Fwd: [Reader-list] Don't Make Biryani At Home

[Frederic Madre]

>From: rehan ansari <rehanhasanansari at yahoo.com>
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>Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 09:45:46 -0800 (PST)
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>
>The New York Times
>
>November 17, 2001
>
>PENNSYLVANIA RAID
>
>U.S. Agents Were Doing 'Their Jobs,' 3 Men Say
>
>By SARA RIMER
>Beverly Schaefer for The New York Times
>
>Dr. Masood Shaikh, left, and his brother, Dr. Irshad
>Shaikh, health officials in Chester, Pa., whose home
>was raided by the F.B.I.
>
>HESTER, Pa., Nov. 16 — Dr. Irshad Shaikh, this city's
>health commissioner, who is from Pakistan, says he
>loves America. He says he understands that the Federal
>Bureau of Investigation was just doing its job when
>its agents broke down his door on Tuesday and entered
>his house with guns drawn, followed by members of a
>hazardous materials team in moon suits and gas masks.
>
>He says he is not angry that the F.B.I., acting on a
>tip related to its so-far fruitless anthrax
>investigation, carried out its raid in the middle of
>the day on Tuesday, with neighbors gawking and
>television cameras running, or that among the items
>the agents confiscated were his computer and his
>mother's teddy bears.
>
>Dr. Shaikh, 39, who was trained as a radiologist in
>his country and holds master's and doctoral degrees
>from Johns Hopkins University, appears similarly
>unruffled about the several hours of questioning
>endured by him and his brother Masood, the manager of
>the city's program to reduce lead hazards for
>children.
>
>"The F.B.I. can search my house any time," Dr. Irshad
>Shaikh said in an interview at City Hall today with
>his brother, who lives with him. The two are both
>legal immigrants and are eager to become citizens.
>
>Dr. Masood Shaikh, 40, who was trained as a
>psychiatrist in Pakistan and holds a master's degree
>in public health from Johns Hopkins, is so eager to
>accommodate the F.B.I. that he offered to turn over
>his passport, said the brothers' lawyer, Anthony F.
>List, who was present for the interview today.
>
>Three days after the raid at the brothers' home and at
>the home of their friend, Asif Kazi, a city accountant
>who was born in Pakistan and is now an American
>citizen, the F.B.I. has charged none of the men. Nor
>has it provided any detail on what led to the raid,
>other than to say agents were acting on credible
>information that they had spent more than two weeks
>checking out.
>
>The search warrant and supporting affidavits are
>sealed. But interviews with the brothers and Mr. Kazi
>indicate that at least some of the F.B.I.'s attention
>was focused on a pot the brothers carried to Mr.
>Kazi's house so his wife could prepare a traditional
>Pakistani chicken and rice dish.
>
>Linda Vizi, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I., said the
>raid on Tuesday was "not haphazard in any way."
>
>"It was given thoughtful consideration based on the
>information we had," she said.
>
>The Shaikh brothers and Mr. Kazi, who say they will
>appear before a federal grand jury on Dec. 20, have
>denied any wrongdoing. Mayor Dominic F. Pileggi has
>been effusive in his support of them, as have other
>city officials.
>
>Like the Shaikh brothers, Mr. Kazi, had only praise
>for the F.B.I. But he did not hide his distress over
>what had happened.
>
>"I'm still in trauma," he said. "I cannot sleep
>properly. I cannot eat. You are worried of the fear of
>the unknown. What's going to happen tomorrow?"
>
>Mr. Kazi said he had been at work, and his wife,
>Palwasha, 38, had been home alone Tuesday morning,
>cooking rice for his lunch in her nightgown, when she
>saw the armed agents running toward the house.
>
>"They broke the door," he said. "They kept her sitting
>at gunpoint, in the dining room on a chair. That's the
>standard procedure. I am not complaining."
>
>Mr. Kazi said the agents questioned him about some
>Cipro that they had confiscated from his house. Cipro
>is one of the antibiotics used to treat anthrax.
>
>Mr. Kazi said that the drugs were prescribed by a
>doctor for his wife, to treat repeated bladder
>infections.
>
>Mr. Kazi said the F.B.I. also questioned him about a
>cloudy liquid that he was reportedly seen dumping on
>the ground behind his home. He said it was soapy water
>from the washing machine that had backed up into the
>adjacent sink. "My wife is a maniac as far as washing
>is concerned," he said.
>
>He said agents had also asked about a large
>silver-colored canister that the Shaikh brothers, who
>have been his friends for more than 20 years, were
>seen putting into their car and unloading at his
>house.
>
>The canister, Mr. Kazi and the Shaikh brothers said,
>was a large silver pot that they had brought for Mrs.
>Kazi to use for her prized chicken and rice dish.
>
>"We are only two," Mr. Kazi said. "We use small pots.
>She told them, `Bring a big pot from your house so I
>can cook for you in quantity.' "
>
>The F.B.I.'s search also focused on a health clinic,
>which will serve AIDS patients and others, that is to
>open in Dr. Shaikh's house in January.
>
>The clinic will occupy the first floor and the
>basement, which were previously used as medical
>offices.
>
>Dr. Howell Strauss, a dentist who runs the nonprofit
>AIDS group that will operate the clinic, said that
>renovations on the space began in July, and in the
>last several weeks contractors have been changing the
>radiators, and often working into the evening.
>
>Dr. Strauss said the F.B.I. had searched the clinic's
>space, questioned a carpenter working there, and
>seized, among other items, a Gatorade bottle filled
>with glue that Dr. Strauss said had been used to build
>shelves.
>
>Mr. Kazi, who was hired as city accountant last year,
>said he had been working on his first city budget when
>the F.B.I. agents arrived in his office.
>
>"I just want to excel in my career," he said.
>
>Mr. Kazi said that he had never been in trouble, and
>had only gotten his first parking ticket on Thursday,
>when he went to his lawyer, Mr. List's, office, in
>Media, Pa., and did not have enough coins for the
>meter.
>
>"If, God forbid, I've done something wrong, hang me in
>the middle of the road. If not, leave me alone."
>