Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 9, 2002

(CBS) Customers usually enter Tariq Hussain's jewelry store browsing for diamonds or gold rings. Recently, he was visited by people looking for something much more sinister.

Hussain's Intrigue Jewelers kiosk in suburban Pittsburgh was one of several across the nation searched by FBI agents hunting for ties to the al Qaeda terrorist network.

"They took everything, my paperwork, bills, my computer, my checks," said Hussain, 27, a recently discharged U.S. Army mechanic. "I told them, 'I don't have any links to anything like that.'"

Investigators hoping to discover financial backing for terrorist groups have searched about 75 stores, said a law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The raids have taken place in several cities over the past two weeks, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and New York. Dozens of foreigners, most from Pakistan, have been detained or questioned.

The shop owners have been asked about their accounting practices and whether they send money to any foreign organizations on a regular basis. They also are asked whether they support al Qaeda or know anyone who does, officials said.

Immigration attorney Neil Rambana, who is representing three Pakistani men and a woman from Nepal arrested in a raid at the Governor's Square mall in Tallahassee, Fla., said the FBI and INS were on a "fishing expedition."

"There is no proof and no one has presented any evidence that would put these people under suspicion," Rambana said. "This was all about abusing people's rights in the hopes that there were a few guilty people among them."

Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said immediately after the raids that federal agencies were "looking at illegal immigrants working at kiosks," but he refused to elaborate.

The largest raids took place between June 28 and July 2. Agents swept jewelry stores in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. Since then, smaller raids have taken place in Texas, California and Massachusetts, officials said.

Most of the raids involved Intrigue Jewelers franchises, which are licensed through Gold Concept Inc., a Florida company owned by Orlando businessman Arif Rajan.

Rajan's attorney, Phillip Calandrino, said neither the company nor its owner have terrorist ties.

He said Rajan, a native of Pakistan and a U.S. citizen since 1991, has been cooperating with the FBI for several months and has voluntarily turned over company records.

"He is just like any small businessman that you might run into. He didn't do anything wrong," Calandrino said.

Calandrino said Gold Concept leases space for its franchisees, but doesn't supply jewelry and doesn't control the day-to-day operations of the businesses.

"They hire who they want. They do what they want, like any independent business," he said.

The company first came into contact with FBI investigators in September, Calandrino said, when an Intrigue Jewelers employee in Whitehall, Pa., came under suspicion for having spent hours photographing the World Trade Center days before it was destroyed.

Ashar Iqubal Butt, a Pakistani citizen, pleaded guilty in June to entering the country with an altered British passport and agreed to be deported. A judge delayed his sentencing until September to give agents more time to investigate Butt's 25 World Trade Center photographs, which he had developed the week of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Butt's lawyer has said the photographs were taken innocently and that Butt had come to the United States to work.

The raids have sparked outrage among some members of Muslim communities.

"These people are being confronted and in some cases terrorized based on no evidence," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "And even when the FBI says there is evidence, it is never anything anyone else is allowed to see."

The Immigration and Naturalization Service declined to comment on the raids, other than to acknowledge they had taken place. A U.S. official said more than a dozen people are still in detention following the raids.

Meanwhile, a Jordanian citizen who FBI officials believe was a roommate of two Sept. 11 hijackers will remain in federal custody, a magistrate has ordered.

Rasmi Al-Shannaq, 27, is charged with obtaining a fake visa from the U.S. embassy in Qatar.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg on Monday asked Magistrate Susan Gauvey to keep Al-Shannaq in custody, saying he is a flight risk because he is a Jordanian citizen and because of the charge against him.

Gauvey appointed a federal public defender for Al-Shannaq. In a written statement, Al-Shannaq told the court he is unemployed and does not have any money.

There is no evidence Al-Shannaq aided the hijackers, said his attorney, Jim Wyda. He described his client as living a "relatively normal life" until his June 24 arrest.

"What we have right now is a relatively minor fraud case," Wyda said. He noted the only charge Al-Shannaq faces involves his own visa.

Al-Shannaq had been held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service since his arrest for allegedly overstaying his visa, an immigration violation, Wyda said. The alleged violation, which is separate from the criminal charge, could result in Al-Shannaq's deportation.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/09/attack/main514569.shtml