Posted on 11/05/2001 6:12:01 AM PST by callisto
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- A Saudi national remained in federal custody on suspicion he accepted bribes to issue U.S. visas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Sunday.
Abdulla Noman, who works for the U.S. Department of Commerce issuing visas in Saudi Arabia, was arrested Thursday in a Las Vegas Strip hotel room. He is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for obtaining visas for Saudis, authorities said.
Federal authorities in Las Vegas and New Jersey are investigating whether there are any ties between Noman and the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Review-Journal reported that an informant cooperating with a New Jersey-based FBI investigation told agents that he paid Noman more than $3,000 in 1998 to get a U.S. visa under false pretenses.
Agents in Newark, N.J had been investigating Noman for sometime and tracked him to Las Vegas last week. He was arrested Thursday after he met with the same informant and accepted a bribe in exchange for a visa, authorities said.
Attempts on Sunday by United Press International to reach the Saudi embassy in Washington were unsuccessful.
Fifteen of the 19 suicide hijackers who participated in the attacks came to the United States from Saudi Arabia. All 15 had obtained American visas, according to authorities.
Prosecutors told the newspaper that more information about the case would be revealed at Noman's detention hearing, scheduled for this week.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
Was this also Clinton?
I will be in Vegas later this week on business. If I see someone in a burnoose walking the Strip I'll stop and ask him. ;-)
All kidding aside, I am not entirely comfortable having to go to Vegas at this time. Logic says that Vegas should be on the terrorists' short-list of targets.
LOL! You're funny! And stupid.
Are you a fundamentalist?
Here's something to keep in mind depending on when you take off...
The 911/WTC attacks happened -- if I remember correctly -- the TUESDAY after the US Open Tennis Championships finished off in New York.
For some reason, the terrorists didn't attack DURING the US Open when people from all around the world were watching. They waited until the Tuesday after... (Possibly because security would be relaxing?)
Tomorrow is going to be the Tuesday after the World Series... I wonder if there will be an understandable let down in security -- people thinking, phew, we made it through the Series -- and then pow the terrorists will strike...
I'd be carefuly flying Tuesday morning. (And I'm going to have a tape in the VCR recording CNN all Monday night/Tuesday day just in case something breaks...)
Mark W.
Why, in the name of pete, is this job being done by a Saudi??? Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!!!! I hope such practices are being done away with.
What do you think they are doing there?
Exactly!
I just thought of something. There seem to be a lot going to Vegas. Then there seems to be a large concentration in Florida. Remember the part in the so-called terrist handbook about picking areas or communities where people don't know each other? Las Vegas is a tourist town and has a very transient population. I know, because I used to live there. It's hard to meet people. I know someone who used to live in South Florida. You know, Miami-Dade. She also says because of tourism, that area is also very transient. Because of this, many people don't know their neighbors. Wouldn't those areas seem to be ideal for terror-cells? I hope the FBI has noticed the pattern.
Bingo!!!
I'm thinking Bill Clinton.
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