Guantanamo Inmates Despair of Ever Leaving

U.S. to File Terrorism Charges Against Pakistani Detainee (Uzair Paracha)
Washington Post ^ | August 6, 2003 | Dan Eggen

Posted on 08/05/2003 10:55:54 PM PDT by Shermy

Federal authorities expect to file terrorism charges soon against a detained Pakistani man with ties to the shipping industry and links to a senior al Qaeda leader, law enforcement officials said yesterday.

Uzair Paracha, 23, has been secretly detained as a material witness since his arrest March 31 in the offices of a New York clothing import firm owned by his father, sources said. Authorities believe the Paracha family business may have been used as cover for attempts to smuggle al Qaeda operatives or weapons into the United States, according to several sources familiar with the case.

Paracha's father, who owns a Pakistani textile company that routinely shipped large containers of clothing and other goods into Newark, was last seen as he tried to board an airplane in Karachi a month ago. He was arrested by Pakistani police and has been held incommunicado ever since, according to local press reports and two U.S. officials with knowledge of the case.

.....snip.....

In addition, two law enforcement officials said, Paracha has been linked to Iyman Faris, an Ohio truck driver who pleaded guilty May 1 to providing material support to a terrorist organization. Ricco said he does not know of any ties between the two.

Faris met with Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders, and plotted to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge and launch a terrorist attack against Washington, according to court papers. Faris had numerous ties to the shipping and cargo business, and had considered starting a garment-shipping business like the one associated with Paracha, according to officials and court documents.

....snip...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

More about Guantanamo detainee Mr. Saifullah Paracha's kid:

They said [Uzair/Ozair] Paracha [son of Saifullah Paracha] met with a man believed to be an al-Qaida associate in Pakistan earlier this year [2003 before Aug]. The man asked him to contact U.S. immigration authorities and pose as the associate to get a travel document that would permit the associate to re-enter and possibly remain in the United States, prosecutors said. The al-Qaida associate, however, has remained overseas, prosecutors said.
[Uzair] Paracha was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Friday.
Prosecutors said [Uzair] Paracha told the FBI in March that he possessed several items of identification belonging to the al-Qaida associate. A search of his belongings revealed that he had a Maryland driver's license and a bank ATM card in the associate's name, prosecutors said. Paracha's lawyer, Anthony Ricco, has said in recent days that Paracha was innocent. He was arrested about six weeks after he came to the United States to raise money for a real estate venture in Pakistan, Ricco said.
-------"Feds Charge Suspect With Aiding al-Qaida Federal Prosecutors Charge a Pakistani Man With Providing Support to al-Qaida Network," The Associated Press, Aug. 8, 2003

Here's more on the guy the article plays as a poor harmless political prisoner of the evil Bush Admin:

MARCH 31, 2003 : (USA : NY : [UZAIR] PARACHA DETAINED FOR ACTING AS COVER FOR AL QAEDA OPERATIVE MAJID KHAN- WHO IS ASSOCIATED WITH SIDDIQUI - See BALTIMORE "CELL?", IMG) Details of the alleged smuggling plot came to light in the case of Uzair Parachas, 23, the son of IMG's co-owner. Parachas has been detained by the FBI since being picked up in the IMG [International Management Group] office March 31, shortly after he arrived from Pakistan. He was charged this month with acting as cover for one of [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed's Baltimore-based associates, an Al Qaeda operative whom sources identified as Majid Khan. (* My note: Majid Khan is the person the woman Siddiqui aided in setting up a new identity in the US) -- "Rag trade terror plot: Al Qaeda sought Garment Center tie," by GREG B. SMITH, New York Daily News, August 22, 2003

FEBRUARY 2003 : (AL QAEDA'S KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED aka "KSM" MEETS WITH THE PARACHAS - See SAIFULLAH PARACHA & UZAIR/OZAIR PARACHA) Days before he was captured in Pakistan in March, suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed met in Karachi with the owner of a W. 35th St., [NY] clothing importing company and his son, law enforcement sources said. Al Qaeda's No. 3 man offered to invest $200,000 in International Management Group in exchange, federal authorities now believe, for access to IMG's Port Newark-bound shipping containers, sources say.
Mohammed "is obsessed with attacking the United States, and New York has always been at the top of the list for Al Qaeda," said one law enforcement source. After learning of the plot, federal authorities began monitoring IMG's containers, though sources said no weapons were found in them. -- "Rag trade terror plot: Al Qaeda sought Garment Center tie," by GREG B. SMITH, New York Daily News, August 22, 2003

Thanks for the Parachas pings. I'm curious about the background of the lawyers involved in bringing this to AP's attention--wondering if NLG and/or Human Rights Watch is involved:

Transcripts of hearings, which the Pentagon released Friday after a successful Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press

SNIP

Aziz, who is from Mauritania in West Africa, was captured in Pakistan in 2002, according to one of his lawyers, Anna Cayton-Holland. His lawyers do not know what he is accused of.

"He thinks he's going to die here," said another member of his defense team, Agnieszka Fryszman.

SNIP

Boudella al Hajj, an Algerian cleric who said he worked with orphans in Bosnia for a humanitarian group

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