FBI SWEEP GRILLS 50,000 IRAQIS IN U.S.

New York Post ^ | 1/25/03 | ANDY SOLTIS

[kattracks]

January 25, 2003 -- The FBI has launched a sweeping probe of 50,000 Iraqis living in the United States to find terrorists and spies - or potential allies - in a military move to oust Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi nationals are being questioned in what appears to be biggest intelligence sweep since World War II, officials said yesterday.

[alley cat]

About 300,000 Iraqi nationals - many of them citizens - reside in the United States, particularly in Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Texas, Illinois and Tennessee.

They left out Oklahoma...

[Mr. Mojo]

Count on it....some "conservative" will get on this thread and cry about these peoples' civil rights being violated.

[Grut]

I doubt the FBI has the manpower to do this and accomplish anything, so it's probably just another PR stunt. Remember, the FBI is mainly about getting good press.

[OKSooner]

I happen to know a guy from Iraq who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My personal opinion is that the FBI ought to talk to him just to see if he could help matters any. This particular guy was a good friend until shortly after Sept. 11th. He's a nice guy, educated, married to a "Native American" woman and has kids. Works as a testing engineer for a local company that makes valves and stuff for the oil field.

After September 11th, he tried to explain to me that it was all America's fault, thus I now only consider him an acquaintance. I was disappointed that he didn't call someone on September 12th and ask if there was anything he could do to help.

Looking back at the deal, though, I've gotta say that as much fault as I find in the guy's position, there's something I find at least tolerable in his comportment alongside his buddies from Lebanon. The guy from Iraq came back to me and my wife and acknowledged our position in having our country attacked and said some bad stuff about Saddam. (That's not quite enough to satisfy me, mind you, but he made the effort.) The guys from Lebanon that I know who live in Tulsa (one in particular, a small business owner) are rabid and could pass for Hamas operatives if you really talk to them.

Scary.

[doosee]

The interviews are voluntary and being conducted where Iraqis live, work, study and worship.

I am surprised we havent had the "this is racial profiling" crowd insisting that the FBI question 300,000,000 Americans, to be fair, of course.

[FreedomPoster]

>Scary

Especially since there are 300,000 of them in the country! Why in h@(* are there 300,000 Iraqis/former Iraqis in this country?

[tgslTakoma]

Aziz al-Taee spoke at the last two Patriots rallies. He spoke passionately about Saddam's savage brutality to the Iraqi people and of his desire for a free, democratic government for Iraq.

Aziz is one of the good guys. BTW, he's a naturalized American citizen.

[honway]

Resettling Iraqi POWs in U.S. Criticized; Lawmakers Urge Clinton to End 'Potentially Dangerous'

Nearly 1,000 Iraqi soldiers captured by U.S. forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War have been resettled at public expense in cities across the United States. They are among nearly 3,000 Iraqi refugees -- the majority of them civilians -- who have been resettled in the United States from internment camps in Saudi Arabia.

Another 3,000 Iraqi former POWs and their families are scheduled to be moved here on humanitarian grounds, the complaining House members said. According to the State Department, the former prisoners were conscripted into the Iraqi Army against their will and have now been classified by international agencies as refugees who face persecution by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime if they return home. Many of the former POWs provided valuable services to U.S. forces in the aftermath of the war, administration officials said.

[honway]

http://www.arabamerican.net/pipermail/arab-american/Week-of-Mon-19990614/001780.html

Link

Iraqis Held in U.S. May Be Freed

By Jeff Wong
Associated Press Writer

Saturday, June 12, 1999; 6:07 a.m. EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Five former Iraqi military officers who claimed they fought Saddam Hussein and then spent 2 1/2 years in custody fighting deportation from the United States are happy to finally be getting out of jail.

``The system here is good, but the people who represent (the government) have brought shame to this country,'' said Mohammed Jwer Abboud Al-Ammary, a former military cargo plane pilot.

The Iraqis may stay in Nebraska until a friendly country agrees to accept them, a judge ruled Friday. A sixth Iraqi refused the agreement, the end to a saga that began in 1996 when the U.S. airlifted 6,500 Iraqis from Turkey following a failed coup in Iraq.

The men's families were granted asylum, but immigration authorities sought deportation and claimed they were spies for Hussein.

The men said they were grateful for the efforts to free them, especially those of former CIA Director James Woolsey, now a private lawyer. But they also feel betrayed by the U.S. government, which they say promised asylum.

Immigration Judge D.D. Sitgraves denied the men asylum in March 1998 and ordered them deported, saying they could be double agents. The men claimed they would be executed if sent home.

U.S. authorities justified their imprisonment largely on secret evidence, a practice in immigration cases that has come under fire from federal lawmakers and activists.

Last year, the INS unsealed some of the evidence -- testimony about the six Iraqis from FBI agents who discussed hunches, distaste for the detainees and their feelings about Arab culture. Woolsey called the detention ``a stain on the honor of the United States.''

The sixth Iraqi, Ali Yasim Mohammed Karim, said he will never sign the freedom deal. Authorities have given him until July 9 to change his mind. He could eventually be deported to Iraq.

The remaining five will be released within two weeks to Lincoln, Neb., where their families were resettled.

Under the deal, the men must abandon any claims for asylum here but may remain in Nebraska until they are deported to a friendly country. They must report to the INS daily, stay at home at night, accept wire taps on their telephones and stay in the country

[honway]

http://wwwnotes.reliefweb.int/websites/rwdomino.nsf/069fd6a1ac64ae63c125671c002f7289/f6433907693d8300852563b100497e30?OpenDocument

UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA)
Date: 25 Sep 1996
DHA News Analysis on the situation in Iraq

The resettlement programme (of the Iraqi Gulf War refugees) will continue in 1997, which will be the seventh year at the camp for the remaining refugees, because there is no other solution,'' said Abdul Mawla al-Solh, UNHCR representative in Saudi Arabia.

Frustration (among refugees) is very high,'' he said in a telephone interview. Al-Solh said 617 Iraqi refugees left for the United States on Monday and another 511 are due to leave on Wednesday night and Thursday, leaving around 10,000 refugees at the Rafha desert camp.

By mid-1991 about 32,000 Iraqi refugees remained in Saudi Arabia out of up to 70,000 refugees and prisoners of war. The camp was set up as a transit location until refugees, including soldiers who surrended, were resettled or repatriated.

Al-Solh said from June 1991 to the end of this September the UNHCR will have resettled 19,372 refugees, while 3,005 had over the last five years accepted to return to Iraq.

He said delegations from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Australia were due in the next two months to interview remaining refugees and decide who to resettle in their countries. Al-Solh said Saudi Arabia, which has spent about 2.5 billion riyals ($666 million) for camp expenses including housing and services, has made it clear the refugees could stay until they are repatriated.

An UNHCR official had said in July the refugees were losing hope of ever leaving, felt betrayed by the West and were growing increasingly fed up with the isolation at the camp, known as the Refugee Hilton of the Gulf War. The camp is air conditioned and has schools and hospitals, but is ringed by barbed wire and the refugees are not allowed to leave. Three years ago 13 people were killed in a riot over the barring of new arrivals, but U.N. officials say since then there has been no trouble. (Reuters; Sept 25, 05:07 AM)

For further information please contact DHA/AERU in New York at (212) 963-3953

[honway]

http://www.publiccounsel.org/news/feb501.htm



Fascinated by the unusual aspects of the case, Levy took on the case of Mohammed Jwer Al-Ammary. Matter of Al-Ammary et al, A76-201-016, Aug. 28, 1997, San Pedro Immigration Court.

In the years since, Public Counsel, assisted by former CIA Chief James Woolsey, won declassification of 90 percent of the secret evidence against the Iraqis. Six of the Iraqis accepted a government deal that released them from jail to live under house arrest in Nebraska.

Dr. Ali Karim, another defendant, refused the deal, and opted for a new trial along with his brother, Mohammad Karim. An immigration judge acquitted the pair last year and granted both political asylum.

Recently, Attorney General Janet Reno, in one of her last actions before leaving office, lifted travel and employment restrictions on five of the men living in Nebraska, allowing them to travel outside the state. The restrictions remain against the sixth.

[honway]

http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2000/11/00-6020.htm

Approximately two months after arriving in Oklahoma City from a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, petitioner(SAHIB LATEEF AL-MOSAWI) violently stabbed his wife Inaam, her uncle Mohammad, and her sister Fatima. Only Fatima survived.

In July, 1992, both families received permission to come to the United States, where they settled in Oklahoma City. Dr. Fakrildeen Albahadily and his wife Zayneb Attia of Edmond, Oklahoma were the sponsor family

[honway]

Iraqi accused of forced marriage is paroled
By MARGERY BECK, Associated Press Writer

September 28, 2000, Thursday, BC cycle

LINCOLN, Neb.

One of two Iraqi men sentenced to prison for marrying and having sex with the teen-age daughters of a fellow refugee was paroled Thursday under strict conditions.

The state Parole Board voted 4-0 to parole Majed Al-Tamimy.

Conditions of his release from prison can be lifted only by another vote of the board. Al-Tamimy must wear an electronic monitor and have no contact with the girl he married, the board said. Al-Tamimy, who planned to live at a home in Lincoln with a friend, also will be registered as a sex offender and will be required to receive sex offender and cultural counseling.

Al-Tamimy, 31, was accused of having sex with the 14-year-old daughter of a friend after an arranged marriage during a Moslem ceremony in November 1996. He was accused of forcing the girl to have sex several times before she ran away.

Another Iraqi, Latif Al-Hussani, 37, was accused of marrying a 13-year-old daughter during the same ceremony and forcing her to have sex before she ran away.

The two men, refugees of the Persian Gulf War who came to Lincoln in 1995, denied doing anything wrong. They were sentenced in 1997 to four to six years in prison.

In Nebraska, people cannot marry if they are under 17 years old.

[honway]

Al-Solh said from June 1991 to the end of this September the UNHCR will have resettled 19,372 refugees ( and IraqiPOW's), while 3,005 had over the last five years accepted to return to Iraq.

The West (mainly the U.S.)accepted 19,372 Iraqi POW's and refugees from Saudi Arabia from 1991-1997.

The U.S. accepted more than 6,500 Iraqi refugees from northern Iraq in 1996.

Today our leaders are discussing a possible war against Iraq. Before this war begins, someone needs to answer how many Iraqi soldiers like Hussain Al-Hussaini a.k.a. John Doe 2 were resettled in the U.S.

Based on the reluctance of our allies to accept refugees, we may have resettled as many as 25,000 former Iraqi soldiers and refugees in the U.S. and Canada.

In addition, during the mid to late 90's, over 6,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees were resettled in Jacksonville,Florida.

[WOSG]

sounds like a disgrace ... ther CLINTON ADMIN HAD THEIR OWN BAY OF PIGS. Yet another underreported Clinton scandal.

[Lady In Blue]

BUMP! Good job,FBI!

[honway]

I wonder if the FBI will finally question Hussein Al-Hussaini, also known as John Doe 2. Al-Hussaini was a former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard, but was living and working in OKC on April 19, 1995. Many witnesses placed him with McVeigh prior to and on the morning of the bombing. The FBI never questioned him in the OKC bombing investigation. Maybe they will get around to it this time, since the "20th hijacker", Moussaoui, had a black Muslim roommate named Menepta connected to the OKC bombing,according to court testimony at the roommate's bail hearing.

For those interested, Al-Hussaini was working at Boston's Logan Airport prior to 9-11. The last account I had of him was in August of 2002 he reportedly was still living within 60 miles of Logan with two roommates who were previously employed at Logan.