Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch
Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch
Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch
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urging Congress, the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspec<strong>to</strong>r General and Office of<br />
Professional Responsibility began an investigation, still not completed as of mid-June<br />
2005, of the conduct of the U.S. At<strong>to</strong>rneys and the FBI in the Mayfield case.<br />
Tajammul Bhatti<br />
On June 20, 2002, several FBI agents with guns drawn arrested as a material witness Dr.<br />
Tajammul Bhatti, a sixty-eight-year-old physician and a U.S. citizen since 1970. 58 In<br />
sealed court documents the FBI alleged that Bhatti was connected <strong>to</strong> an investigation of<br />
“material support <strong>to</strong> terrorists.” Bhatti was arrested as the only suspect in a grand jury<br />
criminal proceeding that had not yet been instituted at the time of his arrest. 59<br />
Bhatti became the focus of an FBI investigation in May 2002 when several of his<br />
neighbors, considering him “suspicious,” convinced his landlord <strong>to</strong> break in<strong>to</strong> his<br />
apartment in Abingdon, Virginia. 60 Upon finding computer equipment and books on<br />
electronics and flying, his neighbors contacted the FBI. Without Bhatti’s knowledge, the<br />
FBI obtained secret warrants <strong>to</strong> search his apartment and computers. According <strong>to</strong><br />
Bhatti and a newspaper reporter who reviewed the sealed warrant and affidavit, the<br />
Department of Justice used “evidence” they found from this search <strong>to</strong> apply for a<br />
material witness arrest warrant. The evidence included: a New York Times article in<br />
Bhatti’s computer describing in detail the “dirty bomb” allegations against terrorism<br />
suspect Jose Padilla, a phone number in Bhatti’s address book of an old college friend<br />
from Pakistan who now works for Pakistan’s nuclear commission, magazines on planes<br />
and electronics, his multiple computers, shotgun shells, and an antenna wire. 61<br />
Bhatti’s son, Munir Bhatti, <strong>to</strong>ld HRW/ACLU that “the FBI <strong>to</strong>ld me [my father] was the<br />
suspect, not a witness <strong>to</strong> anything. The FBI said he may have a link <strong>to</strong> al-Qaeda.” 62 After<br />
taking Bhatti <strong>to</strong> FBI headquarters following his arrest, agents spent several hours<br />
Maurice Possley, “Report Blasts FBI Lab; Peer Pressure Led <strong>to</strong> False ID of Madrid Fingerprint,” Chicago<br />
Tribune, Nov. 14, 2004; Mayfield Complaint, p. 24-25.<br />
58<br />
According <strong>to</strong> Tajammul Bhatti’s son, who was in constant contact with the FBI during his father’s detention, the<br />
“FBI presumed him armed and dangerous, arresting him with a handful of armed deputies under a seal[ed]<br />
material witness warrant.” HRW/ACLU e-mail interview with Munir Bhatti, son of material witness Tajammul<br />
Bhatti, Los Angeles, California, August 11, 2004.<br />
59<br />
HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Tajammul Bhatti, Abingdon, Virginia, September 2004 (Interview with<br />
Tajammul Bhatti); HRW/ACLU e-mail interview with Munir Bhatti Los Angeles, California, August 11, 2004;<br />
HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Chris Dumond, Cleveland, Ohio, August 2004 (Interview with Chris<br />
Dumond).<br />
60<br />
Bhatti had had a dispute with his landlord during the time of his break-in and was staying at his girlfriend’s<br />
house at the time.<br />
61<br />
Interview with Tajammul Bhatti; Interview with Chris Dumond.<br />
62<br />
Interview with Munir Bhatti.<br />
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G) 22