Posted on 01/14/2002 8:50:57 AM PST by Plummz
When the young Egyptian landed on Sept. 19 at Kennedy International Airport, officials were alarmed by what they found when they searched his luggage: a fake Egyptian pilot's uniform, phony documents identifying him as a pilot and a forged certificate from a Florida flight school, according to court records.
The man, Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk, 21, insisted that he had falsified the documents to impress friends. When asked, he said he had come to the United States to study business administration, not aviation. Officials feared Mr. Kishk might have been part of a second wave of terror attacks. Their suspicions were heightened when they discovered that he had indeed applied for flight training at a community college in Washington State.
Mr. Kishk was among hundreds of people taken into custody after the Sept. 11 attacks because of initial fears that they might be linked to terrorism. The suspicions about most of those people have evaporated, but this case is different.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in Mr. Kishk's trial on charges of falsifying documents and making a false statement. Though prosecutors have no evidence connecting him to the Sept. 11 attacks or any other terrorist acts, those original suspicions are still a driving force behind the government's case.
Mr. Kishk has been charged with a crime that could land him in prison for up to five years, and that, while not linked to terrorism, is not easily dismissed as irrelevant: falsely denying his plan to study aviation.
In a December letter to Judge Charles P. Sifton of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the assistant United States attorney in the case, Dwight C. Holton, said that at the trial the government "will stipulate that there is no allegation or evidence offered that the defendant was in fact a part of any such second wave, or that he was in any way responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks or connected to those who were."
Even so, the letter says, Mr. Kishk's actions are crimes because of the atmosphere at the time. The government was on high alert for a second wave of hijackings, possibly to be carried out by someone like him: young, Middle Eastern, with a legitimate visa, who might have trained at a Florida flight school.
"The discovery of the pilot's uniform and fake documents suggested that Kishk might have been hoping to wrongfully gain access to the cockpit of a jetliner," Mr. Holton wrote. "With this backdrop, the question of whether Mr. Kishk intended to learn to fly went directly to the question of whether Kishk intended to gain access to the cockpit and then assume control of that jetliner."
Mr. Kishk's court-appointed lawyer, Michael K. Schneider, says that his client was simply trying to pursue his studies when he was arrested on Sept. 19. Since then, Mr. Schneider said, Mr. Kishk has been held alone in a cell and denied access to television, reading materials and even, for weeks, shoes and a shaving razor. "The terms of his detention are harsh given what he's charged with," Mr. Schneider said.
As Mr. Kishk remains solitary and silent, with neither friends nor family coming to his aid, it has been difficult to determine his intentions when, according to the government, he applied to a community college in Washington to take flight lessons. A spokesman for the United States attorney in Brooklyn would not comment on the case, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service referred calls about Mr. Kishk to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The bureau did not comment.
When Mr. Kishk arrived at Kennedy Airport last September on a flight from Egypt, he was returning to the United States. Public records and interviews with school officials and landlords show that he lived in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 2000, staying with two other Arab men in a cheap, messy apartment on a cul-de-sac. But neighbors on Arnold Drive do not remember him, and a manager at the building, who asked not to be named, said Mr. Kishk's name was not on the lease.
The apartment is not far from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where Mr. Kishk enrolled in a free English-language course that the school offered to community residents, said Lisa L. Ledewitz, a university spokeswoman. Mr. Schneider, his lawyer, said Mr. Kishk's goal had been to learn enough English to take flight lessons there.
He never did. Yet on his driver's license, Mr. Kishk and both his roommates listed the university's address as their own. Ms. Ledewitz said she was not familiar with the roommates' names but declined to search the enrollment records for them.
One of the men publicly listed as living in the apartment with Mr. Kishk was Hany A. Barakat, 25, who is registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as a licensed airplane mechanic from the United Arab Emirates. Neither roommate could be reached for comment.
In August 2000, Mr. Kishk applied to Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash., an institution with about 2,300 students where Embry-Riddle offers aeronautics courses. According to the indictment against him, Mr. Kishk intended to take flight lessons there. Kenneth W. Turner, vice president of administrative services at Big Bend, said Mr. Kishk had sent his application with $210 in processing fees, but never contacted the school again and was not admitted.
It is not clear when Mr. Kishk left the United States, but he arrived in New York on Sept. 19 on an Iberian Airlines flight that originated in Cairo and passed through Barcelona, Spain. At customs, he presented an Egyptian passport and visa, acquired in late 1999. But when immigration agents dug through his suitcase, they found two documents that appeared to be from the F.A.A. — forms known as 8500-9's, which American pilots use to show they have met medical requirements. Mr. Kishk used a different name on each form: Kishk Wael Abd Elrhman on one, Kasheal Wael Abdelrhaman on the other.
One of the forms had misspellings and appeared to be the wrong size, Detective Kevin Frazer, of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, reported in an affidavit, while the other was a much better forgery, because it was an authentic document signed by an F.A.A. examiner. But the form was dated 1998, and that examiner told Detective Frazer that he had stopped doing examinations in 1997.
Inspectors say they also found a photocopy of a fake Turkish passport, the Egyptian pilot's shirt with Mr. Kishk's name and the word "pilot" on it, and a falsified certificate from Embry-Riddle, identifying Mr. Kishk as a private pilot.
Detective Frazer reported that he found Mr. Kishk's answers "inconsistent and evasive." First, he said, Mr. Kishk insisted he had come to the United States to study business administration; then he admitted after extensive questioning that he had taken an English class on the Embry-Riddle campus and had intended to take flight training.
He asserted that he had created the fake documents and the pilot's shirt solely to impress his friends, Detective Frazer said, and "further claimed that while he had himself made the shirt, he had never worn the shirt, even in the privacy of his home, and never intended to do so."
At a court appearance on Sept. 21, the government argued successfully that, given his evasive answers and lack of ties to the community, Mr. Kishk might flee and should be held without bail.
His lawyer, Mr. Schneider, in interviews with reporters, predicted that Mr. Kishk would become a "minor figure" in the government's terrorism inquiry. The allegedly forged documents, some of them already expired and buried in his suitcase, were not intended for use, he said.
On Oct. 12, Mr. Kishk was brought to court shoeless and unkempt, having been denied a razor and nail clippers, provoking complaints from his lawyer.
Judge Sifton angrily told the prosecutor that if security concerns had led to restricted grooming, the restrictions "shouldn't be particularly focused on Mr. Kishk unless there's some good sufficient reason for doing it." But some of the restrictions persisted.
The government has never publicly explained what lingering suspicions it has of Mr. Kishk. Mr. Schneider sees the case in simple terms.
"In my view, he's just a guy from Egypt who'd come to study in the United States and got charged with these documents," he said.
Oh give me a break! (not you, Plummz). All the evidence points to a terrorist attack a la 9/11. I can't think of a single way it could be otherwise. If this guy walks, we all will suffer for it. Maybe not from him, but for someone just like him. I fear that defense lawyers care more about winning than protecting American citizens.
I posted on the wrong thread. I was talking about the Egyptian student/military radio technician/son of a diplomat who had a swank hotel just across from WTC that an aircraft radio was found in.
I feel no sympathy for this guy, though--he was only convicted of lying to the authorities. I suspect he IS a terrorist.
...snip...
In other developments, federal authorities here arrested a Middle Eastern man yesterday with fake pilot documents who arrived at Kennedy Airport on Wednesday on a flight from Spain.
Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk had a bogus pilot's certificate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which has been linked to at least one of the 19 suspected hijackers.
Agents also found two fake Federal Aviation Administration medical certificates pilots must possess to fly and an Egypt Airlines pilot's shirt, according to a complaint filed by Acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad.
Under questioning, Kishk admitted he wasn't a pilot and had the documents and shirt "to impress his friends," the complaint alleged.
Kishk was held without bail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Friesen would not say if Kishk is linked to the terror probe.
Public defender Michael Schneider said Kishk denies having any connection to the terror attack and insists that he was coming to the U.S. to attend college.
Jan 18, 2002
Egyptian Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk, 21, who was found carrying a fake pilot's uniform and license one week after the September 11 terrorist attacks was yesterday found guilty of lying about his plans to attend flight school.
Kishk was cleared by the jury on a second charge of trying to impersonate a pilot by carrying a forged document.
He faces up to five years in prison on a federal charge of making false statements. He also faces deportation. Sentencing was set for February 18.
Assistant US Attorney Dwight Holton said the verdict "sends a message that if you lie to federal agents in the middle of an investigation, you'll be prosecuted and convicted."
Defense attorney Michael Schneider said: "I can understand the government was suspicious, but not every Egyptian or Arab who wants to be a pilot is a terrorist."
Kishk was detained at Kennedy Airport in New York on September 19 after arriving on a flight from Barcelona, Spain, that had originated in Cairo. During a routine search of his luggage, immigration agents discovered a fake Federal Aviation Administration document purportedly giving him medical clearance to fly.
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