Kurds face deportation over money transfers

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Rasheed Qambari escaped threats from Saddam Hussein's regime a decade ago and was granted asylum in the United States.

Qambari helped out as a translator, and says he aided other immigrants who wanted to send money to a nation without a functioning banking or mail system. When his wife's brother in Iraq needed $7,800 for kidney treatment, he tried to help.

``You either let a person die or you send money," he said. ``We are proud to help our families and friends."

Qambari was convicted in January of operating an unlicensed money transferring business and is scheduled to be sentenced today along with two codefendants. All three could be deported.

Amir Rashid and Ahmed Abdullah pleaded guilty to the same felony charge, which carries a term of up to five years. A fourth man, Fadhil Noroly, is set to go on trial July 11.

Authorities say the men, who all were granted asylum in the United States, transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kurdish provinces in northern Iraq without a business license. Prosecutors would not comment until after the sentencings, said a spokeswoman for the US attorney's office.

Under the Patriot Act enacted in October 2001, those who transfer money can be charged even if they did not know their actions were illegal. The code section under which the men were charged applied previously to those who knew they were acting illegally.

FBI agents went to Kurdish families' homes several times to question them after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, said Kaka Askary, imam at the mosque and an assistant professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

The agents asked about terrorist activities and told them there was nothing to worry about, Qambari and Rashid said, but last October authorities conducted simultaneous raids at the four men's houses and arrested them.

Rashid said he pleaded guilty because his lawyer told him ``there's no way out." He says his relatives back in Iraq don't believe his legal troubles and think he has turned his back on them.

Residents have written to US Attorney John Brownlee on the men's behalf, and op-ed pieces and letters to the editor have appeared in the Daily News-Record newspaper. About 600 residents signed a petition that ran as a full-page newspaper ad urging exoneration of the men.

All of the men have sought US citizenship, but their applications have been put on hold by the charges.