Posted on 09/26/2001 11:24:25 AM PDT by 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.
00 00 00 00 00
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.