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Pakistani in custody had film of Dallas, other cities 12:15 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Federal officials charged a Pakistani citizen with immigration violations and said Tuesday the man was detained last month after being spotted taking videotapes of downtown skyscrapers. A federal affidavit unsealed Tuesday said a review of the tape in Kamran Akhtar's camera and others in his possession showed film of the downtown Wachovia Bank and Bank of America headquarters buildings in Charlote, N.C., as well as film of other major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and...

senior Hamas member, Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Virginia, was arrested in the US on Friday as he videotaped the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, US officials said. The man has long been suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Hamas, the US attorney's office in Maryland said. On Friday two police officers on the Bay Bridge spotted Elbarasse, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, in a sport utility vehicle videotaping the bridge, authorities said. Once Police apprehended the suspect, they discovered that Elbarasse was on an FBI terrorist watch list. He was also wanted...

Vern's reality check A Pakistani man charged with immigration violations after being arrested while videotaping Charlotte, N.C., skyscrapers is showcased in a new TV campaign spot for a North Carolina Republican. Vernon Robinson, a Winston-Salem City Council member running for the 5th District House seat in a primary today, offers a message that includes Kamran Akhtar — arrested July 20. Mr. Akhtar also had videotaped buildings in Dallas, Houston and Las Vegas, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Mr. Robinson's ad shows a picture of Mr. Akhtar with the following advisory: "This is Pakistani terrorist Kamran Akhtar. He got arrested videotaping...

Some of New York's top landmarks and tourist sights were videotaped by a Queens man who sparked terror fears across the South after he was arrested with footage of buildings from Texas to North Carolina, police said yesterday. The discovery of the new videos, apparently seized from Kamran Akhtar's home in Elmhurst, prompted cops to warn officials to review security procedures at the sights, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. "In an abundance of caution, the Counter Terrorism Bureau of the New York City Police Department is providing ... advice to security personnel at various sights," Browne said. Among the landmarks...

Pakistani citizen isn't a terrorist, brother says 8-12-04 Posted 7:30 a.m. CHARLOTTE (AP) — The Pakistani citizen arrested here with a video camera featuring landmarks and skyscrapers of Southeastern cities is no terrorist and simply likes tall buildings, according to his brother. Kamran Akhtar, the man questioned by police while filming Charlotte's downtown skyline last month, remains jailed while officials try to determine whether his activities are connected to terrorism. His brother, Irfan Akhtar, said he loves to take pictures of tourist spots and buildings and had been traveling the country after losing his job at a New York photo...

CHARLOTTE (AP) — The 60-story Bank of America tower in Charlotte. The Texas governor's mansion. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. The Downtown Transit Center in Houston and trolleys in Dallas and New Orleans. All those landmarks and others were included in footage found in a video camera seized from a Pakistani citizen who was arrested in Charlotte while filming the downtown skyline, including the Bank of America headquarters and a 32-story skyscraper where the local FBI has its offices. Akhtar entered the United States from Tijuana, Mexico, in 1991, according to immigration records. He told a judge Tuesday that...

Pakistani man held in North Carolina on immigration charges spent several months shooting video of mass-transit systems and skylines of Austin and other major cities in Texas and the South, including New Orleans and Atlanta...A Pflugerville resident who says his wife is related to Shaikh said the Austin videotaping was innocent. After speaking with people who had seen the tapes, Baker said: "Unless this guy is a student of current American architecture, it suggests a little more attention to detail. What would come after this type of surveillance is that these tapes would go back to an operations type of...

August 11, 2004 -- A Pakistani who lives in Queens is being held in Charlotte, N.C., after videotaping skyscrapers in six major U.S. cities and making mysterious money transfers totaling $120,000, prosecutors said yesterday. Kamran Shaikh, 35, a father of three who lives in Elmhurst, also videotaped mass-transit systems in four of the cities and a dam in Texas, prosecutors said. Shaikh, who has lived in the United States for 13 years and has used the alias Kamran Akhtar, is being held without bail on immigration charges. He was busted in Charlotte on July 20 after Police Officer Anthony Maglione...

INTELLIGENCEMan Is Held After Police Seize Tapes of Buildings and a DamBy ERIC LICHTBLAUPublished: August 11, 2004 ASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - The federal authorities, on heightened alert over the prospect of another Al Qaeda attack, are conducting a terrorism investigation into an illegal immigrant from Pakistan found with videotapes of downtown buildings and transit systems in four Southern states and of a dam in Texas, officials said on Tuesday.Officials acknowledged that they had no direct evidence linking the suspect, a former Queens resident named Kamran Shaikh, to terrorism. But they said they remained keenly interested in determining why he made...

On the streets of Elmhurst, Queens, where trees rustled in the summer wind and kids played on the sidewalk yesterday, frightened neighbors of Kamran Akhtar were horrified to learn that terror cops in North Carolina want to know whether he was up to no good. "I can't believe he's been arrested," said a woman whose apartment window faces Akhtar's on Ketcham St. "This is so shattering. I have no words for this." The woman's husband described Akhtar - who used the alias Kamran Shaikh in the neighborhood and on his New York State license - as at times aloof, quiet...

Terror cops want to know whether an Elmhurst, Queens, man nabbed filming bank buildings in the South is a terrorist - or just a tourist. Kamran Akhtar, a Pakistani citizen who was ordered out of the U.S. in 1998, has been hit with immigration and other charges in North Carolina. But it's his extensive videos of bank buildings, trains, dams and government offices that spooked officials. Akhtar's brother lashed out at authorities, saying the unemployed father of three, who also uses the name Kamran Shaikh, is a travel buff who was tripped up by overzealous cops. "It's definitely all a...

Man Arrested After Allegedly Taping Uptown Buildings CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Multiple government agencies and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police announced Tuesday the arrest of Kamran Akhtar, also known as Kamran Shaikh, a Pakistani foreign national. Akhtar was arrested on a federal criminal complaint following a brief investigation regarding immigration violations during which, it is alleged, Akhtar made materially false statements to local and federal law enforcement representatives in Charlotte. Authorities say Akhtar violated federal immigration and naturalization laws and made a materially false statement or statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the United States. Akhtar was detained in federal custody Tuesday...

CHARLOTTE,N.C.--Federal officials charged a Pakastani citizen with immigration violations and said today the man was detained last month after being spotted taking videotapes of downtown skyscrapers in Charlotte. A review of videotape in the man's camera and others in his possession also showed tapes of Austin, Houston and Dallas, according to a federal affadavit unsealed today.Kamran Akhtar was arrested July 20 after being taken in for questioning by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Anthony Maglione.Akhtar, 36, is charged with violating federal immigration and naturalization laws and making a false statement, according to a news release by U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert.'snip'A federal affadavit...