TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010


Leggett proposes to boost comp time


comp from B1


sacrifice and concessions made by County employees,” Leggett wrote in a letter to the County Council, which is set to take up the matter Tuesday. The issue has spurred dis- agreements between Leggett and the council over fiscal and per- sonnel management, politics and government power this election year. Some council members want to reject the agreements on comp time, but Leggett has said that he sent the signed agree- ments to the council for “infor- mation only” and that its sign-off is unnecessary. The dust-up has added to questions about whether Mont- gomery’s government, even after cutbacks, has too many employ- ees and pays too well. If it can af- ford to lose 117 years worth of service without much impact, as the Leggett administration has argued, that could mean there’s still room for efficiencies, some officials said. It raises the question “of


whether all the employees are providing essential services or not,” said council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rock- ville).


But Bob Stewart, executive di-


rector of the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, which is part of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said the public knows it gets good work from his members. “The Montgomery workforce and its productivity and the quality of service they deliver have been recognized for years” as among the best in the nation, Stewart said. The loss of negoti- ated raises was a significant sac- rifice, he said. Now, “the only thing that was negotiated was the 26 hours” of comp time, he added, saying that he agrees with Leggett on the extra leave. “It’s a morale issue, absolutely. His per- ception is very much on target,” Stewart said. Leggett said the government


has saved tens of millions of dol- lars over the past two years by cutting employee raises and ben- efits.


At the heart of the dispute over the comp time is what it will cost. Leggett says there is no cost because the agreement says that no overtime can be paid to “backfill” for employees who take the leave. He also says the leave can’t be paid to employees if they don’t use it. But the County Council’s Of-


fice of Legislative Oversight said the agreements “would have an approximate value of about $7 million,” based on an annual salary average of $60,000 for all employees.


According to the analysis,


workers would have a few op- tions.


First, they could take more


time off. “This impact does not affect the amount of public dollars ex- pended but represents a measur- able reduction in service re- ceived for government expendi- tures,” the analysis says. In the other case, they could


take the new comp time and save vacation time, which they could eventually cash out. “This fiscal impact represents


a newly accrued liability as- sumed by the County and will eventually result in the direct ex- penditure of public dollars,” the Office of Legislative Oversight said. “It’s just fallacious for the


county executive to maintain there’s no fiscal impact,” An- drews said. “This is going to dig a deeper fiscal hole for the county at the time we can least afford it.” Leggett said critics aren’t con- sidering the value of a workforce that is not simply working 9 to 5 but is motivated to serve the pub- lic.


He said he’s also considering future negotiations. Making a small concession now could help county negotiators later, he said. The council will take on an- other long-running benefits con- troversy at the meeting Tuesday. Members are planning to pro- pose legislation that would fur- ther reform the county’s disabil- ity retirement system. Under the plan, the county would create two types of disabil- ity retirement for employees to prevent workers with less seri- ous conditions from getting full disability. Only firefighters are governed by such a “two-tiered” system, of- ficials said.


larism@washpost.com


KLMNO


S


B5 Terror suspect to stay jailed till trial


Fairfax man accused of trying to join group poses danger, judge says


by Spencer S. Hsu


AFairfax man accused of trying to join an al-Qaeda-affiliated ter- rorist group in Somalia poses a danger to the community and his family and will remain in jail until trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan D. Davis ordered Monday. Zachary A. Chesser, 20, dressed in a green prison jumpsuit for a half-hour hearing, argued through his attorney, Michael Nachmanoff, that he had no crim- inal history, had met with FBI agents at least four times since May 2009, had given up his U.S. passport and was no more a threat to flee than after those meetings.


But Davis ruled that did not justify his release given the seri- ousness of the charge against him: providing material support to a U.S.-designated terrorist group, al-Shabab, a violent Islam- ist insurgency seeking to topple Somalia’s fragile United Nations- supported government. The judge, ruling in U.S. Dis-


trict Court in Alexandria, cited Chesser’s alleged statements to the FBI that he was “willing to die for Islam” and twice tried to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab as a “foreign fighter.” One of those in- cluded a July 10 attempt in which Chesser was stopped along with his 7-month-old son from board- ing at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport because he is on a federal no-fly list. “An individual who has no con- cern for his own life probably has little concern for the lives of oth- ers,” Davis said. “It’s all right if he wants to put his life in danger, but


if he’s not going to look out for his 7-month-old son, then this court is going to do so.” Prosecutor John Gibbs also cit-


ed Internet posts by Chesser that advocated fighting religious dis- believers, e-mail communications with radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi and an April online warning to the creators of the “South Park” animated satire, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, that they could face assassination for irreverently depicting the proph- et Muhammed.


Gibbs added another detail,


saying that after Chesser had al- legedly told the FBI that he in- tended to join al-Shabab and found out he was on a no-fly list, he offered in a July 21 meeting to help the FBI as an informant — on condition that he be allowed to travel to Somalia. Prosecutors formally entered into the case an FBI affidavit filed to obtain search warrants for


Chesser’s apartment and car Wednesday, the day he was arrest- ed, that was disclosed last week. The FBI reported that Chesser told an agent that he could be considered one of the most influ- ential members “in the Jihadi community” in the Washington area. The FBI alleged that Chesser also posted the U.S. Army Ranger Handbook and the Transporta- tion Security Administration’s standard operational practices for airport screening, and encour- aged conducting “fake opera- tions” such as leaving bags that appear to be suspicious packages in public places to “desensitize” federal agents. Prosecutors also filed notice


that they intend to submit evi- dence gleaned from searches and electronic surveillance conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.


hsus@washpost.com


For these neighbors, a familiar challenge


community from B1


come back. “All our friends are getting their power on, and I know we won’t get our power on till Thurs- day,” said resident Heather Cox. Cox and her husband, Neal, run a graphics design business from their home and had a dead- line to meet Monday morning. So at 7 a.m., they showed up at a neighbor’s house — the same one who housed them for four nights during the snowstorms. In their arms, they carried their com- puter equipment, frozen food they hoped to save and a 6-year- old daughter who would have been at summer camp if the out- age hadn’t caused it, like so many others, to close. The Coxes planned to spend the night at home but had al- ready devised a plan to escape the heat if their power is not on by Tuesday: They will pack the car at 5 a.m. and head to the beach, staying till the weekend. Geri Markoff has already ac- cepted that the food her husband Daniel bought on the day of the storm will spoil. (“It’s only food,” she said.) But she is not sure what they would do if their power didn’t come back on soon. She is 79; he is 83.


She went out to water the lawn


but gave up, seeking relief inside. She found none. It only felt hot- ter. “I keep figuring it’s going to be over soon,” Markoff said. “You can stand a day but more than that, I don’t know. I told my hus- band, ‘Today we should go to the movies and sit through three movies.’ ” Maggie Toscano offered her basement to neighbors who need to cool down. Hers was one of the few houses untouched by the storm. Next door, a tree stabbed through a roof.


MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST Yahye Wehelie at home with his mother, Shamsa Noor, who said she “felt guilty. I would wake up at 3 a.m. and pray to God to help me.” Va. man on no-fly list is back home stranded from B1


ment says it must maintain a tight watch over those who may have had contactwith known ter- rorists, and Yemen has been a special point of concern in law enforcement circles of late. Since Christmas, when a Niger- ian man who had trained in Yem- en tried to blow up an airplane landing in Detroit, about 30 Mus- lim Americans have been restrict- ed from leaving, returning to or traveling within the United States, according to a log kept by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Several recent high-profile at- tempted terror plots against U.S. targets, including the attempted Christmas Day attack and the Times Square incident, remind us of the need to remain vigilant and thoroughly investigate every lead to fend off any potential threats,” said Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman, who declined to address Wehelie’s case specifical- ly. “The American public correct- ly demands that of us.”


Bresson said the “FBI is always


careful to protect the civil rights and privacy concerns of all Amer- icans. . . . We are very mindful of the fact that our success in en- forcing the law depends on part- nerships with the Muslim com- munity and many other commu- nities.” Federal prosecutors in Alexan- dria and the FBI are still investi- gating Wehelie, according to his attorney, Tom Echikson. The fam- ily met Thursday with govern- ment officials, but Echikson would not discuss the talks. He said he is trying to get Wehelie re- moved from the no-fly list. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the


U.S attorney’s office in Alexan- dria, said he could not confirm or deny any investigation into We- helie’s activities. Wehelie’s parents, Shamsa


Noor and Abdirizak Wehelie — Somali immigrants who studied at the University of the District of Columbia — said they had been worried about the second-oldest of their six children, who they thought seemed adrift. Yahye Wehelie had dropped out of Norfolk State University. By 2008, when he was working as a DHL delivery man, his parents urged him to learn Arabic so he could launch a more lucrative ca-


States,’ ” he said. “She wasn’t like that. . . . She wanted her Somali culture — and I wanted to get back to that, too.” A year after Wehelie arrived in


Yemen, the couple married. Some of his family showed up, includ- ing his youngest brother, Yusuf, who wound up staying long-term. Guests danced to Michael Jack- son’s “Billie Jean.” The couple posed in their wedding attire — Yahye in a dark suit, Maryam in a gown with flowing train — for souvenir photographs embla- zoned with the words “With Love.”


Soon, Wehelie got homesick. FAMILY PHOTO


Yahye Wehelie with his bride, Maryam, a Somali refugee a few years his junior.


reer and maybe find a Muslim wife. Wehelie, who likes playing Xbox video games and reading Slam and Sports Illustrated magazines, pushed back. “I was thinking, no, I didn’t want to do it. . . . I didn’t need to go to a foreign country to learn no foreign language,” he said. “I was scared. I went on YouTube to see some clips of Yemen and didn’t like what I had seen. I was like, man, this place is in the Stone Ages. I got mad. I actually got depressed. “How could I match up with someone in Yemen?” Wehelie re- membered complaining. “They won’t understand American cul- ture. I was going to have to man up.” In October 2008, Wehelie boarded a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Dulles and was soon ensconced in Yemeni society. He enrolled at Lebanese Interna- tional University in Sanaa, the capital. He rented a one-bedroom apartment, played basketball and visited Internet cafes. Soon, he found a bride, a Somali refugee a few years his junior. Maryam was the sister of a friend of a friend — a nurse. He thought she was cute. They both liked spaghetti and walks in the park. More important, she made him curious about his So- mali heritage.


“Other women who want to


meet Americans are like, ‘Oh, he’ll bring me back to the


He wanted to return to the Unit- ed States to file for permission to bring his wife home. Early this May, he and his brother boarded an EgyptAir flight to Cairo, where they expected to switch to a flight to New York. But at the Cairo airport, airline


officials told the brothers they couldn’t make the transfer. They were directed to the U.S. Embas- sy.


Mystified, the brothers jumped


into a cab, thinking the detour would last half an hour and they’d still make their flight. But at the embassy, they were told to wait, go get some lunch. When the brothers got back from Har- dee’s, they were told that FBI agents from Washington were fly- ing in to see them. Wehelie borrowed a cellphone and called his mother to say he might be delayed by up to four days. The brothers shuffled off to the nearby Garden City House Hotel, paying with money the U.S. government lent them. The brothers were given coupons for fast-food restaurants and plenty of time to check out the Nile and the Pyramids. After a few days, Yusuf was cleared to go home, but Yahye had to stay. Wehelie said he met with two


FBI agents in a small room at the embassy. The agents — a man and a woman — asked a barrage of questions: Do you pray every day? Have you ever met the fol- lowing people? He took a poly- graph test. He handed over pass- words to his e-mail and Facebook accounts. “The FBI, you think they’re


smart, but these people . . . they’ll ask you the stupidest questions that are so irrelevant,” Wehelie said. “I am cool with them trying


to make screenings safe for my country and all U.S. citizens. I just think in my case, it took a lit- tle longer.”


Back home in Burke, where the walls are decorated with artwork featuring the Koran, Wehelie’s mother said she “felt guilty. I would wake up at 3 a.m. and pray to God to help me. I sent him there to be a better person for this country.”


But in Cairo, the FBI’s ques- tions seemed designed to exam- ine her son’s possible ties to peo- ple with very different loyalties. When they showed Wehelie pho- tographs of radicals, one looked familiar, if only vaguely. It was Sharif Mobley, a U.S. citizen ac- cused of killing a hospital guard in Yemen after Mobley was ar- rested in a sweep of suspected al- Qaeda militants. Wehelie told The Washington


Post that he met Mobley once at random in Sanaa on Hadda Street, a popular spot for for- eigners, but knew nothing about his past. “I don’t consider myself know- ing this guy,” he said. “I met him outside on Hadda Street. He came up to me and said, ‘Are you American?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I am.’ ‘Well, cool dude, where are you from?’ It was small talk.” As his sessions with the FBI wound down, Wehelie said, agents asked whether he might attend mosque services in the Washington area and report back on potential terrorist plots or se- curity threats. “I was like, ‘Man, I don’t


know,’ ” he said. “It was very weird. I don’t think that’s right.” Finally, on July 17, Wehelie was allowed to fly to New York, but because he’s still on the no-fly list, he could not continue on to Washington, so his parents picked him up at John F. Kennedy International Airport and drove him home. By morning, he was back playing video games on his Xbox. Now he wonders whether he’ll see the female FBI agent again. In Egypt, she told him she’d like to take him out for a meal — “for a chitchat”— when he got home. “I said, ‘Cool, it depends on if I


have free time,’ ” Wehelie re- called. “I didn’t want to be rude. I am willing to talk if it coincides with my schedule.”


shapirai@washpost.com


During the snowstorms, Tosca- no went door-to-door checking on neighbors. On Monday, she did the same. Because she had Internet access, she spent the day e-mailing updates about the storm. In this neighborhood, when disasters strike, those who can, do. After firefighters secured the area around the fallen power line Sunday night, blocking the entire road, residents rallied to help those who had to leave, such as a man who had to get to chemo- therapy. They strategically moved the police tape, opening one lane and putting up homemade signs warning about the downed line. For all the inconvenience,


Young said, the neighborhood network has made storms “much less scary.” She planned to spend Monday night on the couch of a neighbor who didn’t lose power. Because of the snowstorms, residents are ready. There’s a cellphone chain. They


worked together, sometimes splitting costs, to cut down pos- sibly troublesome trees. And there’s an informal shelter system consisting of guest bed- rooms and pullout couches. Young reserved a couch — at the house she stayed at during the snow.


vargast@washpost.com


Cooler, dry day breaks heat wave


by Martin Weil Washington’s longest string of


90-degree days this year ended Monday, when the high tempera- ture at the region’s three airports failed to climb out of the 80s. The day’s high at Reagan Na- tional Airport was a mere 88 de- grees. That is one degree below the average for the date. It might not have seemed note-


worthy if Monday had not ended a period of 12 consecutive days with temperatures of at least 90 degrees. So far, 19 of July’s first 26 days have hit at least 90. Not only was Monday’s tem-


perature cooler, but the day was also dry, with humidity almost anybody could find tolerable. “A welcome, near-normal sum- mer afternoon,” the National Weather Service’s local office said. The office cited a southward flow of “dry Canadian air.” At Dulles International Air-


port, the high was 87, one degree below the normal temperature for the date. It ended an 11-day string of temperatures in the 90s. The 88-degree high at Balti- more Washington Marshall Inter- national Airport also ended 11 days of 90 degree highs there. weilm@washpost.com


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