ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Nabil al-Marabh, who ran a print shop with his uncle in Toronto, plotted to steal a fuel tanker truck and blow it up in one of the heavily travelled tunnels between New Jersey and Manhattan, FBI documents allege.
Al-Marabh, 36, was arrested Sept. 19, 2001, in Chicago in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. His arrest prompted an RCMP raid of his uncle's copy shop on Charles St. in Toronto.
The U.S. deported him to Syria in January after he appeared before two judges on minor immigration charges and federal lawyers assured the judges that he had no ties to terrorism.
But neither the courts nor al-Marabh's lawyers were given access to the most striking allegations provided by the Jordanian informant.
Al-Marabh "intended to martyr himself in an attack against the U.S.," an FBI agent wrote in a December, 2002 report obtained by Associated Press.
A footnote in al-Marabh's deportation ruling last year added, "The FBI has been unable to rule out the possibility that al-Marabh has engaged in terrorist activity or will do so if he is not removed from the U.S."
One FBI report summarized a high-level debriefing of a Jordanian informant named Ahmed Ashwas that was conducted by the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, The informant alleged al-Marabh told him of terrorist plans during their time in prison.
Even the judge who accepted al-Marabh's plea agreement on minor immigration charges in 2002 balked. But the justice department told the judge al-Marabh didn't have terrorist ties.
A second judge who ultimately ordered al-Marabh's deportation sided with FBI agents, federal prosecutors and Customs agents.
"The court finds applicant does present a danger to national security," U.S. Immigration Judge Robert Newberry ruled.
Al-Marabh's lawyer, Mark Kriger, said yesterday he found it unbelievable "that the government, if it believed Ashwas, would have deported Mr. al-Marabh rather than indict him."
Justice department spokesperson Bryan Sierra said the government has concerns about many people with suspected terror ties but cannot try them in court without giving away intelligence sources and methods.
In late 2002, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald drafted an indictment against al-Marabh on multiple counts of making false statements in his interviews with FBI agents. Justice headquarters declined prosecution.
Fitzgerald then tracked down Ashwas, the Jordanian who had spent time with al-Marabh in a federal detention cell in 2002.
The FBI summarized Ashwas' allegations:
Al-Marabh said he aided Raed Hijazi's flight from authorities and sent him money.
Hijazi was a Boston cab driver convicted in Jordan for plotting to blow up a hotel in Amman in 1999, according to FBI and Justice documents. Al-Marabh and Hijazi were roommates at Afghan training camps and later in the United States.
A mystery figure in Chicago, known only as "al Mosul," asked al-Marabh to attend a driving school in Detroit with Arabic instructors so he could get a commercial truck driver's licence.
Al-Marabh said he and Hijazi planned to steal a fuel truck and detonate it in the heavily travelled Lincoln or Holland tunnels, but the plan was foiled when Hijazi was arrested.
Al-Marabh acknowledged he had distributed money — as much as $200,000 U.S. a month — to various training camps in Afghanistan in the early 1990s.
FBI documents said Al-Marabh denied being affiliated with Al Qaeda but acknowledged receiving "security" training in rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in Afghan mujahedeen camps.