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FEDS INVESTIGATING CONN. NUCLEAR ENGINEER IN TERROR CASE

POSTED: 1:13 pm EDT August 11, 2004
UPDATED: 1:17 pm EDT August 11, 2004

CROMWELL, Conn. -- A Connecticut nuclear engineer is under investigation in a federal terrorism probe, but denies allegations he offered support to a militant Islamic Web site and said he's being targeted because he is Muslim.

Syed R. Maswood, 41, confirmed that he is the unnamed Connecticut resident mentioned last week in a federal affidavit charging a British national with supporting terrorism.

Federal agents raided Maswood's home March 17, seizing computer equipment and financial records, he said. Investigators discovered his e-mail address among files used to maintain a Web site that funneled money and equipment to terrorists, according to the affidavit, which was unsealed Friday in New Haven as part of an international terrorism probe.

From his home, Maswood runs North American Technical Services, which exports nuclear detection instruments, water treatment devices and environmental equipment to Middle East and Asian governments.

Maswood has not been charged in the case but said he has been detained and searched three times while traveling on business recently and said officials have told him he's on a U.S. no-fly list.

Maswood once strongly supported President Bush and still keeps in his living room a photgraph of the president. He also has a photo of his preteen daughter meeting Vice President Dick Cheney and has donated to several Republican campaigns.

"I believe in this country," said Maswood, a Bangladesh immigrant who became an American citizen in 1997. "I believe in the system. I believe in the fairness of the law. I want to know, what did I do wrong?"

U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor would not confirm that Maswood is the Connecticut resident mentioned in the affidavit.

"We go out of our way in any case not to identify anybody until they've been charged," O'Connor said. "Unfortunately, there's only one way to search a house and that's in public."

Federal agents last week charged British computer specialist Babar Ahmad with running a fund-raising site for Islamic militants. While dissecting Ahmad's computer files, investigators say they discovered an e-mail seeking help getting money to Islamic rebels in Chechnya.

They traced that e-mail to Maswood.

The married father of three said he never offered to aid Chechen rebel leaders but said he may have asked how he could help the humanitarian effort in the area.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also discovered that Maswood donated more than $10,000 to the Benevolence International Foundation, an Illinois-based charity accused of supporting terrorism.

But Maswood said the charity is one of many he has supported for humanitarian purposes, including Christian relief efforts. He said investigators seized evidence of those donations during the raid.

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Benevolence International had been given IRS tax-exempt status.

"If you're claiming that BIF was a terrorist organization, why did the IRS issue them a tax ID number and allow them to solicit donations from all over the country?" Maswood said.

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last week that investigators are poring over the e-mail addresses uncovered in the Ahmad case, trying to determine who wanted to provide humanitarian aid and who wanted to support terrorism.

Maswood said the investigation has made him seem guilty to many in the small Hartford suburb. Neighbors gawked as agents searched his home, he said. He can imagine what's going through their minds.

"I come from a very oppressive country," said Maswood's wife, Awatef, who was born in Tunisia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. "I used to come back to the U.S. and feel relief. I'm home. This is a free country. What kind of America is this?"

While federal investigators did not name Maswood in the affidavit, they confirmed that a search warrant was executed in Cromwell. In a town of 13,000 people, Maswood said, that effectively identified him.

Maswood, who says he's had difficulties doing business through the government since Sept. 11, 2001, has sent O'Connor several letters asserting his innocence and characterizing the probe as a witch hunt.

"It's character assassination," he said. "You label them, you destroy their reputation, then later on you may or may not find something."

http://www.wnbc.com/news/3643309/detail.html