Suburban Washington's Terror Trail

The frontline in the war against Osama bin Laden does not run through Afghanistan. It runs through the parking lot of the Bush family’s favorite restaurant in suburban Virginia.

From there it moves across a narrow side street, through the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, then down through a warren of old, low-rent, red-brick apartment buildings frequented by aliens from El Salvador.

Past these buildings, it slices several hundred yards down a broad suburban boulevard, then turns left up another boulevard. There it cruises northeast for a few miles, until it takes a brief detour south.

That’s where the line makes its way through the bumper-to-bumper traffic in the congested parking lot of the Arlington office of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Beyond the DMV, the line moves north again, back to the boulevard, which is called Columbia Pike, where it veers northeast—straight into the charred, gaping hole on the southwest face of the Pentagon.

Drive this line—suburban Washington’s terror trail—and a chill runs down your spine. There is an eerie and ominous truth that emerges from affidavits that special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)have filed in federal district court: The path that suspected al Qaeda terrorists followed through suburban Washington in the weeks before September 11 parallels the last moments of American Airlines Flight 77.

When these alleged lieutenants of Osama bin Laden flew that plane into the Pentagon, they knew exactly where they were going, and exactly how to get there. They knew because they had followed that route before—on the surface roads of Northern Virginia. For at least several weeks before September 11—and perhaps even longer than that—they had frequented the streets and neighborhoods that lie almost in the shadow of the Pentagon.

They had converted a large local community of Latino illegal aliens into a form of human camouflage. That camouflage gave them an avenue of attack fully as stealthy as a billion-dollar B-2 bomber. With easy arrogance, they made their way through a criminal underground that was created to profit from the illicit needs of these illegal aliens. In the dog days of August, the alleged al Qaeda terrorists acted no differently than they would have had they been young men from El Salvador looking for day jobs in construction or gardening. Come September, they consummated their plot to kill thousands of Americans.

The almost criminal neglect of U.S. immigration laws that allowed these alleged terrorists to do this was fostered by Democratic politicians hoping to turn today’s illegal aliens into tomorrow’s voters and by Republican politicians fearful that, if they insisted on enforcing the immigration laws, they would be falsely accused of racism and lose forever their chance of winning support from the burgeoning bloc of Latino voters.

The path through Northern Virginia that led to the Pentagon attack began in a meeting between an illegal Salvadoran immigrant and suspected hijackers Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar.

Luis Alonso Martinez-Flores is a 28-year-old Salvadoran who, according to an FBI affidavit, "has been living unlawfully in the United States since 1994."

On August 1, he went to the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store on Glen Carlyn Road, just off Leesburg Pike, in Falls Church, Va. His purpose, he later told FBI Special Agent Jesus H. Gomez, was to look "for day labor."

People in the neighborhood knew Martinez. He often hung out, some local businessmen say, near the entrance of a First Union Bank branch at the corner of the Culmore Shopping Center. This center—a strip mall on Leesburg Pike—sits just across a narrow side street from the 7-Eleven. In the middle of the strip, a bit nearer to the bank than to the 7-Eleven, is the Peking Gourmet Inn. This restaurant was such a favorite of the senior President Bush that he reportedly ate there some 50 times during his presidency and vice presidency. President-elect George W. Bush took his brother Marvin there for a birthday dinner in December.

But also last December the restaurant was named in a Washington Post story that did not mention good food or politicians. "Fairfax County police have identified the man who was shot to death in the Culmore Shopping Center last weekend as Thomas X. Duong, 42, of Falls Church," said the Post. "Duong, a cook at the Peking Gourmet Inn, was found dead in his car behind the restaurant. . . . Police said yesterday that he was shot several times in the upper body."

Some local businessmen say that over the last two decades the neighborhood has increasingly become a gathering spot for illegal aliens.

The police can’t do anything about it, said one, because they can’t arrest someone merely for being an illegal alien. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) doesn’t do anything either, he added, presumably because they lack the resources. Another local merchant noted that in the mornings, when the largest number of illegal aliens congregate in local parking lots, Fairfax County police cars park nearby to keep a watchful eye on the crowd.

But it wasn’t a squad car that approached Martinez in the 7-Eleven parking lot on August 1. It was a van carrying two Arab men.

Martinez told Special Agent Gomez that two prospective day laborers approached the two men in the van "but refused to assist Hanjour and Almihdhar when they learned the Arab men wanted help with DMV forms."

He jumped into the van and directed the two Arabs to drive several miles south to the Springfield Mall. In the mall, they made their way to the "DMV Express," a Virginia state office set up in a storefront.

At that time, to get an official photo identification card from the state of Virginia, a foreign national needed three documents: two to prove his identity, and one to prove his legal residence in the state. A person lacking ordinary documentation of their identity and residence—such as an out-of-state driver’s license, a passport, a paycheck, a utility bill—could present the DMV with a pair of certified forms instead. The first form, a so-called DL6, was to establish the applicant’s identity. To be legal, a DL6 needed to be signed by a witness who knew the applicant and certified by an attorney in the presence of a notary public. The second, the DL51, which was supposed to establish the applicant’s legal residence, needed to be signed—in the presence of a notary public or a clerk at the DMV—by a witness who knew where the applicant lived.

When Hanjour and Almihdhar showed up at DMV Express, they apparently already had two forms of ID—a passport and a legal visa would have been accepted-—because they did not submit DL6s to establish their identity. But they did submit DL51s, to "prove" their Virginia residence. Martinez allegedly certified the forms for both of them.

On the forms, the men claimed to live in an apartment complex on the 5900 block of Leesburg Pike—one block down from the strip mall. "This address did not belong to either Hanjour or Almihdhar," Gomez wrote in his affidavit, "but was rather the address that appeared on Martinez’s Virginia identification card. Martinez no longer lived at the address, but had in the past."

With their newly minted photo IDs, the two suspected terrorists drove back with Martinez to Culmore. "At the 7-Eleven they all got out of the van," wrote Gomez. "Hanjour and Almihdhar went inside the store and appeared to use the ATM machine. They then came out, paid Martinez $100 in cash for his efforts, and left in the van. Martinez did not see them again."

But the Virginia DMV had not seen the last of these two. Hanjour and Almihdhar were now qualified to certify the legal residency of other terrorists.

That is exactly what they did the next day—at a DMV about three miles from the Pentagon on South Four Mile Run in Arlington.

Wrote Special Agent Gomez: "DMV records also show that Hanjour and Almihdhar used the address Martinez gave them on August 1, 2001, to complete DL51 forms for Majed Moqed (Moqed) and Salem Alhazmi (Alhazmi) on August 2, 2001. Moqed and Alhazmi are believed to be two more of the hijackers who flew Flight 77 into the Pentagon. . . . Hanjour certified Moqed’s Virginia residence, Almihdhar certified Alhazmi’s Virginia residence. Moqed and Alhazmi submitted these DL51 forms in support of applications for Virginia identifications cards. . . . Both applications were approved."

Three other suspected hijackers showed up at the Arlington DMV that very same day. They, too, needed witnesses to help them secure Virginia IDs. But unlike Hanjour and Almihdhar, they needed not only DL51s, to establish a residence, but also DL6s, to establish their identities. That meant they had to have the help of a witness, a notary, and a lawyer.

Victor M. Lopez-Flores is allegedly one of those who helped. The "INS deported Lopez-Flores to El Salvador on November 19, 1993, following a felony conviction," Special Agent Gomez wrote in an affidavit. "He then returned to the United States unlawfully."

On the day in question, Lopez-Flores later told Special Agent Gomez, "he was standing in a parking lot near the Arlington DMV office with several other Hispanic males.

"There," Gomez writes, "three Arab males approached him in a van with out-of-state plates and sought his assistance in obtaining Virginia identification cards for two of the three of them."

A second Hispanic man, who went by the name of "Herbert," but who carried an ID card in the name of "Oscar Diaz," joined them. "Herbert is in fact Herbert Villalobos," FBI Special Agent Brian G. Weidner said in an affidavit.

Herbert and Lopez-Flores got into Herbert’s car and drove to an attorney’s office on Columbia Pike in Falls Church. The three Arab men followed in their van.

"According to Lopez-Flores," wrote Gomez, "when they arrived at the attorney’s office, he and ‘Herbert’ took the men into a waiting room where they were all greeted by a female secretary."

"I interviewed Kenys Galicia, the secretary who worked at the attorney’s office in Falls Church," wrote Gomez. "Galicia stated that she worked at the attorney’s office as a secretary and that she notarized documents for the attorney as well. Galicia stated that a man she knew as ‘Victor’ and a second Hispanic male brought in four Arab males to her office on our about August 2, 2001."

"Victor" allegedly was a regular customer. "She stated that she has known Lopez-Flores approximately one year," wrote Gomez. "During that time, he brought several people into her office and helped them complete DL6 and DL51 forms."

One of the Arab men in the office that day was Ahmed Alghamdi, one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 175, which flew into the World Trade Center towers. Lopez-Flores vouched for his DL51 form, on which Alghamdi falsely claimed to live on Edison Street in Alexandria.

Abdul Alomari was another one of the Arab men in the law office that day. He is a suspected hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11, which also crashed into the World Trade Center towers. Alomari claimed to live on Buchanan Street in Arlington. "Oscar Armando Diaz," whom the FBI believes to be Villalobos, certified Alomari’s residency on the DL51. (The actual resident at this location was Villalobos’ cousin.)

Villalobos, who told the FBI he believed the men to be Pakistani or Iraqi, added an interesting note. "Villalobos said the attorney then came out of his office and signed the forms as well," wrote Special Agent Weidner. "Here, Villalobos noted that the attorney conversed with the ‘Pakistanis’ in ‘their language.’ After this conversation, each ‘Pakistani’ man paid the secretary $35, and then all returned to the Arlington DMV office. Once back at the DMV office, the ‘Pakistani’ men paid Villalobos $50 for his assistance and then went into the DMV to get identification cards."

When the FBI later showed Villalobos photos of the suspected September 11 hijackers, he identified five of them—Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhazmi, Majed Moqed, Khalid Alghamdi and Abdul Alomari—as being at the Arlington DMV that day. "These identifications," Special Agent Weidner wrote, "were later confirmed by Virginia DMV records which show that all five men did in fact conduct various transactions relating to Virginia identifications cards at the Arlington DMV on August 2, 2001."

But that did not end the connection between the Virginia DMV and the suspected September 11 hijackers. The agency also has a tie to one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93—the plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after the hijackers were apparently overwhelmed by a group of courageous passengers.

This takes us back down I-395—the main highway heading south from the Pentagon into Virginia—to the Springfield Mall and its "DMV Express."

"DMV records further show that Hanjour used the address Martinez gave him on August 1, 2001, to complete a DL51 form for Ziad Jarrah (Jarrah) on August 29, 2001," wrote Gomez. "Jarrah is believed to be one of the hijackers who commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. Jarrah’s DL51 was certified by Hanjour. . . . Jarrah submitted the completed DL51 form in support of an application for a Virginia identification card . . . at the DMV office in Springfield, Va. The application was approved."

As far as the government of Virginia was concerned, five of the September 11 hijackers were just peaceful aliens sharing a small apartment a block from the President’s favorite restaurant.

Two more of the suspected hijackers, as far as the state of Virginia was concerned, were peaceful aliens living in Arlington and Alexandria, in neighborhoods close to the Pentagon and Reagan National Airport.

The attorney for whom Galicia worked later provided the FBI with photocopies of Alomari’s and Alghamdi’s Saudi passports, which he had taken when they received their documents in his office.

Not long after she allegedly helped the September 11 hijackers get Virginia IDs, Galicia became the target of a sting. "On or about August 16, 2001, CW-2 [Confidential Witness-2], acting at the direction of agents of the Virginia DMV, contacted Galicia and made arrangements to purchase additional DL51 forms," wrote Special Agent Weidner. "CW-2 called Galicia and told her that he needed more blank DL51 forms because he was bringing in a group of people from New York to get Virginia identification cards. She agreed and said she would call CW-2 back when the forms were prepared. Later that day, Galicia called CW-2 and told him that the forms were ready. CW-2 then drove to her office, met Galicia in the office, and bought 30 DL51 forms from her for $90. These forms were blank but for Galicia’s signature and notary stamp."

How many blank, pre-notarized forms such as these may have floated around Virginia in the months before September 11? It’s anyone’s guess.

On a previous occasion, according to Weidner’s affidavit: "CW-2 met Galicia in the parking lot outside her office and bought 100 DL51 forms from her for $300. These forms were incomplete except that Galicia had signed and stamped the notary portion."

While the suspected hijackers are presumed dead, some of their facilitators face criminal prosecution. Luis A. Martinez-Flores was indicted on October 25 for "unlawful production of identification documents." Victor M. Lopez-Flores, according to the Washington Post, has been "charged with falsely signing an affidavit." Herbert Villalobos has pleaded innocent to "unlawful production of identification documents." And Kenys Galicia has been charged with "conspiracy to commit identification document fraud," "unlawful production of identification documents," and "aiding and abetting."

Since September 11, the Virginia DMV has changed its rules. You can no longer get a photo ID using a DL6 or a DL51.

What does that mean for prospective terrorists? Well, a DMV spokesman conceded to us that a man with a valid passport and visa could still get a Virginia photo ID if he could produce any document from a long list including a paycheck stub, a bank statement or an auto insurance policy to prove he is a Virginia resident.

The bombs are dropping today on Afghanistan, and an intensive search is underway for the anthrax killer. But on the frontline in the war against terrorism that runs through the parking lots at Culmore then down Columbia Pike to the Pentagon, the enemy has hardly been engaged.

And Congress doesn't want to change anything:

More Immigrants or Moratorium?
The Week of October 29, 2001

Human Events Assistant Editor Timothy P. Carney last week asked some members of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as Rep. Jim Traficant (D.-Ohio), whether now, in the wake of the September 11 attacks on this country, they would support a moratorium on immigration.

Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.):

Would you support a temporary moratorium on immigration into the U.S.?
"Across the board?"
Yes.
"Off hand, I wouldn’t see any reason to support that. The problem isn’t immigration. The problem is illegal immigration and not keeping track of people either coming in or how they move around once they are here."
Would you support a moratorium from countries that are producing terrorists that are coming into the U.S.?
"Off hand, I would see no reason to support that either."
Would you support changing the federal law that allows members of terrorist groups to enter into the country?
"Yes. What I would focus on is doing a better job of enforcing the immigration laws that we already have and the procedures, and if we need to tighten up the laws to keep terrorists out, then that, I think, would be very appropriate. I don’t think we ought to penalize citizens from other countries, any other country, who are lawfully, and for the right reasons, trying either to visit or immigrate to this country."
INS officials always complain about the lack of resources, the lack of staff. The sheer volume of immigration makes it difficult for them to do the things you are talking about. Do you think we should address the volume of immigration or in some other way try to improve the enforcement of immigration?
"We had a hearing in our district, two or two and half years ago. We had John Mica come down and we had a hearing in our district because we were hearing from a lot of the immigration officials in Atlanta, which is a regional office for immigration service, that they were being forced to cut back. They were cutting back overtime. They were cutting mileage. They were forced to turn their cell phones in. And that struck me as odd, because we had been appropriating record sums of money to the INS. so we had a hearing, and we never really got to the bottom of it, where all of the money that we have been appropriating to INS is going. We’ve appropriated huge increases in federal funds to the INS, yet it isn’t getting to the field, where they could use it effectively for nonborder enforcement, for example. So the first thing we ought to do is find out why they haven’t been using the funds properly, and why they haven’t been using the laws properly and effectively and consistently, and then look new authorities and new money."
Are there any short-term responses you would try to keep out terrorists who might try to come into the country next week and carry out a terrorist attack?
"I think a couple of things. I think, one, which we have already begun to address on our northern border, is to provide some additional funds, some additional resources, for that particular problem. One thing that ought to be done as quickly as possible is develop an integrated computer tracking system so that you can have proper sharing of the information for the different agencies. One of the problems that has been illustrated very graphically, even in the preliminary investigation of September 11, is that different agencies didn’t have access to the same information, so they were all operating off of different song sheets."
Do you think that sort of cooperation and increase in information sharing can happen without a serious decrease in the volume of immigration?
"Sure it can. There is no reason. I am not saying that the levels of immigration are optimal. I have no problem looking to see if overall the numbers have to be reduced. But you ask me do I think that we ought to have a moratorium on immigration? No, at this point I would not support that. You ask me if I think that we should stop immigration from countries we know to harbor terrorists and I said no I don’t think that’s a step we should take at this point. What we need to do is tighten up on what is happening up to this point, and that is too many are getting into this country that shouldn’t be getting in and we are not tracking them properly, once they’re in. or once they’re in even lawfully, once they go into an illegal status because they have overstayed they’re visas, we are not doing anything about it. Those are things that should be done. They should have been done yesterday. We should tackle those problems, and that’s independent of the volume of immigration. But whether or not it is appropriate to look at the volume of immigration, sure it is. I just don’t know, at this point, where that level ought to be."

Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.):

Would you support a moratorium of immigration into the U.S.?
"No."
How about specifically from countries that have been producing terrorists?
"You mean the victims of oppressive regimes? No. Some of the countries that produce the terrorists are also the countries that mostly mistreat women. So would I say that no woman from Afghanistan should be allowed to escape the Taliban? Of course not."
Is there any sort of immigration restriction that you would propose to address the terrorists?
"Well yes, sure. I think it is a complex issue to make sure that you are better enforcing the rules, but the notion of excluding the refugees from the world’s most oppressive regimes from coming to America, I think, is a terrible idea."
What if some of those refugees had been terrorists?
"I don’t want to make terrorism the issue. I don’t think that it can be said that they are terrorists."
But if we find that a Somali refugee is complicit in the September 11 attacks, would you still like to keep the refugees coming in, even if we think it might—
"Do you mean, if we find that if one person is complicit, do we keep out somebody who he may have persecuted? No I don’t think that is very sensible."
Would you want to change the federal law that allows members of terrorist organizations to come into the country?
"Oh, we already did that today in the bill."

Rep. Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.):

Would you support a moratorium, a temporary block, on immigration into the United States?
"If folks told me that would help fix the problem, related to September 11, yes. I just don’t think that would fix the problem, because, eventually, they’ll open back up. I’m not sure a block is the solution."
Would you support limits or a moratorium on immigration from countries that are producing terrorist that are coming into the U.S.?
"Yes. I think we need to slow down and regroup."
Would you favor changing the current federal law that allows members of terrorist organizations to get visas into the United States?
"Yes. Absolutely."

Rep. Jim Traficant (D.-Ohio):

Would you support a moratorium on immigration into the United States?
"Yes. I think . . . we should put our military on our borders. We have the military getting the paycheck, buying dinner in Japan and Germany, guarding the borders in the Golan Heights. I think we should take a look at our borders, and slow down our borders and control our borders and our customs, our airport. I think we should use the military for that."

Rep. Robert Wexler (D.-Fla.):

Would you support a moratorium on immigration into the United States?
"It’s more complicated than that. I’d have to think about it. I’m not going to go for some simplistic answer so, no."
Would you support a moratorium from countries that are producing terrorists?
"That’s a different story. We’d have to define those countries and have to really look at the exact prohibition of what it would amount to and what would be the impact on universities and the like, whether it would effect student visas and the whole bit. But I think it is something that ought to be considered. Yes."
Would you support changing the law that allows members of terrorist organizations to get visas into this country?
"No, terrorist organizations should not be getting visas into the country. That’s pretty clear."

Rep. Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.):

Would you support a moratorium, a temporary moratorium, on immigration?
Unidentified women tells Rep. Maxine Waters: "The tape is on."
Rep. Maxine Waters: "I know it is, but I don't know who he is. I'm trying to figure out who he is. What's Human Events magazine?"
Human Events is a conservative weekly here in D.C.
"That's what I thought. No, no, no. I only give written statements to conservative organizations. Only written ones."
This is a couple of straightforward questions here.
"I have to write my responses."

This is all about my stomping grounds (less so today than in the past). It's eerie.

The Culmore Shopping Center is *notorious* for illegals. I could probably drive down there right this minute and spot 50 to 100 illegals loitering at the named 7-11.

There also used to be an obvious telephone fraud ring there. There were three Verizon pay phones, always occupied with several lines on the weekends, illegals calling back home. The obvious thing about it was the guys sort of monitoring the lines and the people, and they weren't selling legitimate phone cards (those were sold by a number of stores 30 seconds away). Confirming my suspicions, Verizon eventually pulled all the phones, and it sure wasn't because of low usage.

Back to the hijackers, the address they used for their IDs is actually 5913 Leesburg Pike, it's a real address and is easily spotted as one is driving by. It's also a 20 second walk from the 7-11 and the (former) payphones. Gives me the chills every time I see it.

Missing from the story? The Wahabbi Dar al Hijra mosque is a mere 10 minutes walk (3 minutes drive) in the opposite direction from Culmore Shopping Center. This is where Hanjour and Almihdhar made a contact (completely unmentioned in the story) who told them how to find phony ID at Culmore. I think this is the guy who later drove them to Connecticutt.

In any case, Dar al Hijra hosted Almihdhar's San Diego imam for a while (I believe he's since been deported), and has supported the spiritual aspirations of a number of convicted or now-departed members of Northern VA's "Wahabbi Lobby." (Stephen Schwartz has written extensively about Dar al Hijra). Food for thought: the Home Depot where Mohammad and Malvo shot FBI employee Linda Franklin is 3 minutes drive in the *opposite* direction from Culmore (less than a straight-as-an-arrow mile from Culmore to Home Depot, with Dar al Hijra dead center in the middle).

Another thing not mentioned in the story. It was easily deduced but never really confirmed anywhere that the Pentagon hijackers used Columbia Pike as their "directional finder" to the Pentagon. We finally got an excellent confirmation of this from the 9/11 Commission report, which never names Columbia Pike per se but clearly describes the minute-to-minute route taken by the plane. Columbia Pike also runs straight-as-an-arrow for 4.5 miles (from Culmore, strangely), ending literally just 500 yards from the exact point of impact at the Pentagon.

I suppose I should mention that almost directly across Leeburg Pike from Clumore Shopping Center (actually down a block or two) is an Arab/Muslim shopping center, and about 1/2 mile east of Culmore and just off Leesburg Pike is a strip mall oddly called Mall Of America, but actually its about 90 percent Middle Eastern/Arab/Muslim. I'm glad I wasn't near there on 9/11 to hear the cheering and celebrations.

Lastly I'll mention that the Virginia ID situation has been cleaned up since 9/11. The Lopez-Flores/Galicia ring really shook things up. ID's issued before 9/20/01 are no longer renewable, and new IDs and licenses are issued with tight scrutiny of the appropriate documents (each DMV office now has a designated group which does document authentication and approval, which adds about 30-45 minutes to the process)).

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