NEW YORK (CNN) -- Mohamed Azmath and Syed Shah are just two among the hundreds of mostly immigrant men rounded up by U.S. law enforcement authorities in the post-September 11, 2001, dragnet, but few had their faces splashed around the world in mug shots as often as Azmath and Shah.
They were suspected of ties to the 19 hijackers who crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but, in the end, were found to be guilty only of credit card fraud unrelated to the terrorist attacks.
Even prosecutors now agree that Azmath and Shah were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They were flying on September 11, 2001. They carried box cutters and had shaved their bodies, like some of the hijackers. They had numerous passport photos and a lot of cash. They even lived in Jersey City, New Jersey -- a base in the past for terrorists plotting against the U.S.
"I don't think anyone would say the government acted unreasonably," said U.S. Attorney James Comey, whose office prosecuted their cases.
"It could be that they were victims of extraordinarily bad fortune, that they were flying in the air during the time of the 9/11 attacks, had one-way tickets, and were carrying their devices," Comey continued. "There were a lot of circumstances that warranted the government taking a very, very close look at them."
This was the the two men's first interview with an American news network since their release from U.S. detention and their deportation earlier this year.
They agreed to be interviewed by CNN in their homes in Hyderabad, India, a city of 2.5 million people in south India that has a sizable Muslim population in a mostly Hindu country.
Mohamed Azmath
"They labeled me as a terrorist without any evidence and proof. They just put it in the newspaper and the news everywhere in the world," Azmath said.
"They singled me out as a Muslim," said Shah.
"I was treated by the prison guards as a guilty man," said Shah. "I don't want to go back again."
"America is still the same, but the federal system is totally changed," Azmath said.
Azmath and Shah came to the United States in the mid-1990s. They shared an apartment in Jersey City, right across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and worked for grocery stores, department stores and, finally, a newspaper stand in a Newark, New Jersey, train station, where they earned $300 a week and regularly sent money home to their families.
When the newspaper stand changed ownership on September 1, 2001, Azmath and Shah were laid off. A friend told them of job prospects in San Antonio, Texas, and the men were on their way.
Azmath and Shah were mid-air when the terrorist attacks occurred, and their TWA passenger jet was forced to land in St. Louis, Missouri, as the country's airspace closed.
They decided to continue their journey, boarding an Amtrak train for a 36-hour ride. They paid cash for one-way tickets -- a pattern for illegal drug couriers that caught the eye of a Drug Enforcement Agency agent in Fort Worth, Texas.
When the train stopped in Fort Worth, police boarded the train and accosted Azmath and Shah.
"I did not have anything to do with New York," Azmath blurted, according to the police report.
Azmath was sweating, and Shah was "nervous and evasive," the police observed.
The men had a total of $5,500 cash; two flat, box cutter-type knives; numerous passport photos, showing them both clean shaven and with a full beard; hair dye; and letters written in Arabic.
They also had expired visas.
"The box cutters were the tools of the trade," said Steven Legon, a court-appointed defense attorney who helped Azmath. "Because of what happened, they were singled out, they were profiled, they were pulled aside."
Azmath and Shah were arrested, transferred to federal custody and interrogated about their possible prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks.
The men were sent to New York and held in solitary confinement in the high-security wing of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where they were denied access to mail, phone calls or lawyers for three months.
The FBI searched their apartment, which was down the street from a mosque where Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman once preached to his fellow radicals, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. Rahman is serving a life sentence for the terrorism conspiracy behind the bombing and other thwarted attacks on New York landmarks.
During their detention, Azmath and Shah said, they were repeatedly harassed by jail guards.
"I couldn't sleep for three, four months in the night time. Every half an hour, they come and bang on the door," Shah said. "They kick on my leg shackles, and I had a deep cut."
"Again and again they are saying, 'You are a terrorist, you belong to al Qaeda,'" said Azmath. "I was treated like a dangerous criminal, and I was isolated from everything."
Bureau of Prison officials declined to respond to those claims.
"When I met him, he was in full shackles and manacles. There was a camera there recording our meeting. He was a little teary-eyed, shaken," said Anthony Ricco, another court-appointed attorney who defended Azmath.
"I really felt a sense of his pain. He was a person who was wrongly accused at a very difficult time," Ricco said.
After extensive interviews by the FBI, Azmath and Shah were eventually cleared of any connection to terrorism. But both were charged and eventually pleaded guilty to credit card fraud last June.
Azmath admitted selling a Social Security number to a man who obtained credit cards in the name "Azmath Jaweed" and ran up unpaid balances exceeding $58,000. Azmath netted only a few hundred dollars in the scheme, his attorneys said.
Shah admitted selling 15 fake credit cards for up to $2,000 apiece. One of those cards had an outstanding balance of $281,000.
The men served their sentences, were transferred back to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service custody and were deported.
They were among 765 immigration-related detainees held after September 11, most of whom were deported, according to Justice Department figures.
Separately, the September 11 investigation led to more than 135 individuals being detained on criminal charges.
"These cases teach us, me and you, how important and how cherished the rights are that we have." Ricco said. "After all, it is those rights that were under attack."
In Hyderabad, Azmath is reunited with his wife and son and working in his father's auto parts business, while Shah intends to go to law school.
Both men say their feelings about the United States as a land of opportunity have changed.
"I am trying to heal myself [of] what they did to me, actually. I will never forget those days when I was in solitary confinement," Shah said.
Said Azmath, "It makes me angry, because they caught the wrong guy and just give him [a] hard time because of the religious background or the ethnic look."
Whats your take on this.
I felt bad at first because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then I kept reading to find out not only are they staying in the US on expired visas. Even more so, Azmath admitted selling a Social Security number to a man who obtained credit cards in the name "Azmath Jaweed" and ran up unpaid balances exceeding $58,000.
Shah admitted selling 15 fake credit cards for up to $2,000 apiece. One of those cards had an outstanding balance of $281,000.
Now if this happend in the mid east, south america, or such they would have prolly been sentenced to death for theft. Or have a hand cut off.A number of things would have happend. More so than prision for 3 months, for that large of a crime.
I have more to say, but Im in a rush to hit the late sales today at the mall! Id like to see other thoughts on this tho. And no Brotha, please dont post.
Heres one to stir up shit...
Since when did people inside the US, have rights when they are here unlawfully?They don't."These cases teach us, me and you, how important and how cherished the rights are that we have." Ricco said. "After all, it is those rights that were under attack."
I've always felt America should be how it was back in the past. No "checks" or a permit to live here. You simply move here, talk any language you want to, and live a free life. That was the simple fact what our country was built on.I live in Florida. Everyday I have people bitch about 60% of florida talks nothing but spanish, and they need to learn english. America has no " language".
Yet with over crouding in the world, more and more threats,plus a census to help keep some programs such as social securty,welfare,unemployment, there is indeed a need to keep tabs on who enters the country. No one should be turned away, only for a solid reason. Afaik no other country just lets random people in, and to live there or such. Its a way of life now.Yet if you go to a country/stay there unlawfully, you arn't allowed any rights since you arnt part of the country.
Im sure there were a many misspellings and such.Also some rambling. I hope I made some sense.
