Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

urging Congress, the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General and Office of
Professional Responsibility began an investigation, still not completed as of mid-June
2005, of the conduct of the U.S. Attorneys and the FBI in the Mayfield case.
Tajammul Bhatti
On June 20, 2002, several FBI agents with guns drawn arrested as a material witness Dr.
Tajammul Bhatti, a sixty-eight-year-old physician and a U.S. citizen since 1970. 58 In
sealed court documents the FBI alleged that Bhatti was connected to an investigation of
“material support to terrorists.” Bhatti was arrested as the only suspect in a grand jury
criminal proceeding that had not yet been instituted at the time of his arrest. 59
Bhatti became the focus of an FBI investigation in May 2002 when several of his
neighbors, considering him “suspicious,” convinced his landlord to break into his
apartment in Abingdon, Virginia. 60 Upon finding computer equipment and books on
electronics and flying, his neighbors contacted the FBI. Without Bhatti’s knowledge, the
FBI obtained secret warrants to search his apartment and computers. According to
Bhatti and a newspaper reporter who reviewed the sealed warrant and affidavit, the
Department of Justice used “evidence” they found from this search to apply for a
material witness arrest warrant. The evidence included: a New York Times article in
Bhatti’s computer describing in detail the “dirty bomb” allegations against terrorism
suspect Jose Padilla, a phone number in Bhatti’s address book of an old college friend
from Pakistan who now works for Pakistan’s nuclear commission, magazines on planes
and electronics, his multiple computers, shotgun shells, and an antenna wire. 61
Bhatti’s son, Munir Bhatti, told HRW/ACLU that “the FBI told me [my father] was the
suspect, not a witness to anything. The FBI said he may have a link to al-Qaeda.” 62 After
taking Bhatti to FBI headquarters following his arrest, agents spent several hours
Maurice Possley, “Report Blasts FBI Lab; Peer Pressure Led to False ID of Madrid Fingerprint,” Chicago
Tribune, Nov. 14, 2004; Mayfield Complaint, p. 24-25.
58
According to Tajammul Bhatti’s son, who was in constant contact with the FBI during his father’s detention, the
“FBI presumed him armed and dangerous, arresting him with a handful of armed deputies under a seal[ed]
material witness warrant.” HRW/ACLU e-mail interview with Munir Bhatti, son of material witness Tajammul
Bhatti, Los Angeles, California, August 11, 2004.
59
HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Tajammul Bhatti, Abingdon, Virginia, September 2004 (Interview with
Tajammul Bhatti); HRW/ACLU e-mail interview with Munir Bhatti Los Angeles, California, August 11, 2004;
HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Chris Dumond, Cleveland, Ohio, August 2004 (Interview with Chris
Dumond).
60
Bhatti had had a dispute with his landlord during the time of his break-in and was staying at his girlfriend’s
house at the time.
61
Interview with Tajammul Bhatti; Interview with Chris Dumond.
62
Interview with Munir Bhatti.
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