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'Terrorist Notebook' Read 'Brother,' Not 'Commander'
Associated Press | August 17 2004
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Federal prosecutors have acknowledged a possible error in a key piece of evidence used to arrest and detain two Albany mosque leaders accused of supporting terrorism.
Defense attorneys say the translation error undermines the entire government case, and the men should get out on bail at another detention hearing scheduled Aug. 24.
"It's a travesty," lawyer Terence Kindlon said.
U.S. attorney Glenn Suddaby said authorities are not sure which translation is correct, and it doesn't change the case.
"It doesn't change their behavior. It doesn't change the significance of where this notebook was found. We're going forward," he said Tuesday.
In a federal court affidavit, the FBI said it received information that U.S. soldiers found a notebook at "a terrorist camp" in northern Iraq last summer with an Arabic entry that called 34-year-old Yassin Muhiddin Aref "commander" and listed his former address and phone number in Albany.
However, FBI translators now have a copy of the original entry, disagree with the Defense Department and say the Kurdish phrase actually means "brother," prosecutors told the judge in a letter.
Aref, a native of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, came to the United States as a refugee. He has several brothers and nephews still there, Kindlon said.
"I think when the key piece of information at the detention hearing proves to be false, that we should reopen the detention hearing and let my client go back to his wife and children," Kindlon said Tuesday.
Aref, who has three young children, is imam of the Masjid As-Salam storefront mosque in Albany. He also drove an ambulette before his arrest.
Kindlon challenged the notebook's meaning at a detention hearing last week, and the judge ordered prosecutors to provide Kindlon a copy of the entry. But the notebook was also cited by Magistrate David Homer as part of his rationale for refusing to set bail for Aref.
Homer said prosecutors made the case that both Aref and 49-year-old Mohammed Mosharref Hossain posed a threat to the community and a flight risk and should remain jailed until trial.
Hossain's attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said Tuesday there was other false information in the original FBI affidavit. He said the camp in western Iraq contained Iraqis or foreigners who had fought the U.S. in the war.
"They were attempting to either flee the country or hide until things calmed down," he said. "There's no evidence they were terrorists or associated with any terrorist organization."
Suddaby disagreed. "I'm going to continue to rely on the information we've been provided by the FBI and the Department of Defense as to what that camp was until I get some other information to indicate that it wasn't," he said.
The 19-count indictment, unsealed Aug. 9, charged Aref and Hossain, a founder of the three-year-old Albany mosque, with conspiring to launder money and promote terrorism. Mosque members defended both as peaceful family men.
The indictment and affidavit chronicled exchanges of money between Hossain and an FBI informant. Aref was present, at Hossain's request, to witness the financial transactions. He wrote receipts.
The FBI informant, an upstate businessman originally from Pakistan who was in trouble for document fraud, eventually told the two men the money came from the sale of a missile that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York City, prosecutors said. Neither Hossain nor Aref backed away from the deal or contacted authorities, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Grable said.
The informant proposed the money-laundering scheme after Hossain asked him for a loan, according to court papers. Hossain, the father of five, is a pizzeria owner and landlord. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he is a native of Bangladesh.
Luibrand said the errors undermine the entire federal case since mosque members were targeted after the notebook was found.
Grable told the judge last week there was no other intelligence or evidence linking Hossain to any terrorist groups, and prosecutors were offering nothing else at that point concerning Aref.
Aref and Hossain could face up to 15 or 20 years in prison on each count if convicted, prosecutors said.
