Somali acquitted in terror inquiry

Man was accused of lying on immigration documents
By Kelly Thornton
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 2, 2004

Somali war refugee Abdullahi Jama Amir, one of more than a dozen people prosecuted for immigration crimes discovered during the local terror probe, has become the first to beat the rap.

Amir, a 64-year-old father of eight and a naturalized U.S. citizen, was acquitted Friday of conspiring to lie on immigration documents for Mohdar Abdullah, a man who would later be held as a material witness in the probe of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mahir Sharif, Amir's lawyer, said the verdict is evidence that American attitudes toward Muslims have softened in the wake of prisoner-abuse scandals in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"I think that's what the jury did; the jury said to the government, 'We're not going to accept every theory you're going to throw at us about Muslims anymore. If you don't prove your case, we're going to find them not guilty,' " Sharif said.

The government did prove its case against Amir's co-defendant, Ahmed Sharif Aliwe, 42, another Somali refugee who was days away from taking the oath of citizenship when he was arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury.

Aliwe was convicted of one count of conspiring to make false statements to immigration officials and faces up to five years in prison and possible deportation. Sentencing was set for Aug. 23.

Prosecutors said they saw no broader meaning in the jury's verdict.

"Based on my conversation with the jurors after the case, it was clear to me they carefully and conscientiously looked through all of the evidence and made their decision based on the evidence," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Parmley. "They weren't sending a message to anybody."

Amir, Aliwe and a third man who is a fugitive, Ali Said Dawaleh, were charged in June 2002. They were accused of signing documents in support of Abdullah's immigration applications, in which he claimed to be a Somali fleeing the civil war. It is typical for Somali refugees to have no documents when they flee their homeland.

However, prosecutors said in the indictment that Abdullah is from Yemen, and that he entered the United States using a visitor's visa he obtained with a Yemeni passport. Abdullah, who does not speak Somali, pleaded guilty a month after the arrests of Amir and Aliwe to lying on his asylum application. He was recently deported to Yemen.

In court records, authorities said Abdullah regularly dined and prayed with Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid al-Midhar and Hani Hanjour, three San Diego-linked Sept. 11 hijackers, and helped them obtain Social Security cards, driver licenses, flight school information and rides from Los Angeles International Airport. Abdullah's attorneys have said he was simply trying to help fellow Muslims and had no prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot. He was never charged with terrorism.

Their lawyers said Aliwe and Amir admit they signed the documents, but without knowledge that Abdullah was not Somali. Amir, an employee at the Horn of Africa, a social services organization that assists African refugees, said that he had never met Abdullah, and that he didn't know how Abdullah obtained the letter.

Aliwe's lawyer, Stephen Lemish, said his client signed the document because Abdullah asked him to do so repeatedly. They met at a mosque frequented by Somalis. Abdullah told Aliwe he was from a section of Somalia where the people speak mostly Arabic.

"The guy just kept bugging him so many times to sign the document he just signed the document so he would go away," Lemish said. Prosecutors agreed with that characterization.

The key to Aliwe's conviction was probably his own admissions to federal agents.

"Mr. Aliwe admitted that when he signed the letter he knew (Abdullah) wasn't from Somalia and he knew that letter was going to be used to help him with immigration," Parmley said.

Aliwe, a cab driver and certified auto mechanic who has also been a math tutor for college students, fled war-torn Somalia and made his way to the United States via refugee camps in Kenya. He paid back his travel expenses.

Now, he is terrified of being forced to return to Somalia, Lemish said. The Supreme Court said it would decide in the fall if the government can send immigrants back to countries that have not agreed to accept them, something their advocates contend threatens their safety. The African country is unstable and has no central government to agree to his return.

"That's his biggest fear," Lemish said. "As far as criminal penalty for this, it wasn't that much. But it's almost like a death penalty case because if he goes back there, that's what's going to happen."

Aliwe did not testify; Amir did. Both were free on bond before the trial; Aliwe was allowed to remain free until sentencing.

Lemish said the men were snared in the "wide net" cast in the terror investigation.

"I don't think he would have ever been prosecuted if it wasn't somehow connected to the wide net, and I'm really concerned about them deporting people they weren't deporting before because of their connection to the net," Lemish said.

"Of course, Mr. Aliwe doesn't have any connection to terrorism, but if you're within one or two degrees of it you're pretty much screwed."