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Wife, FBI agent testify at hearing for Yemen man accused of al-Qaida links
A Yemen native jailed on suspicion that he has links to al-Qaida terrorist organization associates said shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that he knew a brother of one of the hijackers and approved of the attacks, an FBI agent told an immigration judge on Wednesday. Ashraf al-Jailani, a 39-year-old geochemist from Kent, Ohio, has spent nearly a year in the Berks County Prison outside Reading since his arrest by immigration agents. He appeared in court for a hearing on whether he should be released while he awaits a deportation hearing, but did not testify during the proceeding.
Federal investigators first became interested in al-Jailani in 1999, when his business card was discovered with a suspected terrorist in New York, FBI agent Roger Charnesky told Immigration Judge Walter Durling. When they interviewed him in November of that year, however, he said he had "no idea" how the suspect obtained the card, said Charnesky, who is based in the agency's Akron office. Investigators later learned that someone had made calls from al-Jailani's home to numbers in New York City that were also called by another Yemen native who pleaded guilty in a money-laundering case involving millions of dollars used to purchase weapons and satellite communications equipment to aid al-Qaida's efforts. Agents learned from two friends of al-Jailani's wife that he and a fellow Yemeni who stayed with the couple in 2001 said they knew the brother of one of the hijackers aboard one of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center in the attacks and supported the effort. Adding up those pieces of information with other evidence demonstrated convincing ties between al-Jailani and al-Qaida, he said. "It's not a hunch. It's not a theory. It's just math," Charnesky said.
| One hit's interesting, two hits is coincidence. Three hits and you've got a case... |
Farhad Sethna, al-Jailani's attorney, sought to cast doubt on the investigators' theory, and asked, among other things, whether the FBI had conducted any further interviews. Charnesky said no. "In my experience, the expectation of receiving an honest answer from a co-conspirator is zero," he said.
| Yes... There is that little point, isn't there? |
Al-Jailani, a permanent legal resident, was arrested in October 2002 for deportation based on his no-contest plea to a 1998 domestic violence charge, in which he was accused of hitting Swensen in the face during an argument. He was granted a pardon by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft in 2001.
| "It's a cultural thing, Governor! Honest!" |
In March, Durling ordered al-Jailani released on $1,500 bail, but the Department of Homeland Security blocked his order, and a government immigration lawyer filed a motion in July asking Durling to revoke bail. Although no charges have been filed against al-Jailani, the federal government has kept him in custody as it investigates whether he has terrorist ties. Al-Jailani's wife, Michelle Swensen, testified during the hearing that her husband has "no links" to terrorists and should be released, even though their marriage has been troubled. "He's my husband, and I married him for life. I want to work things out," said Swensen, 33.
| "I mean, it was my fault, y'r honor! I asked for it!" |
In his questioning of Swensen, government immigration attorney Jeff Bubier sought to establish that al-Jailani should remain imprisoned because he posed a threat to her safety. She acknowledged that he kicked, slapped, and punched her on several occasions; threatened to kidnap the children and take them back to Yemen; and once threatened to dispose of her body in a vat of acid at GOJO Industries, a skin-care product manufacturer in Akron, where al-Jailani worked as a chemist. But under cross-examination by Sethna, Swensen also said he was a good father to their three children, routinely fixing their breakfast and playing with them.
| A fine father. Other than threatening to dissolve her in a vat of acid, of course... |
And even though he had a pattern of apologizing to her after any instances of abuse, Swensen said she was encouraged that he had recently expressed an interest in taking classes on domestic violence and parenting if he is released from jail. "He just has to be nice to me," Swensen said, adding that if he wasn't, she would "take my children and leave ... I have friends I can stay with."
| "And if I should suddenly disappear, well... check the sludge in the bottom of the acid vat..." |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-10-23 |
