I think you're right...
Posted on 02/07/2003 11:02:35 PM PST by Let's Roll
He admitted considering suicide-bomb attack
02/08/2003
By TODD BENSMAN / The Dallas Morning News
In a rare glimpse at the government's domestic war on terror, a Jordanian student from Arlington admitted in court Friday that he had considered becoming a suicide bomber if the United States invaded Iraq.
Tahir Ibrihim Aletwei, a 30-year-old software engineering graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington, spoke freely about his inclinations toward terrorism and divulged details of his interviews with federal agents during his deportation hearing.
"I was looking at America as my enemy," he said. "If someone would have approached me and asked me to do something against the country, I was willing to do it."
Mr. Aletwei said he had since had a change of heart and was confessing to help U.S. authorities better guard against people like him. He said he had not been approached by terrorists seeking to enlist him and had no target.
But when U.S. Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers referred to an FBI report quoting Mr. Aletwei as saying he still harbored thoughts of killing Americans, Mr. Aletwei conceded that the prospects of a U.S. invasion of Iraq had him again contemplating an attack.
Judge Rogers ordered that Mr. Aletwei be deported within five days, rejecting several pleas by the detainee to be released long enough to finish the last three months of his master's degree.
"I abhor the thought processes that you acknowledge," Judge Rogers said. "The issue we have in this nation since 9-11 is we want to act on the side of caution, and it will be necessary to send you home. That's my final ruling."
At one point, Mr. Aletwei proposed that he be allowed to stay in exchange for cooperating further with authorities, who had interviewed him extensively. The judge deferred to INS prosecutor Heidi Graham, the government's representative in the proceeding.
She declined the offer: "Had we known about what he calls his misguided thinking, we would never have issued him a visa."
Dallas FBI and INS officials declined to say what led agents to Mr. Aletwei or to comment on his case, citing confidentiality rules related to terrorism investigations.
Former FBI Associate Deputy Director Oliver "Buck" Revell said authorities probably had no alternative other than deportation, especially if the suspect seemed mentally unbalanced and unpredictable.
'A peculiar case'
"He's a peculiar case, I have to admit. I haven't heard of one like that, and I've been in the business for 35 years," Mr. Revell said.
Mr. Aletwei said that when agents asked him whether he was involved in terrorism, he said yes.
He said he proceeded to explain to agents that his desire to become a martyr was cultivated by his home country's hatred of the neighboring state of Israel and its most powerful ally, America.
Mr. Aletwei said in court Friday that he came to the United States as part of a Jordanian-sponsored student exchange program in August 2001. He said he came to earn an advanced degree in computer software engineering but secretly hoped for an opportunity to carry out a suicide bombing using explosives strapped to his body.
He said that though he had no formal training to carry out a suicide attack, he was mentally prepared.
"In my mind, I was doing a noble thing," Mr. Aletwei told Judge Rogers.
Mr. Aletwei said he told agents about his feelings and unformed plans as a gesture of good will to a country that had softened him with kindness since his arrival about 20 months earlier.
"I wanted to help. It's my duty to help," he said. "I want people to understand just how we think because if they understand how we think, they can prevent accidents like 9-11. I don't believe war or violence can solve anything."
Mr. Aletwei was arrested Jan. 31 on charges of violating provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which subjects violators to deportation. He could not be criminally charged because he has done nothing illegal.
Professor surprised
News of Mr. Aletwei's testimony astonished his faculty adviser at UTA. Mr. Aletwei had complained in recent months of government harassment and the revocation of his student visa by the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, said Dr. Arthur Reyes, an assistant professor of computer science at UTA.
Dr. Reyes, who taught Mr. Aletwei for a year, said his student rarely spoke of politics and struck all who knew him as well-balanced and as a genuinely good person. Dr. Reyes said he wrote a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Jordan at Mr. Aletwei's request to get his visa reinstated.
"There's nothing in his character that would indicate any truth to that at all," Dr. Reyes said. "That doesn't sound like the Tahir that we know."
E-mail tbensman@dallasnews.com
UT Arlington. My alma mater. The cradle of Middle-Eastern students...Really? UTA is really a good school. I got my B.B.A. degree there. They were the 6th largest school of Business Administration in the country when I went there...I'm a UTA grad also, and like most of my friends I went there because the tuition was cheap, and you could further save on expenses by living at home. :)
But in my day it wasn't the cradle of ME students, it was more like their playpen, and they were spoiled little brats, to put it politely.
Yeah. I probably should have said 'hotbed' or 'rats nest', lol !
I had a roommate in the dorm for one or two semesters from the Middle-East. He was from Kuwait. His name was Hadi.
Hadi was one of the spoiled brats, sort of. (His dad worked one of the oil companies there, from what I recall). But Hadi wasn't a bad person. He and a few others of us from the dorm would go to Burger King on occasion. Hadi was adament that he not get anything with pork in it, so he would always get a burger or chicken. One of the gang, Raymond (whom we all called Opie because he looked like Ron Howard), would always taunt Hadi about the pork. 'Hey, Hadi, I got your chicken sandwich. Is that my pork you're eating?' 'Hey, Hadi, they put pork on yours, I saw them,' etc. That's about the only time I ever saw Hadi get riled, lol ! He was adament about no pork. Hadi told me that they see pork as 'unclean' meat, because they think that the hogs/pigs eat their own feces. I've heard some say it's true, and others tell me it's not true. I don't know. I never lived on a pig farm...
A good followup considering the unrepentent shoe bomber only got life.
Has anyone come to his defense saying that he's a 30-year old student and wouldn't throw his career away like this? "Maybe he was just joking and some redneck overheard him"...
Three guesses as to what he'll do with this education. Can someone 'splain to me again why we allow anyone from hostile nations to study here, especially in the sciences/engineering when they're likely to use it against us?
I think he's sincere ---and he sounds like one of those moderate Muslims they always talk about. I knew an Iranian who still lives and works in the US who would openly say that while he liked Americans as individuals even some Jews, when it came down to it, he would do whatever Khomeni said he should do.
Now THERE is an oxymoron if I ever saw one.
I wonder how many are living here having the same inclinations toward terrorism as Tahir Ibrihim Aletwei, but not acknowledging?
The inexplicable deference paid to CAIR--the stormtroopers of American Islam--and to the seemingly deranged Norquist, is very alarming. Both of them are so easily ignored, but yet are heeded, almost out of some sick sense of guilt which exists despite the mass murder of Americans by Muslims.
Looking at the madness which exists with respect to Islam--the White House kowtowing to Norquist's "Religion of Peace" dementia, the FBI unwilling to fire a Muslim agent who refuses to wiretap other Muslims, textbook publishers knuckling under to CAIR, who demands Islam be sanitized in schools (while Christianity is not)---it all seems like some nightmare of the insane. We had better wake up...and fast.
You'll get no argument from me. I often wonder what it will take.
I am guessing there are about 30,000 students total at UTA, with 20% being ME. That's 6,000 at UTA alone. How many of those are Muslim Fundamentalists? If it's 1% = 60, that's 60 too many. Imagine 60 suicide bombings over a couple of years in the D/FW area. Imagine each one claims 10 lives each. Yikes !
Now, imagine that capability in every major metropolitan area in the country and...well, that's kinda scary, huh?...
And from what I've heard, Washington-Oregon is really infested with ME whackos.
A culture of anti-Americanism and Jew-hatred is prevalent in the Arab countries. It's hard for us to believe this since we get a muddled picture of Islam from the conventional media, which keeps telling us over and over again, that Islam is the religion of "peace," and that the 9/11 terrorists are not true representatives of Muslim thought. In my opinion, I think the opposite is true.
I think you're right...
I am a CSE major at UTA. I don't know Dr. Reyes personally. (His office is right next to my former advisor - Ray Springston.) Dr. Reyes is a reserved, quiet man. But that's all I know.
I do know that it's a year after 911 and there are still no procedures in place for getting these nutbars out of America and it drives me friggin nuts. Any one of these guys I go to school with could be the next Mohammed Atta.
"I was looking at America as my enemy," he said. "If someone would have approached me and asked me to do something against the country, I was willing to do it."
Mr. Aletwei said he had since had a change of heart and was confessing to help U.S. authorities better guard against people like him. He said he had not been approached by terrorists seeking to enlist him and had no target.
But when U.S. Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers referred to an FBI report quoting Mr. Aletwei as saying he still harbored thoughts of killing Americans, Mr. Aletwei conceded that the prospects of a U.S. invasion of Iraq had him again contemplating an attack.
Dr. Reyes, who taught Mr. Aletwei for a year, said his student rarely spoke of politics and struck all who knew him as well-balanced and as a genuinely good person. Dr. Reyes said he wrote a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Jordan at Mr. Aletwei's request to get his visa reinstated. "There's nothing in his character that would indicate any truth to that at all," Dr. Reyes said. "That doesn't sound like the Tahir that we know."
GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! This Dr. Reyes needs an EXIT visa immediately! Unfortunately, I'm unavailable for the next week, but this school, and especially this "Dr. Reyes" need a good freepin!
Here are some links from Harry Dunne's previous post:
UTA Home Page
CSE Home Page
CSE's faculty page
Dr. Reyes'
FREEP TIME!
"I was looking at America as my enemy," he said. "If someone would have approached me and asked me to do something against the country, I was willing to do it."
Mr. Aletwei said he had since had a change of heart and was confessing to help U.S. authorities better guard against people like him. He said he had not been approached by terrorists seeking to enlist him and had no target.
But when U.S. Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers referred to an FBI report quoting Mr. Aletwei as saying he still harbored thoughts of killing Americans, Mr. Aletwei conceded that the prospects of a U.S. invasion of Iraq had him again contemplating an attack.
Dr. Reyes, who taught Mr. Aletwei for a year, said his student rarely spoke of politics and struck all who knew him as well-balanced and as a genuinely good person. Dr. Reyes said he wrote a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Jordan at Mr. Aletwei's request to get his visa reinstated. "There's nothing in his character that would indicate any truth to that at all," Dr. Reyes said. "That doesn't sound like the Tahir that we know."
GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! This Dr. Reyes needs an EXIT visa immediately! Unfortunately, I'm unavailable for the next week, but this school, and especially this "Dr. Reyes" need a good freepin! Here are some links from Harry Dunne's previous post:
UTA Home Page
CSE Home Page
CSE's faculty page
Dr. Reyes'
FREEP TIME!
Because of this kind of deception, I look at every ME looking person with suspicion. It's biased and not right, but neither is acting all nice and friendly until you detonate.
Money-grubbing university FReep bump.
I would like to know the whole story. Did he turn himself in, or are UTA police that sharp?
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