Replies

Lawyer: Man With Trade Center Photos Was Hopeful Immigrant

(AP) (Philadelphia) Jun 8, 2002 7:00 am US/Eastern
A Pakistani man who spent hours photographing the World Trade Center days before it was destroyed was nothing but a "poor peasant" excited to be starting a new life in the United States, his lawyer said.

"This guy just went to the wrong place to take pictures," said attorney Louis A. Ortiz.

Ashar Iqbal Butt was detained and interrogated by the FBI on Sept. 12, a day after the attacks, when a photo developer in Whitehall became suspicious upon discovering 25 pictures Butt had taken of the twin towers at least a week earlier.

Butt has been jailed ever since, and on Thursday pleaded guilty to entering the country using an altered British passport. A federal judge delayed his sentencing until Sept. 12, 2002, however, saying prosecutors needed more time to investigate the photographs.

Ortiz said the delay is unnecessary.

"They have thoroughly investigated this, and all that they've uncovered is that he had a false passport," he said. "There is no one saying he is related to a terrorist group. There are no terrorist manifestos, no bomb making equipment ... He should be allowed to go home."

Prosecutors said Butt, 22, was born in Gujranwala, Pakistan, and arrived in the United States through Los Angeles on Aug. 5. He came to the United States to work and intended to send money home to his family, Ortiz said.

Butt told investigators he paid $10,000 for the doctored passport and had a job waiting for him at a jewelry store in the Whitehall Mall when he arrived. He was living in Whitehall, near Allentown, and had trained at the store for about 12 days when he was arrested.

"He was a poor peasant from Pakistan, whose parents paid for him to come here, as many immigrants do," Ortiz said.

While he has been imprisoned, Butt's mother died, Ortiz said. Butt has been kept in solitary confinement for most of his nine months behind bars. Until recently he has been denied access to a telephone to talk to his family, Ortiz said.

Prosecutors continue to be bothered about some aspects of Butt's story.

For weeks after his arrest, Butt insisted his name was Mobasser Mahmood and that he was a British citizen.

Prosecutors also said Butt wouldn't reveal the identity of a person he was with when the twin towers photos were taken, other than to say he was a distant relative who has since left for Canada.

Several of the photos show Butt standing at locations in and around the World Trade Center towers, which were destroyed Sept. 11 when terrorists flew two hijacked airplanes into the buildings. There were no photos of other New York City landmarks.

Ortiz declined to describe Butt's explanation for his interest in the towers, other to say that, "He has offered an explanation. They (the FBI) have chosen not to believe it."

A second Pakistani man who worked at the Whitehall jewelry store, Moeen Islam Butt, was also detained on immigration charges as the FBI investigated the photos.

Moeen Islam Butt pleaded guilty last month and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 13. His attorney, Anser Ahmad, said his client was inadvertently caught in the FBI dragnet and has no connection to terrorism.