D.C. Five - Misplaced Pages

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The detention of five Muslim Americans with suspected ties to terrorism occurred on December 9, 2009, in Pakistan. The five men, in their late teens to early twenties and from the Washington, D.C., suburbs, were detained during a police raid on a house with links to a militant group.

Early in the ongoing investigation, officials described them as en route to fight against American forces in Afghanistan. The police chief of Sargodha said the men had been in contact with local militant groups since August 2009. The men had offered their assistance in unspecified attacks. They were not initially accused of a crime. They had been missing from their home area for approximately a month prior to their detention.

Overview

Map showing the cities the five passed through: Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and then Sargodha where they were detained

The men departed from the Dulles International Airport and travelled to Karachi, Pakistan, and then Hyderabad, to Lahore, spending five days there, and finally to Sargodha. They landed in Karachi on November 20. One of the men had left an 11-minutes-long video expressing his view that Muslim lands must be defended against western "invaders," although it was not described as a martyrdom video typical amongst militants. According to investigators, the men had planned to meet a contact close to the Afghani border between Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, and then to proceed to the stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. That contact turned out to be a Taliban recruiter named Saifullah, whom Minni had met on the internet after the latter posted remarks praising video footage on Youtube showing attacks on American forces.

The house they were detained at is in Sargodha in Punjab Province, and was occupied by Khalid Farooq. Farooq is the father of one of the men, and is suspected of ties to Jaish-e-Muhammed, a banned militant group to which the house itself is also linked, and was owned by the uncle of one of the men. According to the FBI, the men "were detained without incident."

The suspects

Some of the suspects were born outside the U.S., but all are U.S. citizens; however, the U.S. embassy in Pakistan said one of them did not have a U.S. passport. They knew each other from the I.C.N.A. Center, a mosque affiliated with Islamic Circle of North America, in Arlington, Virginia. I.C.N.A. had been picketed in Texas in 2005 by ten anti-terrorism protesters who said it funds overseas terrorism, though its Dallas president had said "There's no evidence to support their claims."

The five were a "constant presence" at the mosque in "traditional Muslim dress." The men had been missing since late November 2009. Their families contacted local religious authorities, who then contacted the FBI on December 1. Members of the mosque were unaware of the mens' plans.

Their names are: Umer Farooq, Ramy Zamzam, Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Khan, and Aman Yasir. Ahmed Abdullah was later identified as Ahmed Abdullah Minni.

Umer Farooq is the son of Khalid Farooq, the occupant of the house in which they were detained. He lives on the same street as the mosque with his father and mother, Sabrina, who operates a computer business. Khalid, who immigrated to the US some 20 years ago, and Sabrina were in Sargodha when their son and the others showed up. He was initially detained as well, but latter released.

Ramy Zamzam, 22, is from an Egyptian family and is a dental student at Howard University, also having an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry from the same university. He was active in the Muslim Students Association D.C. Council, and was described by another college student he had met through the Council as "very devout; he wouldn’t date women,” but not explicitly political. He performed the Hajj in 2007, and returned "even more intensely observant."

Ahmed Abdullah Minni also lived on the same street as the mosque with his family, which runs a day care center. Abdullah (Minni) and Khan are of Pakistani descent. Minni was on the wrestling team at West Potomac High School in Virginia, where he was described as friendly and not at all disenfranchised.

Waqar Khan, 22, was convicted a year before the arrests for stealing packages from UPS, where he had worked at the time. He was given a year-long suspended sentence, and served two months of supervised probation.

Aman Yasir's family is originally from Yemen.

Investigation

On December 11, 2009, the FBI questioned the five men separately, wanting them to return to the U.S., but were uncertain as to whether they would be deported. The five were not immediately charged under Pakistani law, and it was not known what charges they may face in the U.S. The minister of law in Punjab, Rana Sanaullah, said that the Pakistani government was interested in determining the group's affiliations before handing them over to U.S. officials and Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, wanted them cleared of any crimes in Pakistan before any extradition. The police have confiscated the men's computers, cell-phones, and an iPod.

As of December 14, the high court of Lahore was awaiting further information in the case before ruling on the issue of the extradition of the five men, which the U.S. had not yet sought. Police involved in the case said the men had been in contact with militant groups since August 2009, and had offered to assist those groups in attacks. In mid-January 2010, the men appeared in a special anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, where the police detailed the charges against them. Police officials presented the judge with a 250-page charge sheet which contained evidence that the men had met with the Jaish-e-Muhammed militant group in Hyderabad. According to a member of the police, Usman Anwar, the men admitted their desire to wage jihad and that they had donated money to banned militant groups. The men's legal representative, Khalid Khawaja, said the men alleged that “they have been tortured and not treated properly”, an allegation they also shouted to reporters as they were led away from the court. Anwar described the men as being "brainwashed" to the "jihadi" cause to the extent that they attempted to convert him to it.