I'm tracking this one since it's local. Originally published in the Seattle P-I
Friday, November 19, 2004
14 arrested in raids by terror task force
Seattle suspects' links to al-Qaida or other groups are uncertain
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Federal agents with the Joint Terrorism Task Force raided roughly a dozen locations in the Seattle area yesterday and arrested 14 people.
Now investigators must determine whether the 14 are suspects in a purely criminal case or one that has ties to international terrorism. Court documents make mentions that might indicate terrorist connections, but one federal criminal justice source said investigators have no evidence of any link to al-Qaida or any other terrorist group.
The men -- most African immigrants from the Islamic country of Gambia or African Americans who are Muslim -- face a mix of charges including immigration fraud, bank fraud and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Now investigators plan to sift through the computer hard drives, financial records and Islamic literature seized yesterday to see whether terror links emerge.
One search warrant executed yesterday at the Crescent Cut Barbershop, 7821 Rainier Ave. S., asserts that barber Ruben Shumpert conducted a group described as "an anti-American training ground for Muslims" and that Shumpert was training children ages 11 to 17 "in anti-American rhetoric, as well as training the children in how to shoot and fight the Americans."
Shumpert, also known as Amir Abdul Muhamin, is already in the King County Jail facing assault charges after being accused of beating a man who refused to join his group. That man, Bashir Hussein, told Seattle police that he saw Shumpert showing children videotapes of "fighting, shooting and killing ... with images on Shumpert's computer screen of al-Qaida and the Taliban." Charges were unsealed in federal court yesterday accusing him of possession of counterfeit money and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Agents apparently began the investigation in 2002 when an informant told FBI agents that Karim Abdullah Assalaam was recruiting participants in a bank-fraud scheme.
Assalaam allegedly told the informant -- a convicted felon who has been paid $3,000 a month by the FBI since July 2002 -- that " 'his whole Muslim crew' is involved in an ongoing bank-fraud scheme and that they are raising funds not only for personal gain, but because 'you can't go to war broke,' " according to court documents.
The documents charging Assalaam, along with Attawwaab Muhammad Fard, Ali Muhammad Brown and Herbert Chandler Sanford, with conspiracy to commit bank fraud quote a tape-recorded conversation about guns in which Assalaam tells an informant: "I just want to die as a Shaheed." The informant asks: "What's a Shaheed?" Assalaam replies: "A Shaheed is one who dies in the cause of Allah."
According to court documents, Assalaam justified his scheme to defraud banks through the use of counterfeit checks by telling a young woman with whom he was involved that it is "to help our Muslim brothers and sisters. We need to get money to get back at the Kafirs," which means people who do not follow Islam.
Despite the rhetoric, federal criminal justice sources said there is skepticism in their ranks that any of these men represent a serious terrorist threat. One of the sources involved in the case dismissed them as terrorist "wannabes."
And among a group of five Gambian immigrants charged in an alleged scheme to gain asylum in the United States through lies and fraudulent documents, there is no apparent terrorist tie enumerated in court documents.
However, the indictment naming the five men notes that a business run by brothers Bubacarr Tunkara and Muhamed Tunkara -- Gambia International -- transmits money overseas to countries that do not have advanced banking systems. Although immigrants from Muslim countries often use such informal businesses to wire money home, such businesses have been in the cross hairs of federal agents since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a potential conduit of money to terrorist groups.
But the track record of federal prosecutions of such cases has been rocky. In Buffalo, N.Y., federal prosecutors are battling a defense attorney who has asked a judge to toss key evidence in a money-transmittal case based on an allegedly illegal search. The man who ran the business contends he sent millions to Yemen solely so Yemeni immigrants could support their families back home.
And in Seattle, customs agents raided a Muslim meat market in 2002 as part of an investigation into possible terrorism links of a money-wiring service in the same building. Even though the meat market had no relation to the money service, agents stripped the food off the shelves and removed the meat, which went bad. No charges were filed, and the federal government had to compensate the market for its losses. [ed. note: these caveats in the story (in the last two paragraphs) are interesting]
Shortly after 6 a.m. yesterday, a crew of investigators from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Seattle police raided the Gambia International Gift Store, 4206 Rainier Ave. S. Agents took three men into custody who apparently were reciting morning prayers in a small mosque over the store, according to store clerk Dembo Hatu.
Hatu, who was born in Gambia but is now an American citizen, said yesterday that he is worried about what he sees a propensity among some people to equate Muslims with terrorists.
Asked about the men who were arrested, he said: "They are not terrorists, from what I know. I don't know a lot of information about them. But I don't think so."
Also arrested in yesterday raids were: Ahmad Abdul Salaam As-Sadiq, accused of being a felon in possession of a weapon; Jacob Santos Martinez, accused of being a felon in possession of a weapon; Zaid Mumin, accused of being a felon in possession of a weapon; Souleymane Camara, accused of conspiracy to assist immigrants in fraudulently obtaining asylum; Maudo Fofana, accused of lying in an asylum application; and Mohamed Jawara, accused of lying in an asylum application.
A U.S. magistrate yesterday ordered all the 12 people who appeared before her yesterday be held pending further court hearings. Two more defendants held in the King County Jail will be charged in federal court soon.