On the trail of an 'enemy combatant'~Details emerge on Marri's alleged role in 2nd wave...

U.S. intelligence officials believe that Marri trained for two years in Afghanistan, among other things receiving instruction in the use of poisons and toxins at the Derunta camp near Jalalabad, sources said. He is believed to have trained under Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Egyptian specialist in chemical and biological weapons who was killed ...

U.S. authorities allege that Marri had gone to the United Arab Emirates in August 2001 to get more than $13,000 in cash from Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, the alleged paymaster for the Sept. 11 plotters.

The Islamic Assembly of North America, an organization that the government accused of creating Web sites to promote violent jihad, contributed $10,000 to the mosque, according to documents filed in federal court in a 2003 terrorism case. Several members of the Macomb mosque’s board had dealings with the group, those records show.

Marri had been calling other numbers, in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, according to the complaint. Intelligence and law enforcement sources say he was calling senior al-Qaeda operatives.

The government’s interest in Marri was soon heightened further. In mid-November 2001, al-Qaeda’s senior military commander, Muhammad Atef, was killed in a U.S. rocket attack on an Afghanistan safe house. ...

“When he was killed, we found out there was a huge al-Qaeda interest in chemical and biological weapons,” said an intelligence source knowledgeable about the investigations of both Atef and Marri. ...

Materials recovered from Atef’s safe house, the source said, revealed that Marri might be one of them. He and Atef had “shared contacts,” the source said.

The feeling was he was engaged in operational research, identifying targets and materials,” the intelligence source said. “We think al-Marri was here to carry out attacks, as part of a second or third wave.

Al-Marri is the infamous "steamer chest" guy from 2001.

DECEMBER 11, 2001 : (AL-MARRI INVESTIGATION : FBI VISITS AGAIN) The FBI continued to look into the background of Ali Salem Kahlah Al-Marri, and on Dec. 11, 2001, agents paid him another visit. The agents said they still had questions about his date of birth and enrollment at Bradley. Al-Marri's wife was not wearing her veil and, according to custom, could not be seen uncovered by male strangers. The agents waited while Al-Marri took his wife into the master bedroom. Zambeck explained that it would be best if Al-Marri came to the FBI office for the reinterview. The agent suggested that Al-Marri bring along his college and immigration documents. And while they were at it, Zambeck wondered, could he and Brown take a look around the apartment?
Al-Marri agreed to the requests, according to testimony the agents gave at a suppression hearing in September (2002).
In a bedroom, the agents found about a dozen VHS tapes. Al-Marri told them they were for the children. Brown asked whether he could take two of the cassettes back to the office, and Al-Marri agreed. Before the agents could look in the master bedroom, Al-Marri had to move his wife again, this time into the bathroom. Once inside the master bedroom, the agents noticed a large monitor hooked up to a laptop computer.
Zambeck asked whether they could bring the computer to the office to look at it, and Al-Marri agreed to that request as well. Al-Marri slipped the laptop in a carrying case. The three men next went outside for a search of Al-Marri's green minivan. Inside, the agents found a hand-held global positioning system and his Qatar passport.
Before they could leave for the FBI office, Al-Marri told the agents, he needed to go back inside and change into Western garb. He said he also needed to pray. Al-Marri said he planned to break the Ramadan fast that evening at dinner with his family. He wanted to make sure he would be back in time. "It shouldn't take long at all," Zambeck replied, according to court documents.
Once inside the FBI office, Al-Marri was asked about his travels within the United States, phone calls he had made overseas and his travels abroad. He told the agents he had not been in the United States during the period between his 1991 departure after graduating college and his return Sept. 10, 2001.
According to a joint statement issued by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Springfield, Ill., during that interview Al-Marri specifically "falsely denied knowing Al-Hawsawi and denied ever calling the United Arab Emirates telephone number."
Before ending the conversation that evening, Zambeck made clear that he was not satisfied with Al-Marri's answers. Zambeck wasn't saying, but by that point the agency had obtained Al-Marri's cell phone records and the Lufthansa airplane manifests from 2000. Zambeck warned Al-Marri that lying to a federal agent could lead to a lengthy prison term and keep him from his family for a very long time. With the interview finally over, Al-Marri and Brown waited for Zambeck in a public hallway on the seventh floor. "Do I get my computer back tonight?" Al-Marri asked.
"No, not tonight," replied Brown. Zambeck and Brown drove Al-Marri home after 10 p.m., presumably well past the dinner hour for his children. Before saying good night, the agents asked him to return the next day for a polygraph test. Al-Marri agreed.The FBI posted a surveillance team overnight outside the residence, in clear view. - "Mystery man in 9/11 terror case-Who is Ali Al-Marri? FBI links him to hijackers," by RICHARD T. PIENCIAK, New York Daily News 1/12/03

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