Posted on 12/06/2001 3:31:03 PM PST by t-shirt
INS detainee anthrax suspect
TRACY KENNEDY, Register Citizen Staff December 06, 2001
HARTFORD - A Hartford judge set bail Wednesday for one of four local men detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service since Nov. 25 for their suspected involvement in the deadly national anthrax mailings. At Immigration Court, Judge Michael W. Straus ordered Mohammed I. Khan, 46, of Torrington, to pay $12,000 bail during a hearing regarding his application for asylum. Kahn reportedly filed the application after arriving in this country from Pakistan in 1993. According to an INS representative, he had not posted the bail by late afternoon Wednesday.
According to published reports, Khan and three other men, Najmul Hasan, 33, of Winsted, Ifran Ahmed, 36, and Ayazuddin Sheerazi, 32, both of Torrington, were arrested by local police and FBI agents after a tip from Torrington resident Robert Janco.
Janco told authorities and "America's Most Wanted," a nationally syndicated television show, that he believed Kahn and Hasan were involved in the recent anthrax scares. According to published reports, Janco told police he overheard the men talking on Sept. 8 about delivering letters to a Vietnamese immigrant in New York City named "Kathy." When Janco heard of the death of 61-year-old Kathy Nguyen on Oct. 31, he reportedly contacted the police.
According to source at the immigration court, charging documents have not been filed against Kahn or the other men and they are solely being detained on immigration matters.
Gary Cote, acting deputy district director of INS in Boston, would not comment on the investigation or confirm the men were being detained by the immigration agency. "I cannot discuss that or what action is being taken if any action is being taken concerning these men," he said Wednesday. Cote explained his office could not discuss any actions concerning immigrants that may be involved in national terrorist activities pursuant to a directive received from the Attorney General.
However, according to prison records checked on Wednesday, Khan, Ahmed and Hasan are currently incarcerated in Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, and Sheerazi is being held at Hartford Correctional Center in Hartford.
Court dates have not yet been set for Ahmed and Hasan, and Sheerazi is scheduled to appear at a hearing on Wednesday in the immigration court in Hartford concerning his application to extend his visa.
During Kahn's hearing on Wednesday, Assistant District Council Attorney John Marley indicated he would oppose Kahn's application for asylum based on Kahn's alleged failure to report his residence in Torrington.
Kahn, a native of Pakistan, said that while he works in Torrington, he still maintains his residence on Neptune Street in Brooklyn, N.Y., as indicated on his immigration documents.
This is from the Acxiom InfoBase Phone Directory. (I think I remember seeing this addressed in published news articeles also.)
An interesting choice of words, muawiyah... Could you elaborate?
the infowarrior
The bail would be on the immigration matter, it is after al a judge in an immigration court that is setting the bail.
The police may never release the name of the informant, but America's Most Wanted can release it if the informant allows it, or he could have gone to the press himself. Isn't there some award for such information? He could be establishing his claim to it if there is
I gotta admit though, this does sound almost too good to be true, and when things sound that way, they usually are (not true that is)
In 1993! They just never caught him after he "disappeared" into the general Pak/Muslim "community". That's a common ploy to get into the country. Ask for asylum and while you are waiting for the hearing, just disappear and blend in. Surprised they ever found him.
Not necessarily. She likely didn't fold, spindle or mutilate them the way a postal sorting machine does. Now I know they don't really fold, spindle and mutilate (well sometimes they do) the mail they sort, but they do handle it pretty roughly, squeezing it between other mail, forcing the small particles out and into the air and onto other letters, the machine, etc. I doubt whoever mailed them, whether they knew what was in them or not, handled them anywhere near that roughly. If they were several they might even have been in a sack or bag until that person put them into a mail box somewhere, or into a tray of corporate mail.
I don't remember how old Ms. Nguyen was, but I thougt not all that old, 50's maybe? I remember thinking she looked younger than whatever age she was.
Now you are probably correct, but it's still possible that these are the guys. In any event a few more days should tell the story.
Nuclear, Biological, & Chemical Warfare- Survival Skills, Pt. II
If you'd been following the mailflow aspects like I have you would have seen that the FBI's scenarios all assume a continual stream of mailings, a letter here, a letter there, and NOTHING before 9/11.
We should be heartened however since they actually picked these guys up, and others, whose involvement could only have been IF the preparation of the letters if not their mailing occurred before the plane crashes. I am still holding out for at least one letter being entered at the main post office at Boca Raton, right in the only letter drop ever to have been found to have even 1 anthrax spore! The others would have gone into local collection boxes.
The INS, FBI and local law enforcement people must work closely together in these matters; Absolutely no turf wars or a hint of one; anyone within these organizations withholding information should be replaced and fired!
Preparing anthrax particles so small and concentrated, he added, would endanger people nearby and perhaps expose the culprit himself. "It's not the thing to mess with in a university lab," he said, "unless you don't like your fellow students."
"this Freeper was spot on:
** *** ** *** ** ***
Well, I was hoping that I was wrong, with that theory.
But, it was the only one that made sense at the time....
...and it is still about the only theory that does....more's the pity.
An on-topic comment now.
The only possible reasons for the light bail ($12k) are:
o Not much evidence.
o They want to see who antes up and where their money originated.
o The want to see what theis guy does / who he sees / where he goes when release i.e. full scale tailing.
o B&C combined.
This is an interesting story; I hope more comes out soon.
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