On Thursday, the FBI conducted raids in Massachusetts, Maine, NJ and Long Island to find possible associates of Times Square terror suspect Faisal Shahzad. It's believed that Shahzad received $4,000 during a meeting at a Dunkin' Donuts in Ronkonkoma, and some Pakistani men on Long Island were questioned. But one is particularly unhappy about being profiled and connected to Shahzad.
Mohammad Iqbal tells WCBS 2 that the FBI spent hours at his home, questioning him, taking his cellphones and checking out his computer. Perhaps pointedly wearing his U.S. Census shirt, Iqbal said, "My oldest son, 9 year old, when he went to school this morning and said I'm afraid I'm going to go to school and somebody going to ask, 'Oh you're dad, he's a terrorist?" He emphatically stated, "I never seen [Shahzad] in my whole life -- except newspaper and the TV." Iqbal says that the FBI asked him if he used "halwala" to move money, to which he said, "I have five kids. You think I'm going to have that much money to deliver to somebody?"
There are some details about the men taken in custody: It unclear how the Boston area men may have known Shahzad, but Pir Khan is a cab driver and Aftab Khan (no relation) worked at a gas station. And the NY Times says Mohammed Shafiq Rahman is "a computer programmer who was taken into custody in Portland, Me." Rahman's boss asked him about all the terrorism-related news about his native Pakistan, and Rahman allegedly said, "It’s hard. As a matter of fact I happen to know the guy accused of being the bomber in Times Square. I haven’t seen him for eight or nine years, but back then he was a pretty simple person, had no dogma, no theory, just went with the flow... So it’s hard for me to understand this, but maybe that’s what they look for, what terrorist organizations look for."
