A Government Witch Hunt — Masood Haque’s Film “Witness”

April 4, 2023

Loud protestations allege government prosecutorial abuse, and FBI misconduct, improperly targeting a former president, a political hit job; a “witch hunt.” In fact, it’s those protestations that are a disgraceful politicized assault against rule of law.

But Masood Haque’s documentary Witness, shown at the New York State Writers Institute’s Albany Film Festival, details a true perversion of justice perpetrated by the U.S. government and FBI. A real witch hunt. Right in my home town.

President George W. Bush, in the wake of 9/11, discouraged any reprisals against innocent Muslims. But his government didn’t seem to get the memo, mounting a crazily indiscriminate witch hunt for imagined “terrorists.” (The Albany case was, alas, far from unique.)

Muhammad Hossain, Bangladeshi-born, had managed to get to America as a “dream country” for him. Worked hard, and eventually had his own business, a pizza parlor. He also joined in founding a mosque, on Albany’s Central Avenue.

Hired as imam there was Yassin Aref, an Iraqi Kurd, a prominent participant in their battle against the dictator (and U.S. enemy) Saddam Hussein. Aref had eventually arrived in America too, as a UN-sponsored refugee.

Hossain and Aref were arrested in 2004, charged with a terrorist plot to launder money and buy a stinger missile to kill the Pakistani ambassador. You see, the FBI had paid a criminal fraudster and all-around scumbag named Shahed (“Malik”) Hussein to approach Hossain and entrap him in that nonexistent plot, by getting him to accept a seemingly innocent loan. Aref was brought in merely to witness the loan.

No particle of evidence ever suggested the pair had nefarious intent. They never agreed to anything with Malik involving any missile. (Malik was an FBI “asset” in several further “sting” operations. He also owned the dodgy limo involved in the infamous 2018 Schoharie crash, killing 20. There are calls for an investigation of whether the FBI has been wrongfully protecting him.)

So what, then, was the “terrorist” case against Aref and Hossain? They were bearded Muslims with accents, looking the part. And the government claimed to have reasons to target them. That claim became central to the trial. But it was, they said, based on sensitive classified information that couldn’t be made public.

However, the defense attorneys had to be given access. So (at great expense) the government built a special locked room, an annex to the Court House, wherein those lawyers found a file cabinet. Containing a single sheet of paper. Saying nothing of substance.

So why, after all, were Aref and Hossain singled out for entrapment in the first place? It all boiled down to a notebook, supposedly found in some Iraqi corpse’s pocket, showing Aref’s contact information, calling him a “commander.” But that was a mistranslation, the prosecution ultimately admitted. (And recall that Aref had started out in Iraq fighting against Saddam.) The government also egregiously mistranslated taped conversations, and Aref’s diary entries, to make innocent remarks seem criminal.

The notebook may have been the pretext for targeting Aref. But why did they even seek for a pretext? These witch hunters just wanted to prosecute somebody as a “terrorist.” Anybody. The reality didn’t matter. The notebook simply provided a name.

And what about Hossain? In order to charge Aref with conspiracy, they’d need a co-conspirator. So they just picked Hossain, out of nowhere.

Nevertheless, the judge instructed the jury that they could assume the government had valid reasons for suspecting both men of terrorist links.

The jury convicted them. The verdicts were upheld on appeal. Both served long prison terms. After release, Aref was deported to Iraq in 2019, where he seems to be a well-respected pillar of the community. Hossain returned to Albany and to business. But the film heart-rendingly showed how this travesty of justice was life-shattering for the two innocent victims and their whole families.

The federal prosecutor, William Perichak (father to my daughter’s classmate), unrepentant, was quoted saying all those criticizing the trial are delusional. How often people thusly apply against others judgments more applicable to themselves. This case — and reactions to the Trump prosecutions — are sad reminders how otherwise rational human beings can go off the rails, convincing themselves of absurdities.

But the 9/11 terrorists got one thing right: they’d provoke America to self-harming deeds. Like these shameful Albany prosecutions, blackening our country’s name.

Speaking on camera throughout the film, Muhammad Hossain came across as a sincerely devout man of god. But the final scene was a shocker. Hossain called religion a bad influence in human affairs, saying enough already with all this religion stuff.