Posted on 10/27/2001 1:09:13 AM PDT by newzjunkey
At the top-of-the-hour newsbreak it was reported a "material witness" being held since Sept related to the 9/11 attacks has gone missing. His lawyer has reported he has no information on the whereabouts of his client. The client has not been seen since last Wednesday morning when he appeared in NY to give testimony. He was told then, apparently, that he faced charges back in San Diego for falsifying information on his application for asylum. The suspect is a student at San Diego State University.
San Diego man held as attacks witness charged with fraud
By Ben Fox
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 26, 2001
SAN DIEGO – A San Diego college student who is being held as a material witness in the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will face an immigration fraud charge when he returns from testifying before a grand jury in New York.
Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah has been indicted for making false statements on his application for political asylum in the United States, his lawyer said Friday.
Abdoulah has been testifying before a grand jury investigating the attacks because he knew one of the suspected hijackers. He is expected to be arraigned on the fraud charge when he returns to San Diego, attorney Randall Hamud said.
The indictment alleges that Abdoulah falsely claimed on his asylum application last year to be a native of Somalia fleeing political persecution when in fact he was born in Yemen and had safely resettled in Canada as a student, according to federal court documents.
Hamud said he was unable to contact his client because of tight security surrounding detained witnesses in the investigation and couldn't say how Abdoulah would respond to the charge.
"The charge has nothing to do with planes crashing into buildings. That's important to emphasize," he said.
If convicted of the charge of fraud and misuse of immigration documents, Abdoulah would face a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and possible deportation, federal officials said.
It's not known when Abdoulah might return from New York.
The indictment and an accompanying affidavit allege that Abdoulah filed an asylum application on May 5, 2000, after flying to San Diego from Ottawa, Canada. He claimed that he would be persecuted in his native Somalia because he is a member of the Barwani minority.
FBI agents searched his home in El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego, on Sept. 22 and confiscated an identification card from the Republic of Yemen, identifying him as Mihdar Mohammad Al-Mihdar Zaid, born in Al-Hamra/Al Baidayh, Yemen, on May 8, 1978, according to court documents.
Investigators checked the background of the other name and found that he had obtained a B2 visitors visa from the U.S. Consulate in Ottawa on Dec. 10, 1998, by showing a passport from Yemen and identifying himself as a student in Canada. Six days later, he flew to San Diego.
Hamud said his client was detained and his apartment searched because he was a "casual" acquaintance of Nawaf Al-hazmi, one of the men suspected of hijacking the American Airlines jet that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
The lawyer said the men worked together for two to three months at a car wash and attended mosques together in the San Diego area. Abdoulah also studied at San Diego State University.
Hamud said he could not comment on whether the allegations in the indictment are true.
"To the best of my knowledge, he is a Somali asylee," he said of his client.
To do a good job in prosecuting a war it is mandatory that information be controlled - not new and not limited to this war.
We are so used to being able to tune in every squeek and whisper surrounding every event, every day, all of our lives, that abstinence is not an option.
Rumors, silliness, and misinformation become the media's primary cargo - not an evil plot but not positive either.
Most news I've seen since 9/11 should be preceded by the words..."we're guessing here".
Did anyone expect him to hang around ?
What was he doing travelling alone?
Prosecutors: Yemeni spoke of hatred for U.S. after attacks
By SETH HETTENA
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - A Yemeni college student who helped two of the Sept. 11 hijackers told FBI agents he had "hatred in his heart" for the U.S. government, according to court documents.
Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah also helped the men obtain California drivers' licenses and Social Security cards and phoned Florida flight schools to arrange for flying lessons on their behalf, federal prosecutors said.
Less than two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, FBI agents arrested Abdoulah at gunpoint and held him as a material witness in the terror investigation.
Upon his arrest, Abdoulah spoke without prompting of "the hatred in his heart for the United States government, and that the United States brought 'this' (Sept. 11) on themselves," prosecutors wrote.
The documents were filed Monday in response to a request by defense attorneys to dismiss immigration-fraud charges pending against Abdoulah. The defense request remains sealed.
Prosecutors say Abdoulah assisted Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, two of the men suspected of hijacking American Airlines Flight 77 and crashing it into the Pentagon. The men lived in San Diego for several months in 2000. Prosecutors also describe a third Flight 77 hijacker, Hani Hanjour, as Abdoulah's friend.
Federal agents who interviewed Abdoulah say they didn't believe his denials of advance knowledge of the attacks, prosecutors said. Abdoulah "seemed to take great pleasure toying with the agents and schooling them on Islam and jihads," according to the court document.
A spiral notebook found in Abdoulah's Geo Metro "contained references to planes falling from the sky, mass killings and hijacking," prosecutors said. The writings also refer to "burning flesh falling from the sky."
Abdoulah's attorney, Kerry L. Steigerwalt, said the writings were "rap lyrics" penned after Sept. 11 by a teen-ager who left the notebook in his client's car.
In court papers, U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat called defense arguments that the writings were not Abdoulah's "pure speculation." Wheat did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday.
Steigerwalt insisted his client had no advance knowledge of the attacks on New York and Washington.
While he did help Almihdhar and Alhazmi, "that's not to imply or suggest that he had any indication whatsoever that these people were as radical as they were or ... they could possibly be contemplating or planning such a horrific attack," Steigerwalt said Wednesday.
Although Abdoulah's attorneys long have maintained their client was a "passing" acquaintance of Alhazmi's, prosecutors contend he "regularly dined, worked and prayed with the hijackers." He also picked up Almihdhar at Los Angeles International Airport in the summer of 2000 and tried to help the two men exchange the return portion of airplane travel tickets.
Abdoulah, who turned 24 Wednesday, was held as a material witness and testified before a New York grand jury. He was returned to San Diego to face immigration-fraud allegations.
The former San Diego State University student is accused of filing an asylum application in May 2000 in which he falsely claimed he was from Somalia and a member a minority group that faced persecution there. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond.
Three other San Diego-area men who also befriended the hijackers were held as material witnesses and later indicted on charges unrelated to terrorism. Last week, a federal judge in New York threw out perjury charges against 21-year-old Osama Awadallah, a Jordanian student accused of lying about his associations with two of the hijackers.
Abdoulah told the FBI he helped the hijackers at the request of Omar Al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who has drawn scrutiny from investigators for his alleged ties to two hijackers.
Al-Bayoumi, also known as Abu Imard, is suspected of financially aiding the hijackers. He moved in early 2001 to Birmingham, England, where he was briefly detained following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Published: Wednesday, May 8, 2002 15:50 PDT
(this is a snip from the article - but the rest of the article has interesting details on other detainees and known terrorists: )
One of those detained, Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah, a 23-year-old San Diego college student from Yemen, originally was held as a material witness, meaning he might have information important to the investigation. He was arrested and taken to New York City for grand jury testimony about his acquaintance with a Sept. 11 hijacker.
Abdoulah was returned to San Diego and charged with immigration violations. While a federal magistrate has granted Abdoulah his release on $500,000 bail, he remains in custody because property pledged for bail money is still $125,000 short, said his lawyer, Kerry Steigerwalt.
Steigerwalt has his own problems in defending his client. "The evidence has not been totally revealed by prosecutors," he said. "I don't know the strength of the case."
The lawyer's job is further complicated because of a new Justice Department policy to monitor conversations between detainees and their lawyers.
"There is a camera position right above us recording our entire encounter," Steigerwalt said of his meetings with Abdoulah in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. "This certainly has had a chilling effect on what we discussed."
El Cajon man held as attacks witness charged with fraud
SETH HETTENA
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO ---- A San Diego college student held as a material witness in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was indicted Friday for making false statements in his application for political asylum.
A federal grand jury in San Diego charged Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah with making false statements in his U.S. application for asylum.
He is expected to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in San Diego next week. His attorney, Kerry Steigerwalt, said Abdoulah will plead innocent.
"I'm satisfied the charges I'm asked to represent Mohdar on are completely unrelated to bin Laden or his organization," Steigerwalt said.
Randall Hamud, another attorney for Abdoulah, said his client was detained and his apartment searched because he was a "passing" acquaintance of Nawaf Alhazmi, one of the men suspected of hijacking the American Airlines jet that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
Hamud said the men worked together for two to three months at a service station and attended mosques together in the San Diego area. Abdoulah studied at San Diego State University.
According to court documents, Abdoulah falsely claimed on his asylum application last year that he was a native of Somalia fleeing political persecution. He claimed he would face persecution there because he was a member of the Barwani minority group in Somalia.
In truth, Abdoulah, 23, was born in Yemen and had safely resettled in Canada as a student, according to federal court documents.
He tried to conceal this fact from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the fact that he entered the United States from Canada on Dec. 10, 1998 with a Yemeni passport and a valid visitor's visa, according to the indictment.
Instead, the indictment states, Abdoulah claimed on his application for asylum last year that he last entered the United States without inspection on Dec. 7, 1998, through New York City.
Earlier this year, Abdoulah told an INS representative that he entered the United States on Dec. 7, 1998, through New York on an Italian passport, according to the indictment.
Abdoulah has been held in federal custody since he was arrested Sept. 21 at gunpoint in the parking lot of a San Diego electronics store.
FBI agents searched his home in El Cajon on Sept. 22 and confiscated an identification card from the Republic of Yemen, identifying him as Mihdar Mohammad Al-Mihdar Zaid, born in Al-Hamra/Al Baidayh, Yemen, on May 8, 1978, according to court documents.
Abdoulah was transferred to New York for questioning along with his roommates, Yazeed Al-Salmi and Osama Awadallah, a student at Grossmont College in La Mesa.
Awadallah's name and phone number were found in a car registered to Alhazmi that was towed Sept. 12 from Dulles International Airport, the takeoff point for the flight that crashed into the Pentagon.
Awadallah was indicted earlier this week for lying to the grand jury by denying that he knew Khalid Alhmihdhar, a second hijacker who lived in San Diego. Hamud, who is also Awadallah's lawyer, said his client plans to plead innocent.
Al-Salmi has been released.
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