http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sterror04mar04,0,129 7314.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Hollywood restaurateur on terror list is held on visa violation By Robert Nolin Staff Writer Posted March 4 2005 Egyptian native Mandoah Ebaid made no secret of his ethnicity. For four years, he and his wife operated a highly visible Middle Eastern restaurant on Hollywood's Young Circle, complete with full Eastern menu, hookah water pipes and nightly belly dancing. Now federal agents have seized Ebaid, who was arrested last weekend for serving beer to minors, after finding his name on a terrorist watch list. Ebaid, who turns 45 on Tuesday, is being held on a visa violation, an immigration official said Thursday. Ebaid's attorney said the detention stems from an error. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office, which are investigating, aren't talking. Hollywood police, who made the arrest, said facts in the case are still too cloudy to come to any concrete conclusions. Ebaid has lived in the United States for about 20 years, the past four in Broward County, said his attorney, Ralph Kenol. Undercover officers said they arrested him Saturday night after he sold alcohol after hours to two youths younger than 21 at the Exotic Bites restaurant owned by his wife, Maria Flores. Three days after the arrest, detectives in a routine check found Ebaid listed as a terrorist suspect on a government roster. They called the Border Patrol, and he was taken to Krome Detention Center, west of Miami, where he remains. "He's red-flagged on a terrorist watch list," Hollywood police spokesman Capt. Tony Rode said. "It's an FBI investigation at this point." Kenol said his client is dedicated to business, not terrorism. "This is a mistake," Kenol said. "He's never been involved in anything that could possibly be interpreted as terrorist activity." Ebaid also goes by the first name Mamdouh, and has previously used the last name of Basyouny. Those "unfamiliar names" could have landed him on the watch list, Kenol said. The lawyer said he's representing Ebaid in an unrelated immigration matter that he declined to disclose. He has yet to speak with government representatives. The only government official to comment was Nina Pruneda of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miami. Ebaid, she said, was being held on unspecified charges as well as an "administrative" visa violation, which typically means a noncitizen has overstayed the limits on a visa. Ebaid has two children, a boy and girl younger than 10. His wife, Flores, taped a two-paragraph statement in her restaurant window, defending her husband's innocence. "He is not a terrorist and has never been involved in anything that would hurt this country," she wrote. "He loves this country and the people." Nicknamed "Manny," Ebaid enjoys a reputation as a friendly and devoted restaurateur among patrons and fellow merchants along Young Circle and Hollywood Boulevard. "He's an incredibly hard-working person," said Jacqui Sovel, who runs a yoga studio next to Exotic Bites. "He's always been super helpful to me." She said Ebaid is at the restaurant most days from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. "He seems like a regular guy," said Delfa Nuzzolese, who owns the Corner Café down the street. Residents near the quaint 10-unit apartment complex where Ebaid and his family live, several blocks from the restaurant, also described him as a pleasant neighbor. Court records show Ebaid's only previous arrest was in Miami in 1999 for marijuana possession. The charge was dropped. Exotic Bites is within eyeshot of Shuckums oyster bar, which several hijackers patronized before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That was the very week Ebaid opened Exotic Bites, said his kitchen manager, Quintin Cortes. "He's a very honorable man. He's very humanitarian," Cortes said. "There must be some mistake." Government watch lists are prone to error, said Aaron Caplan, a lawyer with the Washington state branch of the ACLU who has litigated on behalf of those detained on terror lists. Often the lists include names drawn from e-mails or phone taps and lack dates of birth or even first names, Caplan said. Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts has been detained several times at airports because his name matched one on the list, Caplan said. "There's certainly thousands of people who are in a situation where their name is close to somebody's on the list and they get detained," he said. The ACLU is suing the government, demanding it release its criteria for putting someone on a list. "The government is keeping that a secret," Caplan said. As Exotic Bites reopened Thursday after being closed for several hours, Rode urged caution in the case. "It's too premature," he said. "I would suggest that people not rush to judgment and let the federal agencies conduct an investigation and see how the cards play out." Staff Writers Edgar Sandoval, Ruth Morris and Ann W. O'Neill contributed to this report. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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