Pakistan holds 9 for suspected terror link including Americans

UPI ^ | 12.19.2002 | Shahid Iqbal

[swarthyguy]

LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Nine members of one family -- including U.S. and Canadian passport holders -- were arrested during a Pakistan-FBI operation Thursday for alleged links to al Qaida terrorist network, police said.

Authorities raided the home of Dr. Javed Ahmad Khawja and arrested him for his alleged links to Osama bin Laden's organization. Also arrested were his two sons, his two brothers, his three nephews and his uncle. Two of the men were naturalized Americans and one was a naturalized Canadian.

"All of them are of Pakistani origin," Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed said. "Police had been watching them for sometime."

Police suspected some of the suspects were smuggling weapons to carry out terrorist attacks, Rashid said.

The official Pakistan Television reported an exchange of gunfire during the arrest.

But Marghoob Ahmad Mir, Khawja's brother-in-law, told a news conference in Lahore the family had no links with al Qaida, which has been blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and other terrorist attacks worldwide.

"They are all peaceful citizens who have arrested to please foreign powers," he said.

Mir said "white" FBI agents accompanied Pakistani security agencies when they raided the house "and arrested our family members like common criminals."

Security agents and FBI officials searched Ahmad's home for at least 2 hours, he said, seizing four computers and several compact discs. It was unclear what they expected to find.

Mir acknowledged that Khawja visited Afghanistan during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation to provide medical assistance to the Afghan mujahedin.

"But so did American government agencies," he said. "Does it make them al Qaida agents as well?"

Police said Ahmad lived in the United States between 1972 and 1983.

Ahmad is the second Pakistani physician to be arrested for alleged links to Taliban and al Qaida fugitives. On Oct. 21, authorities arrested Dr. Amer Aziz, a British-trained orthopedic surgeon, and held him incommunicado for a month. He was later freed.

In another incident Thursday, four people, including an alleged terrorist, were killed in an explosion in the southern port city of Karachi. Police recovered rocket launchers from the house the alleged militant, Asif Ramzi, was hiding. Police said they did not know what caused the blast. Ramzi had a $3,000 reward for his arrest.

[swarthyguy]

Anybody know if this is the same Khwaja who's a pilot and was one for Osama.....Or was that another khwaja....

[Slipjack]

We need to have the Pak's take care of the our U.S. Traders and shoot them on the spot so we don't have the expense of transporting their worthless Asses back plus all of the cost of letting them have their day in court ($ Millions) and a possible life sentence in prison ($50k per year).

[Fish out of Water]

bump

[swarthyguy]

>>our U.S. Traders

Don't tell the WoD Goon Squads. They'll start busting currency traders in NYC.

Oh, you meant traitors? Oops!

[Angelus Errare]

I thought Essam al-Ridi was Osama's pilot?

[swarthyguy]

There's also a guy named Khwaja mentioned residing in Pakistan who was PAF and then civilian pilot who's been mentioned.....Used a a go between and contact by Pearl and Ijaz in setting up Pearl's fatal trip to Karachi.

The source was a website named SAAG - Indian so obviously undependable ;> www.saag.org....An article published earlier this year.....Let me find it and you can evaluate it.

[Angelus Errare]

I'm quite familiar with SAAG, actually, and will try to find the article sometime later today.

It's not that SAAG is unreliable pe se, it's just that the website, like most of the Indian press, sees Pakistan as Public Enemy #1 (and the feeling is mutually reciprocated in Pakistan) and all of the information it obtains is channeled through that viewpoint.

[swarthyguy]

No apparently not...the one i was thinking of is Khalid Khwaja....and not explicitly Osama's pilot...i was wrong.

"a retired Air Force officer who had worked in the ISI till 1988 and who was reportedly in touch with Osama bin Laden,"

Here's the article...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/669461/posts

[Slipjack]

Yea one hell of a mistake but we could also include them for Raping the Investors!

[Minutemen]

Pakistan holds 9 for suspected terror link including "Americans"

Notice how the media and our government like to jive us that these terrorists are AMERICANS just like you and me??
Lets start asking our government how these terrorists became Americans. How did they? Did they come here illegally and then qualify for some kind of "hardship immigration- amnesty"? Did they apply for and win one of our assinine "Immigration Lotteries"? I say that to have citizenship under these circumstances does not make one an American.

[swarthyguy]

Well to play devil's advocate, they couldhave gone thru the process totally legally and aboveboard.

Of course, that still leaves their true loyalties in question.

Unfortunately, the issues of legal and illegal have become intertwined. Many legal immigrants have been consistently appalled at the laxity of enforcement, which debases the privilege of being here legally.

For years, since the 80's its been well known; get here by hook or crook and >chances< are you will not be deported etc. In fact, the Irish amnesty under Reagan and EdKennedy set a dreadful precedent.

But things are changing now - witness LA today; tho' i do feel sad that Persians of all people are being given the third degree by the INS - bureaucracies have a hard time differentiating between secular Iranians seeking refuge from the Shah and trueblue jihadis...However, that's not an excuse for not taking care of your status for all this time and especially after 9/11. Tho' it seems some Persians having filed papers to change status, are being imprisoned contrary to the law that allows them to work etc while their status is being changed.

Now i wonder how many Pakis and Saudis, ie. real threats to the US won't even make the effort to show up.

OTH, that should make them marked men in the future.

But these Pakistanis are in a mess of trouble and may never see this land ever again.

[Ranger]

I did a check between Khawja and anthrax and didn't produce anything useful. I note that some of his relatives have tied to Florida, so I was thinking perhaps there was a link, but so far I haven't found one. One point though, the other relatives haven't been named so far as I can tell.