USAMA LADEN
23-09-2002, 05:35 AM
Posted on Sun, Sep. 22, 2002
Arrested Sudanese is called `peaceful'
Friends of former pilot raise money for legal costs on INS charges
CRISTINA C. BREEN
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO - Friends of a 30-year-old former Sudanese pilot being held on immigration charges and suspected of possible terrorist links say he is a peaceful man with no connection to the terrorist group al-Qaida.
Authorities took Mekki Hamed Mekki into custody Sept. 15 for making false statements while applying for a U.S. visa. Hamed, who goes by Mekki Hamed, remained in the Forsyth County Detention Center on Saturday.
Federal authorities are investigating whether he is part of Osama bin Laden's terrorist group and whether he was plotting to use a plane as a weapon, according to two government officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
"We know he is innocent. We know him very well. He's a young guy, very kind and very decent," said Jamal Omer, who worked as a taxi driver with Hamed for the past two years.
Members of the Sudanese community in Greensboro, which numbers some 2,500, have formed a committee called Friends of Mekki and have raised about $2,500 for Hamed's legal costs. Dozens are expected to attend his detention hearing scheduled for Monday in Winston-Salem.
"These days, everyone is a suspect, especially if you are a Muslim or have any connection with aviation," Omer said.
Hamed, who goes by Mekki Hamed, was working for the United Yellow Taxi Association while taking engineering classes at N.C. A&T State University, Omer said.
He'd been a co-pilot for the Sudanese air force, but "after September 11, he said it would be very unpopular for a Muslim to become a pilot here," Omer said. "He gave up on being a pilot."
Omer said he believes Hamed came to the United States with a visitor's visa, applied for asylum and was later approved. He said he believes Hamed recently applied for a visa for his wife, who is still in Sudan, which is located south of Egypt. .
Richard Gottlieb, the Immigration and Naturalization Service officer in charge of North Carolina, said he can't comment on the case because it is in the hands of the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Hamed lives in an apartment with two other Sudanese immigrants.
About 75 of United Yellow Cab Co.'s 100 cab drivers are Sudanese, Omer said, and on Saturday afternoon, the company's lot on South Elm Street south of downtown was full of empty cabs.
"Most of the drivers are not working today, because they are so upset," Omer said.
Talk among drivers, who sometimes spend hours at a time waiting for calls in the cab company's parking lot, has centered on Sept. 11 for much of the past year, Omer said, but they didn't think of themselves as part of the story.
"Never had it come into our minds that it would happen to us. We like to live in peace," Omer said. "That's why right now we are in shock."
Badi Ali, president of the Islamic Center of the Triad, where Hamed attended services every Friday, called Hamed "a well-educated, well-disciplined, articulate, polite, modest, likeable man with a soft heart and a sense of humor."
Ali said authorities are wrong in detaining him, because "he came to America for one reason and one purpose only: to earn a better living so he can enhance his own future and help his own family back in Sudan."
Hamed's family is well-known in his hometown of Khartoum, Sudan's capital, Ali said. Hamed's father is a high school principal and a noted scholar, Ali said.
Ali said the "media is being used to intensify" suspicion against Muslims and, as a result, "America is losing its own sensitivity toward diversity."
Since Sept. 11, "the Muslims and the Arabs are guilty now, until we can prove that we are innocent," he said.
"I feel like I am living in a Third World country nowadays, where the secret police have the ultimate say and can spy and interrogate and build a case against me based on secret evidence," Ali said. "This is ridiculous."
Arrested Sudanese is called `peaceful'
Friends of former pilot raise money for legal costs on INS charges
CRISTINA C. BREEN
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO - Friends of a 30-year-old former Sudanese pilot being held on immigration charges and suspected of possible terrorist links say he is a peaceful man with no connection to the terrorist group al-Qaida.
Authorities took Mekki Hamed Mekki into custody Sept. 15 for making false statements while applying for a U.S. visa. Hamed, who goes by Mekki Hamed, remained in the Forsyth County Detention Center on Saturday.
Federal authorities are investigating whether he is part of Osama bin Laden's terrorist group and whether he was plotting to use a plane as a weapon, according to two government officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
"We know he is innocent. We know him very well. He's a young guy, very kind and very decent," said Jamal Omer, who worked as a taxi driver with Hamed for the past two years.
Members of the Sudanese community in Greensboro, which numbers some 2,500, have formed a committee called Friends of Mekki and have raised about $2,500 for Hamed's legal costs. Dozens are expected to attend his detention hearing scheduled for Monday in Winston-Salem.
"These days, everyone is a suspect, especially if you are a Muslim or have any connection with aviation," Omer said.
Hamed, who goes by Mekki Hamed, was working for the United Yellow Taxi Association while taking engineering classes at N.C. A&T State University, Omer said.
He'd been a co-pilot for the Sudanese air force, but "after September 11, he said it would be very unpopular for a Muslim to become a pilot here," Omer said. "He gave up on being a pilot."
Omer said he believes Hamed came to the United States with a visitor's visa, applied for asylum and was later approved. He said he believes Hamed recently applied for a visa for his wife, who is still in Sudan, which is located south of Egypt. .
Richard Gottlieb, the Immigration and Naturalization Service officer in charge of North Carolina, said he can't comment on the case because it is in the hands of the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Hamed lives in an apartment with two other Sudanese immigrants.
About 75 of United Yellow Cab Co.'s 100 cab drivers are Sudanese, Omer said, and on Saturday afternoon, the company's lot on South Elm Street south of downtown was full of empty cabs.
"Most of the drivers are not working today, because they are so upset," Omer said.
Talk among drivers, who sometimes spend hours at a time waiting for calls in the cab company's parking lot, has centered on Sept. 11 for much of the past year, Omer said, but they didn't think of themselves as part of the story.
"Never had it come into our minds that it would happen to us. We like to live in peace," Omer said. "That's why right now we are in shock."
Badi Ali, president of the Islamic Center of the Triad, where Hamed attended services every Friday, called Hamed "a well-educated, well-disciplined, articulate, polite, modest, likeable man with a soft heart and a sense of humor."
Ali said authorities are wrong in detaining him, because "he came to America for one reason and one purpose only: to earn a better living so he can enhance his own future and help his own family back in Sudan."
Hamed's family is well-known in his hometown of Khartoum, Sudan's capital, Ali said. Hamed's father is a high school principal and a noted scholar, Ali said.
Ali said the "media is being used to intensify" suspicion against Muslims and, as a result, "America is losing its own sensitivity toward diversity."
Since Sept. 11, "the Muslims and the Arabs are guilty now, until we can prove that we are innocent," he said.
"I feel like I am living in a Third World country nowadays, where the secret police have the ultimate say and can spy and interrogate and build a case against me based on secret evidence," Ali said. "This is ridiculous."