Posted on 06/28/2002 11:05:28 AM PDT by Ranger
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Federal investigators say they have uncovered an alarming array of potential terrorist materials at the home of a Saudi Arabian man with Boston ties who was briefly enrolled at a Massachusetts flight school.
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According to an affidavit filed in federal court this week, the items seized from Saleh Ali Almari's suburban Washington apartment included a sketch of a plane hitting the World Trade Center, a postcard with an aerial view of the Pentagon, books on chemical weapons and aircraft identification, and videos on air and water disasters.
Investigators claim in the court documents that the materials and other items seized in the December search are ``possibly related to planned acts of terrorism.''
The 24-year-old Almari was charged Tuesday as part of a nationwide ring that allegedly helped more than a hundred foreigners seeking student visas fraudulently pass English proficiency tests by having someone else take the exams for them. He is being held at the same Alexandria jail where accused American Taliban John Walker Lindh and alleged ``20th hijacker'' Zaccarias Moussaoui are being detained.
Almari lived in Cambridge, Mass., for about a year in 1999 when he first came to America on a student visa. That spring he ``briefly enrolled as a student pilot at Executive Flyers Aviation'' at Bedford's Hanscom Airport, prosecutors said in their affidavit. He moved to Virginia in 2000.
U.S. officials this week said while they have not been able to connect Almari to the Sept. 11 attacks or to any other terrorist activities, they have not ruled out the possibility he may have terrorist ties.
Almari's attorney, in a Herald interview yesterday, insisted his client is an innocent victim of overzealous prosecutors.
``At this point the government investigation has uncovered no evidence that connects my client to the Sept. 11 attacks,'' said attorney Robert L. Jenkins Jr. ``Mr. Almari is not a terrorist. He's a peaceful man. He's not a militant man at all.''
Jenkins complained the government's case paints Almari with a broad brush, suggesting he may have terror ties, but not charging him with anything connected to terrorism.
``It has been going on all around the country,'' said Jenkins. ``The government is using flimsy excuses to detain people.''
The affidavit filed by federal prosecutors said that 11 days after the Sept. 11 suicide airliner strikes against the Pentagon and New York, Almari returned to his native Saudi Arabia. Almari left behind his personal belongings, according to court documents.
In December, when he returned and was detained, a search of his apartment turned up:
Jenkins said that Almari lived with three other roommates in the Falls Church apartment and that several other people also had access to it.
``The government has little or no evidence to connect Mr. Almari to the items,'' said Jenkins. ``Mr. Almari does not claim any ownership rights to those items.''
Jenkins said Almari first arrived in the Boston area on a student visa in 1999. The lawyer said he did not know where Almari went to school in Boston or what he studied. He did not hold any jobs, Jenkins said.
Jenkins insisted that Almari never actually took flight lessons in Bedford, Mass. - or anywhere else.
``At one point he contacted a flight school, but he did not take any flight lessons,'' said Jenkins.
A spokesperson for Bedford's Executive Flyers Aviation said there was no record of Almari ever flying at the school.
Prosecutors alleged that when Almari moved to northern Virginia in 2000, he enrolled at Marymount College in Arlington, but never attended classes.
Almari was arrested at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Jan. 13 on grand larceny charges. The warrant alleged that he stole eight videotapes from the Boston Public Library during June 2001 - a preposterous criminal charge, in Jenkins' view.
Jenkins said he did not know what the videos contained. Almari pleaded guilty to seven counts of larceny on May 7. He was fined $500 for each count and was given probation.
Jenkins claimed prosecutors overreached with their video theft charges. He cited the allegations - which he compared to being jailed for an overdue library book - as a prime example of how prosecutors are overstepping their boundaries in their zeal to nab potential terrorists.
``Mr. Almari rented some videos from the Boston area which were overdue,'' he said. ``The videos were discovered in another individual's apartment and that led to the government filing a criminal complaint.''
Almari is currently being held in the Alexandria jail in a segregated unit to protect him from other prisoners.
He is awaiting a deportation hearing. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service earlier this year ruled his visa invalid.
Today Almari is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on the student visa-ring charge.
NeverGore :^)
Busted for overdue videos. Is that ironic?
Makes you wonder who is gonna pay the legal bills. Could it be that Mr. Jenkins is gonna be paid by Al Queada related entities? What a peach this fella is......
He is a lawyer. Case closed.
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