'20th Hijacker': FBI Set Surveillance

— -- Moussaoui: FBI Planted Tracking Device

A L E X A N D R I A, V a., July 9 — Zacarias Moussaoui wants an independentexpert to determine if an electric fan he says mysteriouslyappeared on his car in the spring of 2001 contained a trackingdevice planted by the FBI.

In a motion unsealed Monday, the accused Sept. 11 conspiratorsaid the FBI "must have used the strategem to avoid to have to goto a judge to get a warrant to plant electronic surveillancedevice."

The motion is one of more than four dozen Moussaoui has filedsince taking over as his own lawyer last month. It adds a newelement to the 34-year-old French citizen's contention that U.S.officials know he's innocent of the attacks on New York andWashington because they had him and the 19 hijackers undersurveillance for months.

The government has said neither Moussaoui nor any of thehijackers were being watched by U.S. authorities prior to Sept. 11.

Monday was the deadline for Moussaoui to file motions before histrial this fall on charges that he conspired to commit acts ofterrorism, commit aircraft piracy, destroy aircraft, use weapons ofmass destruction, murder U.S. employees and destroy property. Thegovernment has said it will seek the death penalty.

Several of his motions, including seven more filed Monday,remain under seal. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has beenreviewing each of his pleadings before allowing their release.

Moussaoui asked last week for permission to testify beforeCongress about his conspiracy theory. The government offered noobjection, and Brinkema relayed his request to congressionalleaders.

House and Senate intelligence committee leaders will discuss therequest later this week, a spokesman for Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.,said Monday. But there seemed to be little interest among committeemembers to hear from the only person charged in connection withSept. 11.

"I can't imagine us being interested in hearing from him atthis point," said Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. "The congressionalinquiry is not the place for that to be aired."

In the motions unsealed Monday, Moussaoui asked for anindependent forensic examination of an electric fan that was"mysteriously left on my car like a present or gift" when he wasliving in Oklahoma. He said he left the fan in his apartment whenhe moved to Minnesota, where he was arrested Aug. 16 after raisingthe suspicions of instructors at a flight school.

"I want an electronic surveillance forensic expert to find thetracking and bug of the FBI" in the fan, he said.

Moussaoui took a shot at President Bush in one motion, comparinghim to the Roman emperor in the movie Gladiator.

"The one who say that he was going to return honors to theoffice was definitely talking about Ceasar Type Honors like inGladiator: Stabbing the enemy in the back before the fight. Notsurprising for Daddy son. Leading (or I must say cheating) from theback," he wrote.

—The Associated Press

Raids of Middle Eastern Jewelry Stores Spark Rage

P H I L A D E L P H I A, July 9 — Customers usually enter Tariq Hussain'sjewelry store browsing for diamonds or gold rings. Recently, he wasvisited by people looking for something much more sinister.

Hussain's Intrigue Jewelers kiosk in suburban Pittsburgh was oneof several across the nation searched by FBI agents hunting forties to the al Qaeda terrorist network.

"They took everything, my paperwork, bills, my computer, mychecks," said Hussain, 27, a recently discharged U.S. Armymechanic. "I told them, 'I don't have any links to anything likethat."'

About 75 stores have been searched by investigators hoping todiscover financial backing for terrorist groups, said a lawenforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The raids have taken place in several cities over the past twoweeks, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and New York.Dozens of foreigners, mostly from Pakistan, have been detained orquestioned.

The shop owners have been asked about their accounting practicesand whether they send money to any foreign organizations on aregular basis. They also are asked whether they support al Qaeda orknow anyone who does, officials said.

Immigration attorney Neil Rambana, who is representing threePakistani men and a woman from Nepal arrested in a raid at theGovernor's Square mall in Tallahassee, Fla., said the FBI and INSwere on a "fishing expedition."

"There is no proof and no one has presented any evidence thatwould put these people under suspicion," Rambana said. "This wasall about abusing people's rights in the hopes that there were afew guilty people among them."

The Immigration and Naturalization Service declined to commenton the raids, other than to acknowledge they had taken place. AU.S. official said more than a dozen people are still in detentionfollowing the raids.

Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said immediately afterthe raids that federal agencies were "looking at illegalimmigrants working at kiosks," but he refused to elaborate.

The largest raids took place between June 28 and July 2. Agentsswept jewelry stores in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, Alabama,Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. Since then, smaller raidshave taken place in Texas, California and Massachusetts, officialssaid.

Most of the raids involved Intrigue Jewelers franchises, whichare licensed through Gold Concept Inc., a Florida company owned byOrlando businessman Arif Rajan.

Rajan's attorney, Phillip Calandrino, said neither the companynor its owner have terrorist ties.

He said Rajan, a native of Pakistan and a U.S. citizen since1991, has been cooperating with the FBI for several months and hasvoluntarily turned over company records to investigators.

"He is just like any small businessman that you might run into.He didn't do anything wrong," Calandrino said.

Calandrino said Gold Concept leases space for its franchisees,but doesn't supply jewelry and doesn't control the day-to-dayoperations of the businesses.

"They hire who they want. They do what they want, like anyindependent business," he said.

The company first came into contact with FBI investigators inSeptember, Calandrino said, when an Intrigue Jewelers employee inWhitehall, Pa., came under suspicion for having spent hoursphotographing the World Trade Center days before it was destroyed.

Ashar Iqubal Butt, a Pakistani citizen, pleaded guilty in Juneto entering the country with an altered British passport and agreedto be deported. A judge delayed his sentencing until September togive agents more time to investigate Butt's 25 World Trade Centerphotographs, which he had developed the week of the Sept. 11attacks.

Butt's lawyer has said the photographs were taken innocently andthat Butt had come to the United States to work.

The raids have sparked outrage among some members of Muslimcommunities.

"These people are being confronted and in some cases terrorizedbased on no evidence," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations. "And even when the FBI saysthere is evidence, it is never anything anyone else is allowed tosee."

—The Associated Press

Doctor Who Died on 9/11 Will Get Wish

B U R B A N K, C a l i f., July 9 — Dr. Yeneneh Betru was on the jet thatcrashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. On Sept. 11, 2002, hisvision will come alive in Ethiopia because of colleagues, relativesand strangers who refused to let his dream die with him.

Plans are set to open a dialysis wing named after Betru at BlackLion Hospital in Addis Ababa on Sept. 11, his family announcedMonday during a ceremony in the physician's honor at ProvidenceSaint Joseph Medical Center.

"The equipment and supplies have been earmarked. We have thetraining staff chosen and ready to go down to Ethiopia. We have thelocation gearing up," said Aron Betru, 26, the doctor's brother."Each and every day we get that much closer to finishing his dreamand his mission."

At the hospital Monday, a tree was planted in his memory.Betru's brother Sirak, 34, sister Ruth, 29 and mother, SaraTeshebern, 58, attended the event to make the announcement aboutthe dialysis center.

Betru had returned from Ethiopia with his fiancee and left herwith her sister before he boarded American Airlines Flight 77 tocontinue on alone to California. The airliner was hijacked andflown into the Pentagon by terrorists.

The pulmonary specialist had vowed to find dialysis machines forthe hospital where his grandmother died of kidney failure more thanthree years ago.

He even left behind six used machines he had refurbished in hisgarage. But building a new hospital wing overseas can be morecomplicated than simply airlifting dialysis units to Africa, AronBetru said.

"It's assisting them with supplies and assisting with thetraining and the education," he said. "It's creating a fullysustainable unit. It's not necessarily just a charity case."

So far, Betru's relatives and colleagues have raised more than$50,000 to buy four new dialysis machines for the hospital, wheresuch lifesaving equipment is in short supply and kidney diseasesare often fatal.

Nurses at the hospital sold red, white and blue lapel pins,necklaces and knitted baby caps to raise money in the days afterthe Sept. 11 attack.

"It's the only thing left for us to do," said Ruth Betru, 29,his sister. "The least we could do is complete his vision."

—The Associated Press