4 admit fraud amid questions on death of license examiner

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | May 21, 2002 | Lawrence Buser

[sarcasm]

After four men with ties to the Middle East pleaded guilty Monday in a Tennessee driver's license fraud case, new questions arose about a central figure in the case - a state driver's license examiner who died in a mysterious, fiery car wreck just days after her arrest.

The case drew national attention earlier this year because of the still-unsolved death of Katherine Smith and the revelation one of the defendants, a naturalized plumber from Jordan living in New York, had been in the World Trade Center days before the twin towers were destroyed by hijacked airliners.

In a hearing Monday morning before U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald, federal prosecutors said, however, had the cases gone to trial, there would have been no evidence presented that the defendants were involved in terrorist activities or in Smith's Feb. 10 death on U.S. 72 in Fayette County.

Federal and state authorities said Monday that the wreck remains under investigation but the fire in the car was set and the crash did not cause Smith's death.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Jimmy Erwin said Monday that he is waiting on autopsy test results from the Medical Examiner's Office before the cause of death is officially determined.

He said neither suicide nor homicide has been ruled out.

Smith, a state employee for 27 years, had been charged with conspiring to provide driver's licenses fraudulently as part of a scheme involving the other defendants.

A handwritten letter by Smith dated Feb. 5 - the day of her arrest - was included in pretrial discovery material the government provided to defense attorneys.

After the hearing, defense attorney Jeffrey Jones showed the letter to several reporters.

Asked if the letter appeared to be a suicide note, Jones said, "That's certainly one interpretation."

Written on green flowered stationery headed "Gardening Angel," the note read: "I Katherine Smith tried to help Kal. He didn't give me any money. He was I thought my friend. I was trying to help him. Now I've lost everything and am called a liar when I was telling the truth. I can't live without any honor. I live a lonely life true enough but I didn't lie to the FBI. Forgive me John. Forgive me Vernola. I can't live this way. I love you both and wish and pray for the best. Love Mama."

The names in the letter, apparently discovered during the FBI's investigation, refer to alleged conspiracy ringleader Khaled Odtllah, who is known as "Kal," and Smith's son and daughter, John Barton IV and Vernola Buchanan.

Pleading guilty to the one-count conspiracy indictment Monday were Odtllah, 31, a Cordova resident from Jerusalem; Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, 26, a carpenter from Egypt; Sakher A. Hammad, 24, a New York plumber from Jordan and the lone defendant who is an American citizen, and his cousin Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, 32, also a plumber living in New York.

A fifth defendant, Mohammed A. Fares, pleaded guilty earlier this month. Fares has a Venezuelan passport, but his family is from Lebanon.

Each faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and a minimum of immediate probation when sentenced in June and August by Donald. Those who are not citizens also face the possibility of deportation and remain in federal custody.

A minor teenager arrested in the case was handled in Juvenile Court.

Federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza said Odtllah, who had been living here for two years, provided Tennessee driver's licenses to illegal immigrants for about $1,000 each.

The Hammads of New York found clients and drove them to Memphis where Smith would issue them driver's licenses without requiring proper documentation, he said.

He said Tennessee was vulnerable to such a scheme because the state does not require immigrants to provide a Social Security number.

The Hammads in February drove Fares and Abou-Shahin and the juvenile to Memphis from New York to get four licenses. They met with Odtllah here and were arrested as they attempted to obtain licenses at the Summer Avenue testing station.

FBI agents and the highway patrol had set up surveillance after receiving a tip from the New York FBI office.

During their separate guilty pleas Monday, at least two of the defendants asked their attorneys to emphasize that they are not being accused of terrorist activity. DiScenza then made a statement to that effect.

Jones, who represents Sakher Hammad, said the World Trade Center visitor's pass found in his client's wallet was needed because he had worked on the center's sprinkler system plumbing.

He said Hammad also had a card that indicated he had donated money to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack.

"My guy's a fairly conservative guy," Jones said.

The guilty pleas were straightforward and routine for the most part as Donald asked each man, some requiring Arabic interpreters, if he was pleading voluntarily and understood the implications.

She also asked each defendant why he was pleading guilty, drawing tearful responses from Odtllah who said, "I made mistake. I didn't know I was breaking the law. I didn't mean to break the law."

Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad also wept when asked about his residency in New York, where he had been living with his wife and three U.S.-born children.

"I'm just concerned about my wife," he said through an interpreter.

[Gigantor]

"...Tennessee was vulnerable to such a scheme because the state does not require immigrants to provide a Social Security number."

This is just insanity. Have we all gone nuts??

[sarcasm]

We went nuts a long time ago. Not mentioned in this article is the fact that Mohammed Fares walked across the Mexican border. As yet, we have not done anything to secure the borders against terrorists.

[Shermy]

Suicide note? Note meant just to flee? Fake?

A handwritten letter by Smith dated Feb. 5 - the day of her arrest - was included in pretrial discovery material the government provided to defense attorneys.

After the hearing, defense attorney Jeffrey Jones showed the letter to several reporters.

Asked if the letter appeared to be a suicide note, Jones said, "That's certainly one interpretation."

Written on green flowered stationery headed "Gardening Angel," the note read: "I Katherine Smith tried to help Kal. He didn't give me any money. He was I thought my friend. I was trying to help him. Now I've lost everything and am called a liar when I was telling the truth. I can't live without any honor. I live a lonely life true enough but I didn't lie to the FBI. Forgive me John. Forgive me Vernola. I can't live this way. I love you both and wish and pray for the best. Love Mama."

The names in the letter, apparently discovered during the FBI's investigation, refer to alleged conspiracy ringleader Khaled Odtllah, who is known as "Kal," and Smith's son and daughter, John Barton IV and Vernola Buchanan.

Katherine Smith links:

Feb. 11
WOMAN ARRESTED FOR AIDING ARABS IN DRIVER'S LICENSE SCAM PRESUMED DEAD
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
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
FBI Agent: Arson Killed Key Suspect (driver's license examiner accused of supplying terrorists)
Feb.16
TE NN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS
Terror Links In Tenn. Mystery? (CBS News)
Feb. 18:
Mourners remember the good deeds of license examiner, not how she died
Feb. 20
Terror in Tennessee? (Front Page magazine)
Feb. 22
Terroris m expert [Steven Emerson] monitors the Mid-South (WMC-TV Memphis 2/23)
Feb. 24:
March 6
Patrol says examiner's death not due to crash (+ witness accounts)

*TN License Scandals

Pics of License Scam suspects

Color Pics of Suspects

[kcvl]

"...Tennessee was vulnerable to such a scheme because the state does not require immigrants to provide a Social Security number."

This is just insanity. Have we all gone nuts??

I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing!!!

[aristeides]

I don't think many people intending suicide would pour gasoline all over themselves. It doesn't sound too pleasant.

I see no mention in this article of Hammad's "father" Peter Hansen.

[null and void]

Very few people deliberately incinerate themselves. Too many easier ways to go.

On the other hand, murdering someone by burning them alive is a pretty compelling method of intimidating others into silence...

[Brownie74]

the state does not require immigrants to provide a Social Security number."

I have to provide a SSN to get a drivers license. Why not immigrants? Oh I forgot - I am just an American.

In my next lifetime I am coming back as an illegal alien.

But then again, that might not work. By that time the immigrants will have taken over and they will have in place their own laws. And you can bet they will enforce their laws.

[null and void]

BTW, it wasn't just gasoline. The firefighters on the scene reported that the fire kept reigniting itself, unlike anything they had seen before...

[okie01]

If it's a legitimate suicide note, Katharine Smith chose a truly bizarre way to do the need. We're not only asked to believe that she chose to incinerate herself, we're asked to believe that she chose to do so inside a car...while it was in motion.

And that she wrote what seems a very coherent apologia on Friday, gave the matter rational thought all weekend, then calmly did herself in around midnight Sunday -- out on the highway, rather than on an isolated country road.

The method, the manner, the timing and the location all belie the easy "suicide" answer. I'm not buying it...

I can envision one possible scenario for her actions, as described: That she somehow knew she was implicated in the WTC and Pentagon attacks...and she chose to die by fire, as many of the victims had, to assuage her own sense of guilt.

[null and void]

OTOH, One of her "clients" was busy "fixing" the sprinklers at the WTC, maybe he LIKES burning people...

[weegee]

Also, the car caught fire before impact with evidence of gasoline coming from the backseat. A lot of trouble and a tough way to go. This is the first I've seen it listed as a possible suicide. Accident was ruled out within a week.

One of the men in jail "sold" her the car which gives him and his "people" access to a duplicate car key.

But go ahead, let's deny the obvious for awhile longer. The same man who arranged this transaction and sold her the car had purchased licenses in the past from her as well according to early accounts (maybe something she said while in custody).

To clear things up, she was killed the day she was released. She was to "testify" the next day.

[JDGreen123]

Thanks Shermy. Phil Valentine mentioned this on his show in Nashville today. He said somebody in Memphis must have pictures of authorities in wrong doing to come to any other conclusion than that these guys are terrorists and part of a larger ring. If they are so innocent, why were they held so long? Why did Ms. Smith catch on fire BEFORE her car ever hit a pole?

Just another "nothing to see here, move along now" response from our government. They scare us with iffy threats then pass over a case that has real substance.

[oyez]

I posted this yesterday on another thread.

Who commits suicide by self immolation other then Budist monks? Hell, maybe the fake licence racket may run deeper than these guys.

This case has a foul odor.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the info and the links, Shermy.

[Lion's Cub]

I see no mention in this article of Hammad's "father" Peter Hansen.

Peter Hansen may well be the person we suspect he is.

Odtllah- from Jerusalem
Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin- Egypt
Sakher A. Hammad- now US citizen but originally from Jordan
Mohammed A. Fares- family from Lebanon

It fits like a glove. If we could just prove it's his...

starts here if you need a refresher.