Terrorist case against Denver family ended

By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer

11/30/06 "Denver Post " -- -- -A federal judge on Wednesday declared the end of the government's four-year case against a Denver Pakistani-American family once targeted by the FBI as terrorists.

Family members whose lives were turned upside down simply wept. "We've lost everything," longtime Colorado restaurateur Abdul Qayyum said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock accepted plea deals with federal prosecutors who dropped and reduced immigration charges they pursued after their terrorism case fizzled against Qayyum, his daughter Saima Saima, wife Chris Warren and nephew Irfan Kamran.

Now only Haroon Rashid, Saima's husband, is jailed. Federal prosecutors dropped all charges against him, too. But Rashid, jailed for more than two years, still faces deportation after a misdemeanor assault on a gang member who hassled his family.

A federal appeals court on Nov. 20 temporarily blocked Rashid's deportation pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

FBI agents targeted this family of naturalized U.S. citizens from the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands based on secret evidence after the 9/11 attacks. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft trumpeted the case as aggressive action against terrorists.

"When the attorney general of the United States declares your family terrorists," the result is damage "far beyond anything this court can do," defense attorney Ray Moore told Babcock during one of two emotional hearings Wednesday.

The family suffered financially as their restaurant in Castle Rock closed. Children faced teasing; mothers grew deeply depressed.

Babcock acknowledged that the long, hard case was trying on everyone involved. "Sometimes these things take too long. ... This is one of those cases where it just took time to get it right."

The immigration charges FBI agents pursued after allegations of links to al-Qaeda evaporated in 2004 involved statements family members made about a relative to get him a visa to enter the U.S. In multiple plea deals made final Wednesday, Qayyum pleaded guilty to one charge of making a false statement to a federal agent. He received a sentence of one year's probation.

And Kamran, a father of four, pleaded guilty to a petty offense after prosecutors dropped two felony charges. All charges were dropped against Warren and Saima.

"The most important thing that hurt me emotionally was when they pointed guns at my kid and he was shivering" during a raid, Kamran said.

Yet "I still haven't changed my mind about this country," he said. "I'm still positive. There are still a lot of people with good values."

Federal prosecutors defended their actions.

"I don't know if there was any excess in this case. It was done just like any other case would be," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gaouette said.

Now defense attorneys say they're trying to make sure family members' names aren't on federal terrorist watch lists.

Copyright 2006 The Denver Post