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.
This is very odd....he remembered the conversation, he remembered the DATE of the conversation, almost two months later? I wonder what made that conversation so memorable BEFORE the first anthrax case became public, and before 9/11?
Which it was claimed had no anthrax, and which Kenyan government agencies nevertheless insisted did have anthrax. Maybe the letter really had no anthrax, and maybe this is more of how our government has been lying to us, so as to divert suspicion from Iraq.
These guys are being charged with immigration violations only. Hence the bail.
The connection with the anthrax scare is a press "beat up" and relies solely on the word of a Mr. Janco. Some guy has called in with a story and this reporter has run with it.
You will not see this in the national media. It is yet another false alarm.
I imagine there are more than a few who can recall events or conversations close to that particular day.
I mentioned in one of those threads something that's worth repeating here: Seymour and Oxford, CT are a very easy drive from Torrington on Route 8.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A44845-2001Oct24
"NAIROBI, Oct. 24 – Authorities today retracted last week's "confirmed" finding of anthrax bacteria in a letter mailed Sept. 8 to Kenya from Atlanta. A subsequent test found the white powder on damp pieces of fabric in the envelope was mildew or fungus."
Amazing the desperate lengths people go to to cling desperately to the various foreign anthrax letters.
It's pretty hilarious. Gubbmint conspiracies are supposed to deflect attention from the government as a cause (TWA 800 nutters, chime in). But now gubbmint conspiracies are to BLAME the government to deflect attention away from foreign countries. Gotcha.
Probably because they are being held on immigration charges and have not yet been linked to the anthrax mailings. Even if they get out on bail, they will be watched carefully.
As I say, maybe the Nairobi letter really did have no anthrax, but I am going to continue to keep an open mind.
"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."
Everything in the story is based on un-named "published reports." It's not like it's a secret insider source you can't name because of protecting your sources if it's "published." So why no cite?
A search of the internet using Janco and Anthrax as keywords turns up nothing at all relating to these suspects or this Robert Janco. So WHAT "published reports?" The only published report is the Register-Citizen article itself. This stinks to high heaven.
The "anthrax letter" was mailed by the DAUGHTER of the Kenyan recipient. It was MOLD or MILDEW on cloth. You seem surprised that a Third World country botches a medical test? You think a key aspect of Al Queda grand strategy is mailing anthrax from Atlanta to obscure Kenyan doctors?
Can you just admit you were wrong and move on? That's the thing about conspiracy theorists..they NEVER have to admit they are wrong. Anything supporting them is valid evidence. Anything undercutting their position is fabricated as part of the conspiracy.
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