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| Home Front: WoT |
| FBI searches home of Muslim family |
| 2006-09-18 |
| JACOB LUECKE of the TribuneÂ’s staff Published Monday, September 18, 2006 EFL FBI agents today searched the home of a Columbia businessman and former Iraqi who has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq. Officer Bill Lee of the Columbia Police Department assists the FBI this morning during a search at 2701 Woodberry Court. About a dozen FBI vehicles parked this morning in front of the home of Shakir Hamoodi, 54, at 2701 Woodberry Court, in the upscale The Pines neighborhood in southwest Columbia, neighbors said. At exactly 9 a.m., the FBI agents left their cars and rushed the house. Two teenagers inside the house were brought outside and escorted to the family car and drove off, said a neighbor who did not want to be identified. The neighbor said the agents entered the house and removed boxes and other items. Some agents stood on the lawn and examined papers pulled from the house. Hamoodi owns World Harvest International and Gourmet Foods on Nifong Boulevard. County records show he owns the Woodberry Court home with Lamya Najem, 40, who a neighbor said teaches at the Islamic School of Columbia Missouri. Jeff Lanza, a spokesman for the FBI in Kansas City, would not say what prompted the raid, but he said the home was not a threat to the community. ... Hamoodi has made several public appearances in opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq. At one event, a July 2005 speech at a Rotary Club event in Jefferson City, he was identified as a nuclear engineer living in Columbia. In 2003 he participated in an MU forum on the war and said: "The U.S. Army is as unwanted as Saddam Hussein. The U.S. Army is probably more unwanted than Saddam Hussein." After SaddamÂ’s capture, Hamoodi told the Tribune the event was insignificant. "They found him in a hole, he canÂ’t lead the resistance from a hole," Hamoodi was quoted as saying. "The war was a lie. Innocent people were killed. Is this worth finding weapons of mass destruction?" |
| Posted by:Gloluting Spereger7514 |