This story seems pretty extreme to me. The United States government is denying entry to two Muslim men who were related to a man convicted of aiding terrorists.
The only thing they are known to have done which has put them at odds with the U.S. government is to be unavailable to be interrogated. They were unavailable because they have been in Pakistan for the past four years.
So, the U.S. government took the opportunity to put them on a "no-fly" list.
The truly amazing thing about this story is these guys don't even have dual citizenship in any other country. In other words, at this point, they are men without a country.
Check it out:
(08-26) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- The federal government has barred two relatives of a Lodi man convicted of supporting terrorists from returning to the country after a lengthy stay in Pakistan, placing the U.S. citizens in an extraordinary legal limbo.
Muhammad Ismail, a 45-year-old naturalized citizen born in Pakistan, and his 18-year-old son, Jaber Ismail, who was born in the United States, have not been charged with a crime. However, they are the uncle and cousin of Hamid Hayat, a 23-year-old Lodi cherry packer who was convicted in April of supporting terrorists by attending a Pakistani training camp.
Federal authorities said Friday that the men, both Lodi residents, would not be allowed back into the country unless they agreed to FBI interrogations in Pakistan.
An attorney representing the family said agents have asked whether the younger Ismail trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan.
The men and three relatives had been in Pakistan for more than four years and tried to return to the United States on April 21 as a federal jury in Sacramento deliberated Hayat's fate. But they were pulled aside during a layover in Hong Kong and told there was a problem with their passports, said Julia Harumi Mass, their attorney.
The father and son were forced to pay for a flight back to Islamabad because they were on the government's "no-fly" list, Mass said. Muhammad Ismail's wife, teenage daughter and younger son, who were not on the list, continued on to the United States.
Neither Muhammad nor Jaber Ismail holds dual Pakistani citizenship, Mass said.
What do you guys think?
It doesn't tell enough story to make a decision.
ReplyDeleteWhat have the two men told of their whereabouts, during their stay in Pakistan?
Are they known for subversive behavior?
Did they stay with the same people in Pakistan that Hamid Hayat did?
Pakistan is well known for its hard-core element of islamists.
Moderate muslims have made the choice, to be mostly silent, while their religion-kin go berserker on the rest of the planet.
Better to be mad for a useful inconvenience, than to be dead on principle.
I bet there is more to the story than what the relatives are telling.
Let me say that I, in no way, condone the barring of these two men, for zero reason.
I do believe that reasonable precautions should be taken, however.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI think you are likely correct that there is more to the story. However, the men didn't tell the FBI anything about their whereabouts before they were barred from entering the country. But, that doesn't mean the FBI didn't know of their whereabout, right?
The FBI could very well know where they were, but I wouldn't bet on it.
ReplyDeleteMore likely is that there is no record of them being anywhere.....
As more info comes out, which is posted on LGF, it appears that they are refusing to answer questions asked by the FBI. Refusal to take a lie detector test being among the refusals.
Sorry, but if the police want to hold you in America, for questioning, they are able to do so.
If these guys have nothing to hide, why the strange behavior?
More here than meets the eye, for sure.
Yes, you're right. There is more info. I've been keeping up with it over at LGF also.
ReplyDeleteI have to amend this post a bit, don't I?
Who cares? If I were of "Pakistani origin" and my brother blew shit up in the name of Allah, I'd be surprised if they let me back in the country too. If these folks start to get the message that they are either Americans or Muslims, then they can start to make choices; the first being whether or not they want to stay in the land of the infidel or go back to the pious Islamic shithole they came from. Christ, I grew up in one of those third world shitholes...I can't imagine ever wanting the west to be anything like it.
ReplyDelete"You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your relatives."
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing if they were happlessly linked to a terrorist by blood relation. How many of us in the blogosphere have a family embarassment, or a family felon?
So just commenting on that point, I can't see simple relation as a reason to keep out. But I don't have enough of the story to comment further. The idea of interrogating them IN PAKISTAN is a good idea, to keep from the problems they'd have questioning them stateside.
I'm on my way to LGF in this evening's reading in a bit; it seems that's where this story originated.
God, if only we could do that over here to some of the tens of thousands of mad mullahs with which England is infested! They are always back and forth between here and Paradise Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteGo Yanks!
England - Love It Or Leave It!