It appears that the famous "Arab lap dance patrons" in Florida was a grab for media attention:
orlandosentinel.com
FBI inquiry has 4 men wondering: Why me?
(first part of article about another mistaken identity omitted)
Bad night on town
It made news across the globe: the words of a strip-club manager who claimed
three Middle Eastern men partied with strippers and spoke of America seeing
blood, just hours before bloodiest attack on the United States.
In newspapers and in TV and radio programs far and wide, John Kap, vice
president of The Pink Pony in Daytona Beach, recalled the words over and over
again: "Tomorrow, America will see bloodshed. Wait until tomorrow."
And then they left, leaving behind a Quran, Kap said.
Now a man claiming to be one of the "partying Arabs" said he's not even close to
being a terrorist. He's a 34-year-old businessman who has lived most of his life in
America, is married to an American and has two children who love dirt bikes and
NASCAR.
"I'm a Christian, and I was there with two other Arab-Americans," the customer
said. "The whole story is [expletive]."
The man, a naturalized citizen originally from Kuwait living in Orange County,
doesn't want to be identified in the paper, said his attorney Mark NeJame of
Orlando, who is familiar with the FBI's inquiry into his client. The man doesn't
want to be identified, in part because he is a married man who went to a nude
bar, NeJame said, but also because he is an Arab-American who fears a
backlash against his family.
The FBI traced NeJame's client through the business card and credit-card
receipts turned over by the Pink Pony manager, NeJame said. His client told the
FBI his version of the story, and the FBI dropped it as a false lead, NeJame said.
The Quran supposedly left behind at the bar was a book of Christian prophecies
left by another patron. Neither Kap nor any other manager at The Pink Pony
returned numerous phone calls to the Sentinel.
Wrong man, wrong picture
Newspapers and TV stations throughout the world have featured many photos of
the suspected terrorists prior to their official release Thursday by the Justice
Department. Not all the early versions were correct.
Khalid al-Mihmadi, a 23-year-old exchange student who lived and studied in
Daytona Beach from Christmas 2000 until May, was horrified to see his picture in
international newspapers, identifying him as a terrorist, his friends say.
In recent days, Al-Mihmadi, now back in Saudi Arabia continuing his studies in
computer science, saw his picture from a state of Florida identification card in the
news -- alongside the name Khalid Almihdhar, a suspected terrorist aboard the
plane that hit the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, his friends in America spent frantic days trying to reach him, said
Brenda King of Mishawaka, Ind. Al-Mihmadi, 23, had lived with King's family near
South Bend, Ind., while he was enrolled in the South Bend English Institute as an
exchange student.
"When I first saw his picture in the news, I said, 'Oh, God, no way,' " King said.
"There's no way that could be him. It has to be a mistake."
An indignant King traced the first appearance of her friend's picture in the news to
its release by WFOR, a CBS affiliate in Miami. From there it went to Reuters,
she said, and to World News Headquarters in New York, a national CBS news
agency. And from there it mushroomed, showing up in USA Today on Sept. 21
and in Time magazine's
Oct. 1 issue, King said.
"It's been on 20/20, Dateline, the BBC and even on the Internet -- on Yahoo,"
King said.
King said that after she and another friend tracked Al-Mihmadi down in Saudi
Arabia, he went to a Saudi newspaper and presented himself, saying: "Here I am.
I'm alive, and I'm not a hijacker."
Similar names
Zaki Moussaoui, 36, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at the University of
Central Florida, has one thing in common with Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, a
French-Moroccan student pilot arrested in Minnesota on immigration charges: his
surname. Both are Moroccan natives and their ages are close, but that's where
similarities end.
"There's nothing between me and that guy," Kissimmee's Zaki Moussaoui said
Monday.
The Moussaoui being held as a material witness and who refuses to cooperate
with U.S. investigators is reportedly viewed as the possible "20th hijacker" who
could not take part Sept. 11 because he was in jail.
Zaki Moussaoui, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he was aghast when his
sister-in-law called him a few days after Sept. 11 to tell him that a Boston Globe
reporter had called with questions.
"I called the FBI right away," he said.
But compared to the others, Moussaoui's brush with trouble was brief.
"The agent told me not to worry. He laughed and asked me, 'Well, did you take
any flying lessons?' "
Jim Leusner, Rich McKay and Pedro Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at
407-420-5411. |
