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| U.S. drops charges against terror suspect |
| 2008-02-29 |
| U.S. counterterrorism officials have dropped criminal charges against an alleged former Afghanistan training-camp instructor, a man they once questioned about a group of Canadian Arabs jailed in Syria. The decision means that secret U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation conversations with Mohammed Kamal Elzahabi will likely never be presented, nor tested, in any court. It also paves the way for the prisoner's deportation to his native Lebanon. "He will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement upon his release from custody," said David Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, where the suspect has been held. While outstanding allegations of lying to federal agents were dropped on Wednesday, Mr. Elzahabi was convicted of immigration fraud last August. He awaits sentencing, but his remaining jail time will likely be short, given that he has been held in pretrial custody since 2004. His lawyer fears for his safety. "We remain most concerned about where Mr. Elzahabi will be sent," said Paul Engh, a Minneapolis lawyer. U.S. court documents reveal that the suspect - who bounced between the United States, Canada and Afghanistan during the 1990s - was once known as "Abu Kamal." He is said to have had a long career in foreign jihad - including stints in Lebanon and Chechnya - but always denied any allegiance to al-Qaeda. The Minneapolis case has implications for Canada. Three Canadian Arabs - Ahmad Abou El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Maher Arar - have all launched lawsuits, stating they were tortured overseas after a counterterrorism investigation wrongly flagged them as al-Qaeda members. Top judges in Canada are probing these allegations. Canadian officials have apologized only to Mr. Arar, who has been awarded $10-million in compensation. A judge found the telecommunications engineer from Ottawa was wrongly smeared in Canada-U.S. intelligence exchanges. But Mr. Arar's U.S. lawsuits have stalled amid concerns that they would compromise state secrets. Court records show that the FBI questioned Mr. Elzahabi, once a Montreal resident, about all the Canadians, yet his precise answers have never been publicly revealed. The Globe and Mail recently reported that Mr. Elzahabi, whose credibility is very much at issue, told the FBI he once saw Mr. Arar in Afghanistan, an untested allegation that may be partly frustrating the latter's attempts to clear his name in the United States. Now a global cause célèbre, Mr. Arar has denied ever travelling to Afghanistan or meeting Mr. Elzahabi. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency flew Mr. Arar to Syria in 2002, where the other two Canadian Arabs had already been jailed. The prisoners were all interrogated by the same teams. The Canadians were all released by 2004, the same year the FBI moved against Mr. Elzahabi. Minneapolis agents watched and wiretapped him for months, before bringing him in for interviews. The fruits of the 17-day question-and-answer session remain largely secret. Eventually, the FBI charged Mr. Elzahabi with immigration fraud and two criminal counts of lying. The bizarre allegations trace back to the mid-1990s. The first charge was that Mr. Elzahabi concealed help he gave to one of the Canadian targets, Mr. Almalki, as the two men worked together to ship two-way radios to the Pakistani military. The second was that Mr. Elzahabi lied to authorities as he helped a U.S. friend obtain a driver's licence. This case likely had less to do with the licence than the friend: Riad Hijazi, a veteran of the Afghanistan camps, subsequently moved from the United States to the Middle East, where he was convicted of plotting bombings in Jordan. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 Two notes from a local perspective. David Anderson is an asshat that could find his while having a BM. I've seen this twit in action when he got into a tizzy over legal asparagus imports. Second, Paul Engh, one of a group of Minneapolis traitors who have been representing Muzzie terrorist out of the darkness of their hearts. Lincoln would have hung this prick. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2008-02-29 23:57 |
| #2 His lawyer fears for his safety. "We remain most concerned about where Mr. Elzahabi will be sent," said Paul Engh, a Minneapolis lawyer. Geez, counselor, I ain't worried at all about his safety. When they figure out where they're sending him, why don't you go with him? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-02-29 14:37 |
| #1 Watch for Elzahabi to being fighting that deportation 'on grounds of likely torture' beginning Monday..... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-02-29 14:20 |