Inspector recalls would-be hijacker

Inspector recalls would-be hijacker
Saudi denied US entry at Fla. airport in 2001 was Al Qaeda fighter

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff, 1/27/2004

WASHINGTON -- Something gave immigration inspector Jose Melendez-Perez "the creeps" when he started to interview the Saudi who had flown from Dubai to Orlando, Fla., via London, on Aug. 4, 2001, the agent testified yesterday before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Mohamed al Kahtani's documents appeared to be genuine. A check of his name, birth date, and passport number turned up nothing suspicious. And immigration agents knew from experience to give "deference" to Saudi nationals, he said, lest their government's influence bring reprisals for hassling them.

But the man was arrogant and looked military. He was alone and said he spoke no English, but intended to vacation for six days in the United States. He had no hotel reservation and no return airline ticket, explaining that he did not know where he would be going when he left. He said someone was waiting to meet him at the airport, but reversed himself when the inspector asked who. He would not give a sworn statement, which could provide legal grounds to refuse his entry into the country.

"What came to my mind at this point was that this subject was a hit man," said Melendez-Perez, a Vietnam War veteran who has been a federal immigration inspector for 12 years. "A hit man doesn't know where he is going because if he is caught, that way he doesn't have any information to bargain with. My wife said I was watching too many movies."

But the panel, also known as the 9/11 Commission, now suspects that Kahtani intended to be an assassin beyond the agent's imagining - a 20th hijacker, with whose help the terrorists aboard United Airlines Flight 93 might have been able to control its rebelling passengers long enough to crash the Boeing 757 into a Washington landmark instead of an empty Pennsylvania field.

Melendez-Perez's gut told him to block Kahtani's entry, even though that meant calling a supervisor at home on his day off to get permission. When the inspector and a colleague escorted the Saudi to the gate of a flight back to Dubai, Kahtani turned to them "and said, in English . . . `I'll be back.' "

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Months later, the US military captured Kahtani fighting with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and took him to Guantanamo Bay. And investigators now know that the alleged ringleader of the Sept. 11 conspiracy, Mohamed Atta, was in Orlando International Airport that day.

"Taking into account that the only plane commandeered by just four hijackers crashed before reaching its target, it is entirely plausible that your actions in doing your job efficiently and competently may well have contributed to saving the Capitol or the White House and all the people who were in those buildings," said commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor. "For that, we all owe you a debt of thanks and gratitude."

Said Melendez-Perez: "I was just doing my job."

He got little chance to say much more after the panel broke for lunch. A burly man interjected himself when reporters approached the inspector, identifying himself only as a Homeland Security official. The man hustled Melendez-Perez away, saying that the agent's testimony spoke for itself.

The account of Melendez-Perez was a rare bright spot at the commission's otherwise sobering public hearing. The panel released a statement about how the hijackers were allowed into the country despite missed "opportunities" to intercept them.

Several of the men were known Al Qaeda associates who could have been watch-listed. Others had passports that had been doctored or contained "suspicious indicators of extremism," had overstayed their visas, or presented the wrong kinds of visas but were let in anyway.

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