Hadayat met al-Qaida's No. 2 man twice

While the FBI is still debating whether Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, the Egyptian who shot up an El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, was a terrorist, an Arabic newspaper in London reports he met twice with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant and a leader of the Egyptian Jihad Islami terror group.

The Arabic London-based Al Hayat reported Sunday that Hadayat was a member of the Egyptian Jihad Islami and met al-Zawahiri twice in California – once in 1995 and again in 1998.

The Al Hayat report places al-Zawahiri in California less than three years before the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks and a year and a half before the EgyptAir disaster.

Meanwhile, Hadayet's wife tells the Associated Press her husband is innocent of gunning down five people July 4 – two of them fatally.

"My husband didn't do such a thing. This is nonsense," 41-year-old Hala Mohammed Sadeq El-Awadly told the Associated Press in Cairo.

"Hesham called on July 4, it was his birthday. His voice was very beautiful," she said. "He asked about the boys, asked me to take them out a lot and to review their lessons with them in order to be ready for next year."

According to the FBI, Hadayet went to the airport ticket counter of El Al, Israel's national airline, carrying two handguns and a hunting knife and opened fire. He killed two people and wounded three before he was killed by an El Al security guard.

El-Awadly said she did not believe her husband was responsible for the July 4 shooting. She offered no explanation for how he could be innocent when so many people saw him open fire, but said he was being blamed because he was Arab and Muslim.

"He is a victim of injustice," she said three times. "In America, they hate Islam and Arabs after Sept. 11."

The FBI said it could not rule out terrorism but also was investigating the possibility it was a hate crime. Authorities also were investigating whether Hadayet was despondent over his personal or business affairs.

His wife said he was not a violent man and had never expressed anger at Israel or at the recent Israeli-Palestinian violence that has sparked anti-Israeli protests across the Arab world.

Hadayet, 41, emigrated from Egypt to California 10 years ago with his family. His wife said the family had been happy in the United States, had good relations with their American neighbors and planned to settle there permanently. But she said the atmosphere had been tense since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which were carried out by 19 Arabs.

"We became very cautious, and sometimes scared. Every Muslim became a suspect," El-Awadly said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service had said Saturday that Hadayet's first petition for permanent residency, in 1996, had been denied for reasons that were unclear. The INS began deportation procedures, but in 1997 Hadayet was granted permanent residency through his wife, who received an immigration visa through the Department of States' Diversity Lottery Program.

El-Awadly and her sons have reservations to fly back to California on Aug. 20 and an appointment later that month to be interviewed by immigration authorities considering their citizenship request.

In 1990 Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for a Diversity Immigrant Visa Program every year.

The program gives foreign nationals a way to immigrate to the United States that does not require the sponsorship of an immediate family member or employer.

The program is commonly referred to as the "Green Card Lottery" and is administered by the U.S. Department of State.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you about the program in the event you or someone you know would like to take part.

The lottery is designed to benefit natives of "low admission countries" from which immigration was lower than 50,000 over the preceding five years.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service determines which countries are "low admission" and "high admission."

To be eligible to participate in the lottery, an alien must not only be a native of a designated state, but must also have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or have worked at least two years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience.

An alien is considered to be a native of the country in which he or she is born. Citizenship is not determinative.

However, an alien ineligible solely due to his or her country of birth who is the spouse of an otherwise eligible alien may also register under the "cross-chargability" provisions of the program.

Additionally, an alien's spouse and dependent children under the age of 21 are also included should the alien's application be selected.

Children under age 18 without a high school education or equivalent should not register as they are precluded from obtaining an immigrant visa due to the educational requirements.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has determined that the following countries are "high admission" countries and its natives are therefore excluded from participation:

Canada, Colombia, Dominican, Republic, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Philippines, The People's Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, United Kingdom

While natives of the United Kingdom and its dependent territories are ineligible, natives of Hong Kong and Northern Ireland are eligible to participate.

Further, no country may receive more than seven percent (3,850) of the available visas.

The registration period commences on 12:01 a.m. Monday, February 12, 1996, and closes at Midnight Tuesday, March 12, 1996.

There is no advantage to applying early or late.

All applications received within the filing window will be registered.

Applications submitted outside the registration window will be rejected.

Only one application may be submitted by each applicant during the registration period.

The Department of State will disqualify anyone who submits more than one application.

The Department reports that over 500,000 applications for the 1996 lottery were disqualified because of multiple applications.

Once all eligible applications have been registered, a computer will randomly select approximately 100,000 persons (including registered aliens and their dependent family members).

The Department of State has selected this number to ensure that all available visas are issued as they cannot be "carried forward" to the next fiscal year.

Issuance of visas under this program will begin on or about October 1,1996.

Prepared by JEFFREY A. DEVORE, Attorney at Law, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.

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