dont know if this was already posted:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-detainee25.story
Pakistani Man Dies in Jail The Associated Press
October 24, 2001, 2:34 PM EDT
A Pakistani man arrested by the FBI in its investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was found dead in his jail cell, authorities said.
The 55-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released, was found dead Tuesday morning at the Hudson County Jail in Kearny. An autopsy was under way Wednesday to determine the cause of death.
The jail's medical director, Lionel Anicette, said he believes the man died of a heart attack.
Doctors tested nasal swabs, blood and tissue for anthrax, and all the tests were negative for the bacteria, officials said. The man's cellmate and a handful of guards also received nasal-swab tests for anthrax, which also came back negative, jail administrator Kurt Thoens said.
The man was arrested Sept. 19 as part of the investigation into the terrorist attacks, a government source who insisted on anonymity told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Anicette said that connection led authorities to test the man's body for anthrax as a precaution.
The man's body showed no signs of trauma or foul play, authorities said. He had been held on immigration charges, authorities said. Immigration officials didn't immediately return calls for comment Wednesday.
The man had complained recently of pain in his gums, saw a dentist and was given tetracycline, Delemos said.
Special Agent Sandra Carroll, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Newark office, would not say how the man figured into the investigation.
"We never filed criminal charges against the individual," she said. "I can't say whether we considered him an integral part of the Sept. 11 investigation or not." Officials have not made any link between the Sept. 11 attacks and anthrax found in New Jersey, New York, Florida and Washington.
A postal worker hospitalized near Trenton is believed to have inhaled anthrax. The woman worked at a Trenton-area postal facility where at least three anthrax-tainted letters were processed. Two other postal workers in the state have skin anthrax, and a third likely had the bacteria.
After the death, hazardous materials experts were sent to the jail as a precaution, Deputy Fire Director Jose Cruz said.
In a related matter, Carroll said anthrax test results are still pending on items the FBI took from the Jersey City apartment of three men detained after the attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that articles on bioterrorism were found inside the apartment of the men, Mohammad Pervez, Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan.
Azmath and Khan have been detained since they were picked up in Texas on an Amtrak train, carrying $5,000 in cash and box-cutting knives similar to those used by hijackers. Pervez was charged last week with lying to federal investigators about financial transactions involving his bank account.
Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.