Posted on 09/09/2002 5:12:29 PM PDT by Shermy
PORTLAND - Tests indicated explosives residue on the luggage of a local Islamic religious leader arrested at the Portland International Airport on charges of document fraud, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the man's arraignment.
Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, 41, was arrested at the airport without incident around noon Sunday and booked at the Multnomah County Jail.
Kariye on Monday pleaded innocent to two felony charges of using false information - including a changed name - while applying for and receiving three different Social Security cards between 1983 and 1995. The federal indictment also alleges that Kariye used an altered birth date in a 1998 asylum application.
About 100 members of the Islamic community, including women wrapped in head scarves, crowded the courtroom and hallways to show support for Kariye. As Kariye entered, dressed in a blue jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and ankles, the supporters murmured an Arabic greeting in unison.
U.S. District Court Judge Donald Ashmanskas set a Nov. 5 trial date for the case and ordered Kariye held until Tuesday, when the court will resume a detention hearing to determine if he can be released pending trial.
Ashmanskas said the court staff had not finished reviewing Kariye's background and legal status to make a release recommendation.
Kariye, who was born in Somalia, serves as an imam, or prayer leader, at the Islamic Center of Portland-Masjed As-Saber, a southwest Portland mosque, said Philip A. Lewis, Kariye's lawyer.
Charles Mathews, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, had toured the Islamic center on Aug. 31 on an invitation from the board of directors, The Oregonian reported.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Gorder said Monday that Kariye went to the airport on Sunday with his four young children and his brother for a flight to Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates.
Gorder said tests done Monday by the U.S. Customs Service on the party's confiscated luggage indicated "TNT residue" on two of the bags.
"As I understand, at least some part of the inside of the luggage or clothes in the luggage were at some point in contact with TNT," Gorder said.
He also said "several thousand dollars" were found in Kariye's bags, along with a checkbook that used a different variation of Kariye's name.
Kariye had told his ex-wife he was planning to leave the country permanently, Gorder said. Kariye's apartment lease expires on Friday, he said.
Gorder also said that Kariye, who appeared to have little money, had traveled extensively in 1999 and 2000 to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Qatar.
Lewis said Kariye was traveling to Dubai to take a teaching job and decided to take his children to immerse them in Arabic culture. He said his client had made several trips to Saudi Arabia to make religious pilgrimages and to speak in his role as imam.
"He's worked other places, he's lived other places and he's gone to give sermons for his job," Lewis said.
He also said it is common for Islamic people to have multiple names. Variations of Kariye's name on document applications were not necessarily attempts at fraud, he said.
"My client's name is a long name and there are often variations which are not viewed as significant," Lewis said.
Kariye was arrested by the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force - which includes FBI agents, investigators from several other federal agencies, and local police officers.
Kariye appeared calm in court, stroking his beard and answering only "Yes, sir" to questions posed by the judge. Lewis requested that Kariye, a severe diabetic, have access to his medicine, which was confiscated with his luggage at the airport.
He also requires a special diet, Lewis said.
Yep. Any schmoe could pick up a little trace of explosives just puttering around the mosque. Right?
Nope,sorry,gotta let him go.Don't want to get nailed for profiling.You get the senior citizen in the wheel chair.I'll nail the one with the walker.Don't let their age fool ya,they only look harmless.
Also, he was never coming back.
Nothing to see here, move along!
PS. I don't know much about these tests, but recall that some of them trace nitrogen or nitrates - which can be used in those OKC like bombs. People sometimes have false positives on their shoes if they've walked on fertilized lawns, I read.
You were probably being sarcastic but you may be very close the the truth?
Another incident, and I'll wager we're gonna start bootin' these people out of the country, wholesale.
Of course, I'm wonderin', why wait?
There were other cases where the man involved in terrorism would leave his wife behind, but I can't remember which case it was, exactly...
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