Larissa
2nd January 2003, 05:02
In yet another of its periodical terror campaigns, the FBI announced last Sunday that it was searching five suspects who were supposed to have entered the United States on falsified passports (possibly carrying anthrax viruses disguised as baby powder). The FBI released photos, names and birth dates of the five men believed to be of Middle Eastern origin and sought the public's help tracking them down for questioning. The names of those five are Abid Noraiz Ali, Iftikhar Khozmai Ali, Mustafa Khan Owasi, Adil Pervez and Akbar Jamal.
Today, in Pakistan, Mohammed Asghar, a jeweler living in Lahore, declared that one of those photos, that of "Mustafa Khan Owasi", was actually *his* picture, taken for a forged passport with which he was trying to gain entry into the UK. Associated Press circulated both photos, Owasi's and Ashgar's, and there is no possible doubt that they belong to the same person (http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/01/pakistan.wanted.man.ap/story.pakistan.split.ap.jpg). The forgery was detected in Dubai and the jeweler was sent packing back to Pakistan. Nobody says it, but his forged passport was certainly confiscated by the Dubai authorities.
What did they do with the passport? In our "security-conscious" times, wouldn't they have communicated the fact to British authorities, along with copies of the passport and Ashgar's picture? How did it end up in FBI's
hands? Why was it attributed to "Mustafa Khan Owasi"?
Now they are trying to say the forgers used Ashgar's photo to forge another passport. What half-decent forger would forge a passport for "Owasi" using Ashgar's photo, which they knew had already been detected by the Dubai police and was possibly doing the rounds of all anti-terrorist units in the world? Why would they use the picture of a man to forge a passport for another?
They used to be more careful in their schemes, and more inventive in their explanations, back in Hoover's time. That's because then they weren't so certain of the public's gullibility.
Today, in Pakistan, Mohammed Asghar, a jeweler living in Lahore, declared that one of those photos, that of "Mustafa Khan Owasi", was actually *his* picture, taken for a forged passport with which he was trying to gain entry into the UK. Associated Press circulated both photos, Owasi's and Ashgar's, and there is no possible doubt that they belong to the same person (http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/01/pakistan.wanted.man.ap/story.pakistan.split.ap.jpg). The forgery was detected in Dubai and the jeweler was sent packing back to Pakistan. Nobody says it, but his forged passport was certainly confiscated by the Dubai authorities.
What did they do with the passport? In our "security-conscious" times, wouldn't they have communicated the fact to British authorities, along with copies of the passport and Ashgar's picture? How did it end up in FBI's
hands? Why was it attributed to "Mustafa Khan Owasi"?
Now they are trying to say the forgers used Ashgar's photo to forge another passport. What half-decent forger would forge a passport for "Owasi" using Ashgar's photo, which they knew had already been detected by the Dubai police and was possibly doing the rounds of all anti-terrorist units in the world? Why would they use the picture of a man to forge a passport for another?
They used to be more careful in their schemes, and more inventive in their explanations, back in Hoover's time. That's because then they weren't so certain of the public's gullibility.