Albasti and his mother-in-law in his once flourishing restaurant

EVANSVILLE, U.S., May 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - After being mistaken for al-Qaeda “terrorists” following the deadly 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York, eight detained Egyptians have got an apology from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for 2001 unwarranted detention on a bogus tip.

"They were wrongly accused," said Thomas V. Fuentes, the FBI's agent in charge in Indiana.

"They have almost lost their business. This is something that has affected them in every possible way. Anybody being accused falsely of something that serious is like a teacher being accused of molesting a child. It's hard to come back from that. You can see . . . months later, the tears are still ready to flow."

Now that their reputation tarnished, dreams shattered, lives laden with bitterness, the freed Egyptians do realize the FBI was understandably wary and cautious after September 11, 2001, but their understanding has its limits, The Washington Post reported on Saturday, May 24.

Pictured in prison stripes, the men were splashed across the front pages, ridiculed and shunned even after their release by people who assumed their guilt. Whispers about flying lessons and money trails from Evansville to Egypt spread rapidly.

Tarek Albasti, one of the eight Egyptians, was running a flourishing ‘Crazy Tomato’ restaurant before the ill-fated day. But what was a popular place for pasta 18 months ago now attracts a fraction of its regular clientele.

Business plummeted after the restaurant's owner was arrested by the FBI with seven other Egyptian men as alleged terrorists plotting attacks against the United States, which resulted from a bogus tip that hung over the men's heads for so long and disrupted their lives.

"The situation that happened to you was horrible," Fuentes said during a meeting at the Islamic Center of Evansville. "On behalf of the FBI, I will apologize...."

"They were wrongly accused… They have almost lost their business," FBI Agent Fuentes said.

"This is something that has affected them in every possible way. Anybody being accused falsely of something that serious is like a teacher being accused of molesting a child. It's hard to come back from that. You can see... months later, the tears are still ready to flow."

But did the gesture really clear their names in a town they have struggled to make their permanent home? And even it did, it doesn't at least mend a once-thriving business or restore the community's trust.

As part of a national roundup in the weeks after the terrorist attacks, the "Evansville 8" were among 50 people held as material witnesses in maximum security jails without being charged with a crime, the Post said.

Thousands of more men from Middle Eastern countries were questioned, some arrested and detained, allegedly for links to terrorism.

Simple Life

Albasti arrived in Evansville in 1994, a year after marrying native Carolyn Baugh, whom he met in Egypt while she was studying there.

At first he was a busboy, then manager at the ‘Crazy Tomato’ before he and his wife purchased the restaurant in 1997. An uncle came over to help them run it. Then one friend after another, most former rowing partners on his country's national team. Albasti hired three of the men.

Their lives were simple: working as cooks and waiters, playing soccer in the morning, praying on Fridays at the mosque and socializing among themselves.

"It didn't make any difference if I was a citizen or not as long as you fit the profile of an Arab or Muslim who has taken flying lessons," said Albasti, 31, surveying his near-empty restaurant.

"We knew America by the towers [in New York] and all that," said Mohamed Youssef, a waiter at the ‘Crazy Tomato’ who arrived four years ago. "This was a quiet city."

Four days after the attacks, Albasti was visited by the FBI, who wanted to know about flying lessons he had taken. They had been a gift from his father-in-law, a local attorney. But the agents wanted to know more, about what he knew about terrorism and Osama bin Laden. He answered. They went away.

Less than a month later, the FBI was back. This time, Albasti and his uncle were arrested as they cooked pasta at the restaurant. They assumed things would pass away in a few hours.

"I thought they would ask us some general questions and it would be over with," said Khaled Nassr, 27, who has been in the United States for three years.

Hours turned into overnight and then a week in custody. They were paraded before cameras, flown to Chicago escorted by armed U.S. marshals. Tears flowed.

‘Heightened Blood Pressure’

Their wives -- unable to talk to them -- also were left in the dark.

None could understand exactly why they were being held, having only been told they were material witnesses.

"Witnesses for who? Witnesses for what?" Albasti said he thought to himself.

They learned later that a lover's quarrel had done them in. The wife of fellow detainee Fathy Saleh Abdelkalek, apparently in anger, told the FBI that her husband was suicidal and had planned to die in a crash. Authorities took it seriously.

It turned out not to be true, and when the man was released, he returned to Egypt along with one of the other men. The six who remained tried to put the incident behind them. But it kept dogging them.

So when the meeting at the mosque was announced, they attended, hoping to get answers. But they got an apology.

"I expected nothing but heightened blood pressure," said Carolyn Baugh, Albasti's wife.