June 2, 2004
The Times-Picayne, New Orleans, LA:
 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1086159411327130.xml

The Times-Picayune

News

HIGHWAY ROBBERY?
Mississippi police seized $27,000 from two N.O. men charged with no crime -- 
and a state law says they don't have to give it back.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
By Jeffrey Meitrodt
Staff writer

"They know it is not drug money, they know it is not terrorist money. They
know that in their hearts. But they want to hurt us the worst way they can,
legally, because we are Arabs." ATIYA SALEH New Orleans businessman

When Atiya Saleh saw the flashing lights of a squad car pull up behind his
Ford sedan on Interstate 55 near Brookhaven, Miss., he didn't think twice
about the $27,000 in cash in a plastic grocery bag in the trunk.

He and his business partner, fellow Palestinian immigrant Shareef Quattom,
had received the money that morning from a Jackson merchant as a down
payment for their corner grocery store in New Orleans. The men were
traveling to Jackson with the buyer, Jordanian immigrant Majed Atta, to help
him move some of his belongings to New Orleans. Saleh didn't think there was
anything strange -- or illegal -- about carrying that much money in his car.

But Mississippi officials did.

Though Saleh and his partner carried papers documenting the business deal
that required the $27,000 and though all three men are in compliance with
U.S. work and residency rules, they were held for seven hours during which
they were subjected to a strip search, drug-sniffing dogs and interrogation
by local and federal officials.

But what Saleh and Quattom deemed the most outrageous indignity took place
upon their release, at 5 a.m. the next day: Although the sheriff's
department found no drugs or any other basis to charge them with a crime,
officials told the partners they were going to keep their money anyway in
case they could link it to illegal activity. The only offense any of the men
was booked with that night: careless driving.

"They know it is not drug money, they know it is not terrorist money," Saleh
said. "They know that in their hearts. But they want to hurt us the worst
way they can, legally, because we are Arabs."

Nearly three months after they were detained in Mississippi, Saleh and
Quattom have yet to be charged with any crime. But to their mounting anger
and dismay, their $27,000 is still in Lincoln County.

Capt. Dustin Bairfield, the deputy in charge of the investigation, said he
can't release the money unless federal officials inform him that they are
not pursuing charges against any of the three men. Even if the feds pass on
the case, he said, local officials still might convene a grand jury and seek
a state indictment for money laundering.

Bairfield denied the incident has anything to do with racial profiling.

"I hate that they feel that way, because it is strictly business," Bairfield
said. "It has nothing to do with who they are."

Saleh and Quattom aren't the only immigrants to run into problems when
transporting large sums of money across Mississippi, according to civil
rights advocates and defense attorneys.

Attorneys said immigrants and foreign visitors are typically the targets of
these stops because they often speak little or no English, are easily
intimidated by authorities and frequently travel with large sums of money.

"This is the dirty little secret that nobody wants to talk about," said
Jackson attorney Kathy Nester, who won a settlement after suing officials in
nearby Rankin County over an alleged racial profiling incident in 1995
involving a Mexican man. "It is happening every day, and it is happening big
time to Arab-Americans now."

But critics who claim immigrants are being targeted have no comprehensive
data showing how widespread the incidence of asset forfeiture based on
racial and ethnic profiling may be.

The state attorney general's office denies there is a problem, noting that
just one complaint has been lodged.

"We have no evidence that there is a systemic problem out there," said
Geoffrey Morgan, the attorney general's chief of staff.

Keeping the change

Still, police in Mississippi can seize assets in ways that officers in other
jurisdictions cannot.

In Louisiana, local officials must return a person's property within 72
hours if they are not charged with a crime under a 1997 law, which was
passed after law enforcement agencies in Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis
parishes were caught conducting questionable highway stops.

The federal Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, passed in 2000, made it
easier for property owners to recover assets and shifted the burden of proof
in such cases from the property owner to the government.

"In most places, it has gotten better because of the reforms of the late
1990s," said New Orleans attorney Tim Meche, who specializes in asset
forfeiture cases. "But it sounds like there are still abuses going on in
Mississippi."

One difference could be a money-laundering statute passed by the Mississippi
Legislature in 1998. Under the law, attorneys said, police agencies can
seize cash -- even if no illegal substances are found -- as long as they
suspect the money was generated through unlawful activity such as drug
trafficking.
C
ritics said local law enforcement agencies have a vested interest in seizing
as much cash as they can, because under Mississippi law they can use it to
buy squad cars and other equipment if the property owner doesn't attempt to
reclaim it within 30 days.

Attention and ridicule

Among Arab-Americans, Mississippi has a reputation for being a good place to
steer clear of, said former Jackson merchant Atta, who is now selling
groceries on Congress Street in New Orleans.

It wasn't like that before Sept. 11, 2001, said Atta, a native of Jordan who
moved to the United States at 16 and attended college in Hattiesburg. His
fond memories of the years he spent in Mississippi brought him back to the
state in 2001, when he and his family decided to leave Florida, their home
for 10 years.

He got a rude reception. Though a white businessman in Biloxi had agreed to
lease Atta his convenience store, the deal collapsed shortly after the
terrorist attacks.

"He changed his mind," Atta said. "He called me a terrorist."

That wasn't the end of Atta's troubles. His last name -- which is the same
as that of alleged terrorist ringleader Mohammed Atta -- attracted the
attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which thought the two men
might be related, especially since they both had ties to Orlando.

But after interviewing Atta in Biloxi, federal agents found no reason to
either charge or detain him. Not only are the men not related; they're from
different Middle Eastern countries.

"He was a very understanding guy," said a federal official who was involved
in the matter. "We just had to go talk to him and check him out."

Though some Arab-Americans have complained of mistreatment at the hands of
federal officials, Atta said most of the agents he dealt with were polite
and professional. He said he became upset with just one agent, who suggested
that he change his last name to avoid further problems.

"I said, 'If I change my name, I cannot change my look,' " said Atta, who
has dark skin, a bushy brown beard and a heavy Middle Eastern accent.

Deborah Madden, the FBI's spokesperson in Jackson, said she can't dispute
that such a remark was made, but she said "that is not something we would
do. It is contrary to the training that our agents receive and it is
contrary to our purpose of respecting people."

Despite the unwelcome attention, Atta said he still carries the business
card of one of the FBI agents who interviewed him. He said the agent went to
his children's school, where they were being teased over the terrorist
attacks, and talked to school officials. "My kids never had any trouble
after that," Atta said.

Atta and his wife weren't so lucky, even after they moved from Biloxi to
Jackson. When his wife went shopping, she often was harassed. Once, Atta
recalled, someone even tugged at her traditional veil.

"I would drive around and people would call me Osama bin Laden and give me
the finger," Atta said. "This happen like 70 or 80 times. It hurts. I went
to the doctor many times for stress because of that."

Watching each other

Earlier this year, tired of such harassment, Atta decided to move to New
Orleans, a city many Arab-Americans say enjoys a reputation for tolerance.

In March, Atta entered into an agreement to buy a small grocery in the 9th
Ward for $92,000. The deal required him to put up $34,000 in cash, $7,000 of
which was earmarked for the broker who arranged the deal. Atta said he
earned the money selling his stake in a Chevron station on the north side of
Jackson. He delivered the cash on the morning of March 10 to Quattom and
Saleh, as well as four checks totaling $16,000. He agreed to pay the balance
over the next 17 months.

Quattom and Saleh didn't expect to hold on to the cash long. The next day,
the partners were scheduled to take over a Spur gasoline station on Franklin
Avenue and were going to use the cash as part of the payment on the station,
the first of several small businesses they hoped to buy as partners.

Saleh and Quattom both were raised in Jerusalem. Quattom arrived first in
the United States. In 1996, at age 20, he moved from the Middle East to
Houston, where his father owned a convenience store, a furniture outlet and
two other shops. Two of his brothers joined him.

"My dad had too many businesses, and he said he needed us to come over and
help out," said Quattom, who barely spoke English when he arrived. "It was a
big difference from where I came from. It took me a year to start talking to
people."

Within four years, Quattom -- who started out making $8 an hour at the
convenience store -- had saved $75,000. He invested it in New Orleans, where
he turned an abandoned flower shop on St. Claude Avenue into a grocery
store.

Business was good, but Quattom grew restless. "I stay two years and I get
bored from the customers," he said. "I have to change -- to get different
faces."

After buying another inner-city grocery store on Congress Street, Quattom
leased his St. Claude location to Saleh, another recent immigrant to the
city.

Saleh, 35, has been away from the Middle East much longer than his
27-year-old partner. After finishing high school in Jerusalem, he earned an
engineering degree in Pakistan and a business degree in New Zealand. When he
arrived here in 2000, he had been away from home for 13 years and spoke
fluent English.

He went to work for a company that helped produce trade shows, garnering a
nickname, Frank, from a boss who couldn't pronounce his Arabic name.

Saleh teamed up with Quattom last fall, a few months after two armed robbers
burst into the Congress Street store, stuck a gun in Quattom's mouth and
demanded money. They got away with $1,000. Quattom said the police caught
one suspect, whom Quattom helped identify.

Quattom said the experience convinced him it was time to get a partner.

"I was the only Arab working in the neighborhood," Quattom said. "I was
different here, and it was a little bit bad neighborhood. I say to Frank,
'Why don't we work together. We watch each other.' "

Cash and carry

The robbery also confirmed the partners' belief about the best place to keep
their money. Unlike many Arab-American store owners, who often hide large
sums of cash in the store or at home, Quattom and Saleh said they head to
the bank to make business deposits at least every other day.

Emad Wajeeh, former president of the New Orleans chapter of the National
Association of Arab-Americans, wishes other immigrants from the Middle East
would follow suit. He said he knows of one store owner who was robbed of
$50,000 that he kept in his freezer.

"It is too stupid to keep the money in your store," Quattom said. "It is not
safe for your workers."

But he made an exception to that policy March 10, the day he and Saleh were
pulled over while driving through the rolling pine forests of Lincoln
County, a rural area about 50 miles south of their destination: Jackson.

Though they finished their deal with Atta that morning, they didn't hit the
road until they closed the store at 8 p.m. They planned on making a quick
trip to Jackson to help Atta with his move, and returning in time to close
the deal on their new Franklin Avenue store in the morning. The cash stayed
with them all day.

"There was no point in putting it in the bank," Saleh said. "Because the
next day, we were due to sign on the gas station and pay a deposit."

They had been driving for about two hours when they were stopped on I-55 by
a Lincoln County sheriff's deputy. American Civil Liberties Union officials
say they have received no complaints of racial harassment in Lincoln County.
That makes sense to local residents, who say the community is a
live-and-let-live kind of place.

In Brookhaven, the county seat, many of the convenience stores have been
taken over by Indian immigrants in recent years. Even on Sept. 11, the
customers were friendly, said Jaskarn Singh, 24, who operates the Gas and
Shop Grocery near the local high school.

"I've never had no problems," said Singh, who moved to the small town seven
years ago. "Nobody has pulled me over because I look different."

Saleh doesn't think race had anything to do with his stop, either, because
no one could have seen inside his car in the dark. Saleh figured he was
stopped because he was driving a car with an out-of-state license plate.

Atta, who was riding in the rear seat, said the deputies flashed their
lights on the car, prompting Saleh -- who was driving -- to swerve slightly.

"We didn't think, 'Oh no, they are going to take the money,' " Saleh said.
"It is legal money. Why should we be worried about it? We have papers for
it."

Saleh said the deputies asked a few standard questions: Do you have anything
illegal in the car? Do you have any drugs? Do you have any guns?

Saleh said he assured the deputies that he was carrying nothing illegal. He
even agreed to let them search the car when they asked. When the deputies
opened the trunk, they found the bag of cash, a boxful of store invoices and
the paperwork for the Franklin Avenue store transaction, Saleh said.

Money tied up

Though the three men said they explained to the deputies what the money was
doing there, they said the deputies didn't believe them. They said they were
handcuffed and forced to stand on the side of the highway for two hours
while dogs searched their vehicle for drugs.

After the search came up empty, the three men said they were taken in
separate cars to the sheriff's department. They were never arrested, and
they said the deputies didn't explain where they were going or why.

"It is scary," Quattom said. "It is dark and stuff and I start thinking,
maybe he wants to do something, kill me or something, or put me in the
street. When they took me to the jail I feel good, because at least I know
where I am going."

At the sheriff's department, officials checked the immigration status of the
three men with the help of U.S. Customs agents. They found out that none of
them is in the country illegally: Atta is a U.S. citizen, Quattom is a legal
resident and Saleh -- who recently married a U.S. citizen -- is here on a
work permit.

The men were asked constantly to explain about the money: where it came
from, where it was going. Shortly before they were released, Saleh said he
got a word of advice from Capt. Bairfield.

"He said, 'You are not supposed to walk around with cash like this; this is
the United States. If you walk around with money like this, we will think
drugs or money laundering,' " Saleh said.

Bairfield denied making the statement, but he added, "I think it is
something that was maybe misconstrued."

Bairfield declined to describe either the stop, search or questioning of the
three men, or explain what made him suspect that the cash was tied to
illegal activity.

"We are not allowed to give out information like this in a (pending) case,"
he said.

But Bairfield said this is the first time the department has seized cash in
a stop that didn't turn up drugs or other controlled substances. While
Quattom and Saleh's attorneys have sent him several additional documents
involving the two store deals, he said he is still not satisfied that the
source of the cash has been proven.

Bairfield said he also wants to know whether the proper taxes were paid on
the money, and whether all the proper reports have been filed on the deal.
He said he is waiting for the IRS to complete its investigation before local
officials decide what to do with the case.

Though he originally told Quattom and Saleh that they could expect a
resolution of the case within 10 days, he said that was a mistake.

"That is a statement that is partially my fault," he said. "I didn't realize
it would take about a month for the IRS to take a look at it. I guess they
were backed up because of tax season."

IRS officials declined to comment.

"Due to our disclosure rules, we can't comment on whether there is a case or
there is not a case," said Mark Green, an IRS spokesman for the Southeast
region based in Atlanta.

Quattom and Saleh insist they have paid every tax they owe and reported
everything they were required to report to the federal government. Their
attorney says he has cooperated with every request made by Lincoln County
officials for additional documentation of the grocery store deals, but he
doesn't see why the burden of proof should fall on his clients.

"I think this is going to be one of the best understood, clearly explained
and researched transactions for the sale of a neighborhood grocery store
that anyone has ever seen," New Orleans attorney Tony Dunbar said. "I think
we will be able to answer everyone's questions. I just think it is very
strange and sad that you have to answer all of these questions."

So far, Saleh said, the only break he and his partner got came a few hours
after they left Lincoln County, when the Iranians who owned the Franklin
Avenue store agreed to finish the deal, even if it meant taking much less
cash up front.

Quattom and Saleh, who already have spent $2,500 on legal fees to reclaim
their money, said they won't back down until they win.

"I will pay $25,000 to get $2,000 back -- but I will not leave a penny for
those sons of bitches," Saleh said. "Because it was clear from the first
minute that they were going to try their best to take this money. Nothing
else was a concern to them."

In the meantime, they won't be taking any more trips to Jackson.

"I'll never drive through Mississippi again," Quattom said. "That is another
country there -- that is not the United States.
. . . . . . .
Jeffrey Meitrodt can be reached at jmeitrodt@timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3497.

******************************************************
FEAR also offers an unmoderated discussion list and digests for all lists
List unsubscribe: mailto:fear-list-request@mapinc.org?Body=unsubscribe
Swap to digest: mailto:owner-fear-list@mapinc.org?subject=digest
******************************************************