Posted on 10/19/2001 10:16:05 PM PDT by kattracks
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Emad Jamal Hassan, Yousef al-Amleh and Mohamadkhair Salah were arrested last week in Fort McMurray, Alta., and are now in custody in Edmonton. The trio faced detention review hearings on Wednesday. Tapes of the reviews for Hassan and Salah were released Friday. Al-Amleh's review was held in camera and the tape will not be released. During the reviews, federal lawyer Sylvia Rapaj said all three are wanted in connection with the terrorist attacks. "(Hassan) and two others are of interest to an ongoing investigation regarding the attack on the World Trade Center and other related attacks in the United States," she said. In the search of a Fort McMurray apartment the men shared, police found documents and papers in various names, including everything from credit cards and cheques to school transcripts. Police are still going through the collection, Rapaj said. Hassan and Salah were using and sharing up to 16 different aliases, she added. "Some of that gave rise to some concerns that led to the on-going investigation related to last month's events in the U.S.," she said. "We cannot really be certain who this person is," she said, referring to Hassan. Rapaj said that over the space of a few weeks last fall, Salah travelled from Jordan to Palestine to the United Arab Emirates to Malaysia to Korea, finally arriving in Vancouver in early December with a Swedish passport. Hassan arrived in Calgary on Aug. 12 from Jordan. He has no immigration status in Canada. The other two are refugee claimants. An FBI spokeswoman in Washington refused to comment on whether any of the men are suspected of involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The three were initially arrested on immigration charges Oct. 12 and at least one faced extradition to the U.S. to face a bank fraud indictment. The search warrant used in the immigration raid said al-Amleh's birthdate and fingerprints match those of a man named Yousef Hassan, wanted in the United States since failing to appear Nov. 6, 1996, for sentencing on bank fraud in Chicago. An FBI spokeswoman in Chicago said only that the men are not wanted in any terrorist investigations in Chicago. Both Hassan and Salah denied any involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. Hassan said just because he took flying lessons doesn't mean he's a terrorist. "I have mentioned I attended flight school for one semester and dropped out of the second one," he said. "That was back in 1994 and '97, OK? "I have no information or anything to suggest I have any terrorist affiliation." He said he didn't know he was in Canada illegally and said he had come here to assess the situation for his family back in Jordan. Hassan and Salah are to be held in custody for another week to ensure they attend further immigration hearings. "It is more likely than not that if released from custody you would not report for your inquiry," said the review adjudicator. "You have a willingness to live in Canada, to avoid detection in Canada, to suit your own purposes, whatever those purposes may be. "It does appear that you pretty well would like the ability to do as you please without interference from authorities." News of the investigation shocked one member of Fort McMurray's Muslim community. "They were like normal people," said Ali Jomha, imam of that city's Markaz Ul Islam mosque. "They didn't talk politics. "They did not show anything strange. Everybody sees them and they are good people." According to court documents obtained from the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Yousef and Emad are brothers who ran a small grocery store in Chicago. In a separate matter, Emad Hassan was convicted Nov. 20, 1998, of defrauding the U.S. government of about $1 million US through food stamps. He appealed his sentence, then failed to appear for the hearing. Yousef Hassan was also named in that indictment, although he had already disappeared and was considered a fugitive. Eventually, the FBI tracked a man calling himself Yousef al-Amleh to Australia. The bureau had begun the process of extraditing him, but al-Amleh disappeared. On Oct. 9, Edmonton immigration officer Warren Duncan requested a Canada-wide warrant for the arrest of Yousef al-Amleh. Two days later, Duncan was informed al-Amleh had moved to Fort McMurray in northern Alberta where he had applied for a taxi licence. According to reports, one of the other two men worked in a restaurant and the other owned a leather goods shop. Al-Amleh, 34, was charged with using a false passport to enter Canada. It was not clear what immigration-related charges Emad Hassan, 33, and Salah, 42, face.
BOB WEBER The online source for news sports entertainment finance and business news in Canada Copyright (C) 2001 The Canadian Press (CP), All rights reserved |
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If Canada can't find reasons for putting them behind bars, we should get them. Then we should hold them indefinitely--for the duration--as a nationl security risk.
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