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>
