Man with links to 9/11 pilot deported (Slice of Life DownUnder)

A man the Government says had a direct link with a September 11 terrorist has been deported from New Zealand because he was a threat to national security.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe confirmed today Yemeni national, Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, was deported because his continued presence in New Zealand posed a threat.

"He was directly associated with persons responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001," Mr Cunliffe said in a statement.

He was deported under the rarely used Section 72 of the Immigration Act 1987, which required the approval of the Governor General.

Mr Cunliffe said immigration officials and police arrested the man in Palmerston North 13 days ago on May 29 and he was deported to Saudi Arabia the next day. He had arrived in New Zealand in February.

"The individual's identity became apparent only after he arrived in New Zealand. He used a variation of his name in applying for entry to New Zealand. Once his real identity became known, he was identified as having close connections to people involved with the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States, and had been named in the 9/11 Commission Report.

"Initially, he lived in Auckland where he undertook some English language training, the stated purpose of his visit. He then shifted to Palmerston North where he was building up his flying hours flying with an instructor. He'd previously trained as a pilot in the United States."

"I am advised, however, that at no point was there any specific risk to New Zealanders during the man's time in this country."

Mr Cunliffe said the American report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States had said the man lived and trained with Saudi Arabian Hani Hanjour, who is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Rayed Abdullah was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix and reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque, the report said.

It also said another associate of Hanjour, Faisal al Salmi, had flight training with Rayed Abdullah but wanted to keep his training secret.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said al Salmi was deceptive when he was asked if he had taken flight training at the behest of an organisation.

This article refers to Hani Hanjour and his associates too- you may want to include it:

(snip)...It's part of the routine for air travel since 9/11. Fifteen minutes after KLM Flight 685 took off from Amsterdam for Mexico City on April 8, Mexican authorities forwarded the names of all the passengers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The reason: the flight was scheduled to pass through U.S. airspace after making a long swing over Canada. The information was then passed on to the U.S. National Targeting Center, based at a secret address in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. That's when the routine became extraordinary: by the time the Boeing 747 had finished its three-hour crossing of the Atlantic, Homeland Security screeners were on high alert. The names of two Saudi passengers aboard the KLM flight had begun producing "hits" on the screening center's lists of 70,000 suspect foreigners.
One of these hits—from an FBI database of terror suspects known as TIPOFF—smacked investigators right between the eyes. The two Saudis, the database reported, were brothers and pilots who had attended the same Arizona flight school as 9/11 hijacker Hani Hanjour. Soon the multiplicity of U.S. terror databases started pumping out similar hits.
Fearing that Flight 685 might be a 9/11-style plot in the making, U.S. authorities refused the plane overflight rights, and Canada rejected a request to land. Much to the chagrin of its 278 passengers, the KLM jet made an exhausting odyssey back to Amsterdam.
Was it a plot? The KLM 685 incident—which was not widely publicized by the U.S. government—is an illustration of just how hard it has become to tell ordinary guys from bad guys in the war on terror. Washington's concern about the KLM flight seems legitimate: in the past year, U.S. counterterrorism officials have cited intelligence indicating that Al Qaeda might be planning to use foreign-based airliners to launch attacks against the U.S. homeland. One U.S. counterterrorism official told NEWSWEEK that the two passengers were "bad dudes." And a European intelligence official said the two have "extensive but secondary" links to Al Qaeda.
At least one of the two Saudis had previously been deported from the United States, according to Homeland Security sources. A former neighbor in Arizona, who asked to remain anonymous, recalled that federal officials in full body armor rushed the Saudi's empty house several weeks after 9/11 and later arrested him. During FBI questioning, a law-enforcement official told NEWSWEEK, the Saudi acknowledged knowing Hani Hanjour. Upon further questioning, he also conceded that he had known another of the 9/11 hijackers.
---------- "Mystery Flight," (More info about 2 pass. of KLM flight on the no fly list)by Mark Hosenball and Michael Hirsh, With Michael Isikoff and John Barry in Washington, Friso Endt at Schiphol airport (Amsterdam), Andrew Murr in Phoenix, Joseph Contreras in Miami, Christopher Dickey in Paris and Ruth Tenenbaum in New York , Newsweek, Apr. 25, 2005 issue

Club Questioned over terror suspect

Source: Radio New Zealand
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/746452

Jun 10, 2006

An aero club used by a man linked to the September 11 attacks says police alerted them to their investigation about a month ago.

The government says Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was deported at the end of last month because he posed a threat to national security.

The US government says Ali trained as a pilot with the man believed to have flown a passenger jet into the Pentagon.

Since arriving in New Zealand in February, Ali had been flying light aircraft at the Manawatu aero club.

The club says it questioned Ali about his background, but had no reason to believe he had fundamentalist views.
The Yemeni man was living in Palmerston North.

A US report says Ali trained as a pilot in Phoenix, Arizona, with the man believed to have flown an airplane into the Pentagon, during the 2001 attacks.

The 9-11 Commission Report says Ali reportedly gave extremist speeches at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix.

On May 29, New Zealand police and immigration officials raided his house in Palmerston North and sent him back to Saudi Arabia the next day.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe says Ali posed a threat to national security because of his direct association with those responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks and the nature of his activities in New Zealand.

Cunliffe says Ali undertook English language training in Auckland before moving to Palmerston North to build up his flying hours.

Ali came to New Zealand in February.

Cunliffe says the man's identity only became apparent after he arrived in New Zealand because he used a variation of his name when applying for entry.

More... Source: Sunday Star Times (NZ)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3696966a10,00.html

How did we let 9/11 suspect in?

11 June 2006
By STAFF REPORTERS

Border controls to detect terrorist threats failed when a Saudi Arabian pilot linked with the 9/11 hijackers was able to enter New Zealand unquestioned and live here for four months, a terrorism expert says.

Auckland University political studies lecturer Dr Paul Buchanan said the Security Intelligence Service was "clueless" about Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali's arrival and the public needed to be reassured that security systems were adequate after his deportation.

He is questioning why police, immigration or the SIS did not flag the potential risk of Rayed, 28, who was deported 12 days ago as a threat to national security.

Rayed flatted with Hani Hanjour, the pilot who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into Washington DC's Pentagon building on September 11, 2001, and is named 13 times in a 9/11 Commission report. He was also on an FBI suspect list developed after the US attacks.

Rayed was admitted to New Zealand in February on a student visa and studied at an English language school in Auckland before shifting to Palmerston North in April where he joined the Manawatu Aero Club to increase his flying hours.

The Sunday Star-Times understands SIS agents questioned flying school staff around the country about six weeks ago and police visited Manawatu Aero Club three weeks ago to tell it Rayed was under surveillance.

Staff have been ordered not to disclose further details.

A copy of Rayed's passport, shown to the Star-Times yesterday, records his surname as Raed - different to that on the FBI lists.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said that was why immigration officials had not picked up Rayed as a threat. Cunliffe said Rayed was considered a threat to national security on three grounds - his direct association with those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, the nature of his activities in the US prior to and at that time, and the nature of his activities in New Zealand.

Rayed was granted a student visa in Dubai.

Manawatu Aero Club president Grant Hadfield said they had conducted background checks on Rayed when he approached the club, as the Civil Aviation Authority had recommended flight schools do on foreigners after the 9/11 attacks. The checks included verifying details in his logbook and asking him about his beliefs, but not doing an internet search on his name. A Google search quickly reveals Rayed's background.

Rayed lived with an Indian and a Chinese flatmate in a modest unit in Cook St, Palmerston North, where neighbours yesterday described him as "an average guy".

His flight instructor and landlord Captain Ravindra Singh said Rayed, a Yemeni citizen, had found it difficult to enrol in an aviation course here. Singh said people had been suspicious of Rayed because of his ethnicity, but he had found him "genuine" - despite the fact he owed Singh $1200 in rent and flying fees. Singh was forced to hand Rayed's flying logbook to police after Rayed was deported.

Rayed was arrested and escorted back to Saudi Arabia under section 72 of the Immigration Act, which requires sign-off by the governor-general and has been used only once before, to expel a Russian spy in 1991.

Buchanan said the vetting of Rayed's application for a student visa had clearly failed to raise the alert about his past acquaintances.

"The question then is how did they find out? Was it internal? The New Zealand police? Immigration? And where was the SIS? They were entirely clueless when he arrived."

Cunliffe refused to go into details, saying such matters were "operational". He said he had full confidence the system worked effectively to catch Rayed who had been a genuine threat to national security.

"The government does not use the section 72 removal procedure lightly. It involves the highest level of government."

There is no appeal under section 72, though Cunliffe said Rayed could have claimed refugee status to delay deportation, but had not.

Cunliffe would not say when the alert was raised, but confirmed Rayed was under surveillance for some time before his deportation.

He also refused to comment on whether Rayed had been on his own in New Zealand or whether there were ongoing inquiries into his presence here.

Buchanan said his hunch was that Rayed would have been up to no good in New Zealand and that the authorities had been alerted by a member of the public or through monitoring of mosques.

"Maybe they were alerted by an amateur, someone at the flight school perhaps, and that is embarrassing."

New Zealand had a large number of flight schools with loose vetting that could make it an attractive place to train for a terrorist attack elsewhere, he said.

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