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." |
It wasn't several months in the future. The date was never revealed; all that was said was that it was subsequent to the bombing.
Somebody here on FR cracked that it was for Spring Break next year and others didn't get the sarcasm -- within a page of posts, it became a factoid.
I'm more inclined to believe that someone told Ms Pratt that the ticket was found in Hinrichs' apartments, meaning his apartment complex.
They don't call them "cookie dusters" for no reason. I sometimes wear a full beard and moustache, particularly during the winter, but I try to keep it fairly short, as it bothers me too much any other way. Too many years in the military to be comfortable otherwise.
Did you read this one?
"I expect if they had anything that they found questionable, he'd not be back in his apartment right now"
Back in his (and Hinrich's) apartment, right now?
"I asked him why he had a beard but no moustache. He said he's "too lazy to shave his beard and his moustache gets in the way." It was that simple."
For the bus driver, yes. For someone who blew themselves up with TATP outside a crowded stadium, who had attempted to purchase ammonium nitrate two days prior, who had other explosives in his apartment that he shared with a Pakistani, it's not that simple.
Last I heard, after he was released, and the apartment was cleared of explosives and whatever, he was allowed to return.
"Last I heard, after he was released, and the apartment was cleared of explosives and whatever, he was allowed to return."
And your source for this is ...?
According to all the media reports I have read Cheema is NOT in the apartment he shared with Hinrichs. After he was released he went to a different apartment in Norman. (He may have gone back to retrieve personal belonging or whatever which would make sense, but he is not there now.) He cannot be reached for comment and hasn't been reached since his release. This was according to his acquaintances and was reported in several newspapers.
I see no-one jumping to conclusions. I do however see people reading what is being reported and noticing how vociferously OU and Boren, and now Cole are responding to these reports.
I see major discrepancies in the reports themselves. I hear that OU is ignoring their own student investigative journalists in insisting there is "no connection". I personally have exposed at least one POSSIBLE reason for OU's student opinion writers wanting to participate in shooting down those investigating further.
That IMHO does not add up to "jumping to conclusions". There is more than enough circumstantial evidence in this case that points to a coverup on the part of Boren and OU. You can choose not to believe this, but saying we are all jumping to conclusions is pushing it. As I said, there are no "conclusions" being reached at this point. Just serious questioning and examination of all that's been reported and the motivations of those speaking out.
"Maybe Hinrich and Berg were part of an Angry White Man Domestic Terrorism organization and needed help from Islamist extremist to learn extremism 101."
I have no idea about Berg, and have refrained from commenting thus far. To my knowledge, Berg was Jewish, and so trotting out that handy, old "militia" angle doesn't quite wash. Neither does it wash with Hinrichs.
"And your source for this is ...?"
The same article we are discussing here for at least the first part. I'll have to hunt around and see if I can find where I saw that he is back in his apartment.
"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."
Lie detectors (so-called) are not admissable in a court of law, and there might be a good reason for that. What can it be? Oh, yeah, now I remember.
THEY'RE NOT RELIABLE.
For instance, someone whose religion teaches them that it's not only ok, but is admirable to LIE to non-Muslims, could lie without leaving so much as a blip on the graph. Sociopaths are notorious for passing "lie" detector tests.
Believe what you want. I suspect that your main complaint about "jumping to conclusions" is that some of us have "jumped" (after looking at the evidence available) to different conclusions than you did.
Your point seems to me to have been that these people should have been happy to be arrested, rather than "whining" about how loud and mean the NPD cops were, versus how polite and professional the FBI were. To me, that looks like you jumped to a conclusion. Since I was re-citing your very early post on this thread, I also pinged you to my comments. You've not been quite so flamboyant in your posts since, so I expect you've moderated a bit. Have you ever had a run in with the Norman PD? (I seem to remember that you live around here, somewhere, too.) My experience with them is second-hand, but it leads me to think these guys have good reason for their complaint.
No run-ins with NPD. Every encounter so far has been fine (they were extremely helpful when our truck was broken into--and very polite).
I haven't moderated my views at all since my early posts, either. I think at least one and possibly more of these guys is in this up their eyeballs.
As I said before, the only difference between the two of us is that I've "jumped" to a different conclusion than you did. I jumped after seeing what evidence there is. Your reasons for jumping might be the same, or might not, you haven't said.
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