[lbo-talk] Four Kurds in Harrisonburg

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Four Kurdish men -- Ahmed Haji Abdullah,  Fadhil Noroly, Rasheed  
Qadir Qambari,  and Amir Rashid -- who lived in Harrisonburg,  
Virginia were rounded up by the FBI for conducting "unlicensed money- 
transfer business" (involving "nearly $3,000,000 overseas over six  
years" [<http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vaw/press_releases/ 
abdullah_21Oct2005.html>]).  Two of them were also charged with  
"theft of public money," as they were receiving HUD housing  
assistance at the same time as running the aforementioned money- 
transfer business.  One of them, Qambari, was convicted this January:  
<http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vaw/press_releases/qambari_30jan2006.html>.

Aside from Max and Barkley Rosser, no one seems to be covering this  
news.

<http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002101.html>
<http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002103.html>

 From Max's and Barkley's reports, it appears that the men did what  
they did simply because they wanted to help Kurdish immigrants send  
money to relatives back home, not for any nefarious purposes like  
money laundering for drugs or terrorism.

The Department of Homeland Security boasted last year: "Using new  
provisions of the Patriot Act, ICE has launched a nationwide campaign  
against illegal/unlicensed money transmittal businesses that has  
resulted in the arrest of more than 155 individuals and 142 criminal  
indictments, over $25 million in illicit profits seized, and several  
unlicensed money transmittal businesses shut down" (at <http:// 
www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=43&content=5077&print=true>).   
Many of them may involve immigrants who are as inoffensive as the  
four Kurdish men appear to me.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>