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2005 News continuedJanuary 27, 2005French Insurgents in Iraq Concern OfficialBy JAMEY KEATEN
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| Hossam Armanious and wife Amal Garas (Photo by - Handout) |
JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Four Jersey City family members, including an 8-year-old girl, were found bound, gagged and slain in their home Friday with their throats slashed, law enforcement officials said.
Police broke down the door to the two-story Oakland Avenue house at 4 a.m., responding to reports from relatives that the family had not been seen or heard from in several days, Hudson County First Assistant Prosecutor Gaetano Gregory said.
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| Sylvia Armanious (Photo by Handout) |
Dead were Hossam Armanious, 47, a banquet server; his wife, Amal Garas, 37, a letter carrier; and their daughters Sylvia Armanious, 16, and Monica Armanious, 8.
Autopsies were still in progress Friday.
A law enforcement source said investigators had already begun working on a "number of different leads" but declined to be more specific. No arrests had been made.
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| Monica Armanious, (Photo by Handout) |
Authorities spent the morning sifting through evidence and removing the bodies. A police source said the house had no forced entry, leading police to believe the family may have known the killer.
Ayman Garas, the brother of Amal Garas, said his sister was "a very peaceful person."
"She's got nothing against anybody," he said, tearing up at the scene Friday. "I have no answers."
Armanious bought the house in November 2000, according to local property records, chose the first floor to live in with his family and used the second floor to rent out.
A woman who lived there and moved out in November 2003 said Armanious was "the best landlord in the world." "He even gave me extra money when I left, and said to come back anytime," said Julissa Borges, 33. "We used to have barbecues in the back and everything. That family was so beautiful."
Armanious' two daughters attended nearby PS 6 and Dickenson High School, where Sylvia was active in the drama department and was slated to have her Sweet 16 party Saturday, family members said. Monica was active in the church choir.
"They have no enemies," said Emad Fahmy, 29, a cousin of Garas', who gathered with several dozen other members of the local Egyptian community to mourn at the family's church Friday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
BERLIN (AP) - Police arrested 14 people during raids of apartments and mosques in five German states Wednesday in a crackdown on an Islamic extremist organization suspected of aiding terrorists, authorities said.
About 700 officers conducted the raids, which capped a long investigation against 20 people suspected of operating a criminal network based in the southern city of Ulm, according to prosecutors in Munich, where authorities coordinated the probe.
The suspects are alleged to have raised money through smuggling and producing false papers to "pursue their ideological goals,'' the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
They "equipped people with false documents, making possible illegal residency in the country and outside, and supported other like-minded groups,'' the statement said.
"In addition, they are accused of spreading their beliefs in racial hatred and recruiting people for 'jihad','' the statement said, using an Islamic word often interpreted as meaning "holy war.''
Three of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived in Germany and since then German authorities have been cracking down on Islamic extremists. Most recently, police on Dec. 3 arrested three Iraqis believed to be part of the terror group Ansar al-Islam, which has links to al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. They were accused of plotting to attack Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a visit to Berlin.
Baden Wuerttemberg Interior Minister Heribert Rech said the coordinated raids Wednesday were evidence that authorities were keeping the pressure up.
"The success of this investigation shows once again how important our uncompromising fight strategy is,'' Rech said in a statement. "We have criminal Islamists and their meeting places under observation for the long term and are developing important knowledge about their criminal and extremist activities.''
The raids were started in the early morning hours Wednesday, and were still ongoing, said Detlef Puchlet, a spokesman for Bavarian state police.
"We are still searching,'' he told The Associated Press.
In total, some 50 buildings were searched, including apartments, mosques and call centers in the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, North Rhine Westphalia, Hessen and Berlin. The raids were concentrated on the cities of Ulm, Freiburg, Frankfurt, Duesseldorf and Bonn.
Police arrested seven suspects in Baden-Wuerttemberg, two in Hessen, three in North Rhine Westphalia and one each in Berlin and Bavaria, Puchlet said.
BOSTON (AP) - A former Arabic translator who took classified documents from the prison camp at Guantanamo Naval Base pleaded guilty to federal charges Monday in a deal that will set him free within two months.
Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, 32, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen and civilian translator at the base in Cuba, was arrested at Logan International Airport in September 2003 after returning from a trip to Egypt.
Customs agents found 132 compact discs in his luggage, including one that contained hundreds of documents labeled "SECRET'' or "SECRET/NOFORN,'' meaning no foreign government was allowed to look at them.
He pleaded guilty Monday to one count of unauthorized possession of classified materials and two counts of lying to federal investigators.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mehalba would have faced between 37 and 46 months in prison. Prosecutors agreed to a lower sentence because Mehalba has no criminal record, accepted responsibility for his actions and had "significantly reduced mental capacity'' when he committed the crimes.
Joseph Savage, one of Mehalba's lawyers, has said his client has been treated for bipolar disorder, depression and attention deficit disorder.
He was one of four men swept up in an espionage investigation at the Navy base. Some or all charges were dropped against the other three men, who included a Muslim chaplain, another interpreter and an Army Reserve colonel.
Mehalba initially told investigators that the discs contained only music and videos, then later said he had no idea how the classified documents got on the discs.
His lawyers had argued that he was taking materials with him to work on translating them.
With credit for time served since his arrest, Mehalba is expected to be freed in two months, shortly after his sentencing March 9.
Mehalba formerly served in the Army, but failed to complete a military intelligence course to become an interrogator. After being medically discharged from the Army in May 2001, he was hired by San Diego-based defense contractor Titan Corp. as an interpreter.
BERLIN (AP) - Islamic extremists accused of plotting to kill Iraq's prime minister in Germany are smuggling battle-hardened fighters from Iraq to Europe, raising a potential new terrorist threat on the continent, according to German officials.
More than 20 alleged supporters of Ansar al-Islam have been arrested in Europe in the past year as authorities move against the group that has links with al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who's been leading bloody attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Ansar al-Islam is suspected of spiriting dozens of fired-up young Muslims to Iraq to join the insurgency, but the latest raids in Germany - the most spectacular yet against the group - heightened concerns that the organization also could pose a menace outside Iraq, too.
Acting on intelligence suggesting the group planned to attack Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in Berlin, police on Dec. 3 arrested three Iraqis believed to be Ansar al-Islam members.
Arrest warrants for the three plot suspects - identified only as Ata R., Mazen H. and Rafik Y. - were based on wiretaps and intelligence that one of them apparently cased Berlin locales on Allawi's itinerary. But investigators have turned up no weapons or bomb-making materials, and Allawi's name was never mentioned in the men's coded telephone conversations.
A top security official in Hamburg, Heino Vahldieck, said German authorities were right to strike quickly despite what appears to be the lack of hard evidence. Prosecutors are preparing charges of belonging to a terrorist group against the three men.
"You can wind up waiting too long once too often,'' Vahldieck told The Associated Press.
About 100 Ansar al-Islam supporters are in Germany alone, officials say. Mullah Krekar, the group's spiritual head, has lived for years as a refugee in Norway, and investigators believe that the group has also recruited volunteers in Italy and Britain. Estimates of its total membership range between about 500 and 1,000.
"It's right up there on the list of threats,'' said Michael Ziegler, a spokesman for Bavarian security authorities. "The foiled attack on Allawi shows that this group must be considered dangerous also for Europe.''
Germany's pre-emptive action to protect Allawi contrasts with the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States: A key Madrid suspect had been under surveillance long before, and three of the four Sept. 11 suicide pilots - including lead hijacker Mohamed Atta - lived and studied in Hamburg undetected by authorities.
"The security agencies are generally acting a bit earlier now, even at the risk of weaker evidence,'' said Kai Hirschmann, deputy head of the Institute for Terrorism Research in Essen.
"The problem all over Europe is that they can only do something when there's specific evidence of an attack,'' he said. "If people just sit around and talk about jihad, there's relatively little you can do.''
Ansar al-Islam was formed in the Kurdish parts of Iraq and is believed to include Arab al-Qaida members who fled the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Its bases along the Iranian-Iraqi border were bombed at the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq that began in March 2003 and the group's members scattered, some to Europe, authorities believe.
Al-Zarqawi, whose followers in Iraq have claimed responsibility for numerous car bombings and beheadings of foreigners, is believed to have played a key role in the group after fleeing Afghanistan, where he studied explosives and other skills in al-Qaida camps.
Europe's openness to refugees and civil-rights guarantees often make it hard for authorities to crack down on terror suspects. But they have stepped up pressure on Ansar al-Islam over the past year, leading to the string of arrests in Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Sweden.
How many Europe-based volunteers have gone to fight in Iraq is unclear, but authorities already are tracking the threat of Islamic fighters returning to Europe with experience in waging holy war in Iraq - much the way others in the past returned hardened from Chechnya.
"If someone is involved in an attack in Iraq, I am virtually 100 percent convinced that he'll also carry out an attack over here if ordered to do so,'' Guenter Beckstein, the top state security official in Bavaria, said in a telephone interview.
European security officials have given little hard evidence about militants returning from Iraq. But there are a few known cases of recruiting. One suspected Iraqi recruiter, Amin Lokman Mohammed, is expected to go on trial in Germany next year, charged with organizing trips to Iraq for at least a dozen possible suicide bombing missions against U.S. troops.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The head of the Coptic church celebrated Christmas Friday in accordance with the Orthodox calendar, preaching a message of peace to 2,000 or so members of one of the world's oldest Christian denominations.
Speaking in Cairo's towering Abbasiya Cathedral, the air scented with incense smoke for the holiday, Pope Shenouda III spoke to an audience including the U.S. ambassador, leading government ministers and Gamal Mubarak, son of Egypt's president.
His Christmas message touched on the need for peace in the Palestinian territories, in Iraq and in Sudan, where thousands of refugees have fled the war-ravaged region of Darfur.
The Coptic pope's message failed to directly address issues confronting his own community, a Christian minority in Muslim majority Egypt, where many Copts claim they are discriminated against.
Last month, authorities detained 34 young Copts during several days of protests at Abbasiya Cathedral. They have since been released.
The demonstrations were sparked by reports that the wife of a Coptic priest had been kidnapped in a bid to force her to convert to Islam, an act severely frowned upon within this conservative Christian faith. She later returned to the church and said she would remain a Copt.
Instead, Shenouda seemed to comment on the conflict, and an increasingly shrill protest from other Coptic leaders, by preaching about the power of silence.
"He (Jesus) was silent at times, and he spoke at times. When he spoke he gave advice and useful words,'' Shenouda said. "And when he was silent, his silence was more eloquent than his words.''
Shenouda, holding a golden cross and cane and wearing red and white flowing robes, did not elaborate during his speech greeting Christmas, which the Copts celebrate on Jan. 7 according to the Julian Calendar followed by most Orthodox churches in eastern Europe, Greece, Russia and the Middle East.
No colored lights and decorations were festooned around the cathedral as in previous years, a deliberate move taken by church leaders to display their sadness over the detention of the 34 Copts.
While authorities say Egypt's Copts and Muslims live in harmony, the country's Christians complain of discrimination in the job market and in obtaining permission to build churches.
Copts comprise roughly 10 percent of Egypt's 70 million population. They have a long history in Egypt - tradition says St. Mark brought Christianity to Egypt just a few years after the death of Christ.
01/06/05 23:26 EST
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. intelligence monitors are picking up less terror threat talk than a year ago, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday, but he warned that terrorists could be merely lying low before striking again.
"There certainly is a diminution, reduction in the amount of intelligence, and the decibel level is lower,'' Ridge said, comparing information picked up over the past several months to a similar period a year ago.
Ridge offered no single explanation for the drop, saying it could be stepped-up U.S. efforts to boost security, increase military action and disrupt terrorist leaders and their finances or, simply, the "hardening of America.''
"Could be any of those and none of those,'' he said. "I suspect it's probably all of them.''
He called the terrorists "strategic actors and long-range planners'' who could be biding their time before another attack.
The information lull comes at the tail end of a political season that drew a warning from Ridge last summer that terrorists might try to disrupt the election process.
Ridge plans to leave his office Feb. 1, though the White House has not yet picked his successor.
David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the drop in terror threat "chatter'' could also be the result of terrorists' tactical changes in operation and communication for heightened secrecy.
"We had a lot of chatter and there were no attacks,'' Heyman said. "Now that there's no chatter - does that mean there will be no attack, or is there something else we should be concerned about? I don't think we have enough information to conclude what it means.''
As for Ridge's replacement, the secretary said only that he had discussed several candidates with the White House. Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, the initial pick, withdrew last month because of an immigration problem with a housekeeper-nanny.
Ridge said Capitol Hill turf battles among various committees and lawmakers could prevent a central Homeland Security oversight process for years.
He also said Yusuf Islam, once a popular singer known as Cat Stevens, is still barred from entering the country. The singer was removed from a London-to-Washington flight in September because of suspected links to terrorists - a claim he has strongly denied.
"The reasons we rejected him several months ago still exist in my mind,'' Ridge said.
NEW YORK (AP) - The attorney for a defense lawyer being prosecuted on federal terrorism charges accused the government Wednesday of exaggerating the evidence against her.
Attorney Michael Tigar suggested in his closing argument that the prosecution of "courageous, brash and feisty'' civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was an insult to the nation's other defense lawyers.
"The government of the United States has the arrogance to tell the defense bar how to practice law,'' Tigar told the jury in the 6-month-old trial.
Stewart is on trial with Arabic interpreter Mohamed Yousry and postal worker Ahmed Sattar. If convicted, Stewart and Yousry each could face about 20 years; Sattar could face up to life in prison;
Prosecutors say the defendants provided an open line of communication between imprisoned Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and violent members of a terrorist organization in Egypt. They have testified they acted legally as they helped a cleric in solitary confinement.
Tigar promised jurors that he would show them that Stewart "never communicated a message to the outside world that called for violence.''
Tigar blamed the government for carelessly lacing the words "terrorist'' and "terrorism'' throughout its case.
"They (prosecutors) have a duty not to hype the evidence,'' Tigar said. Yet, he added, "The government has done just that, in a cynical way.''
The trial featured only a few witnesses as the government relied on audio clips and documents retrieved from more than 85,000 intercepts of Sattar's phone, fax and computer between 1995 and 2002.
KUWAIT CITY (AP) - The governments of oil-rich Persian Gulf states have pledged about $50 million for victims of the southern Asia tsunami, but many people wonder if the amount is too small.
Some Saudis, Kuwaitis and other Gulf citizens have said publicly that more generosity might be a way to correct an image in the West that they are both decadent and financial backers of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden.
But the controls imposed on Muslim charities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the lack of public campaigns for tsunami relief, have so far kept the donations down.
The flow of private money is expected to increase in the coming days as more charity activities are planned and advertised. Several countries have moved to increase donations, with the United Arab Emirates boosting its pledge Tuesday to $20 million from $2 million.
"This tragedy is an opportunity to revitalize the real Islamic aid work ... and to present the true face of the peace-loving, humanitarian kingdom, which is open to the whole world,'' a Saudi columnist, Jamal Khashokji, wrote in Kuwait's Al-Watan daily.
The columnist said extremists have "hijacked'' Islam, and Saudi charities should go back to "moderation and tolerance.''
Another paper, Al-Qabas, wrote in an editorial that Kuwait should have "reacted differently'' and given more in aid to the Asian people "who have supported us.''
As in most Gulf countries, south Asians account for most of the foreign work force in Kuwait - toiling as laborers, housecleaners and nannies. In addition, many of the victims in southern Asia are Muslims.
Gulf countries cracked down on charities, especially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, after Washington accused some of funneling money to Muslim militants such as bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist group after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Israel has deployed a medical team in Sri Lanka to help tsunami victims. It has also denied that Indonesia turned down an Israeli offer of assistance for political reasons.
"There was no formal Israeli offer of humanitarian aid to Indonesia, so in consequence, there was no Indonesian refusal of the aid,'' Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Amir Gissin said Tuesday. Israel is widely unpopular across the Muslim world.
A day after the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland urged the richest countries to be more generous and expressed hope that Asian and Gulf nations with growing economies would join the global response. Governments and global groups have pledged about $2 billion, a quarter of it from Japan, according to the United Nations.
"After the Sept. 11 crisis, people were reluctant to give money (to Muslim charities), but now they are beginning to respond,'' said Faisal al-Jiran, the secretary general of the Kuwaiti Joint Relief Committee, an umbrella for Muslim aid organizations in Kuwait.
The committee has donated $100,000 to the victims, and representatives are traveling to Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia to assess needs.
Millions of dollars in donations are expected when the committee starts to advertise its campaign in the newspapers, he said.
Lebanon's Daily Star also urged the region to come forward with more generosity - noting that high oil prices have put extra money in the region's pockets.
"Long-established images ... of white-robed sheiks sailing their luxury yachts on seas of oil and using $100 bills to light their Havana cigars will only be reinforced in the face of collective miserliness in this hour of human need, especially if the petroleum-rich Gulf states do not dig a bit deeper into pockets,'' the paper editorialized.
But Saudi businessman Khaled al-Shitri says he is hesitant.
"Gulf countries and particularly Saudi have become very sensitive about where (charity money) goes,'' he told The Associated Press.
The CEO of two companies said he was afraid to make a donation to a charity because he might later learn it had been added to America's list of terror-supporting groups.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An Orange County mosque leader from Egypt who had allegedly given speeches that could be considered to support terrorist organizations has left the United States, authorities said.
Wagdy Ghoneim, who was the imam at the Islamic Institute of Orange County, reached an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to depart voluntarily, avoiding deportation in exchange for admitting he was in the country in violation of his immigration status, said agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
Ghoneim departed from Los Angeles International Airport early Monday and transferred in New York onto a flight bound for Qatar.
"Many people are extremely sad and disappointed in the system,'' said Valerie Curtis-Diop, Ghoneim's attorney. "They're apprehensive because, if this can happen to a spiritual leader, they wonder who will be the next target.''
By giving up his two-month immigration fight voluntarily, Ghoneim is eligible to reapply for entry into the country.
Ghoneim, 53, was arrested at his Anaheim home in November on an immigration violation. At the time, his lawyer and supporters said the arrest was a mistake and that he expected to be released soon.
Ghoneim had been held without bond since then "based upon Department of Homeland Security concerns that his past speeches and participation in fund-raising activities could be supportive of terrorist organizations,'' Kice said last month, declining to provide details.
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