Hoaxes—Central District of California

The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California released a very odd press release yesterday. The release stated that “two men have been arrested after being indicted in two separate cases by a federal grand jury on charges that associates were planning or engaging in terrorist activities.”^[1] The reason that is odd is because one of the individuals, Juan Peter Delgado, allegedly made a false report in 2004 “that Arrowhead bottled water had been contaminated with methamphetamine.”^[2] At first blush, that sounds very little like a terrorist activity. The other individual, Khandaker Kabir, allegedly conveyed false information in emails to the FBI “in which he claimed that another man was an Al Qaeda operative who was selling illegal cigarettes,” and that another man “was an Al Qaeda operative and was planning to come to the United States to commit terrorist acts.”^[3] At least that clearly alleges that a hoax regarding terrorism-related acts was made.

Mr. Delgado was ultimately charged with “one count of communicating false information regarding consumer product tainting,” which carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison. Mr. Kabir was “charged with six counts of filing false reports with the government in 2005,” each of which carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

In the end, it is unclear whether Mr. Delgado did not actually make false reports that associates were planning or engaging in terrorist activities. His inclusion in the press release seems to be another example of how a person is classified by the government unfairly. After all, 3 California news outlets covered the indictments. The LA Times, for example, ran the story with the headline “False Terrorist Accusations Alleged,” in which government sources are quoted as saying “These poison-pen and terrorist hoaxes are becoming all too common,” and “Terrorism in the No. 1 priority of the Justice Department, and people who make false claims or hoaxes will be prosecuted.”^[4] Allegedly, however, the “suspects spawned the hoaxes to get back at people with whom they had had a falling out.”^[5] California’s KCAL CBS affiliate was even worse, running the headline “Men Face Charges In Connection With Terror Plots,”^[6] which isn’t even close to accurate. At least this CBS story says that Mr. Delgado claimed that “terrorists” had put the meth in the bottled water, something not mentioned in the government’s press release.^[7] This is something supported by NBC’s story, headlined “Two Men Arrested For Allegedly Making False Terror Reports.”^[8]

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[1] US Attorney’s Office, Two Arrested For Falsely Claiming That Associates Were Engaged In Terrorist Activities Inside United States, Mar. 9, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Greg Kirkorian, False Terrorist Accusations Alleged, LA Times, Mar. 10, 2006.
[5] Id.
[6] Men Face Charges In Connection With Terror Plots, CBS, Mar. 9, 2006.
[7] Id.
[8] See Two Men Arrested For Allegedly Making False Terror Reports, Mar. 9, 2006.