon occurred at Center of Virology in Zagorsk (today Sergiev Posad).
* Mass production of variola virus in eggs reportedly began in late 1940s.
* Viral suspension was stored in multi-ton quantities at Zagorsk.
* Planned delivery by intercontinental strategic bomber and ballistic missiles against U.S. cities (and after 1968, Chinese cities as well).
* Possible military doctrine: eliminate the survivors of a nuclear exchange.
* Development of "improved" smallpox weapons at the Vector laboratory in Koltsovo during the late 1980s.
* Development of large-scale production method in bioreactors.
* Genetic engineering of chimeric strains, including transfer of toxin genes and virulence factors from other viruses.
* Experiments initially done in vaccinia virus, with the intent of repeating them in variola.
In one 14-month period, Iraq bought more than $100 million worth of eggs from the United States.
Newstracker connect-the-dots bump. All the eggs might not have been just because Iraqis like omelettes. They're used as a growth culture medium for production of biological warfare agents. Wonder if they're still mass-buying eggs in the so-called Food for Oil program.
Better get your smallpox vaccination, when/if ever they become available.
From http://cns.miis.edu/research/cbw/smallpox.htm:
Soviet Weaponization of Smallpox
* Kanatjan Alibekov (a.k.a. Ken Alibek), the first deputy director of Biopreparat, defected to the U.S. in 1992 and revealed the Soviet weaponization of smallpox.
* Initial development of smallpox as a weapon occurred at Center of Virology in Zagorsk (today Sergiev Posad).
* Mass production of variola virus in eggs reportedly began in late 1940s.
* Viral suspension was stored in multi-ton quantities at Zagorsk.
* Planned delivery by intercontinental strategic bomber and ballistic missiles against U.S. cities (and after 1968, Chinese cities as well).
* Possible military doctrine: eliminate the survivors of a nuclear exchange.
* Development of "improved" smallpox weapons at the Vector laboratory in Koltsovo during the late 1980s.
* Development of large-scale production method in bioreactors.
* Genetic engineering of chimeric strains, including transfer of toxin genes and virulence factors from other viruses.
* Experiments initially done in vaccinia virus, with the intent of repeating them in variola.
Freeze dried poultry?
Wonder if the equipment could be used to dry anthrax spores?
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