STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON
Posted on 05/31/2003 11:28:27 AM PDT by Aaron_A
32 blades, no explanation
Mystery surrounds Pakistani who will be sentenced for carrying razor blades at D/FW
By Toni Heinzl Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - Fazal Karim and the 32 double-edged razor blades he kept in a coiled belt in a cardboard box in his carry-on bag remain a mystery to the men who prosecuted and defended him in federal court.
A former computer programmer with the civilian-aviation authority of Pakistan, Karim, 37, lived with his wife and three young children in Houston, where he ran three cellphone stores.
Prosecutors say he returned to Texas from a four-week trip to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates on March 5 and was waiting at D/FW Airport for his connecting flight to Houston when security screeners discovered the razor blades.
Government agents and prosecutors said Karim gave contradictory statements about why he was traveling with the razor blades, but authorities have presented no evidence suggesting that he plotted acts of violence or terrorism.
U.S. District Judge Terry Means scheduled Karim's sentencing for Aug. 25. Karim faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. A jury convicted him May 22 of making false statements about his legal status and of carrying and attempting to carry concealed dangerous weapons in air transportation.
For Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the case is one in a long line of examples of U.S. authorities engaging in ethnic profiling of Muslims in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"If that person had been a Norwegian businessman, he wouldn't be in the trouble Mr. Karim is in," Hooper said. "It sounds odd that somebody up to no good would bring 32 razor blades, which would increase his chances of being detected, when all he needed was one razor blade if he wanted to do harm."
Hooper said Muslims do not mind being screened at airports if the same standards are applied to everyone.
"It has been an ongoing concern that Muslims are singled out," Hooper said.
Federal officials say that Karim came to the attention of security screeners at D/FW because of his suspicious behavior and that lying to FBI agents and immigration officials, not his ethnicity or religious background, ultimately led to his arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Schattman said the security screeners noticed that Karim appeared to dissociate himself from his carry-on bag. After he had placed it on the conveyor belt leading to an X-ray machine, Karim did not walk through the adjacent magnetometer but selected one farther away.
Not only were the razor blades artfully concealed within the belt, but the screener also noticed that Karim did not have a razor in his luggage, Schattman said.
"Our theory was that these were dangerous weapons he concealed to carry on the aircraft," Schattman said.
The Transportation Security Administration screeners initially confiscated the razor blades and let Karim proceed to the gate. However, after discussing Karim's behavior, they called in airport police and FBI agents, the prosecutor said.
When FBI agents questioned Karim about the razor blades, he offered three contradictory explanations, Schattman said.
First, Karim told FBI agents that he used the razor blades to shave the bottom of his full beard. Then he said they were for a friend in Houston named Mahmoud. Finally, he said he did not know the razor blades were in his bag.
"This is the first case at D/FW, to my knowledge, where we found razor blades in carry-on luggage where there is no razor in the bag," Schattman said.
In addition, immigration inspectors discovered that Karim's claim that he was a tourist visiting friends in Houston for a couple of weeks was a lie. Immigration authorities found out that Karim, a Pakistani national with Canadian citizenship, had lived in Houston for three years and did not have a residence in another country.
He had a one-way, $3,069 ticket from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to Paris to D/FW and to Houston.
Schattman rejected any notions of ethnic profiling in the case. Since 9-11, though, aviation-safety cases are prosecuted more aggressively as a deterrent, Schattman said.
"If he had been Irish and Catholic, with the same set of circumstances, I believe we would have filed the same case and prosecuted it the same way," Schattman said.
Karim's attorney, Larry Brown, did not raise the issue of ethnic profiling at the trial, arguing that the blades were mistaken for weapons.
"Our position is that they were hygiene items, not weapons," Brown said. Brown said that other than lying about his legal status, Karim is law-abiding and had no criminal history.
Karim's youngest child was born in the United States. His wife and the two elder children might face deportation, Brown said.
"Mr. Karim wasn't the first one to ever show up at the airport with razor blades in his carry-on," Brown said. "Typically, travelers are not arrested but given the option of throwing the items in the trash or having them confiscated."
It was a different story in Karim's case because the blades were "artfully concealed," requiring screeners to notify airport police and the FBI, said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration in Washington.
"It is the same screening for every passenger."
Since February 2002, baggage screeners at U.S. airports have seized 5 million banned items, including scissors, knives, throwing stars and guns, Turmail said.
Toni Heinzl, (817) 390-7684 theinzl@star-telegram.com
STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON
Because of the stupid pretense that all persons are equally likely to be terrorists.
Agreed. Everyone who might possibly be a muslim terrorist should be thoroughly screened to ensure they are not a muslim terrorist, so we can prevent the next hideous act of muslim terrorism by muslim terrorists.
"First, Karim told FBI agents that he used the razor blades to shave the bottom of his full beard. Then he said they were for a friend in Houston named Mahmoud. Finally, he said he did not know the razor blades were in his bag.
"This is the first case at D/FW, to my knowledge, where we found razor blades in carry-on luggage where there is no razor in the bag," Schattman said.
In addition, immigration inspectors discovered that Karim's claim that he was a tourist visiting friends in Houston for a couple of weeks was a lie. Immigration authorities found out that Karim, a Pakistani national with Canadian citizenship, had lived in Houston for three years and did not have a residence in another country.
He had a one-way, $3,069 ticket from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to Paris to D/FW and to Houston.
Schattman rejected any notions of ethnic profiling in the case. Since 9-11, though, aviation-safety cases are prosecuted more aggressively as a deterrent, Schattman said.
"If he had been Irish and Catholic, with the same set of circumstances, I believe we would have filed the same case and prosecuted it the same way," Schattman said."
With a handle and the double edged blades protruding....probably about 24 to 29 inches long....
sure could do a lot of damage close up in an aircraft weilding such a weapon
- CAIR are a bunch of a&&holes.
- What is this guy doing with these blades? I don't think they are good for anything but shaving and looking at his picture...
- Are these the type of blades in question?
Last time I was in Houston, I was dying from the heat and humidity. Probably going there to speed up the rusting process.
A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations: The case is one in a long line of examples of U.S. authorities engaging in ethnic profiling of Muslims.
???
He broke the friggin law you nitwit.
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