Posted on 01/23/2002 3:38:27 AM PST by kattracks
A person endures a trauma, prevails against discouraging odds, survives a cataclysm, exists in the desert for three weeks on a Diet Coke and a Twinkie, and when rescued heads straight to the cameras with a smile to say, ``I want to thank God, my family and all the people who prayed for me. I'm so grateful to be alive and God Bless America.''
And the next day he threatens a lawsuit.
It's the inevitable American ending, isn't it? Forget ``happily ever after.'' That's a fairy tale. In this country, it's ``What are you going to do to compensate me?''
The latest proof: Abdallah Higazy. He's the 30-year-old Egyptian, largely brought up in the United States because his diplomat father was posted here, who just last week was effusing in front of the cameras about how grateful he was to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, his court-appointed attorney, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the guards at the jail where he was detained for 31 days. Falsely accused, he was vindicated. ``I'd like to thank all my friends who knew that I was innocent,'' he said. ``I'm happy. I've got no complaints.'' He even offered to take the two federal agents who investigated him to dinner to ``bury the hatchet.''
It was a nice, feel-good ending.
Higazy had been arrested on Dec. 17 and held in jail because an employee at the Millenium Hotel, across from the World Trade Center, told investigators that while taking inventory of items left behind by guests evacuated on Sept. 11, he found an aviation radio, along with a passport, a copy of the Koran and a gold medallion, in a safe in Higazy's room. Higazy had checked into the Millenium on Aug. 27 and was scheduled to check out on Sept. 25. A new student at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, he said he was staying at the hotel while looking for permanent housing. But the radio found in his room, a hand-held device used by pilots to communicate air-to-air and air-to-ground, turned him from student to suspect.
When he returned Dec. 17 to pick up his belongings, police arrested him.
On Jan. 11 Higazy, who kept insisting the radio was not his, who swore he had never even seen the radio, was charged with lying to federal agents and ordered held without bail. No doubt he would still be behind bars, but for the fact that another guest who had also stayed at the Millenium, a private pilot, finally went back to claim his belongings and reported that his aviation radio was missing.
This man's room was on the 50th floor. Higazy's was on the 51st.
Federal agents immediately went back and questioned again the employee who said he had found the radio in Higazy's safe. This time the employee said he found the radio on a table in Higazy's room.
Last Wednesday, the government dropped all charges against Higazy and set him free. Higazy was ecstatic - and grateful.
``To be absolutely honest, I don't blame the FBI for thinking it [the radio] was mine,'' Higazy said.
But today Higazy is demanding an apology and an investigation. ``As sober reflection sets in, he realized how unfairly he was treated,'' said his lawyer, Robert Dunn.
Unfairly? He got a court-appointed lawyer, paid for by the American people. And he got set free the second the case fell apart.
The streets of New York may not be lined with gold but there's gold for the taking for those who chuck gratitude, go for greed and get a lawyer who can play the game.
I would sue in such a case.
now days evidence is used to build a case not determine the truth. If the evidence at hand supports your position and furthers your goals, the investigation is complete.
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