Posted on 08/15/2002 10:43:29 AM PDT by OKCSubmariner
Lawsuit Says TV Station Falsely Labeled City Man
Ed Godfrey
08/25/1995
NOTE:
Al-Hussaini Hussain said he lost his job, was beaten, spat upon and feared for his life.
All because, he says, KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City fingered him as the elusive "John Doe 2" who was responsible for the April 19 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Hussain, a refugee from Iraq who lives in Oklahoma City, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Oklahoma County District Court against KFOR-TV Channel 4; its owner, Palmer Communications; reporters Jayna Davis and Brad Edwards; and News Director Melissa Klinzing.
The Oklahoma City resident claims in the lawsuit Channel 4 falsely accused him of being "John Doe 2" in a June 7 broadcast.
At a news conference Thursday, Hussain's lawyers, Tulsa attorneys Gary Richardson and William Donovan, accused the television station of "tabloid journalism at its best. "
"Here is a man that came to America seeking freedom and was put in imprisonment by a local TV station," Richardson said.
The lawsuit accuses KFOR of falsely reporting that Hussain was with bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh days before the bombing, that Hussain drove a brown pickup speeding away from the scene of the bombing and that the 30-year-old ex-restaurant worker was "the notorious bombing suspect John Doe No. 2."
Klinzing said Thursday the station was "confident in our reports and confident KFOR will prevail in the case. "
Klinzing would not comment further, saying the station's staff and lawyers needed more time to study the lawsuit.
Richardson said Hussain was subjected to "unbelievable harassment by Channel 4." The attorneys claim the lawsuit will prove KFOR officials acted with negligence and malice in airing their report.
The FBI never considered Hussain a suspect, Richardson said.
Even though the KFOR reporter did not name Hussain and had his face digitally blurred, Richardson said the newscast identified Hussain through "innuendo. "
Dr. Samir Khalil, a friend of Hussain's who was translating for him at Thursday's news conference, said Hussain was working for him doing home repair at the time of the bombing.
Since the KFOR report, Hussain can't find a job and people still "look at him with anger," Khalil said.
Khalil said Hussain fled Iraq last year to escape Saddam Hussein's army.
The lawsuit does not specify any financial damages being sought.
Moussaoui Linked to 9/11 Mastermind
Nov 20, 12:08 PM (ET)
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
( WASHINGTON (AP) - Accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui met with the suspected mastermind of the attacks in late 2000 or early 2001 in Afghanistan, a top al-Qaida operative has told his interrogators, U.S. officials said.
Ramzi Binalshibh, a former aide to top al-Qaida operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said Mohammed provided Moussaoui with contacts in the United States, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
But Binalshibh and Mohammed were not confident in Moussaoui's ability to keep a secret, and decided to use him as a backup for the hijacking plot, Binalshibh told the officials, who have never detailed what they believe Moussaoui's precise role was to be in the attacks.
Binalshibh was an associate of Mohammed, Moussaoui, chief hijacker Mohamed Atta and others in the Hamburg, Germany-based cell that led the attacks. He was captured by U.S. and Pakistani authorities during a raid in Karachi on Sept. 11, 2002, and has since been held in U.S. custody at a secret location.
The Moussaoui-Mohammed contacts were first reported Wednesday by the Washington Post.
Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001 after acting suspiciously at a Minnesota flight school. He has acknowledged in court that he is an al-Qaida member but said he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 plot. He has attempted to call Binalshibh as a defense witness in his conspiracy trial.
Moussaoui traveled from Europe to an al-Qaida training camp Afghanistan in 1998, according to prosecutors. He also went from London to Pakistan in December 2000 and returned in February 2001. It was during this time that U.S. officials believe he met with Mohammed in Afghanistan.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni, lived with Atta and two other hijackers in Germany in the years before the attacks. In 2000, he tried four times to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Authorities claim he wanted to be one of the hijackers.
After his efforts to enter the country failed, he began sending money and other logistical support to the hijackers. He boasted of his role in the attacks during an interview he and Mohammed gave the Arabic television network al-Jazeera earlier in 2002.
Counterterrorism officials say several al-Qaida captives have told them that Mohammed, a Kuwaiti who holds Pakistani citizenship, was the operational mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Terrorists' Sept. 11 plot a many-tentacled creature
By DANIEL RUBIN and MICHAEL DORGAN Knight Ridder Newspapers
Abu Zubaydah, the highest-ranking al-Qaida leader now in custody, has told American officials that Mohammed was the brains behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the first Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the failed 1995 "Bojinka" plot in Manila.
At least one scrap of evidence suggests that Zubaydah may be telling the truth about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Intelligence officials said Mohamed Atta, the commander of the suicide hijackers, called Mohammed on Sept. 10.
The conversation was monitored by the National Security Agency but translated from Arabic only after the attacks that killed more than 3,000 persons. Intelligence officials believe that Mohammed, using coded language, gave Atta final approval for the four teams of hijackers to proceed.
A $25 million bounty has been offered for Mohammed's capture. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials call him the Forrest Gump of al-Qaida, the face that always turns up when investigators review the group's terrorist operations.
"He gets more interesting every day," a senior U.S. intelligence official said, adding that if he had to decide between catching Osama bin Laden and catching Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, he might prefer the latter.
"Bin Laden is unquestionably the leader, the symbol and the recruiting poster," the official said. "But it's looking more and more like Khalid actually makes things happen."
Said French terrorism expert and U.N. Security Council consultant Roland Jacquard: "He is probably the only man who knows all the pieces of the puzzle."
Where Atta and the other Sept 11 hijackers were stealthy, Mohammed is flamboyant. Atta, his main foot soldier, was thin and disciplined; Mohammed is neither. The hijackers slipped in and out of Econo Lodges; Mohammed preferred five-star hotels. He entertained in karaoke bars and mirrored go-go clubs. In Manila, to impress a dentist he was dating, he once chartered a helicopter and buzzed overhead while waving and chatting by cell phone.
Colonel Mendoza knew Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as Abdul Majid, a flamboyant Saudi businessman who lived in the top floor of Manila's Josefa Apartments with Ramzi Yousef, was later convicted in the first World Trade Center blast, which killed six and injured around 1,000. Some officials say Yousef is Mohammed's nephew; others aren't sure.
Mohammed used other names: Salim Ali, Ashrai Refaat, Nabith Renin, Khalid Abdul Waddod and Fahd Bin Abdullah Bin Khalid, maybe a dozen pseudonyms in all. He isn't a Saudi or Qatari businessman, as he claimed in Manila,but a Kuwaiti- born and U.S.-educated Pakistani with a vast network of contacts and covers.
Another example is that of Ali A. Mohamed, an Egyptian psychologist and army officer awaiting sentencing in New York after pleading guilty for his role in the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998, that killed 224 people and injured thousands more.
A top al-Qaeda motivational leader and trainer, Mohamed instructed recruits in how to build bombs, blow up buildings, communicate in code, masquerade as “normal” Americans, and (in his words) “create cell structures that could be used for operations.”
Those he indoctrinated were responsible for some of al-Qaeda’s most notorious operations, including the 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In between an estimated 58 trips from America to overseas destinations on various missions, he found time in the early 1990s and in 1995 to set up and to host fund-raising jaunts to the U.S. for Ayman al-Zawahiri, even though, then as now, the latter was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.
During the 1995 tour, al-Zawahiri and Mohamed inspected possible U.S. targets. Money received from supporters during that trip funded the suicide bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, in November 1995,11 in which 17 died.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri: attention turns to the other prime suspect
Al- Jihad members testified during the 1999 trial in Egypt that he had entered the USA in 1995 using the alias Dr Abdel Moez and while there raised funds used to finance the attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. According to London’s Guardian newspaper, the US House of Representatives judiciary subcommittee on immigration was told by a counterterrorism expert in January 2000 that al-Zawahiri was one of several Islamic militants who had been granted green card status by the US Immigration Service. Al-Zawahiri seems to have had vastly more experience in clandestine operations than Bin Laden.
7 Q Who was called ustadh?
8 A I remember they call ustadh to Doctor Abu Moez, Abdel Ayman Zawahiri.
10 Q Just so we are clear, Dr. Abdel Moez and Ayman Zawahiri are the same person?
12 A Correct.
13 Q During the time you were involved with al Qaeda, did there come a time when you became involved in an attempt to purchase uranium?
16 A Yes.
Goodness, I almost thought he was back!
Miss ya OKC
My question is, where is mainstsream media on all these issues? The airways and print media are clogged with high-profile cases of child molestation, spousal murder, and rape. Granted, these are important issues, but do we need to hear every gory detail over and over? We hear all the talking heads, all the speculation, the witnesses, the attorneys, the prosecutors and nothing on the recent Terry Nichols case -- only that it's out there and he's guilty. Seems to me, a more important issue for the public when you consider it was a building belonging to the "people" and that over a hundred lives were lost. It really is disgusting, when all we hear is the condition of someone's underwear or explore their personal sexual behaviour -- I just hit the off button.
Good to hear from you again.
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