Gerik Parmele photo
Officer Bill Lee of the Columbia Police Department
assists the FBI this morning during a search at 2701 Woodberry Court.
Posted on 09/18/2006 1:01:29 PM PDT by rface
FBI agents today searched the home of a Columbia businessman and former Iraqi who has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq.
About a dozen FBI vehicles parked this morning in front of the home of Shakir Hamoodi, 54, at 2701 Woodberry Court, in the upscale The Pines neighborhood in southwest Columbia, neighbors said.
At exactly 9 a.m., the FBI agents left their cars and rushed the house. Two teenagers inside the house were brought outside and escorted to the family car and drove off, said a neighbor who did not want to be identified. The neighbor said the agents entered the house and removed boxes and other items. Some agents stood on the lawn and examined papers pulled from the house.
Hamoodi owns World Harvest International and Gourmet Foods on Nifong Boulevard. County records show he owns the Woodberry Court home with Lamya Najem, 40, who a neighbor said teaches at the Islamic School of Columbia Missouri.
Jeff Lanza, a spokesman for the FBI in Kansas City, would not say what prompted the raid, but he said the home was not a threat to the community.
Neither Hamoodi nor Najem could be reached for comment this morning. A neighbor who requested anonymity said police told him Hamoodi was out of the state this morning.
Several neighbors who watched the ongoing raid and requested anonymity said they didn’t know much about the family. "They have been nothing but very, very nice," one neighbor said.
Around 9:30 a.m. a Columbia police officer was rummaging through the home’s open garage while neighbors loitered outside and gawked. Shortly after a reporter arrived, the officer closed the garage door.
Officer Bill Lee turned away an attempt to question the FBI agents and asked a Tribune reporter and photographer to leave the property. He declined to answer questions.
Hamoodi is an Iraq native who lived in Scotland and France before moving to Columbia in 1985. He studied at the University of Missouri-Columbia and later became an engineering research assistant professor at the school. He left the school and opened World Harvest in 2004, according to a 2005 Tribune story about his business.
Hamoodi has been identified as an outreach coordinator for the Islamic Center.
"He’s been involved with charity. He’s a good human being and does a lot of charitable work," said Ahmed Habib, who knows Hamoodi and his family through the mosque. "He’s well respected in the community."
Neighbors said the home was generally quiet, although once every few months several cars would park there for about an hour. They speculated Hamoodi hosted religious gatherings.
Hamoodi has made several public appearances in opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq. At one event, a July 2005 speech at a Rotary Club event in Jefferson City, he was identified as a nuclear engineer living in Columbia.
In 2003 he participated in an MU forum on the war and said: "The U.S. Army is as unwanted as Saddam Hussein. The U.S. Army is probably more unwanted than Saddam Hussein."
After Saddam’s capture, Hamoodi told the Tribune the event was insignificant. "They found him in a hole, he can’t lead the resistance from a hole," Hamoodi was quoted as saying. "The war was a lie. Innocent people were killed. Is this worth finding weapons of mass destruction?"
Their home on Woodberry Court was recently defaced with spray-painted anarchist graffiti, neighbors said.
The Tribune’s Annie Nelson, Janese Heavin and Kevin Coleman contributed to this report.
By JANESE HEAVIN
Monday, September 18, 2006
When I hear the word charity and it involves a muslim, I immediately think of funding terrorism.
so do they, when they form them.
so at least everbody is on the same page.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Aug/20060821Life002.asp<br
follow the link
Just what community is he respected in?
I basically think that if you give a muslim charity money you can expect 0% of it going to the cause. Its like doing business with them, you just cant since business is based on integrity and ones word.
bttt
The NY TImes is definately slipping in warning terrorists that the government is closing in on them!
Given it's where we find the University of Missouri, I suppose Columbia is a haven for far-left liberal kooks, much like any other center of academia.
"Just what community is he respected in?"
The community of mass murderers, you know, guys like Ted Bundy, Jeff Dahmer, Adolf, Mao and the rest of the misunderstood but sensitive fellows.
Why do Muslims raise money in the US anyway? Why don't the Saudis or the Iranians give enough money for the Muslim "community's" needs?
The thought that pops in my head is he is a sleeper..
I'm wondering if his food biz has any connection to the spinach stuff.
"The thought that pops in my head is he is a sleeper.."
Y'know, that's really a shame too. The law of averages dictates that there are going to be some Muslims who are totally against the terrorist tactics presently in vogue, and he might be one of them. Like you though, I don't see any Scarlet Letter emblazoned on his forehead assuring us that he's not a sleeper so I suppose, just like the Japanese immigrants of 1942, we'll have to distrust them all. I hate being like that but I don't see any recourse. To do otherwise invites disaster.
Boy, like there'd *ever* be a reason to suspect a Mohammedan of any wrongdoing!
The gall of the FBI!
He seemed to be a very nice person, but his statements about Saddam and Operation Iraqi Freedom make me think he needs to go back to Iraq, Iran, Syria or Lebanan where he'd be more comfortable.
I've lived here four years, and I pretty much have to keep my mouth shut about politics if I want to have any friends. Even with my best friends.
The FBI had better be right when it does stuff like this, particularly just before an election.
I've seen this guy on TV before. His background is that he left Iraq during Saddam's rule and does not seem to be a Pro-Jihadi type guy, however, he does seem to be an extreme Leftist and anti-war pacifist type. Of course, these days, the difference between the Jihadists and the Anti-War Left Wingers has decreased to damn near nothing.
If I had to guess, I would say he's merely an ungrateful (for the open arms his new country gave him) little scumbag and not a terrorist...but I could be wrong.
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