Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

accompanied by extensive searches conducted by federal agents of the witnesses’ houses,
cars, and businesses, as their wives, children, and colleagues watched.
Mujahid Menepta
On October 10, 2001, Mujahid Menepta stepped out of his workplace, in Norman,
Oklahoma, where he worked as a rehabilitative therapist for disabled children. He was
greeted by more than twenty agents, with their guns pulled. 117 Menepta was taken aback;
he had already voluntarily cooperated with the FBI in three interviews sharing his
knowledge of a terrorist suspect whom he knew through the local mosque. With
neighbors watching, the agents told him not to move and threatened to shoot him if he
did. Menepta described his arrest as follows:
At around 8 a.m., I happened to walk out the front door and I was
accosted by about twenty-two agents and four to five cars. They said
“We didn’t have twenty to get John Gotti.” Meaning, if I didn’t
surrender in twenty [seconds] they’d shoot. I was told: “Take one more
step [and we’ll shoot].” The agents were on the perimeter. They came to
the door. Two agents came up to me and said: “Mujahid Menepta you
are under arrest.”
They did not read me my rights. They did not tell me I had the right to a
lawyer. They took me down to the vehicle in the street and put their
machine guns in the truck. 118
Mohdar Abdullah
On September 21, 2001, Mohdar Abdullah was driving a veiled female Muslim friend to
work in San Diego, California, because she had recently been assaulted and was afraid to
be alone in public. At an intersection, armed government agents surrounded his car. His
friend fainted. Like Menepta, Abdullah was surprised by the atmosphere of violence
surrounding his arrest, because he had previously met voluntarily with the FBI several
times to provide information about two suspected hijackers with whom he had worked
almost a year earlier. As Abdullah described the arrests:
117
HRW/ACLU interview with Mujahid Menepta, St. Louis, Missouri, July 22, 2004.
118
Ibid. Menepta’s lawyer, Susan Otto, stated: “The FBI bushwacked him on the street and arrested him. …The
police came in on a raid situation.” HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Susan Otto, attorney for Mujahid
Menepta, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, April 20, 2004 (Interview with Susan Otto).
37 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G)