9/11 ties suspected in visa fraud

Lends credence to the story that many Moslems nationwide were aware of the 9/11 plot.

"All of the suspects were freed pending court dates later this month, except Fahad Alhajri,..."

HUH? Freed?

Yeah. D'oh!

They don't know if any of the evidence points to a connection with the Sept. 11 hijackers??? We are in WAY more trouble than I thought.

They don't know if any of the evidence points to a connection with the Sept. 11 hijackers??? We are in WAY more trouble than I thought.

Maybe the suspects are being tracked.. to see who else they contact... If so, there might be a massive sting operation under way.

The three Norfolk residents are from Saudi Arabia and attended ODU. Their current status in school was unavailable this week.

Translation: We don't know anything about these "students." They never registered or showed up for class. We just took their tuition money and looked the other way. Good grief.

I wonder if these people had any contact with the 4 Pakistanis who jumped ship in Hampton about a month or so ago. I think only one of the 4 was caught.

Saeed M. Alhajri, 27, a former ODU student who returned to Saudi Arabia

You think the Saudis are going to let us question this man? I doubt it.

This is such a shocking article! I was going to post it and found yours when I searched. Here is another article with more information on the students local to Norfolk, VA:

Foreign students eyed for visa fraud
By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 8, 2002

ODU students Asmaa I. Themairi, seated, and Hamad Alzomah, standing, in front of Judge Tommy Miller in U.S. District Court in Norfolk on Tuesday. Artists rendering by Alba Bragoli

NORFOLK -- In a nationwide crackdown that has touched Hampton Roads, five people from the Middle East have been charged locally with obtaining student visas by paying others to take and pass entrance exams.

Four students were arrested here Tuesday, and a fifth is believed to have returned to his native Saudi Arabia, according to court records and federal officials.

In all, 130 entrance exams were taken by imposters in 13 states and Washington, D.C.

Federal agents this week arrested 56 suspects across the country, but authorities are searching for another 74 foreigners accused of paying people to take the tests.

Agents executed five search warrants in Hampton Roads this week, and they remain sealed in court. Four were for homes of suspects, and the fifth was for a car.

Officials said the local case involves four students from Old Dominion University and one from Norfolk State University.

They are accused of paying imposters to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language, an exam that allows foreigners to obtain student visas and attend American universities.

The five were charged with one count each of mail fraud and wire fraud. Each charge carries a maximum five-year prison term, and the individuals likely would face deportation if convicted.

The national investigation is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey because Educational Testing Service, the company that adminsters the tests, is based in Princeton. Two accused ringleaders -- one in Arlington and the other from Riverside, Calif. -- were charged Tuesday in Trenton with taking about 50 tests each.

Officials said the investigation is part of an ongoing attempt to track down associates of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network and others whose names have appeared on terrorist watch lists.

None of the students has been linked to any terrorist group, but two of them are drawing closer scrutiny from investigators. They were identified as:

Saeed M. Alhajri, 27, a former ODU student who recently returned to Saudi Arabia. Agents discovered pilot training manuals from a Gainesville, Fla., airport in a car belonging to him, sources said.

The sources said they were concerned because some of the Sept. 11 hijackers took flight training lessons in Florida, and most were from Saudi Arabia.

Fahad A. Alhajri, 28, of the 300 block of Tangerine Trail, Chesapeake, is a native of Qatar who attended NSU. He is not believed to be related to Saeed Alhajri.

He was ordered jailed Tuesday because of ``a number of search warrants being executed across the country,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Darryl J. Mitchell told a federal judge in Norfolk.

Magistrate Judge Tommy E. Miller scheduled another hearing for him on Friday.

Agents are investigating whether he is the same person included on a terrorist watch list, according to sources. A search warrant was being executed Tuesday in a Northern Virginia home where Fahad Alhajri was known to stay, the sources said.

The other three suspects, all ODU students from Saudi Arabia, were identified as:

Asmaa I. Al-Themairi, 26, of the 5400 block of Rolfe Ave., Norfolk.

Hamad M. Alzoman, 31, of the 6100 block of Hampton Blvd., Norfolk.

Abdulaziz M. Alsaadoun, 28, address unknown.

Al-Themairi, Alzoman and Alsaadoun appeared in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, where Miller allowed each to leave after signing for a $2,500 unsecured bond. They were ordered to surrender their passports.

Al-Themairi is the only female defendant and the only one to have already hired an attorney.

She lives with her husband and 3-year-old child in a quaint home that has an American flag flying out front. Her husband declined to comment.

Her attorney, James O. Broccoletti, said she has lived here for three years and was in ODU's graduate program for mathematics. He said he believed she was here on a visa obtained because of her marriage and not because she's a student.

The complaint against her said that one of the alleged ringleaders, Begad Abdel-Megeed from Arlington, took the exam for her in November 2000 at a testing center in Gastonia, N.C.

Broccoletti said her defense would be that Abdel-Megeed would have had to show identification to take the test and that he would not have been able to pass for a woman.

But court papers said in some cases, including Al-Themairi's, the test takers would show phony identifications in which male and female names could not be distinguished. Then, the test taker would have his photograph taken at the test center. That photo would be attached to the test results and mailed to a co-conspirator, the papers said.

Once received, the co-conspirator would switch the photo back to the person seeking the visa and mail it off.

Officials could not say how much was paid to the impostors.

``This type of document fraud is a threat to our national security,'' said Michael Chertoff, an assistant U.S. attorney general in Washington. ``We can't allow our student visa system to be a target for exploitation.''

Officials at ODU and NSU said Tuesday that they were unaware of the FBI investigation or allegations against the students.

At Old Dominion, Al-Themairi and Alzoman were listed as having been enrolled at the start of the spring semester, Vice President Dana D. Burnett said. He said he didn't know their current status. Final exams end this week.

Saeed Alhajri was enrolled at ODU last fall, but not in the spring, Burnett said.

At Norfolk State, Fahad Alhajri was admitted in the fall, spokeswoman Sharon R. Hoggard said. He dropped out, then returned this semester to take three classes.

At both schools, it was unclear how the arrests would affect their status.

``If we get our hands on evidence, we could go through the student disciplinary process,'' Burnett said. ``If we thought their presence was a danger to members of the academic community, we could summarily dimiss them, but we would still provide them with due process.''

Burnett said other students needn't worry about their safety on campus.

``American students commit acts of academic dishonesty similar to these,'' Burnett said. ``Certainly we would deal with them as we would deal with any American student who committed acts of academic dishonesty. I see nothing in that behavior that would be threatening to individuals.''

At ODU, Burnett said, the TOEFL test is used not as an entrance exam, but as a placement exam. Students with low scores are required to be tutored in English.

Staff writer Phil Walzer contributed to this report.

Reach Tim McGlone at tmcglone@pilotonline.com or 446-2343.

There is also a poll at the link above (with pretty unsurprising results!):

Should foreign students be deported for paying others to take exams to earn student visas?

Yes 97.22%

No 1.71%

Undecided 1.07%

Total Votes: 2808

All of the suspects were freed pending court dates later this month

Who is the IDIOT that freed them? Sure, they'll stick around for the trial date.

A Rolodex containing locations of oil refineries.

Hmmm?

Lends credence to the story that many Moslems nationwide were aware of the 9/11 plot.

Maybe. But I've no doubt there is a terrorist cell here. Atta and Al-Shehhi were here at least twice that we know of. (I think the last was that time in April that he flew to Prague, but I've misplaced the local paper that had that article, so I haven't been able to check it.)

FYI, the Daily Press (a second paper here in the area) is supposed to have a big article about what went on in court today{Friday} in Saturday's edition. I don't know if they'll have it up on their web site or not, though. No doubt the Virginia Pilot will have more, too.

"All of the suspects were freed pending court dates later this month"