The FBI says that there may be a possible terrorist link to Rochester. Law enforcement officials have arrested a local man whose being accused of lying to the government about a suspected terrorist who lived in Rochester.
Mohamed Subeh is free on $20,000 bond. He told News 10 NBC that he came to the US 15 years ago to start a new life. He has 5 American born daughters and says he has “no reason” to lie. But, the government isn’t buying it.
Subeh is a business owner and lives in a quiet Rochester neighborhood, but Friday the US Attorneys Office indicted him on 3 counts of giving false statement to the FBI.
The FBI says that there may be a possible terrorist link to Rochester. Law enforcement officials have arrested a local man whose being accused of lying to the government about a suspected terrorist who lived in Rochester.
Mohamed Subeh is free on $20,000 bond. He told News 10 NBC that he came to the US 15 years ago to start a new life. He has 5 American born daughters and says he has “no reason” to lie. But, the government isn’t buying it.
Subeh is a business owner and lives in a quiet Rochester neighborhood, but Friday the US Attorneys Office indicted him on 3 counts of giving false statement to the FBI.
The indictment claims Subeh knew a man interested in becoming a suicide bomber in Israel with the al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade. The terrorist group has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings in Israel.
Subeh told News 10 NBC that that man is his 20-year-old brother Ismaeel. Subeh says the FBI has been questioning him about Ismaeel since he left the country for Israel last may. He says Ismaeel left to marry a woman in the West Bank, not to help a terrorist group.
Subeh’s attorney, Miguel Reyes says the government is indicting his client because his story doesn’t match up with theirs. Subeh has consistently claimed his brother’s innocence. But Reyes tells News 10 NBC that Ismaeel’s new wife has a brother who was a suicide bomber. He acknowledges the US fight against terrorism is legitimate one, but says the government has the wrong man this time. Reyes says, “we as a nation need to decide and to be honest that if we have changed our minds and we don't want Arabs in the US, we should be honest and tell them.”
For it’s part, the US Attorney’s Office says its terrorism investigations depend on people telling the truth. The investigation will continue.
Subeh could face a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison or a $250,000 fine if convicted at trial.
The re-election campaign of President George Bush provoked a new controversy yesterday, with a television ad campaign using a picture of an olive-skinned man to illustrate terrorism.
As a voiceover warns that Mr Bush's presumptive opponent, John Kerry, is soft on terrorists, a split-screen shows people at an airport, and a young man with flickering eyes who turns menacingly towards the camera.
Election ad 'plays on fear of Arabs'
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday March 13, 2004
The Guardian
The re-election campaign of President George Bush provoked a new controversy yesterday, with a television ad campaign using a picture of an olive-skinned man to illustrate terrorism.
As a voiceover warns that Mr Bush's presumptive opponent, John Kerry, is soft on terrorists, a split-screen shows people at an airport, and a young man with flickering eyes who turns menacingly towards the camera.
The ads are the most aggressive so far - targeting John Kerry by name. Arab Americans said the campaign played on racism and fear, and could inflict further damage on a community marginalised after September 11.
"When they turn around and say John Kerry would be soft on terror, they don't use a picture of Osama bin Laden. They use a young good-looking, Middle Eastern male turning around looking furtively," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which called on the Republicans to change the ads.
Amid the furore, there were suggestions yesterday that Mr Bush's strategists are seeking such controversies to shore up Christian Right support.
Although the first round of the campaign ads last week were criticised for images of flag-draped coffins at the charred shell of the World Trade Centre, such imagery has played well to Mr Bush's core supporters. So has Mr Bush's support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.
Meanwhile, Mr Bush has been assiduous in courting the party right. On Thursday, he addressed an evangelical Christian convention, putting himself firmly in their camp by reiterating his opposition to stem cell research, abortion and same sex marriage.
In preying on bigotry, Republicans may have calculated there was little need to court the Arab American vote. A new poll yesterday put Mr Bush's approval rating at just 32% among the sizeable Arab communities living in swing states such as Ohio and Michigan.
Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite Bush supporters who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election.
This new crop of fund-raisers comes as some opinion polls suggest support for the president among Arab-Americans is sinking and at a time when strategists from both parties say Mr. Bush is losing ground with this group. Mr. Bush has been criticized by Arab-Americans who feel they are being singled out in the fight against terrorism and who are uneasy over the administration's Palestinian-Israeli policies.
Yet the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq have been a catalyst for some wealthy Arab-Americans to become more involved in politics. And there are still others who have a more practical reason for opening their checkbooks: access to a business-friendly White House. Already, their efforts have brought them visits with the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., as well as White House dinners and meetings with top administration officials.