Subject: [NEXTEL-1] More On- FBI Arrest Nextel RF Engineer-FEDS Now Link Him To Two 9/11 Hijackers.

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 04:58:46 -0500

Nextel Engineer still jailed after a year. FEDS Now Link Him To Two 9/11 Hijackers.
His Attorney Points Finger at Nextel-

Read the attaced Federal Indiment-
==================================================================================================
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 6 -  A Pakistani man facing charges in North Carolina has
no connection to terrorism and held a legal U.S. work visa at the time of his arrest, his
lawyer said Tuesday.

Imtiaz Ahmed Siddiqui, 31, was indicted last week on charges he lied about his
citizenship to obtain a voter registration card.

Prosecutors told reporters there was surveillance linking Siddiqui to two of hijackers
involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been in jail since Sept. 22 on an alleged
immigration violation.

Siddiqui's lawyer, Neil DeBlois of Southgate, Mich., is adamant that his client is not
involved in terrorism.

"I'm absolutely convinced he had nothing to do with that," Deblois told ABCNEWS.

Deblois said prosecutors have offered few specifics about Siddiqui's alleged links to
terrorism: "What I've seen is very thin, very thin."

Prosecutors have said that Siddiqui was using Yahoo! Travel at about the same time
as one of the hijackers, though they have not claimed that the two were in the same
place.

Investigators have also suggested that "it is possible they were conversing through
instant messaging," said Deblois. Siddiqui does not use instant messaging, his
lawyer said.

While many foreigners detained in the United States since Sept. 11 have had expired
visas, Siddiqui had a valid visa, known as a H-1B, according to his attorney. The
permits are issued to workers in high-tech fields where there is a shortage of
qualified Americans.

Deblois said Siddiqui is a radio-frequency engineer who specializes in setting up
mobile phone systems. He had worked for firms in California and North Carolina
before taking a job with Nextel in Michigan, DeBlois said.

Siddiqui's attorney acknowledged Nextel may have been slow to complete the visa
paperwork but, he said, prior to Sept. 11 that kind of a snafu would not have landed a
person in jail for weeks.

DeBlois said he believes Siddiqui misunderstood the voter application in North
Carolina, which was part of a motor-voter form completed at the Department of Motor
Vehicles.

It's not clear why Siddiqui would have tried to register to vote, since that is not
necessary to get a drivers' license.

"You don't need to be a citizen to buy anthrax. There's no possible nefarious intent,"
DeBlois said.

DeBlois chalks up Siddiqui's situation to ethnic profiling.

"If his name was Smith instead of Siddiqui, if he was from Ireland instead of Pakistan,
he wouldn't have this heat on him," the lawyer said.

As of Tuesday morning, Siddiqui remained in a federal prison in Milan, Mich. He is
expected to be moved to North Carolina soon.
-Josh Gerstein, ABCNE

-------- Original Message --------
From: iDEN-i95-Beta-Marcel <[email-masked]>
Subject: [NEXTEL1] FBI Arrest Nextel RF Engineer
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>

2/2002
FBI Arrest Nextel RF Engineer

GREENSBORO - A man with local ties who was suspected of
communicating over the Internet with one of the Sept. 11
hijackers doesn't know any terrorists and should be released
from jail, his attorney said Wednesday.

Imtiaz Ahmad Siddiqui has been working legally in the
United States as an electrical engineer and does not have the
terrorist connections that federal authorities have suggested,
his attorney said.

"Mr. Siddiqui is not a terrorist," said Dan Boyce, a Raleigh
lawyer. "He continues to try to clear this up with the
government and hopefully reunite with his family in the very
near future."

Siddiqui, 31, will be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in
Greensboro on a charge of voter fraud, and Friday he is
scheduled to have a hearing during which a magistrate will
decide whether he can be released on bond.

He has been in federal custody since his arrest in Michigan
on Sept. 22 on an immigration charge of falsely claiming to
be a U.S. citizen. FBI agents who were investigating him found
that Siddiqui submitted a Wake County voter registration
application when he obtained a North Carolina driver's license
about a month earlier. On that application, he claimed to be a
U.S. citizen but, in fact, he is a citizen of Pakistan.

The FBI was interested in Siddiqui because agents
suspected he had visited an Internet travel site at the same
time as one of the hijackers of the jetliner that crashed in
Pennsylvania on Sept. 11. They suspect Siddiqui might have
communicated with the hijacker electronically. That accusation
was made in an FBI affidavit filed in the Michigan immigration
case.

A federal prosecutor said in a hearing that investigators
had linked Siddiqui to two hijackers who were involved in the
World Trade Center attacks, said his immigration attorney,
Neil DeBlois.

Boyce, in a motion to release Siddiqui from jail, said the
FBI affidavit was vague and that the allegations are
unfounded. He noted that most of the affidavit uses
"boilerplate" language. The basic format of the affidavit has
been used, with slight revisions, in hundreds of detention
hearings across the country.

Boyce doesn't deny that Siddiqui filled out the voter
registration application, but he said it was a mistake. Under
sentencing guidelines, if Siddiqui were convicted he likely
would receive no more than a six-month sentence that could
be served without going to jail, according to the motion.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service initially
had not objected to Siddiqui's release on bond, and on Oct.
31, an immigration judge closed the case, court records
attached to the motion show. Siddiqui is being held on an
immigration detainer pending Friday's hearing.

Siddiqui, a native of Pakistan, has been in this country
since July 4, 2000, according to the motion, when he entered
on a visa available to foreign workers with special skills. He
went to work for Wireless Facilities Inc., a cellular telephone
system contractor in San Diego.

He worked on projects for the company around the country
during the next year and then took a job in North Carolina
with TelNet on June 17. Siddiqui arranged with a Raleigh man,
Nasir Hussain, to use his address in southwest Raleigh during
that time. Hussain has told reporters that he didn't know
Siddiqui well but agreed to take his mail to the Islamic Center
in Raleigh.

Siddiqui was soon offered employment with Nextel in
Michigan and flew there in August. The company was paying
for his housing there while he waited for the paperwork to be
filed to extend his visa so he could begin the new job, the
motion says. On Sept. 4, the INS authorized his stay as a
nonimmigrant worker until June 2004.

He has cooperated with FBI and INS agents since his
arrest, the motion says.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Greensboro is prosecuting the
case because Siddiqui applied for voter registration from a
Division of Motor Vehicles office in Durham, which is in the
jurisdiction of the federal court in Greensboro. The office is
prohibited by court rules fr

GREENSBORO - A man with local ties who was suspected of
communicating over the Internet with one of the Sept. 11
hijackers doesn't know any terrorists and should be released
from jail, his attorney said Wednesday.

Imtiaz Ahmad Siddiqui has been working legally in the
United States as an electrical engineer and does not have the
terrorist connections that federal authorities have suggested,
his attorney said.

"Mr. Siddiqui is not a terrorist," said Dan Boyce, a Raleigh
lawyer. "He continues to try to clear this up with the
government and hopefully reunite with his family in the very
near future."

Siddiqui, 31, will be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in
Greensboro on a charge of voter fraud, and Friday he is
scheduled to have a hearing during which a magistrate will
decide whether he can be released on bond.

He has been in federal custody since his arrest in Michigan
on Sept. 22 on an immigration charge of falsely claiming to
be a U.S. citizen. FBI agents who were investigating him found
that Siddiqui submitted a Wake County voter registration
application when he obtained a North Carolina driver's license
about a month earlier. On that application, he claimed to be a
U.S. citizen but, in fact, he is a citizen of Pakistan.

The FBI was interested in Siddiqui because agents
suspected he had visited an Internet travel site at the same
time as one of the hijackers of the jetliner that crashed in
Pennsylvania on Sept. 11. They suspect Siddiqui might have
communicated with the hijacker electronically. That accusation
was made in an FBI affidavit filed in the Michigan immigration
case.

A federal prosecutor said in a hearing that investigators
had linked Siddiqui to two hijackers who were involved in the
World Trade Center attacks, said his immigration attorney,
Neil DeBlois.

Boyce, in a motion to release Siddiqui from jail, said the
FBI affidavit was vague and that the allegations are
unfounded. He noted that most of the affidavit uses
"boilerplate" language. The basic format of the affidavit has
been used, with slight revisions, in hundreds of detention
hearings across the country.

Boyce doesn't deny that Siddiqui filled out the voter
registration application, but he said it was a mistake. Under
sentencing guidelines, if Siddiqui were convicted he likely
would receive no more than a six-month sentence that could
be served without going to jail, according to the motion.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service initially
had not objected to Siddiqui's release on bond, and on Oct.
31, an immigration judge closed the case, court records
attached to the motion show. Siddiqui is being held on an
immigration detainer pending Friday's hearing.

Siddiqui, a native of Pakistan, has been in this country
since July 4, 2000, according to the motion, when he entered
on a visa available to foreign workers with special skills. He
went to work for Wireless Facilities Inc., a cellular telephone
system contractor in San Diego.

He worked on projects for the company around the country
during the next year and then took a job in North Carolina
with TelNet on June 17. Siddiqui arranged with a Raleigh man,
Nasir Hussain, to use his address in southwest Raleigh during
that time. Hussain has told reporters that he didn't know
Siddiqui well but agreed to take his mail to the Islamic Center
in Raleigh.

Siddiqui was soon offered employment with Nextel in
Michigan and flew there in August. The company was paying
for his housing there while he waited for the paperwork to be
filed to extend his visa so he could begin the new job, the
motion says. On Sept. 4, the INS authorized his stay as a
nonimmigrant worker until June 2004.

He has cooperated with FBI and INS agents since his
arrest, the motion says.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Greensboro is prosecuting the
case because Siddiqui applied for voter registration from a
Division of Motor Vehicles office in Durham, which is in the
jurisdiction of the federal court in Greensboro. The office is
prohibited by court rules from commenting on the case.

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