ZGram - 1/5/2002 - "FBI Admits '5 Terrorist Suspects' Story Was 'Speculation'

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

January 5, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Don't you feel jerked around?

[START]

FBI Admits '5 Terrorist
Suspects' Story Was 'Speculation'
By Peter Cheney and Victor Malarek
The Globe and Mail - Canada
1-5-3

Like the posthumous Elvis Presley, Canada's five mysterious terror 
suspects seem to have popped up everywhere.
 
They were at Akswesasne, being smuggled into the United States by 
natives. They were at Toronto's Pearson Airport, where they slipped 
into Canada by claiming refugee status. One was seen on a bus 
entering the Lincoln Tunnel. Another was spotted on a West Coast 
ferry.
 
By the middle of this week, they had starred in hundreds of newspaper 
and television reports and had been on the lips of everyone from U.S. 
President George W. Bush to Senator Hilary Clinton, who announced at 
a press conference that they had entered the United States through 
Canada.
 
But yesterday, the FBI admitted that the most important ingredient in 
the story -- that is, the proof -- is nowhere to be found: "There is 
no border-crossing information that would say they're here," FBI 
spokesman Ed Cogswell said. "And to say they came in from Canada is 
pure speculation."
 
Mr. Cogswell's comments are the latest wrinkle in an odd, highly 
hyped saga that began on Dec. 29, when the FBI announced that it was 
launching a national manhunt for the five men. Although details were 
sketchy, the five were believed to have come to Canada from the 
Middle East before entering the United States on some unstated 
mission.
Arriving just three days before New Year's, which provided an obvious 
peg for terrorism-related stories -- and right in the middle of the 
holiday "silly season" -- the tale of the five mystery men quickly 
assumed tremendous energy.
 
"Frankly, we were surprised at all the coverage," said Sgt. Paul 
Marsh, a spokesman with the RCMP. "It was amazing, really."
 
What Mr. Marsh had expected to be a relatively minor item soon became 
a lead story. By Dec. 30, it was the top item on the CNN newscast, 
with anchor Paula Zahn introducing it as "the big FBI story."
 
The press rushed to fill the obvious gaps in the story, such as how 
the five were supposed to have entered the United States. The New 
York Daily News, for example, reported that they had been smuggled 
across the border at Akwesasne, southwest of Montreal. Grand Chief 
Raymond Mitchell angrily pointed out that there was no evidence to 
support the story. Other news reports offered different accounts: 
Some, for example, said the five were spirited across at road 
checkpoints.
 
A shortage of official information, coupled with pressure to produce 
scoops on the developing story, resulted in heavy cross-pollination 
among the media.
 
By this week, the story had taken on something of a surreal quality. 
On Wednesday, a Pakistani jeweller whose picture is among the five 
released by the FBI emerged at his shop in Lahore to say he has never 
visited the United States. An Associated Press photograph of Mohammed 
Asghar taken at his shop was a near-perfect match for the one 
included on the FBI list under the name Mustafa Khan Owasi.
 
Mr. Asghar, 30, said he was surprised to open a local newspaper and 
see his picture with another man's name beneath it. "I am a Pakistani 
and am living in my country, but American authorities have released 
my picture among those who are being traced by the FBI for entering 
America," he said. "I have no links with any terrorist organization."
 
Mr. Asghar's bit of dissonant information was part of the story's 
general unravelling, which was virtually complete yesterday when the 
FBI admitted that there was no proof that the five had come from 
Canada, that they had crossed the border, or that they were connected 
with terrorism.
 
"We don't know if they ever entered the U.S.," Mr. Cogswell said. 
"And in fact we've never linked these guys to terrorists. Most of 
what we have here is an unknown, and even with these individuals we 
don't know if they are true names with those photographs."
 
"We're chasing rumours," a senior RCMP officer said. "We don't know 
if these five men were ever in Canada and we certainly have no proof 
whatsoever that they crossed into the United States either legally or 
illegally."
 
Asked what might have triggered the initial FBI allegation about the 
five Middle Eastern men entering the U.S. from Canada, the Mountie 
replied caustically: "It was a slow week at the White House. They 
needed something to stir the pot because nothing was happening in 
Iraq."
 

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(Source:  http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGA )