Traveller's agenda a mystery

The Hamilton Spectator ^ | 9/26/01 | Susan Clairmont

[NatureGirl]

Nageeb Abdul Jabar Mohammed Al-Hadi -- if that's even his name -- is just one of nearly 750 people U.S. investigators want to know more about in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. He has at least four aliases and two different birth dates. He is a Yemeni, with a Michigan driver's licence and a Detroit wife.

He was on a plane from Frankfurt, Germany headed for Chicago when it was diverted to Toronto. He was arrested at Pearson International Airport and may be extradited to the United States to face two charges related to false passports and fraudulent misuse of visas. He has an expired student identification card from the Yemenese American Language Institute in Yemen, but he doesn't appear to speak any English.

Al-Hadi's convoluted paper trail circles the globe. It could take months -- years even -- for investigators to figure out who Al-Hadi really is and whether or not he has any links at all to the 19 terrorists who hijacked four American passenger planes and turned three of them into missiles on Sept. 11. American officials have said they want to question Al-Hadi, although they have no information he is linked to the terrorist attacks

That's what it will take to investigate one man. There are hundreds more out there. So far, 352 people have been arrested or detained and 392 others are being sought for questioning in relation to the hijackings. The complexity of the Al-Hadi investigation alone hints at the scope of an international manhunt that promises to be unlike anything the world has ever seen.

Wearing orange prison garb and running shoes, Al-Hadi was escorted into a University Avenue courtroom yesterday for his third brief appearance before a Superior Court judge. A slight man who may be 34 or 35 -- depending on which passport you believe -- he has a touch of white in his otherwise dark beard. As two police officers unlocked his handcuffs and kept close watch over him in the prisoner's box, Al-Hadi turned slightly to look at the courtroom behind him. What he saw were two dozen sets of journalists' eyes peering back at him, noting his every move.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police says Al-Hadi has no known connections to Canada. No friends or relatives here. He faces no Canadian charges. He simply landed here when hell was breaking loose in the U.S.

Though journalists are keen to cover this tenuous Canadian connection to the greatest act of terrorism on American soil, nobody else seems interested. There were no demonstrators, no representatives of religious or ethnic communities in the courtroom. Even the simply curious were absent during Al-Hadi's 15-minute appearance.

At a time when American courthouses are hubs of activity and are being guarded to the hilt, Al-Hadi could have passed for just another name on the docket. In fact, while all of the U.S. is beefing up security and battening down its hatches, anyone wishing to lay eyes on Al-Hadi need only have strolled into the courthouse and taken a seat.

There is no metal detector. No search at the door. Court police greet visitors with nothing more than a smile. Canada's still-intact sense of trust is somehow both comforting and disturbing.

Court records from Chicago and Toronto show Al-Hadi was on Lufthansa Flight 430 on Sept. 11, a non-stop trip from Germany to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. When the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration shut down all U.S. airports that morning, Flight 403 landed in Toronto instead.

Canadian authorities discovered Al-Hadi was carrying four Yemeni passports, three bearing his photo, the last having a picture of some other unidentified man. His name was documented as Nageeb Abdul Jabar Mohamed Al-Hadi, Najib Abdo Gabber Mohammed, Mohamed Saleh Nagi Edhah and Nageeb A. Jabber Al-Hadi. Each passport had a different number.

Canadian authorities also found some of these names on a marriage licence from Detroit saying he was married to a woman named Renee Applewhite, an application to become a citizen of the U.S., a Michigan drivers' licence and a visa to enter the U.S.

While Al-Hadi was detained in Canada, U.S. Customs officers searched his three suitcases that had already arrived in Chicago. They found two Lufthansa crew uniforms (the company has confirmed he is a sales representative in Yemen), an identification card, and a piece of torn paper with Arabic writing on it sewn into the pocket of a pair of pants.

The FBI obtained a search warrant and also found a 1993 student identification card from the Yemenese American Language Institute in Yemen and another pair of pants with a small note sewn into the pocket. On the note was, according to court documents, "an apparently random sequence of English and Arabic numerals that did not appear to be telephone numbers."

An RCMP affidavit filed with the court said Al-Hadi "represents a significant risk of flight." In court yesterday, an Arabic translator sat beside Al-Hadi. The justice tried to determine if the accused wanted to hire his own lawyer or if the court should appoint one, but Al-Hadi wanted to talk about other things through his translator.

"From the first day I was arrested, I have asked (for a lawyer). I wasn't accused of anything. Not from U.S. or Canada. I obtained a Canadian visa and after I came to Canada, I was arrested by the Canadian government."

Bradley Reitz, counsel for the Canadian Department of Justice, said outside the courthouse yesterday that he wasn't aware of Al-Hadi having a Canadian visa .

Al-Hadi also told the court he was being kept in a single cell and hadn't been allowed a phone call. "They let me sign papers that I cannot read," he said. "Can I know what's all in these documents I had in my hand?"

In the end, after being asked about a lawyer several times, Al-Hadi said he needs to apply for legal aid.

Al-Hadi will appear in court again Oct. 2. The United States has until Nov. 20 to submit a formal request for his extradition.

For Al-Hadi and all the others, this is only the beginning.

Susan Clairmont's commentary appears regularly in The Spectator. You can contact her by e-mail at sclairmont@hamiltonspectator.com or by telephone at (905) 526-3539.

[Gracey]

our legal/refugee system in Canada he will declare himself a refugee and we will release him telling him to return for a hearing.He will then disappear like thousands before him in Canada, never to be heard of again

I can't believe what I'm hearing. This is WAR!!!! This is no criminal. What you mean - just release him.... This is abhorrent. Say why don't you fly your Canadian flag? There are several more Canadians on here.

[Gracey]

Unfortunately I do not believe we have nearly enough personel at the borders, or anywhere for that matter, to properly root out all the cells.

Personnel at the borders... Why bother. They are here - they are US. I read on FR that 50,000 Iranians, alone, come here each year on student visas, visits, etc. Some Arabic countries send over 100,000 people to the US. There is no tracking system as to where they go, when and if they leave, etc. Anyone who wants can come to this country. There's no follow up to make sure people leave and NO ONE CARES. I did no

[piasa]

See DETROIT CELL connections: there is a connection between this al Hadi and another guy, Nabil al Marabh, who helped fund two of the 9/11 hijackers; al Marabh is a cabdriver and a Hazmat-qualified wanna-be truckdriver with ties to Boston, Tampa, Chicago, Toronto and Detroit:

[Nabil] Al Marabh was released from the Niagara jail last July on $10,000 bail paid by his uncle, Ahmed Shehab. Shehab owns a Toronto copy shop whose paper stock, laminates, and ink, according to Canadian investigators, exactly match those used in identification papers left behind by the September 11 hijackers. Shehab is also the principal of Toronto's Al-Qura Islamic elementary school. Al-Qura's previous principal, "Mahmoud Jaballah," shares a set of fingerprints, according to Interpol, with one Mahmoud Said, a leading figure in Islamic Jihad, the Egyptian terrorist organization founded by Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's longtime number two man.
Telephone records link al Marabh with Nageeb Abdul Jabar Mohamed al-Hadi, the mysterious Yemeni man who was arrested on September 11 after attempting to fly into Chicago with three different passports and a Lufthansa flight crew uniform in his bags. Telephone and banking records link [Nabil] al Marabh with September 11 hijackers Ahmed Alghamdi, Satam al-Suqami, Marwan al-Shehhi, and even Mohamed Atta himself.

-------- "Due Process for Terrorists?," by David Tell, for the Editors,The Weekly Standard, 07/01/2002, Volume 007, Issue 41

One of the interesting things about this Nabil al Marabh is that most of the time he is said to be a Kuwaiti born of Syrian parents... but then, maybe he, like certain others we know of from the 1993 bombing of the WTC, is not what he seems. Could he be an Iraqi? :

AUGUST 2001 : (BOSTON, MA : AL MARABH IS QUESTIONED BY THE FBI -ACCORDING TO HIS WIFE- See DETROIT CELL) 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. ...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. ------- "IN CUSTODY IN DETROIT: Shadowy new name emerges in probe ; Jilali may be responsible for fake IDs; 3 Detroit suspects stay jailed , " BY JACK KRESNAK AND JIM SCHAEFER, [DETROIT] FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS , September 22, 2001 Sat

[piasa]

"[Ahmad] Shehab [Nabil Marabh's uncle], a Muslim leader in Toronto, owns a downtown printing shop, one of four locations recently raided during the Al-Marabh investigation. Authorities say they are looking into whether Al-Marabh produced fake immigration papers here for himself and the skyjackers. "We have received many pieces of information in those searches. Right now we're going through all the information that's been received. We are analyzing everything we've seized at this time. Some of that information has been passed on to U.S. authorities," said Constable Howard Adams, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. "

[piasa]

In several conversations with the [Ottawa] Citizen since his nephew's arrest, Ahmad Shehab, a Toronto-based Islamic cleric and special adviser to the United Nations, has expressed shock. "He led an ordinary, normal life. He loved people and he loved animals. I pray for his innocence," Mr. Shehab told the Citizen last night. "He's just a kid. Nobody would let him know any secrets. He is the last person on earth that would be involved with terrorism," Mr. Shehab said.
Mr. al-Marabh was released from a Niagara Falls jail in July on a $10,000 bond posted by Mr. Shehab. A senior immigration officer reported that Mr. al-Marabh posed a security risk because of an assault conviction in Boston a year earlier -- he was found guilty of stabbing an acquaintance in the leg.

---- "Canada released 'key' al-Qaeda operative: Freed on bail in July, man held in Chicago is accused of having ties to suicide pilots," by Gary Dimmock, The Ottawa Citizen, 2001.10.17- via http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab133/Archives/Digests/v04n200-299/v04-n202.txt

[piasa]

From Wikipedia [it checks out in other sources as well]:


Ahmad Shehab is the Ontario Chancellor for the International Association of Educators for World Peace, and a candidate for Mayor of Toronto, Canada, in the 2003 municipal election

Some achievements noted on his election campaign web site are:

Special advisor to the United Nations envoy

Journalist with the UN News

Volunteer for famine relief work in the Horn of Africa

Member of the Canadian Arab Press Council

Member of the Canadian Arab Media Federation

Community leader and Imam of Sheikh Deedat Centre

Marriage Counselor at the Islamic Information and Da'wah Centre

Public speaker in many community and fundraising events

President of Um-ul-Qurra Islamic School

President of a graphics and printing corporation

Built and developed many community centres and mosques
across Canada

Delivers Friday sermons across the GTA

Black Belt Two Degree Taekwondo

[Cindy]

Thank you piasa for the ping and info.

[Fedora]

Thanks. The apparent Chicago destination reminds me of the targeting of the Sears Tower at that time, and I wonder if there's any connection with cells involved in that. Some old links--don't know if all of these still work:

Gertz-Terror Plan code named "Project Bojinka" reveals attack on Sears Tower and Transamercia Tower, 9/20/2001

The operation called for hijacking commercial airliners from the Phillipines, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The hijacked aircraft were to be crashed into structures in the United States, including the World Trade Center, the White House, Pentagon, the Transamerica tower in San Francisco and the Sears Tower in Chicago.

Biran Ross, "Preparing for Terror? 1997 Al Qaeda Tape Shows World Trade Center and Other Landmarks", ABC News, 3/3/2003

The 29-minute tape, shot in the summer of 1997, shows the exterior of both towers, along with the lobby and observation deck of the South Tower, which were open to tourists. It also shows other New York landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square. It was shot by Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, a Syrian national who was arrested when Spanish authorities broke up a suspected al Qaeda logistics cell in 2002. The cell had direct ties to top deputies of Osama bin Laden, and helped finance hijack leader Mohamed Atta in Hamburg, Germany, Spanish and American authorities say. They believe the tapes may have been delivered to al Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan several months after Ghalyoun's trip. . .The New York City footage was among 15 videotapes Spanish authorities found when Ghalyoun was arrested. The other tapes - which remain secret - include surveillance of the Sears Tower in Chicago, Disneyland and Universal Studios in the Los Angeles area, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, authorities say. There is no evidence that any of those locations ever made it past the initial surveillance stage.

Jack Kelley, "Laden's Students: Sears Tower in Chicago. "This one is mine," he says.", USA Today, 9/27/2001

At the Haqquania madrassa, a student who says he has just attended one of bin Laden's training camps pulls out a training manual, called the "encyclopedia," which U.S. officials say is used at the camps in Afghanistan. . .A third student then unfolds a picture of the Sears Tower in Chicago. "This one is mine," he says.

Brian Blomquist, "KHALID REVEALS THE NEXT TARGETS", New York Post, 3/25/2003

Captured thug Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has revealed that the al Qaeda terrorists who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have as many as two-dozen more terror plans already in motion against U.S. and Israeli interests, it was reported yesterday. Targets include Manhattan bridges, the Israeli Embassy in Washington, the White House, the Sears Tower in Chicago and bridges in St. Louis and San Francisco, Time reported.

[Cindy]

"Code, perhaps?"

OPINION: Yes, perhaps it is.

[piasa]

During a brief confinement at Canada's Niagara Detention Center, al Marabh was visited by a man named Hassan Almrei, whom the Canadian government has subsequently arrested as an agent of al Qaeda. -------"Due Process for Terrorists?," by David Tell, for the Editors, The Weekly Standard, 07/01/2002, Volume 007, Issue 41

[piasa]

...• One of the suspected Al-Qaeda suicide pilots who crashed an airliner into New York's World Trade Center in September had direct links to Toronto, police authorities have been told. About a dozen residents of a Toronto apartment highrise have told the RCMP that Marwan Al-Shehhi, 23, lived at a Jameson Ave. building as recently as last spring. And they were all reportedly able to pick him out of a selection of 200 mugshot photos that the Police asked them to view. American authorities have determined Al-Shehhi was aboard United Airlines Flight 175 when it crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, of this year. The RCMP had originally been questioning some tenants of the building in connection with the arrest of refugee claimant Nabil Al-Marabh, who lived in the same building in a unit rented by his uncle. Al-Marabh, 35, is currently being held in a New York jail, accused by the United States of channelling cash and documents to the suicide pilots. The investigation into Al-Marabh's activities in Toronto has also led to the detention of a man named Hassan Almrei, accused by authorities of being a threat to national security. No further details are available and the RCMP has declined to comment publicly on the investigation.
------- "Toronto 9/11 Terror Link," December 2001, via "Canada - Tracking The Terrorist Threat," by Brad Johnston, Posted: 16 Apr 2004, http://www.lifesafety.ca/documents/ls0009.htm

• Canadian police and intelligence authorities say Toronto is a staging ground for Al-Qaeda terrorist activity and as many as five followers of Osama bin Laden will be charged here in coming weeks. A police source told the media that authorities were 'stunned by the large amount of Al-Qaeda activity here' - from fundraising, recruiting and counterfeiting of documents, etc. Dozens of intelligence officers from other forces have also now been assigned to assist the RCMP probe Toronto-based suspects and their possible roles in terrorist activity.
,b>Two refugee claimants, Nabil Al-Marabh, 35, of Toronto, and Hassan Almrei, 27, of Mississauga, have already been arrested and charged for alleged roles in the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.
The RCMP said their list of suspects is growing as they examine a "motherlode" of evidence seized from four Toronto-area addresses following Al-Marabh's arrest in Chicago. Several of Al-Marabh's phone calls were reportedly traced to the Syrian-born Almrei, who was arrested in Toronto this month on a National Security Certificate stating he's a security threat. Other Al-Marabh calls were traced to suspects at a Woolner Ave. apartment and a Toronto copy shop, police sources have told media. Police are also investigating financial transactions made by Al-Marabh in the Toronto-area and to suspected Al-Qaeda members in the United States. Al-Marabh, who reportedly lived in Canada for six years, is described by U.S. police as a "bin Laden lieutenant" in North America. CSIS has alleged that Al-Marabh provided logistical support, funding and other services to the U.S. suicide pilots who destroyed the Trade Center. Canadian police have also joined U.S. officers in trying to track down several young men they believe were recruited here by bin Laden supporters and probably underwent training at his camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Sudan. "The Service believes there are supporters of bin Laden and his terrorist network in Canada," CSIS told the federal court. "Almrei is associated with individuals connected to the bin Laden network who have lived, or are living, in Canada -------- "Toronto a Hotbed For Bin Laden's Sleep Cells," November 2001 via "Canada - Tracking The Terrorist Threat," by Brad Johnston, Posted: 16 Apr 2004, http://www.lifesafety.ca/documents/ls0009.htm

[piasa]

Two refugee claimants, Nabil Al-Marabh, 35, of Toronto, and Hassan Almrei, 27, of Mississauga, have already been arrested and charged for alleged roles in the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.
-------------- "Toronto a Hotbed For Bin Laden's Sleep Cells," November 2001 via "Canada - Tracking The Terrorist Threat," by Brad Johnston, Posted: 16 Apr 2004, http://www.lifesafety.ca/documents/ls0009.htm

Speaking of Mississauga... it came up in another curious incident in Florida:

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Two moderate Islamic scholars were kicked out of the United States and sent back to Canada last night, after U.S. authorities detained them as suspected terrorists when they landed in Florida on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Ahmad Kutty, 59, and Abdool Hamid, 37, are Canadian citizens affiliated with the Islamic Centre of Canada in Mississauga, Ont. They were flying to Orlando to lead an Islamic prayer service, but were intercepted by immigration agents during a stopover Thursday stopover in Fort Lauderdale.
In Florida, suspicion of terrorism runs especially high, partly because al-Qaeda ringleaders who carried out the hijackings that killed 3,000 people two years ago took flight training there. According to a man who met one of the detained Canadians in prison, a U.S. border agent said, "You've chosen to fly on the wrong day," Sept. 11.
Altaf Ali, head of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the account was relayed to him by Mr. Hamid when he met him in prison early yesterday. "He was very embarrassed to be in orange [prison] clothes," Mr. Ali said.
Calling the story "one of the most bizarre cases I ever heard," Mr. Ali called upon the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to apologize for detaining the two men. "It's totally uncalled-for," he added."
------- GOOGLE Search Term: "Altaf Ali" http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Altaf+Ali%22+&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&filter=0 15 posted on 09/13/2003 11:28:55 PM PDT by Cindy [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 |

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping, interesting thread.

[piasa]

Hassan Almrei must be a valid arrest target, judging by all the support he has from far-left wackos to stop his rendition to Syria. He's whined and moaned every step of the way in Qeada handbook fashion, even played the hunger strike game to get attention from bleedinghearts among the Canadians.

[flying Elvis]

Ooops, I thought this was about Robert E. Lee's horse and whether it supported slavery or not.

[piasa]

WASHINGTON - Nabil al-Marabh, who ran a print shop with his uncle in Toronto, plotted to steal a fuel tanker truck and blow it up in one of the heavily travelled tunnels between New Jersey and Manhattan, FBI documents allege. -------- "FBI: Terror suspect plotted fuel attack; Al-Marabh planned to blow up tunnel; Jail informant reported `martyr' bid," by JOHN SOLOMON, ASSOCIATED PRESS

This is interesting because these tunnels were cased by Iraqis working out of their mission to the UN- confusingly, these folks were also reported as Iranian diplomats in some articles.

[piasa]

Al-Marabh said he aided Raed Hijazi's flight from authorities and sent him money. Hijazi was a Boston cab driver convicted in Jordan for plotting to blow up a hotel in Amman in 1999, according to FBI and Justice documents. Al-Marabh and Hijazi were roommates at Afghan training camps and later in the United States.
A mystery figure in Chicago, known only as "al Mosul," [* My note: Mosul as in Iraqi city of Mosul?] asked al-Marabh to attend a driving school in Detroit with Arabic instructors so he could get a commercial truck driver's licence.
Al-Marabh said he and Hijazi planned to steal a fuel truck and detonate it in the heavily travelled Lincoln or Holland tunnels, but the plan was foiled when Hijazi was arrested. ------------- "FBI: Terror suspect plotted fuel attack; Al-Marabh planned to blow up tunnel; Jail informant reported `martyr' bid," by JOHN SOLOMON, ASSOCIATED PRESS

[piasa]

The terrorists sure do have a thing for those tunnels...

Stewart’s connections to the Islamic Group date back to 1995, when she represented the group’s spiritual leader, the notorious “Blind Sheikh,” Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, during his federal grand jury trial in New York City. Rahman was convicted of helping engineer the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as a failed Islamic Group plan (known as “The Day of Terror”) to destroy other Manhattan landmarks including the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, United Nations building, and George Washington Bridge.
-------- "Cheerleaders for Terrorism: Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart continues her support for Islamic terror," By Erick Stakelbeck, FrontPageMagazine.com, Wednesday, June 18, 2003