Posted on 10/13/2005 3:41:16 PM PDT by MizSterious
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Bad timing blamed for group's detainment The Oklahoman NORMAN - A University of Oklahoma instructor from Egypt said he and others of foreign descent were handcuffed at gunpoint and questioned after the OU bomb blast Oct. 1, but added he is not bitter. "Not at all. I understand. They explained. But if they keep coming back -- that's something else," Hossam Barakat said. "Because I'm not guilty in any way." Barakat, 37, blames unfortunate timing. The roommate of the student killed by the explosion just happened to wander into an apartment where he and four or five others were visiting. Also arrested was Pakistani student Fazal M. Cheema, the roommate of the student who apparently killed himself with a bomb, Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III. Cheema took a polygraph test and later was released, The Oklahoman has learned. The others do not wish to be identified or interviewed, Barakat said. He described them as either born abroad or Americans of Middle Eastern descent but said he does not believe they were targeted because of nationality or religion. "It wasn't toward the Muslim community. It was just because of Cheema," Barakat said. "I can understand. He's the roommate." Roommate visited The others came under suspicion because Cheema had stopped by an apartment where they were talking around midnight Oct. 1, Barakat said. "Cheema always come to this apartment. That night, he just walk in," Barakat said. In addition, one of the men in the apartment was a visiting professor from Algeria who had his suitcases packed and was ready to leave the country on an airplane the following day, Barakat said. "I understand, absolutely, that something had happened and we needed to cooperate. If this had happened in any other country, they would have done it the same way." Hinrichs, an engineering student, has tentatively been identified as the student who died Oct. 1 in an explosion on a campus bench about 100 yards from OU's packed football stadium. Investigators believe he blew himself up. Investigators found identification on the body, but the state medical examiner is awaiting DNA test results for a positive identification. Salvador Hernandez, special agent in charge of the FBI's Oklahoma City office, told a congressman Tuesday the investigation into the explosion is continuing, but so far it appears to be "an individual act." Barakat, who lives in the same university apartment complex as Hinrichs, said that hours after the bomb blast, he went to another apartment in the complex to say goodbye to the Algerian friend who was scheduled to fly out of the United States the next day. Later, Cheema dropped in unexpectedly, staying only a few minutes. When Cheema left, the commotion began. Outside, guests heard yelling, Barakat said. "We heard someone said, 'Put your hands up! Put your hands up!' And someone looked from the window and seen that Cheema got arrested," he said. Because Cheema has a hearing impairment, he did not respond immediately to the police order to stop. "That's why they got mad and started to yell and flashed in his eyes and got guns," Barakat said. Barakat said he started to leave his friend's apartment to go home about 15 minutes later, but an officer pulled a gun and ordered him back inside. "We knew that they are investigating this thing but I didn't know that we are under house arrest. That didn't come to our mind," Barakat said. Hours passed as the group waited in the apartment. "We are terrified. We were sitting waiting for them to come at any time," Barakat said. About 4:05 a.m., police telephoned the apartment and told the group to come out the front door, one at a time, hands up, he said. As they arrived outside, they were ordered to kneel and put their hands behind their heads so they could be handcuffed. Barakat said they were separated at that point and questioned individually. "They asked if I knew Joel," Barakat said. "I said, 'No.' They kept asking over and over, 'Do you have bombs, guns or knives?'" Barakat said he did not. About 5:30 a.m. Sunday, all were released to go home except Cheema, who was put up in a motel overnight because FBI agents wanted him to take a polygraph the next day, Barakat said. The apartment where they had been was among those evacuated so officers could remove explosive material from Hinrichs' home, so the group went to Barakat's apartment, which was outside the evacuation area. Exhausted, they fell asleep, some on the floor, he said. An FBI agent called again about 8:45 a.m. Oct. 2, saying agents wanted to talk to them some more, Barakat said. Later that morning, the agents arrived but instead of questioning them at Barakat's apartment as expected, they took them to an FBI office in Oklahoma City, where they spent the day watching football on television with an equal number of FBI agents. The agents brought in chicken for lunch and pizza for dinner and joked with the men. But they also accompanied them to the rest room, Barakat said. Eventually, an immigration officer arrived and questioned each person individually to make sure they were in the country legally, he said. "He make a copy of everything I have in my wallet -- everything except the cash," he said. Later, FBI agents separated the group again and asked more questions: Where have you been? What have you been doing? Do you know any radical person in the Islamic community? Did you ever see anyone taking anything out of Hinrichs' apartment in a garbage bag? Barakat said he answered "no" to the last two questions. About 10:30 p.m., an FBI agent finally told them it was all over and thanked them for their assistance. Barakat said the FBI agents were polite and professional throughout the investigation, but he also said Norman police were "very aggressive, very mean." |
"Thank you for posting this RegulatorCountry!"
You're welcome.
Probably because Barakat is "clean" (READ NOTHING ON HIM besides in this case) as far as a cursory glance at google...
The case is not closed as far as I know...
"I'm not perfect at reading people, but I felt this guy had been told what to say and what not to say."
A "prepped" spokesperson will have a few "tells" if you're very intuitive, or have training. Body language, if you're there to witness it, is difficult to suppress. Some can hear it, somehow. Odd pitch, or some such. Of course, you'd have to know the normal tone of voice.
"Whine alert, poor mistreated 'students.'
Not necessarily, as the Norman cops ARE mean.
"He was uncomfortable and looked a little to the side."
Ever wonder, when you were a kid, why your parents asked you to look them in the eye, and say "that?"
"Yeah, a 37-year old Algerian "student" at that.
Barakat said the FBI agents were polite and professional throughout the investigation, but he also said Norman police were "very aggressive, very mean."
LOL.....we have a bunch of Islamic terrorists/terrorist enablers here and they expect to be treated with kid gloves? Well, the fact that these jihadis haven't been expelled is kid glove treatment enough. Disgusting.....I just hope the truth comes out in this case (fat chance of that happening though)."
OK, look here! I happen to be a 50 year old student. OU graduated an 89 year old student a couple of years ago, too. Not everyone who goes to college is a freaking kid, ok?
As for expected treatment, the Norman PD ARE agressive and mean, at least occaisionally. I have a friend who sped up to avoid getting rear-ended on Sunnylane at 3am one morning, as she was moving into her new apartment in Norman. Cop then pulled her over for speeding, decided to search her car, and charged her with possession of a concealed weapon because there was a letter opener in a box in her back seat. Stuff like that ain't supposed to be happening in America, ok? What is disgusting is having people who should know better applaud police-state tactics. You might want to THINK about what kind of country you want to live in after the War on Terror is finally over.
Oh, and you missed this part of the story: "A University of Oklahoma instructor from Egypt said he and others of foreign descent were handcuffed at gunpoint and questioned after the OU bomb blast Oct. 1, but added he is not bitter."
"As for expected treatment, the Norman PD ARE agressive and mean, at least occaisionally."
Are you saying that we should back off, in our attempts to get at the truth about this situation in Norman, OK, because the police may or may not have been mean?
I, frankly, think they dropped the ball, and I'm no fan of police. I've got a libertarian streak a mile wide, and to me, police are a necessary evil, like lawyers. If we were all mature adults, we'd have little need for police or lawyers. But, clearly, we're not all mature adults.
-???? of Oklahoma instructor from Egypt said he and others of foreign descent were handcuffed at gunpoint and questioned after the OU bomb blast Oct. 1, but added he is not bitter."
A man blows himself up outside a stadium, in a manner that is eerily familiar to anyone who follows the news from the ME, and we are supposed to ignore it, because someone might become bitter?
We, as the recipients of the news and rumors, were lead to believe that Cheema had a ticket to Algiers.
That wasn't how it was stated, however. It was said that a ticket (which morphed into a "one-way ticket" somewhere along the line) to Algeria (the country) had been found which "traced back to Cheema."
Obviously, now we know that the ticket that was found belonged to the Algerian man who was heading back to his country--and that he had been found by the police to be in the same apartment with Fazal Cheema.
That's how it tracked back.
Meaning the FBI pitched slow hanging softballs, while the Norman PD asked tough questions?
It also describes the 37 y/o Algerian as a visiting professor.
Oops. It doesn't mention the age of the Algerian.
We don't know that it's the same ticket. The one traced to Cheema was said to be for several months in the future, not the day after the bombing.
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