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Egyptian-born radiologist doesn't have to testify before grand jury here
Thursday, September 27, 2001
By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
An Egyptian-born radiologist from Lawrence County who has been repeatedly questioned by federal authorities since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., is not a suspect in the crimes, the U.S. attorney's office said yesterday.
Dr. Basem Moustafa Hussein, who had already been cleared by FBI agents in New Mexico, was scheduled to appear before a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh yesterday to answer more questions.
But after meeting with agents and prosecutors Tuesday, he was excused from testifying.
"He has been cooperative and has provided the information that has been requested," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Brysh in a prepared statement. "He is not a suspect in the investigation."
The FBI would not comment and referred questions to the U.S. attorney's office.
"It's fabulous," Hussein said yesterday when he heard the news at his townhouse in suburban New Castle. "I think it was probably that they wanted to get the explanation from me personally. They asked a lot of biographical information. We went into whether I knew certain individuals and whether I am a member of al-Qaida (Osama bin Laden's terrorist network). I haven't been involved in supporting any activity or funding any activity like that or even conversing with anyone about committing such a thing. I am innocent."
But Hussein, who works under contract throughout the state at various hospitals, said the FBI had not yet returned items seized from his home, including his medical board certificates. He said he couldn't work without them.
Although most of his jobs are in Pennsylvania, he had been working under contract on an Indian reservation in New Mexico. When the hijacked airliners hit the World Trade Center, he was reading X-rays at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, N.M.
He took a leave of absence from that job after the FBI began questioning him, and he said he didn't know whether he could go back.
"This shouldn't have happened," he said. "I should be working right now in the warmer weather of New Mexico."
Hussein, 36, and his attorney, J. Kerrington Lewis, met with prosecutors, FBI agents and postal inspectors Tuesday for several hours at the federal courthouse, Downtown.
"I met [them] at their request in lieu of the grand jury hearing," said Hussein. "It was voluntary on my part. I was trying to cooperate. I answered many, many questions. I'm hoping they lay off an innocent man so I can go back to work."
Lewis said his client was a hard-working man who took care of his disabled parents in Canada and had nothing to do with the attacks.
"Really it was just a follow-up on the information on his medical background, and some information regarding his family," he said. "Basically, Dr. Hussein has been caught up in the hysteria because he is, of course, Egyptian. But he is clearly not involved in any criminal activity. He's a good, decent man. It's unfortunate that he has been in this situation. The only thing that could compound the tragedy in New York would be to have innocent people being accused of things that they have nothing to do with."
Following the attacks, federal agents searched Hussein's townhouse after the building manager who had entered the home spotted something she regarded as suspicious and notified police. Agents removed personal items, including phones, a computer monitor, credit card receipts and medical board certificates.
Authorities also seized what appeared to be flight manuals. Hussein insists they are instructions for flight simulator computer games that he bought at an electronics store in Ross Park Mall.
FBI agents in Albuquerque, N.M., who had detained Hussein and then released him, said on Sept. 13 that he had been cleared.
"He's not under arrest, he's not under suspicion," agent Doug Beldon said at the time. "We want to exonerate the innocent and implicate the guilty. In this case, we exonerated the innocent."
After the attacks, Hussein said, FBI agents questioned him that night at his hotel. The next morning, he said, agents detained him. The next day, they cleared him. A few days later, however, a subpoena arrived at his New Mexico attorney's office asking him to appear at 9:30 a.m. yesterday before the grand jury in Pittsburgh.
Hussein said over the weekend that he had been singled out because he appeared to be the ideal suspect. He has Arab roots, he's Muslim and he's a single doctor without social ties to his neighbors. It didn't help that he has an affinity for aviation. In a resume filed with his application for a Pennsylvania medical license, he describes himself as an "aficionado and recreational student of all types of commercial and military aircraft and their histories."
But he said the "Arabic literature" found in his apartment was nothing more than expressions included in letters sent to him from family members.
Hussein moved from Egypt to Canada with his family when he was 6 years old. Although he's a Canadian citizen, he has been a permanent resident of the United States since the 1980s and has been living in Neshannock, a New Castle suburb, for the last two years.
Hussein's parents and three sisters still live in Canada, where his father worked as an engineer and where he graduated from the University of Ottawa.