FBI agents searched the home of a prominent Islamic community leader and Iraq war critic, a bureau spokesman said, declining to reveal any reasons for the search.
A dozen agents searched the home of Shakir Abdul-Kaf Hamoodi and his wife, Lamya Mukhlef Najem on Monday, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said. Agents removed boxes and computer equipment throughout the day, neighbors said.
The search warrant has been sealed and Lanza wouldn’t comment on what the agents were looking for.
Federal agents on Monday also raided the offices of a Southfield, Mich., Muslim charity organization, Life for Relief and Development.
In that raid, the warrants were based on a criminal assertion, but the affidavits were sealed, William Kowalski, an assistant special agent in the FBI’s Detroit office, told the Detroit Free Press.
Charity under scrutiny
The Michigan charity’s head of legal services, Ihsan Alkhatib, said the agents are investigating whether the charity conducted business in Iraq before the 2003 war in violation of legal sanctions against the country.
Alkhatib said the organization “did everything by the book.”
Lanza declined to discuss whether the Michigan and Missouri searches were connected.
Hamoodi, 54, said he cooperated fully with federal investigators.
“They came in, asked questions, I told them the answers and they left,” he told the Columbia Missourian.
Hamoodi, who grew up in Iraq but has lived in Columbia for 21 years, has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war and recently had his home defaced with graffiti.
The search came three days after bureau officials met with Muslims at a local mosque to try to improve community relations.