Posted on 04/06/2002 2:06:55 AM PST by sarcasm
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:12:27 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
An Algerian man and two roommates who were arrested in Detroit a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were planning to conduct holy war against the United States, a federal prosecutor said in court Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino said Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, of Detroit was trying to smuggle automatic weapons and people into the United States with phony documents to carry out terrorist activities.
(Excerpt) Read more at freep.com ...
Sigh. Another dubious indictment for spitting on the floor and overdue library books.
Mightily hath Leviathan laboured, and brought forth... a mouse.
Strictly out of curiousity, why would anyone take the time to draw the layouts of that Turkey air base and the airport in Amman, Jordan, if they weren't doing something on behalf of Iraq? Who else would be interested in both of these locations?
DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) 2001--One of three men indicted on charges of identity fraud refused to reveal his nationality in federal court when a U.S. Magistrate asked him twice to identify his native country.
Federal authorities said Friday they believe the man is Youseff Hmimssa, but he has several other known aliases, including Michael Saisa, Edgardo Colon, Patrick Vuillaume and "Jalai."
When U.S. District Court Magistrate Virginia Morgan asked Hmimssa Thursday afternoon how old he was, he responded, in English, that he is 30 years old. But he stood mute and bowed his head when she asked him to tell the court his native country.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino said his office has not been able to definitively determine if the man in custody is indeed Youseff Hmimssa. He said the man has asserted in the past he was a native of Morocco.
"We're not positive if he is actually Youseff Hmimssa or where he is from," said Convertino.
Convertino added that it is important for the court to know Hmimssa's native country so authorities can determine jurisdiction issues with that country before criminal proceedings continue.
Hmissa resided in Dearborn, although no time frame of his residency has been released. He was arrested in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on September 28, (2001) and was later indicted on charges of identity fraud, misuse of visas, and conspiracy to commit identity fraud.
Because Hmimssa had just arrived in Detroit from Iowa, his court-appointed attorney, Stephen Rabaut, requested Hmimssa's arraignment be adjourned for a week. Rabaut said he had not had a chance to meet with his client nor to fully discuss the charges against him.
Magistrate Morgan agreed to adjourn the arraignment, which will be held Wednesday October 17.
Risk of flight?
Two other men indicted on the same charges -- Karim Koubriti, 23, and Ahmed Hannan, 33, both resident aliens of Arab descent -- appeared in court Thursday as well, as their attorneys appealed an order to detain them.
Koubriti and Hannan and a third man, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, were arrested September 17 from their apartment in southwest Detroit. A federal affidavit states agents found false identification documents, passport photos and a day planner with Arabic notations about a U.S. military base in Turkey, as well as what appeared to be drawings of flight paths for an airport.
Koubriti, who told agents about the false identification documents when they searched his apartment, said they belonged to Hmimssa.
When Judge Rosen asked Convertino if there was evidence relating Koubriti and Hannan to Hmimssa, Convertino said yes, but that he was not ready to divulge that information to the court at this time.
"There may be evidence linking the defendants (Koubriti and Hanan) to certain documents recovered in the house," he said.
Convertino argued that their risk of flight and lack of ties in Detroit and America was compelling evidence that Koubriti and Hannan should remain jailed as the case proceeds.
Rosen agreed but ordered the case must proceed swiftly.
Charges against the third man arrested in Detroit, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, were dismissed, and he was released from federal custody Wednesday.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/12/inv.detroit.suspects
DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) -- Authorities have dropped criminal charges against one of three Arab men arrested last month in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, had been scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Paul Komives on charges of identity fraud, misuse of visas and conspiracy to commit those violations.
Instead, Komives signed an order dismissing the charges against Ali-Haimoud without prejudice, meaning the same charges could be brought again later based on new evidence.
"The government is requesting additional time to investigate to see if there's evidence to charge this person and whether or not it is in the public interest to do so," said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.
The order stated the government's need to investigate and acquire more evidence in the case against Ali-Haimoud could not be successfully accomplished before the preliminary hearing.
Defense lawyer Kevin Ernst told CNN his client was arrested only because of hysteria following the September 11 attacks and because he is of Arab descent. "They could indict an onion right now if it had an Arabic name," said Ernst. Ernst said Ali-Haimoud came to the United States legally from Algiers two years ago and went from living a completely anonymous lifestyle to having his picture splashed across newspapers and television screens nationwide.
"I don't think he's any longer a focus of the investigation," said Ernst, who claimed the government never had any concrete evidence against his client and violated his civil rights. "You're supposed to investigate the evidence against a person before you arrest and detain them," he said.
Ali-Haimoud was arrested along with Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Karim Koubriti, 23, at a Detroit apartment on September 17, 2001. Federal agents had gone to the apartment in search of another man, Nabil Al-Marabh, identified as a potential suspect or associate of the 19 hijackers responsible for America's recent terrorist attacks.
Al-Marabh was later arrested outside Chicago and is in federal custody.
Court appearance Thursday
According to FBI affidavits, agents found employee identification badges for two of the men for LSG Skychefs, on-board caterer at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in suburban Romulus. They also found what appeared to be diagrams of an airport flight line, and a day planner which contained Arabic notations relating to the American base in Turkey and an airport in Jordan.
The affidavit also stated that Koubriti allowed federal agents to search his home and that he informed the agents of false documents located in the apartment.
Those documents included a passport, Social Security card and a U.S. visa, all in the name of Michael Saisa. Koubriti told agents the items belonged to a man who previously lived with him, who he called Jalai.
Jalai -- also known as Youssef Hmimssa and Patrick J. Vuillaume -- faces a preliminary hearing in federal court Thursday.
Attorneys for Koubriti and Hannan also will be in court Thursday, appealing Judge Komives September 28 order to detain the men because they are considered a flight risk.
They are also charged with identity fraud, misuse of visas and Social Security fraud. If convicted, Koubriti and Hannan face up to 25 years in prison.
Ernst said it is difficult to represent Arab-Americans in cases such as these right now because of public sentiment. And the clients aren't the only ones under scrutiny.
"People told me I should be ashamed of myself for representing these people."
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/inv.charges.dropped/
September 22, 2001
BY JACK KRESNAK AND JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
A mysterious new name in the nationwide terrorism investigation emerged Friday in federal court in Detroit, where three suspects learned they won't be freed from jail for now.
And new insights arose from Canada and Detroit about Nabil Almarabh, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden. Almarabh's Michigan driver's license led agents to the three suspects being held here by the U.S. Marshals Service.
In arguing to keep the three behind bars, Richard Convertino, assistant U.S. attorney, disclosed at a detention hearing in U.S. District Court that someone named only as "Jilali" may be the person responsible for some suspicious documents that were found at a southwest Detroit home. Agents found 28 passport photos, false IDs, sketches of an airport, and notations in Arabic about a U.S. base in Turkey.
Jilali is the source two of the suspects -- Ahmed Hannan and Karim Koubriti -- gave for at least some of the suspicious documents, Convertino said. No further details were given about Jilali. The items were seized Monday night at a raid on a rental flat on Detroit's southwest side. Agents were looking for Almarabh -- whose name appears on the FBI's list of people wanted for questioning about last week's attacks.
Hannan, 33, Koubriti, 23, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, will continue to be held at least until a preliminary examination next Friday on charges of possession of fraudulent documents and conspiracy to possess or manufacture the documents.
Lawyers representing the men argued unsuccessfully that the charges are minor and the men should be released on bond. Their clients, they said, are being unfairly detained because of a climate of fear. Hannan and Koubriti are native Moroccans; Ali-Haimoud is Algerian.
Almarabh remained in custody Friday in Chicago where he was being questioned by the FBI after his arrest Wednesday night at a convenience store where he recently had taken a job. Federal officials have released no information about what Almarabh's connection may be -- if any -- to last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But a source close to the federal probe has told the Free Press that Almarabh is a close associate of bin Laden, their chief suspect in the attacks.
Almarabh, Hannan and Koubriti all had recently undergone training to drive big-rig trucks, fueling questions among public officials about whether trucks could be used as weapons. Almarabh had also obtained certification to haul hazardous cargo, including explosives.
(* my note: So, a guy who took training in driving tractor trailers... and who is certified to haul hazardous cargo... is working at a convenience store? *)
According to Canadian immigration records obtained by the Free Press, Almarabh was caught June 27 moving between the two countries while hiding in the back of a tractor-trailer rig.
(*My note : So a guy who has been trained to drive tractor trailers, and is certified for hazardous material, worked at a convenience store... and crossed the border in the BACK of a big rig?*)
Almarabh, 34, tried to enter the United States through the Queen's Lewiston Bridge at Niagara Falls when U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services officers discovered him in the truck on the U.S. side of the border. They returned him to Canadian officials who found a fraudulent Canadian passport, a fake Canadian citizenship card and fraudulent social insurance number in Almarabh's possession.
When asked by Canadian Immigration Officer John Glengarry what country he was a citizen of, Almarabh said, "I'm stateless," according to a transcript of a June 29 immigration hearing.
He later told Canadian authorities that he was born in Kuwait to parents who were from Syria. Published reports have said Almarabh's mother was Palestinian and his father was a Syrian running a business in Kuwait.
Almarabh told Canadian authorities that he would not leave their country. When an officer suggested he may have to be deported to Sudan, Almarabh became upset and said, "I won't leave." It is unclear from the transcript why he might be deported to Sudan.
Almarabh told the officer to "put me back in a cell so I can die," according to the transcript.
Almarabh, the records show, initially entered Canada in 1994 claiming to be a refugee. But officials determined he didn't qualify for that status. He did not leave Canada until June 20, 1995, however, according to the transcripts. He later said he returned to Canada in January, 2001.
Almarabh's Vietnamese-born wife, Huyn T. Van, told the New York Times that her husband entered the U.S. from Canada in late 1996 or early 1997. His Canadian driver's license was issued in March, 1994, according to records obtained by the Free Press.
Almarabh's wife said he told her he was Iraqi and that his mother and two brothers live in Kuwait. She said Almarabh was questioned by the FBI in Boston in August.
When they arrested Almarabh this summer, Canadian officials knew that Almarabh had been convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon -- a knife -- in Massachusetts in December, the transcript shows, but officials apparently did not know he was wanted for violating his probation for that offense.
A court official ordered Almarabh held pending a second hearing.
At a second hearing in July, a Canadian immigration official argued that authorities ought to continue holding Almarabh because he "has demonstrated quite amply in both countries that he has no respect for the immigration laws of either Canada or the United States and is more than willing to circumvent these to serve his own purposes."
The immigration court official noted that Almarabh's false passport was in his name, had his picture on it and "was tailor-made for you."
"You were apparently involved in a smuggling operation in order to get back here," the court official told Almarabh. In the end, however, the court set a $7,500 bond, which was posted for Almarabh by an Islamic cleric from Toronto who said he was Almarabh's uncle.
U.S. investigators are interested in Almarabh's training last summer as a truck driver. On Friday they questioned the manager of the A & K Driving School in Dearborn, where he completed training in big rigs last year. Almarabh then went on to get a hazardous cargo certificate.
On Thursday, FBI agents went to another school, U.S. Truck Driver Training School in Detroit, where Hannan and Koubriti were trained this summer.
Hatem Aly said Almarabh signed up for the Dearborn school's least-expensive training class on Aug. 27, 2000, and paid the $1,700 tuition by a personal check. As part of their investigation, FBI agents are seeking sources of funding for terrorist groups.
Almarabh attended the school between Sept. 8, 2000, and Oct. 12, 2000.
Almarabh was a good student, Aly said, and received his certificate to drive a heavy tractor-trailer rig. At the end of training, he did not ask for job placement, which the school provides, Aly said. Almarabh told Aly he planned to return to Boston for a while, then would move back to Detroit.
Almarabh's name was on the southwest Detroit flat's mailbox when agents raided it Monday night. Instead of him, they found Hannan, Ali-Haimoud, Koubriti and a cache of suspicious documents, at lease some of which purportedly belonged to "Jilali."
In court Friday, Convertino said a statement from Ali-Haimoud indicated that Jilali lived with Hannan and Koubriti at a previous residence in Dearborn, but they kicked him out when they discovered his false documents. They moved to the Detroit flat several weeks ago, but told agents they kept the documents in case he returned for them.
Hannan and Koubriti worked until July for LSG Sky Chefs, which provides in-flight meals for airlines at Detroit Metro Airport.
After Friday's detention hearing in court, Ali-Hamoud's attorney, Kevin Ernst, tried to distance his client from Hannan and Koubriti.
"It is a grave injustice for him to spend another minute in jail," Ernst said. "They have no case against him."
Ernst said Ali-Haimoud "has never heard of" and "had nothing to do with" Almarabh.
To the dismay of defense attorneys, the government offered no testimony regarding the criminal charges against Hannan, Koubriti, and Ali-Haimoud.
James Thomas, the court-appointed attorney for Hannan, appealed to the judge to order the government to turn over statements from the defendants and other investigative documents, but U.S. District Court Magistrate Paul Komives refused.
"How do I represent a person effectively in a case?" Thomas asked. He said the charges were minor and normally would merit bond. "People are in a defense mode and, may I say, quick to judge."
Contact JIM SCHAEFER schaefer@freepress.com. Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or kresnak@freepress.com.
Staff writer David Zeman contributed to this report.
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:x-5fzzm5__YC:www.freep.com/news/nw/terror2001/arrest22_20010922.htm+%22Ali-Haimoud%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
arrest22_20010922.htm
Makes for an interesting case...or cases.
...Ismael Ahmed—Ahmed heads the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), the largest Arab welfare agency in North America, which funded driving lessons for men believed to be Al-Quaida terrorists. Ahmed strongly opposed the Clinton Counter-terrorism Act of 1996 because it prohibited donations to terrorist groups. When federal authorities looked for Nabil Almarabh, believed to be a close associate to Osama Bin Laden, they found three men in Almarabh’s former southwest Detroit residence. The men--who still had IDs from their former jobs as Detroit Airport Sky Chef employees--possessed false IDs, and a day planner with notes and sketches regarding a U.S. military base in Turkey, a Turkish airport, the American “foreign minister” and the Amman, Jordan airport. According to the Detroit Free Press, Ahmed’s ACCESS funded commercial driving lessons and attempts for hazardous materials hauling certificates for two of the three men, Ahmed Hannan and Karim Koubriti.
Ahmed didn’t seem to care much about this, even though, ACCESS—which had $8 million in revenue in 2000—gets at least 60 percent of its funds from us taxpayers, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. “We send people to all kinds of training programs and we don’t check their political credentials.” In other words, “I don’t care if your tax money funds my agency, it’s my party, and I’ll help terrorists if I want to.”
This tax-funded organization, which sees being an Al-Quaida terrorist a mere, benign “political credential” is now being paid $1.3 million to provide “sensitivity training” on Arabs and Muslims to the Dearborn Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, and Dearborn and Detroit Public Schools.
(Sometimes I think we are headed for a combo of the American Civil War, Spanish Civil War, The Argentina "Dirty War", and the Great Depression, perhaps with some WW2 tossed in.
I feel sorry for my young kids, who are not going to know the peaceful and affluent America we grew up in.
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