Pakistani Linked to Al Qaeda Is Deported

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deport28may28,1,7312757.story?coll=la-headlines-nation


May 28, 2005 latimes.com : Nation E-mail story Print Most E-Mailed

THE NATION
Pakistani Linked to Al Qaeda Is Deported
From Associated Press


WASHINGTON — A member of a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda has been deported to Pakistan after being detained more than a year, Homeland Security investigators said Friday.

Pakistani native Khamal Muhammad told authorities he was an armed guard and cook for Harakat ul-Mujahidin — designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization associated with Al Qaeda.

Muhammad, 23, was living in the San Francisco area when he was arrested in January 2004 for overstaying his visa by eight months, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Security Department.

He entered the United States in 2001, a year after he trained to use pistols, rifles and grenades in a Harakat ul-Mujahidin camp in Afghanistan, immigration officials said. They said the leader of Harakat ul-Mujahidin was believed to be a close ally to Osama bin Laden.

The Justice Department did not pursue criminal charges against Muhammad.

He was held on immigration charges for 15 months by the U.S. before being sent back to Pakistan last week, immigration officials said.

"We brought all the charges that we could, using the administrative authorities that we have," Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Dean Boyd said Friday.

Muhammad was deported May 17.

Separately, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported another Pakistani man the same day.

He had finished serving a 16-month sentence for lying to federal agents about the whereabouts of a militant leader.

Hamid Sheikh, 41, had refused to help federal agents in Philadelphia locate Agha Ali Abbas Qazalbash.

Authorities said Qazalbash was a member of a militant Shia organization in Pakistan.

The group, Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan, was outlawed in Pakistan in August 2001.

[candypreet]

Published: Saturday, May 28, 2005
Bylined to: David Coleman


Quixotic juxtaposition: USA extradites Pakistani held for overstaying his visa

In a Quixotic juxtaposition to the debacle between Washington and Caracas over the extradition of CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, an alleged "member of a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda" has been deported to Pakistan after a year spent in US custody.

US Homeland Security investigators allege that Pakistani Khamal Muhammad had told them he was an armed guard and cook for Harakat ul-Mujahidin -- designated by the US State Department as a terrorism organization associated with Al Qaeda.

According to reports, Muhammad (23) had been living in San Francisco when he was detained in January 2004 for overstaying his visa by eight months ... he entered the United States three years previously ... officials believe he had been trained to use pistols, rifles and grenades in a Harakat ul-Mujahidin camp in Afghanistan.

The US Justice spokesman Kevin Madden said his department had not pursued criminal charges against Muhammad since "knowledge or connection to a terrorist activity may not be sufficient to prove a terrorism crime ... sometimes the best alternative from a national security standpoint is to pursue other disruption efforts, including removal from the United States."

Muhammad had been held on immigration charges for 15 months before he was deported May 17. US Immigration spokesman Dean Body says "we brought all the charges that we could, using the administrative authorities we have at our disposal."

The same day, the United States also deported another Pakistani following a 16-month sentence for lying to federal agents about the whereabouts of a militant leader ... Hamid Sheikh (41) allegedly refused to US interrogators to locate Agha Ali Abbas Qazalbash, said to be a member of the militant Sipah-e-Mohammed organization outlawed in Pakistan in August 2001.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Garcia said Friday that both cases "demonstrate how ICE is prioritizing the removal those individuals who pose threats to our national security."
Garcia made no reference to Venezuela's request for the extradition of CIA-trained terrorist Luis Posada Carriles (77) wanted in Caracas for the 1976 bombing of a passenger plane in which 73 people were killed...
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=35736

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back to the first page:) :)

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US will never come to help Pakistan in the hour of trial : Sheikh Rashid
Tuesday September 12, 2006 (0523 PST)

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?153896

RAWALPINDI: Minister for railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has said US will never come to support Pakistan and it is the Pathans and tribesmen who always fight for the cause of the country in the hour of crisis.
He said this while addressing a gathering while inaugurating the additional block of 10 rooms in government MC girls high school in Naya Mohalla here Monday.

He held the US policies had always met failure. The world economy would be annihilated if US attacks Iran, he warned.

Waziristan issue could be resolved through dialogue, he remarked.

He went on to say " When I started my political career there were only police stations in Rawalpindi. The city wore a suspicious look. We have constructed 60 educational institutions. This school will soon be upgraded to the status of inter college. Rawalpindi despite all its development still looks like a village. It was mission of life that education be imparted to the children of the poor people. Rawalpindi is ranked first among all the cities of the country in the perspective of women education. The time is not far off when the people from across the country will salute the people of Rawalpindi for being educated class. We have no personal grudge with any one nor we have allowed any rogue to come here", he cautioned.

Sheikh Rashid told a 400-bed hospital equipped with high tech apparatus is under construction in Rawalpindi. Its cost is equal to the budget of whole Balochistan and it is being built on the pattern of Agha Khan hospital. A modernized road will be built at the cost of Rs 4 billion on the sides of nullah Leh from Mareer and Dhok Chiragh Din. A cancer hospital will also be constructed ahead of upcoming elections.

Mass transit train will be inaugurated before the general elections. This will operate between Rawalpindi and Islamabad, he informed.

He reiterated the year 2007 is election year. The people should join hands with the local bodies members for preparation of next election. There are no norms of the politics prevailing across the river Jehlum. People there are blood thirsty. " I will win both the seats in Rawalpindi in general elections. President Musharraf shows soft corner in regard to my matters. I have no political family or clan. I will contest the last election if people think that I have honored their votes what I owed to them.

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Pakistan: An emerging arms market in the world

Karachi, Nov 25: After enduring two decades of international arms embargo, Pakistan is set to emerge as one of the most active new players in the USD 3 trillion world arms market.

Its arms export last year amounted to USD 200 million - a small sum in comparison to the US and Russia, nonetheless a huge earning for Pakistan considering that the arms sanction against it was lifted just five years ago.

The sanction was imposed by the US and its European allies to punish Pakistan for embarking on its nuclear weapons programme.

However, following the 9/11 attack on the world trade center and Pakistan's support for the US-led war on terrorism, the us has designated the populous Muslim nation as a major non-NATO ally - one of the few Muslim countries to be accorded the privilege.

The designation meant that Pakistan now has access to weapons, from aircraft to missiles, which were denied to it five years ago.

During the period of embargo, Pakistan turned to its long-time ally, China for cooperation in arms trade which, according to defence experts, was limited to conventional weapons only.

However, with its "new status" in the world arms market, Pakistan's arms exhibition, International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2006, is being viewed as one of the leading defence events in the South Asia region.

Bureau Report

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U.N. Deputy Urges Pakistan to Curb Taliban


KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 8 — Pakistan should do more to restrict the activities of Taliban leaders in and around the border area with Afghanistan in keeping with a United Nations resolution that considers its leaders to be terrorists, the deputy chief of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said here on Monday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/world/asia/09afghan.html

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Bump

This is an interesting thread.