Suspect in ID fraud goes free on bond (Tennessee)

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | March 29, 2002 | Bill Dries

[sarcasm]

One of five suspects in a drivers license fraud ring was released Thursday after his father agreed to put up property, including his Staten Island home, as bond.

Federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza dropped opposition to Sakher A. Hammad's release after his father, Peter Hansen, a civil engineer employed by New York City government, signed the $250,000 bond.

But DiScenza fought a bid for bail by co-defendant Khaled Odtllah. U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald is scheduled to rule Monday on that matter.

DiScenza also told Donald that the government wants separate trials in rapid succession for the five defendants, with Odtllah, the alleged ringleader, being the last tried.

Donald set a tentative trial date of May 20 for the first of the defendants.

Hammad, like his four co-defendants, had been in federal custody since they were arrested Feb. 5 with Tennessee license examiner Katherine Smith.

A criminal complaint the next day charged all six with being part of a scam in which Smith would issue driver's licenses for a fee to New Yorkers brought to Shelby County by Odtllah.

Smith, out of jail on her own recognizance, died in a fiery car crash the night before she was scheduled to appear at a detention hearing.

The defendants were denied bail at the Feb. 11 hearing after the government cited the "mysterious" nature of Smith's death as well as what they said were connections to the World Trade Center just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

Hammad had a visitor's pass for one of the towers dated Sept. 5. He has allegedly told investigators that his Brooklyn plumbing company worked on the building's sprinkler system.

Hammad cried as his father testified Thursday that he came to the United States from Jordan 15 years ago and later brought over other family members, including his son.

"America is our country," Hansen testified. "We are a very dedicated family. We love work. . . . We would never think to do harm to anyone."

Neither DiScenza nor Memphis FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash offered any new revelations about the investigation into Smith's death.

But during Thursday's hearing, Nash revealed that FBI agents had found licenses and other identification from California and Utah - all in Odtllah's name - in an envelope marked "do not open." The envelope was found two weeks ago in a locked file cabinet when FBI agents searched a Memphis office where Odtllah's girlfriend, Sandra DaSilva, worked.

DaSilva said she put the envelope in the file cabinet at Odtllah's instructions.

"This whole thing is unfair. The FBI is trying to dump all of this on Khaled," she said after the hearing.

Nash testified that two driver's licenses, each bearing a picture that looked like Odtllah, were found when FBI agents examined other Tennessee licenses issued by Smith. On one of them was another name that prosecutors contend was a false identity.

Nash also testified that Odtllah had a driver's license in Utah that used the Social Security number of a dead female infant and told a girlfriend that he had a source for fraudulent driver's licenses there.

But Anthony Helm, Odtllah's attorney, argued that the Social Security number could have been a clerical error since Nash did not yet have the application Odtllah filled out for the license.

Nash also testified that Odtllah fled Utah for Florida after he was charged in 1997 with sodomizing the 12-year-old sister of his girlfriend.

Odtllah was later extradited back to Utah, but the mother of the child dropped the charge. However, DiScenza argued that the incident showed Odtllah was a flight risk on the conspiracy charge.

[Fish out of Water]

index bump

[Lion's Cub]

Federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza dropped opposition to Sakher A. Hammad's release after his father, Peter Hansen, a civil engineer employed by New York City government, signed the $250,000 bond.

So you can buy your way out with a quarter of a million now. Wonder where they're fleeing to...

[Ingtar]

Living in Memphis (2 blocks from the DL office), I suspect that they will all walk. Only thing that might be happening is the FEDs counting on him contacting more of the ring, and leading to further arrests.

[sneakypete]

Odtllah was later extradited back to Utah, but the mother of the child dropped the charge.

Think maybe she was promised a firey death in a car crash if she didn't?

[GailA]

Hmmm...his daddy is a civil engineer for the city of NYC. News said this guy will be allowed to LEAVE Tennessee and go home with daddy dearest.

[sneakypete]

Hmmm...his daddy is a civil engineer for the city of NYC.

As a civil engineer who is a city employee,he would have had easy access to the blueprints for the WTC. Think maybe he might have run off a few copies to send to Osama?

News said this guy will be allowed to LEAVE Tennessee and go home with daddy dearest.

Who knows,maybe the feds need another "incident" to grab a little more power,and he and his daddy are key players? The Feebs did this same trick with the KKK in the 50's and 60's.

[honway]

bump

[honway]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/629113/posts

Link

A photo ID pass for Sept. 5 found on one of the men charged with fraudulently obtaining a Tennessee driver's license from a Memphis woman gave him access to the six underground levels of the One World Center building. But which tenant hired Sakher 'Rocky' Hammad, 24, to work on its sprinklers is lost, said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Alan Hicks on Friday.

Hammad told federal authorities that he was working on the sprinklers six days before the twin towers were brought down by terrorists, court testimony revealed this week.

It was widely reported in the media last week that the spinkler systems did not work in the Towers on 9-11. Has any one read anything about an investigation exploring the connection between Hammad and the inoperative sprinkler system?

[Fred Mertz]

But during Thursday's hearing, Nash revealed that FBI agents had found licenses and other identification from California and Utah - all in Odtllah's name - in an envelope marked "do not open."

This is new info. But, nothing new on Katherine Smith's fiery demise.

[honway]

Please see reply #9

[honway]

Please see #9.

[honway]

bump

[honway]

"The New York Times obtained a copy of the World Trade Center draft report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Society of Civil Engineers about the engineering failures that caused the towers to collapse. Among the findings: 'Fireproofing, sprinkler systems and the water supply for hoses were all disabled and the fires generated heat equivalent to the energy output of a nuclear power plant' reports the NYT (Yahoo link). Amazingly, if it wasn't for the fire (or another secondary catastrophic force), the towers would have remained standing."

[honway]

Please see replies #9 and #14

[honway]

New York Times

March 29, 2002

Towers Withstood Impact, but Fell to Fire, Report Says

By JAMES GLANZ and ERIC LIPTON

Fireproofing, sprinkler systems and the water supply for hoses were all disabled in the twin towers on Sept. 11 in the face of a blaze so intense that it drove temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees and generated heat equivalent to the energy output of a nuclear power plant, a federal report on how the towers fell has concluded.

The fire, combined with these failures, brought down the towers even after they had shown surprising and lifesaving resiliency to massive structural damage caused by the impact of two hijacked airliners, the report says.

The report's findings detail for the first time the horrific series of events that led to the collapse of two of the world's tallest buildings. They are contained in a draft of a report commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The draft describes a structure that showed both remarkable strength and critical weaknesses. As was obvious to television viewers worldwide, the towers sustained the initial impact of the planes. But the buildings were able to redistribute loads away from damaged columns so well that they could probably have remained standing indefinitely if not for the fires, an earthquake or a windstorm, the report said. Team members are still debating the delicate question of whether the tremendous fires could have brought the towers down on their own.

"The ability of the two towers to withstand aircraft impact without immediate collapse was a direct function of their design and construction characteristics, as was the vulnerability of the two towers to collapse as a result of the combined effects of the impacts and ensuing fires," the report concludes.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, is not due to be released officially until late April or early May. It provides documentary evidence that simultaneously supports and rejects many of the theories about what happened to the towers on Sept. 11.

What is already clear is that the jet fuel played a role somewhat different, though still critical, than some experts had speculated. After the planes slammed into the towers, the fireballs that burst over Lower Manhattan consumed perhaps a third of the 10,000 gallons of fuel on board each plane, for example, but did little structural damage themselves, the report says.

Like a giant well of lighter fluid, though, the remaining fuel burned within minutes, setting ablaze furniture, computers, paper files and the planes' cargo over multiple floors and igniting the catastrophic inferno that brought the towers down.

Under normal circumstances, fire suppression systems are designed to allow a high-rise blaze to burn itself out before the building collapses. But the report concludes that there were across-the-board failures in the towers' fire suppression systems, raising disturbing questions about the safety and integrity of other tall buildings in out-of-control fires. But the ultimate significance of those failures is extremely difficult to gauge, the report says, because of the extraordinary circumstances of the attack.

In fact, besides just setting the fires, the impact of the jets may have jarred loose the light, fluffy fireproofing that had been sprayed on steel columns, and flying debris almost certainly sliced through the vertical pipes that supplied water for the hoses and sprinklers.

Because of those uncertainties, the report says, building codes and engineering practices should be studied extensively to consider changes, a step the federal government is already planning, with a $16 million two-year inquiry by the National Institute of Standards and Technology now getting under way. The final version of the FEMA report may recommend specific changes in building codes and standards.

The report is also significant for what it does not include. With the exception of a few contorted steel beams from 5 World Trade Center, a nine-story office building that also burned and had localized collapses because the beams failed where they were bolted together, little evidence collected from the piles of debris contributed in a meaningful way to the report's conclusions.

That absence could intensify criticism of an early decision by the city to recycle steel from the trade center rather than make it immediately available for collection and analysis by the research team. About 60 pieces of trade center steel are being sent to the technology institute for the investigation, so future analysis could provide additional answers.

The draft report also does not contain any discussion of what could become a contentious new issue in attempts to explain why the south tower, though struck after the north tower, fell first. That question involves a program, started after the 1993 bombing of the towers, to increase the thickness of the fireproofing on the lightweight steel joists that held up the floors.

At the time of the attack, 18 floors on the north tower and 13 floors in the south tower had been upgraded, by increasing the thickness of the fireproofing from three-quarters of an inch to an inch and a half. As it happened, the planes hit floors in the north tower where fireproofing thickness had already been increased, and floors in the south that had not been upgraded — with one exception, the 78th floor.

Team members are carefully debating what role that difference may have played in the length of time the towers stood after impact: 56 minutes, 10 seconds for the south tower and 102 minutes, 5 seconds for the north. But there are several other possible explanations. The plane that struck the south tower was moving at least 100 miles an hour faster than the other one, heightening the energy upon impact. And it hit 10 floors lower, resulting in far more weight from above bearing down on the damaged area.

Whatever its thickness, much of the fireproofing was probably dislodged by the impact of the planes, the investigators concluded. One official knowledgeable about the fireproofing said the woolly, mineral-based material could be brushed away with the wipe of a finger.

[Shermy]

Thanks for the ping Fred.

Here's my template - any addiditions or suggestions welcome.

______________

Feb. 7

Six Charged in Tenn. License Plot [Courtesy of the Tennessee DemocRAT Party]

Feb. 8 (for comedic relief)

Dri ver license fraud case here is a rare incident, state says

Feb. 11

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR AIDING ARABS IN DRIVER'S LICENSE SCAM PRESUMED DEAD

Tennessee finds a cost to easing driver's license rules Some other states, airlines no longer accept (Boston Globe)

Feb. 12

Feds fear license examiner is dead - Memphis Woman's co-defendants tied to 9/11, judge told

Feb. 13:

Body in car identified as license examiner - Update on Memphis, Tennesse License Examiner

Feb. 14

TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS

TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS (II)

Flaming death no accident, FBI says - Gasoline found on clothes of license examiner

Feb. 15

New York Times (with Pics of car) F.B.I. Says Arson Killed Woman Accused in License Scheme

Sm ith led low-impact life until arrest, fiery end (Not a thread)

Images of the burned car owned by Katherine Smith * alternate title: How Arabs Kill Witnesses

FBI Agent: Arson Killed Key Suspect (driver's license examiner accused of supplying terrorists)

Feb.16

License suspect had WTC repair pass, but Port Authority did its own work [Tennessee License Scandal]

TE NN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS

***FBI checking 5 in illegal-license cases for possible al-Qaida links

Feb. 18:

Mourners remember the good deeds of license examiner, not how she died

Feb. 20

State Immigrant I.D. Llicense for Disaster, Foes Say [Tennessee License Scandal - Business as Usual]

Terror in Tennessee? (Front Page magazine)

Feb. 22

Terroris m expert [Steven Emerson] monitors the Mid-South (WMC-TV Memphis 2/23)

Feb. 24:

Caution: Driver license rule-makers at work

Feb. 28

5 men with Mideast ties indicted in license scam

March 6

Patrol says examiner's death not due to crash (+ witness accounts)

March 8

Editorial 3/8: Driver licensing process needs review

***March 13

Three bombs found in MEMPHIS morgue building [ongoing sweep of building]

March 14

MEMPHIS: 'NO HOAX' BOMB FOUND OUTSIDE COUNTY MORGUE

*TN License Scandals

Pics of License Scam suspects

Color Pics of Suspects

Other Stories

I-70 Traffic Stop Turns Up $300K In Cash, Undocumented Jordanian (Al Qaida Operative?) [2/22 Utah]

Licenses for undocumented aliens steer legislators both ways - Driving: INS official says passage of bill would make deportation more difficult; proponents say it would give sense of identity (Kansas 2/20)

Immigrant Licenses Debated ( ILLEGAL ALIENS... AGAIN )[Kansas 2/20]

***Grass roots, politicians differ on immigration (2/14 plus Grover Norquist Barf Alert)

FBI investigating ‘‘mass destruction’’ inquiry (2/21 Somali asks U. of Memphis professor for weapons advice

GAO Report Finds “Pervasive and Serious Problem”” with Immigration Benefit Fraud Terrorists and Drug Dealers Manipulating Benefits Application Process To Carry Out Criminal Activities

Man on FBI watch list spotted (2/23 Iraqi, with Saddam Connections, in truck with OK lic. Plates, Picking up chemicals in Michigan. Egads!) Santa Paula Mayor's Wife Target of Probe (Calif. -Selling Drivers Licenses to Illegals)

Phony IDs, Real Danger (CBS 2/26)

NJ Man Charged in Bogus ID Ring Linked to 9/11 Hijackers Driver's Licenses To Be Easier For Foreigners (New Mex. 2/28)

Nationwide Alert Focuses On Arkansas Document Centers On Fake Ids (3/7)

Man accused of carrying false ID ordered held without bail (Indiana, Pakistan, Guinea 3/13

Jersey City Egyptian Arrested with Fake ID 3/13

And don’t forget the stories about the Doctor who “fell” off a Memphis bridge!

[DoughtyOne]

You know, I just don't get what goes through the mind of our justice system officials some times. Phone records and other trackable information should reveal all the justice needs to know about contacts etc. This man should never see the light of day again if he's guilty. I view document fraud as extremely serious. Now the guy's free to consult with others who wish to pick up right were he left off. Excellent.

[Grampa Dave]

You posted, exactly what I thought of when I read this line that you posted: As a civil engineer who is a city employee,he would have had easy access to the blueprints for the WTC. Think maybe he might have run off a few copies to send to Osama?

Actually, he could have given the plans to ATTA who was a city planner with extensive knowledge of building structures.

This whole TN thing stinks from the guy who worked on the sprinkler systems in the WTC now to this info.

You are right about the FBI releasing KKKers to go back and get more KKKers in the net!

[honway]

It appears that the collapse and the majority of the loss of life resulted because the sprinkler system had been disabled. If Hammad participated in disabling the sprinkler system, then he is more responsible for the loss of life than all the hijackers combined, IMHO.