Registration for the NY Times site is free - but in the interest of time, here is the article (the names of the five are given in the body of the article):
October 8, 2001
5 Young Israelis, Caught in Net of Suspicion
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
As their lawyer tells it, when the five young men were picked up by F.B.I. agents in midday on Sept. 11, they had a box cutter with them. One man carried $4,000 in cash, another had two passports.
In short, there probably were good reasons to be suspicious of the men who became the subjects of widespread news coverage.
What those early news accounts missed, however, was that all five of the men were Israeli Jews, and that if they had box cutters, it was because at least four of them and possibly all five worked for Urban Moving Systems, a household moving company in New York and New Jersey.
They are now facing deportation for overstaying their visas and other immigration offenses, but their lawyer says their case is a reminder that though roughly 500 people have now been detained as part of the crackdown on possible terrorists, that does not mean all of them are part of any terror network.
Driving a large van across the George Washington Bridge toward Manhattan hours after the deadly attack on American landmarks, the five men, well-built and in their 20's, were speaking in a foreign language. They appeared to be from the Middle East. By some accounts, they seemed to be making light of the tragic situation.
Besides the cash and the passports, one man had fresh pictures of the smoldering wreckage of the trade center in his camera, images he captured by standing rather conspicuously on the roof of the van. The men were taken into custody, with news reports leaving the wide impression that authorities had detained a group of suspicious men taking pictures or rooting for the terrorists from the New Jersey side of the bridge.
They have spent much of the last 27 days inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, getting a firsthand glimpse of a side of New York they never dreamed of seeing when they came to the United States as tourists. As much as anything, friends and families say, they came seeking a respite from life in a war zone.
These days, they would be thrilled to return. Shortly after the five Israelis arrived at the detention center, a group of Pakistani Muslims pressured them to join in a hunger strike, according to the Israelis' lawyer, Steven Noah Gordon. That only fortified the impression that somehow "they were all together," and invited threats from non-Muslims, he said. For their own safety, he said, they now each have separate cells.
According to Mr. Gordon, his clients were also blindfolded during interrogations, cuffed in confinement, and forced to take polygraph tests. Though they were technically being held by the Immigration and Naturalization service, Mr. Gordon said, they were told ominously that if they failed to cooperate, they could be charged with violations of obscure "black- humor statutes" which, in limited circumstances, allow people to be prosecuted for cracking jokes about sensitive security matters like airplane hijackings.
Government officials are refusing to disclose much about the identities or whereabouts of the people who have been detained as part of the manhunt for the suicide bombers' accomplices. They are divulging even less about the 150 or so who are being held on immigration charges. Some detainees no doubt possess useful information about the terrorists' plot. Others seem to have done nothing more than tip off authorities that they were here illegally.
A spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington, Dan Nelson, refused to discuss particulars of the Israelis' case or to confirm that they were in custody. A reporter who approached the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday was turned away.
Mr. Gordon, who was initially hired by the family of one of the detainees, Oded Ellner, on Sept. 17, agreed to represent the other four pro bono as a favor to the Israeli consulate in New York. "This is a huge misunderstanding," said Yigal Tzarfati, an official with the consulate. The five men in detention, he said, "have nothing to do with the bombings."
Mr. Gordon said he does not believe his clients were advised of their rights until he was allowed to visit them on Sept. 25. "They were beside themselves," he said.
Even then, he said, six to eight guards sat in on their meetings and forbade them from speaking any language but English. "It's the strangest case I've ever seen," said Mr. Gordon, who said his clients have "absolutely nothing" to do with terrorists.
Inside the prison, mistrust has been running so deep that a visiting rabbi appeared indifferent when asked to help the Israelis get bibles, or prayer books for the Jewish High Holy Days last month, according to Mr. Gordon. Mr. Gordon also recalls an officer at the jail's front desk grilling him, "I realize you're a lawyer. But how can you represent these guys?"
It was a question the former Bronx prosecutor said he asked himself over and over. Having lost friends and relatives who were in the World Trade Center, Mr. Gordon said he would have preferred not to represent people who may have been glib in the face of tragedy. But the more he felt that they might languish in prison without the help of a lawyer, the more he decided to stay on the case and press for their release, he said.
On Sept. 25, all five signed papers acknowledging violations of United States immigration law. One, Sivan Kurzberg, admitted working illegally on a tourist visa. His brother, Paul Kurzberg, along with Yaron Shmuel and Mr. Ellner, conceded they had overstayed their visas.
The fifth man, Omer Gavriel Marmari, was initially also charged with having overstayed his visa, because he had not left the country by Sept. 19. Since he was in custody when that deadline came, Mr. Gordon said, he got that charge dropped, and Mr. Marmari was permitted to concede instead that he failed to notify the government of a change in status.
The five are awaiting deportation back to Israel. Eagerly, say friends
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