License suspect had WTC repair pass, but Port Authority did its own work [Tennessee License Scandal]

GoMemphis.com ^ | February 16, 2002 | Bartholomew Sullivan

[Shermy]

A photo ID pass for Sept. 5 found on one of the men charged with fraudulently obtaining a Tennessee driver's license from a Memphis woman gave him access to the six underground levels of the One World Center building.

But which tenant hired Sakher 'Rocky' Hammad, 24, to work on its sprinklers is lost, said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Alan Hicks on Friday.

Hammad told federal authorities that he was working on the sprinklers six days before the twin towers were brought down by terrorists, court testimony revealed this week.

But Hicks said the Port Authority, which owned the building, did its own sprinkler work, and that any other work involving sprinklers would have been arranged by an individual tenant.

"We don't know (which one) because all our records were destroyed in the World Trade Center, as were some of the people who know that," Hicks said.

Small details about the five Middle Eastern men arrested Feb. 5 with Tennessee driver's license examiner Katherine Smith are slowly surfacing. Smith died Sunday in a fiery car crash, a day before she was to appear in court. It appears that Khaled Odtllah of Cordova shared the same 2840 Morning Lake Drive address at different times over the past year with Rocky Hammad, according to an online people finder database.

Odtllah and Hammad also spent time in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn in 2000 and lived about 22 blocks apart near New York Harbor.

Calls to the telephone number for Magic Plumbing and Heating Inc. on 93rd Street in Brooklyn were answered Thursday and Friday by a recording that said "Rocky's" voice-mail box was full. Hammad had the firm's business card, according to a government exhibit introduced at this week's detention hearing.

Hammad also had a New York City Police Benevolent Association card, a plastic Detectives Endowment Association Inc. for the Police Department of the City of New York card, two video rental cards, an ATM card and a First Consumers National Bank MasterCard.

Hammad's cousin, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, also obtained a Tennessee driver's license last year. He's in the country illegally after overstaying a visa.

Venezuela-born Mohammed Fares, 19, allegedly told authorities that he needed a Tennessee driver's license to drive for Big Boss, an export-import clothing store in New York's garment district. Big Boss Enterprises bookkeeper Hussein Nasser said by phone Friday that he had received several recent inquiries about Fares, but that he'd never worked there. [CYA? Or did he apply for a job there?]

So far almost nothing is known of Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, 26, a self-employed Egyptian carpenter living in the United State illegally.

All five men are being held without bail at the pretrial facility of the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis.

- Bartholomew Sullivan: 529-2317

sullivan@gomemphis.com

[Shermy]

Ping. Also soliciting additions and editions for my template here. Also would like a front-end pic of the car.

_______________

Feb. 7

Six Charged in Tenn. License Plot [Courtesy of the Tennessee DemocRAT Party]

Feb. 8 (for comedic relief)

Dri ver license fraud case here is a rare incident, state says

Feb. 11

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR AIDING ARABS IN DRIVER'S LICENSE SCAM PRESUMED DEAD

Tennessee finds a cost to easing driver's license rules Some other states, airlines no longer accept (Boston Globe)

Feb. 12

Feds fear license examiner is dead - Memphis Woman's co-defendants tied to 9/11, judge told Feb. 13:

Body in car identified as license examiner - Update on Memphis, Tennesse License Examiner

Feb. 14

TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS

TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS (II)

Feb. 14

FBI Agent: Arson Killed Key Suspect (driver's license examiner accused of supplying terrorists) Flaming death no accident, FBI says - Gasoline found on clothes of license examiner

Feb. 15

New York Times (with Pics of car) F.B.I. Says Arson Killed Woman Accused in License Scheme

Sm ith led low-impact life until arrest, fiery end (Not a thread)

Images of the burned car owned by Katherine Smith * alternate title: How Arabs Kill Witnesses

Feb.16

License corruption not a problem despite Smith fraud case, state says [!]

Pics of License Scam suspects

[Jen]

Didn't only the sprinklers on the ground floor work? I think I read that somewhere, but don't remember where. If that's true, I wonder if Hammad sabotaged them?

[My Favorite Headache]

Very solid question

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Still think it's a good idea to move nuclear waste across the US?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

This is why I don't want that nuclear waste being moved.

[weegee]

Good find, I didn't see this a couple of hours ago when I checked GoMemphis.

It appears that Khaled Odtllah of Cordova shared the same 2840 Morning Lake Drive address at different times over the past year with Rocky Hammad, according to an online people finder database.

I ran all of the names through Google (I started with Yahoo). Both came up with just news articles except for one of the names which I assume to be too common (almost a John Smith). I didn't try "person" searches for email, phone numbers etc.

The only defense that these guys have is that they needed drivers' licenses for work (and yet all companies require a social security card). How many employers are going to give a NYC resident access to the company van when the only drivers' license they can show is a Tennessee license that they won't update to NY. If there's a traffic accident it will be difficult to explain an employee with an out of state license (we aren't talking a commuter address here, folks).

[Jen]

Do you remember that too? Can you help me with a source?

[Timesink]

...gave him access to the six underground levels of the One World Center building.

That's where the mall was. I bet Tourneau just lost a few MORE Rolexes.

[weegee]

Some new details emerged from an article you linked License corruption not a problem despite Smith fraud case, state says

But J. Suzanne Nash, the FBI agent spearheading the probes into the alleged fraud and Smith's death, did provide some detail when she testified Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Daniel Breen.

Nash said Smith lied several times when confronted the day she and her co-defendants were arrested. Here is what Nash said happened:

A co-worker noticed an upside-down clipboard on Smith's desk and gave it to the FBI agents who were already questioning Smith. The clipboard held the four license applications that are a key part of the government's fraud case.

Smith first told authorities she had authorized issuance of four licenses after the applicants gave her legitimate driver's licenses for other states.

When applicants for Tennessee licenses turn their out-of-state licenses over to examiners, they are all put in one basket to be destroyed later. FBI agents went immediately to the basket and found no licenses under any of the names on the applications Smith processed that day.

Smith then said she had administered the tests required to legitimately get a license. But there were no computer or paper records showing she had done that.

Investigators quickly verified that Smith had entered the information from the forms into state computer databases. The only things lacking were photographs and the issuance of the cards. That was only because the office's camera wasn't working.

This is 4 licenses for 3 men? Was one of them getting a "backup identity"? The other 2 men are charged in the coordination of the scheme.

[lewislynn]

Still think it's a good idea to move nuclear waste across the US?

What's the problem? With Bush's and Fox's plan we can have un-inspected, uninsured, unregulated Mexican trucks with Arab drivers hauling it.

[Shermy]

Arabic names are difficult. "Odtllah" doesn't appear with anyone in the web world. Transliterations of Arabic into English or French can have a variety of Roman letter spellings.

For search engines, I suggest Webferret.com. It's a metaengine, like Google and Dogpile, but with more functions, and definable functions. Also window previews of pages. It's a downloaded program. Another is Copernic.com.

[Shermy]

Story from WMC-TV tonight:

THP looking for witnesses in license scam death

The Tennessee Highway Patrol needs your eyes and ears to help them solve a critical piece of the puzzle in the license fraud case here in Memphis.

Investigators want to know the timeline that lead up to the crash that killed Katherine Smith. She died in a mysterious car fire over the weekend, a fire that investigators say was arson. Smith's gold Acura Legend collided with a pole on Highway 72 just before one 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. An interior fire killed Smith.

And now investigators want to hear from anybody who may have seen Smith or her car before the crash happened. "If she stopped and purchased any type of items or maybe stopped and used a public phone to talk to friends or contact someone, then we'd like to go back to that location and see what time she was there," said THP Captain Jimmy Erwin.

Smith, a license examiner, died before she could appear in Federal Court on charges she accepted money from five Middle Eastern men for fake Tennessee driver's licenses.

[Lion's Cub]

Related stories about this murder in *TN License Scandals located at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/involved?group=383

I've been wondering about that timeline, too. Earlier reports said she went off the road about 12:15. The last one I read said it happened about 12:45-1AM. In the middle of an emergency, things often get written down later, and time perception can be faulty. Nonetheless, there's almost an hour difference here. I hope they are asking around down in Mississippi, too.

[BJungNan]

This is why I don't want that nuclear waste being moved.

How about if we never created the stuff in the first place?

[dennisw]

THIS STINKS...........

All we need is for some dots to be connected! And they will be. Muslims seem to be bad and stupid liars in America. Though I'm sure this kind of BS and lies goe over great in their discombobulated/ failed nation/ homelands.

[eno_]

That would depend on how they are supposed to work. I really don't know how sprinklers in skyscrapers work. I think it would be impossible for a pumper truck to pump water into the system, so there must be some built-in pumps. I also recall the accounts of sprinklers being on only on the ground floor.

[demkicker]

"Didn't only the sprinklers on the ground floor work? I think I read that somewhere, but don't remember where. If that's true, I wonder if Hammad sabotaged them? "

My thoughts, exactly. He worked on the sprinklers alright!

[steve50]

It will have to pay good to get the Mexican trucks off their drug runs