Two Face Charges in Plane Diversion; Charges Against Third Dropped (Only charged are the Indians)

FORT SMITH, Ark. -- A judge on Thursday set a Sept. 19 hearing for two men arrested after allegedly disrupting a flight Thursday.

An affidavit said the pair of men aroused suspicions aboard a Northwest Airlines jet Thursday by disobeying a flight attendant.

It also said that one man insisted that he be let into a restroom his traveling companion had used.

The U.S. attorney's office initially said the men were from India. But in court, they were identified as being from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The pilot of Flight 979 diverted his Memphis to Las Vegas flight to Fort Smith after four passengers behaved suspiciously.

A third man initially arrested was released Thursday, and a fourth man detained briefly was cleared Wednesday.

The flight attendant told the FBI that, according to her training, it was possible for explosive material to be slipped aboard a plane if carried by more than one person.

Still, the affidavit alleges no crime beyond interference with a flight crew, and U.S. Attorney Tom Gean said there appears to be no connection to terrorism.

Well well well....

All the supposedly scary details keep falling apart. The Arab guy was released, leaving the only two with charges the two Indian guys (who seem to be Pennsylvania and NJ residents; may turn out to be US citizens) who, based on their names, are likely not even Muslim.

Not a thing about "shaving body hair". Seems they just disobeyed flight attendants. Nothing about all of them piling into a bathroom either.

I have a suspicion that all charges against everybody wil end up getting dropped.

Azmath and Khan were not held on terrorism charges, but ended up spending months in prison anyway.

Two Indians being quizzed by FBI
P BALU, NIHAL KOSHIE AND RAM KARAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2001, HYDERABAD: Two men from Hyderabad, Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, are among several suspects held in the United States in the wake of last Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Azmath and Khan are said to be residents of Doodh Bowli in the Old City. It was the families of Azmath and Khan who noticed their pictures being flashed on television as two persons arrested from a train as suspects in the terrorist attacks.
Earlier, Azmath and Khan's families had contacted the relief helpline set up by the state government at the Secretariat here and gave the two men's names and details such as age and local address. According to their families, Khan and Azmath had planned to take a plane from New Jersey to Texas on September 11, but decided to take a train instead after the terrorist attack. Meanwhile, an agency report from Washington said the two men, when arrested from a train at Dallas, claimed they were Indians, and have been detained and taken for questioning in connection with the devastating terrorist strikes in the USA in which more than 5,000 people are feared killed.
Tuesday, May 7, 2002
Families in India anxious for release of two men detained in United States after Sept. 11 attack
By OMER FAROOQ Associated Press Writer
HYDERABAD, India (AP) - Almost eight months after two Indian Muslims were detained in Texas for questioning about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, their families still don't know when they'll be home, though both have long since been cleared of involvement.
The two remain in custody in the United States on unrelated charges of credit card fraud that prosecutors said surfaced during a background investigation. Pretrial hearings in the case, in which both men have pleaded innocent, are scheduled to begin this month in a U.S. federal court in New York.
The wait has been agonizing for the families of Gul Mohammed Shah, 36, [aka Ayub Ali Khan] and Mohammed Jawed Azmath, 38, who knew nothing about the credit card charges until January.

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