Opinion ID: 2295861
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: B'nai B'rith Headquarters

Text: When Khaalis and three other appellants entered the first floor lobby of B'nai B'rith Headquarters, [4] they confronted James Pulley (a security guard) with a large gun, forced him against the wall, and took him to the back of the building where he was ordered to lie with his nose on the floor. While a man with a pistol and a machete guarded him and several other hostages, Pulley heard one of the armed men say, Get the guns out of the truck. He also heard a shot fired. Khaalis and the three other appellants then took the elevator upstairs and swept through the building, taking more than 100 hostages. Initially, groups of hostages were herded, under a show of guns and a machete, into rooms on the second and fifth floors. Then, they were subjected to much verbal abuse, including obscenities. They were ordered to lie face-down on the floor or, if there was no floor space left, to lie on top of each other. During this initial phase of the takeover appellants physically assaulted many of the hostages. [5]
Appellants, at gunpoint, ordered all the hostages who had been collected in the second and fifth floor rooms to the eighth floor, where they were held for the remainder of their 39-hour ordeal. Appellants moved the women out first, ten at a time, and then moved the men, four to five at once. The gunmen stood the men against the wall and tied their hands behind their backs. Khaalis called Sidney Clearfield to the front of the line. According to Clearfield, Khaalis said he didn't like the way I was looking  and he punched me in the stomach. Another appellant asked if he could hit Clearfield, too, but Khaalis said, No. I am going to give him my special karate punch, and Khaalis hit Clearfield again in the stomach. When the more than 100 hostages had been taken to the eighth floor, appellant subjected them to further physical assaults and personal indignities. They were ordered to lie face-down on the cold, bare cement floor of a large auditorium-like room undergoing renovation. Each hostage was ordered to grasp the ankles or legs of the person above him. Appellants made several attempts to count the hostages. At first, they ordered the men and women to count off. Then appellants began counting off the hostages by twenties. The final figure was 103 hostages. The women were separated from the men into one area of the large room on the eighth floor. Khaalis ordered other appellants to tie the hands and feet of the men, either with neckties or telephone wire. One of the gunmen ordered the men to empty their pockets. After approximately half an hour, appellants permitted the men and women to sit up. The hostages remained on the eighth floor from midday of March 9 until approximately 2 a. m. on Friday, March 11. Several testified that they were forced to work for appellants  stacking desks and filing cabinets against the windows, painting the windows so that the police would not be able to see into the room, and setting up barricades of desks, cabinets, ladders, and other debris in the staircases. Others elaborated on the numerous physical and verbal assaults. [6] Still others testified about the indignities caused by appellants' initial refusal to permit hostages to use the bathroom. [7]
Henry Siegel testified that after the hostages had been gathered on the eighth floor, Khaalis announced, I am Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis. Khaalis was very pleased, for he said that he had asked Allah for a hundred hostages and Allah had presented him with one hundred and three. Khaalis told the hostages that this was a holy war. He said, Be prepared to die because many of you will die and heads will be blown, brains will be blown out and heads will roll! . . . In a holy war there are no innocent victims. Men, women and children die in holy wars, and if you have any sense you will pray to your God and be prepared to die. Khaalis told the hostages that he wanted the Black Muslims who had killed his family, see note 3 supra, and he wanted the movie  Mohammad, Messenger of God  stopped and burned. [8] Shirley Feigenbaum, one of the hostages, added that Khaalis blamed the Jews for the fact that the murderers of his family were not dead, because the Jews controlled the banks, the newspapers, and the media. When District police, including Sergeant Albert Skoloda, arrived at B'nai B'rith Headquarters, a man identified himself as Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis and threatened that if the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God, then being shown in New York, is not stopped at two o'clock, we are going to cut heads off and throw them down the stairwell. Khaalis also instructed Sergeant Skoloda to have someone call Khaalis' home. Khaalis added that he himself would call shortly, and that if everything was not all right, heads were going to come down the stairwell. Sergeant Skoloda testified that when he pleaded with Khaalis not to hurt anyone, Khaalis responded that no one had cared when his babies were killed, and that Washington had never seen as much blood as would be shed if what he wanted wasn't granted.
Throughout the period of these events at B'nai B'rith, the Islamic Center, and the District Building, appellants at each site made numerous references to the takeovers at the other sites and communicated with each other. After all the hostages had been assembled on the eighth floor of B'nai B'rith Headquarters, Khaalis spoke to them, saying (according to Fishman and others): I want to remind all of you of a terrible deed which happened to me and my family, something which you in this room did not show any compassion concerning when it occurred, and I am out for justice in this matter. . .. This is only the beginning of an operation which will cause those who have ignored my plight up until this point to sit up and take notice. . .. This is only the beginning and you will be hearing of other things to come. Later in the afternoon of March 9, Khaalis told the hostages, We have now taken over the District Building and the Islamic mosque, and there is still more to come which will cause everyone to take notice. At one time, according to Henry Siegel, Khaalis said, We've taken the Islamic Center. We've got . . . Dr. [Mohammad] Rauf; and later, We're in the District Building. Marion Barry has been shot. But we missed Arrington Dixon and Nadine Winter. William Ferguson testified that there was some kind of reaction from some of the co-defendants, more or less kind of laughter, kind of approval, the fact that Marion Barry had been shot. . . . Ferguson also testified that Khaalis, from the outset, had warned the hostages: I want to let you people know what is going on . . .. We are not  this is not the only thing that is happening here, here at B'nai B'rith. There are other things in this city that are going on. There are other places where we have taken over, and we are holding hostages.. . . Khaalis further told us to remember that, if any of us intended to be heroes and try to  try to disarm our captors and overtake  overpower them, that if we did so we would be directly jeopardizing the lives of other people in other places. He also stated we should be aware, too, that it probably diminished our very slim chances anyway, of being rescued by the police, that the police, if they did anything at all, would have to move in precision-like fashion, at more than one place. Early in the afternoon of March 9, Khaalis asked the group of captives if there were someone who would help with the telephones. Mrs. Betty Neal said that she would. Khaalis took Mrs. Neal to another area of the eighth floor. She stayed there for most of the remainder of the siege, placing and answering phone calls for Khaalis to and from his home, the police, the Islamic Center, the District Building, and the news media. When Mrs. Neal sat down at a desk near the telephones, Khaalis gave her two phone numbers for his home and three for the Islamic Center. Mrs. Neal was immediately directed to place a call to Khaalis' family at home, and then to the Islamic Center. Sometime between 2 and 3 p. m. that first afternoon she dialed the number for the Islamic Center, told the person who answered that Khaalis wanted to speak with one of his men, and handed the phone to Khaalis. He told them to remain calm, not to get excited, to keep their cool. Neal testified that during the entire time she served as Khaalis' telephone operator, she made at least 10 to 12 calls to the Islamic Center, and an equal number of calls came in from appellants at the Islamic Center, including calls from the Islamic Center from a man who identified himself as Rahman. Sometime between 5 and 6 p. m. on March 9, one of the appellants brought a radio into the telephone area. Mrs. Neal heard a report that there had been a takeover at the District Building and that a man had been killed. About 30 minutes later, Khaalis told her to get the District Building on the telephone. A man answered, and Mrs. Neal informed him that Mr. Khaalis would like to speak with one of his men. Khaalis took the phone and said, Keep cool, be alert, keep on top of things. Later in the evening, Khaalis called the District Building and told his men that they could let the hostages go to the bathroom. Mrs. Neal testified that during the siege, there were approximately twelve telephone calls between B'nai B'rith and the District Building, equally divided between incoming and outgoing calls.
On Friday, March 11, at approximately 1:40 a. m., as a result of negotiations with Khaalis, the hostages were freed. Khaalis, Adam, Latif, Hamid, Razzaaq, Shaheed, and Salaam were arrested. The police conducted searches incident to these arrests and collected numerous weapons from appellants. On Khaalis, they discovered a .35 caliber Baretta pistol, three knives, and a straight razor. On Adam, they found 11 live shotgun shells. On Latif, they found a U-Haul key, an expended bullet, and a buck knife. From Shaheed, they took five .30 caliber bullets. From Hamid, they retrieved four knives and two knife sheaths. On Razzaaq, they found a knife in a sheath. No weapons were discovered on Salaam's person. Crime scene examination officers later searched the building and the U-Haul truck parked outside. They recovered an arsenal of weapons, all operable: 20 firearms (including carbines, shotguns, rifles with mounted telescopic sights, revolvers, and semi-automatic pistols), 8,700 rounds of live ammunition for the weapons, three axes or hatchets, twelve folding knives and razors, 19 fixed-blade knives, eight machetes, a cross-bow with arrows, a blackjack, throwing stars, and garrotes. The police also recovered a number of expended shell casings and spent slugs and fragments of slugs.