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.
Duh! Should we stop enforing all the laws that people break too much?
"Oh, Please don't throw me in the briar patch!"
PUNISH them,
here, in the country where they do the crime.
Of course Hindi/Urdu may have the same transliteration problems that Arabic has, making an exact spelling impossible.
Detained Indians linked to anthrax?
Dharam Shourie
New York, October 26
FBI sleuths are testing documents seized from the apartment of two Indians, detained in connection with the US terror attacks, for anthrax after old issues of magazines carrying stories on biological weapons and gas attack were found in their rooms.
Ayub Khan and Mohammad Jaweed Azmath, both from Hyderabad, were pulled off a train near Dallas and detained as they were found carrying box-cutters similar to those used by the hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon building on September 11.
The New York Times reported that the Hyderabadi duo had not explained their travels to the satisfaction of the investigators and FBI is trying to squeeze information from reluctant witnesses. They said they were going to Texas to open a fruit stall.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a search at their residence in Jersey City found old issues of Time magazine and US News and World Report with cover stories on biological weapons and a gas attack in Tokyo.
Their room-mate, Aslam Pervez, who once worked in Trenton and lived near the postal facility from where some of the letters suspected to have carried anthrax powder were posted, has also been detained.
No links so far have been established against Khan and Azmath and the terrorist attacks, and investigators say they doubt if they were involved.
Police officials in India were quoted as saying that they were helping the FBI look into how Azmath and Khan, who had little money when they moved to the USA in the mid 1990s, amassed enough to wire $ 54,000 to their families in 1999.
Last week, Pervez was reportedly charged with lying to federal agents when they questioned him about more than $ 110,000 in cheques and money orders that moved in and out of his bank account, mostly during 1995 and 1996.
Khan’s and Azmath’s movements on September 11 and 12, and the box-cutters they were carrying in a briefcase, are “certainly suspicious,” one law enforcement official told The Times. But “we can’t link them to anything, any particular suspicious flights or destinations,” he said.
The Times said there might be an innocent explanation for the Hyderabadis trip to Texas. The news stand on which the two worked was sold to another company in late August, leaving Khan, Azmath and Pervez without jobs.
The Times said that Khan’s real name is Gul Mohammad Shah. They said he and Azmath had obtained Indian passports by giving false information about themselves, but they added that that was not uncommon for people trying to leave the country. PTI
Yes. The part where the Janco said he overheard the two of the accused talk about mailing anthrax was indeed discredited; he failed the lie detector test when he was asked about what he overheard.
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Man Charged With Lying About Middle Easterners
H A R T F O R D, Conn., Dec. 21 — A Torrington man who told federal authorities he overheard two Middle Eastern men discuss plans to mail anthrax letters was arraigned today on charges he made false statements.
Robert Janco, 35, pleaded innocent to a two-count federal indictment. Janco reportedly told FBI agents he was in a local bar when he heard the men discuss mailing letters with the help of a New York resident named "Kathy." Janco allegedly made the report to police five days after Vietnamese immigrant Kathy Nguyen mysteriously died of inhalation anthrax in New York. Based on Janco's alleged report, police arrested and detained the men. Janco later failed a voluntary lie detector test. If convicted, Janco could face more 10 years in prison and a half-million dollars in fines. — The Associated Press
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Lest people get confused by this article and assume the Khan mentioned here (Mohammed I. Khan and the other falsely accused Najmul Hasan of Connecticut) is the same Khan that is mentioned elsewhere in the news around the same time in anthrax articles and hijacking articles, the name of the other Khan is 'Ayub Ali Khan,' aka 'Syed Gul Mohamed Shah.' His associate is 'Mohammed Jaweed Azmath.' Both of these Indian muslims who were caught on the train from St. Louis to Texas on 9/11 after getting off a plane prematurely at Lambert, and their apartment was searched once because of 9/11. Their apartement was searched by the feds a second time later because of anthrax - after the WSJ went into the open apartments and saw articles on bioterrorism scattered about left over from the first hijacking-related searches. These men were the the real subjects in the anthrax house searches. The two "St. Louis flight/Texas train" men are still in custody along with yet another man (Mohammad Aslam Pervez) who lived in an apartment with them at one time who is a naturalized US citizen and who is held on charges dealing with check writing.
It is possible anyone with the name of 'Khan' in the neighborhood may have gotten closer scrutiny based on the Khan from the 9/11 flight and on the false accusation. Or, Robert Janco may have read the account of the 9/11 St. louis plane-to-train incident and associated the name with the people he erronously accused.
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