Posted on 11/04/2001 4:30:05 PM PST by rdavis84
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Saudi citizen has been arrested in an FBI sting operation for allegedly accepting bribes to issue American visas to Saudi nationals, authorities said Sunday.
Abdulla Noman, who works for the U.S. Department of Commerce issuing visas at the American Consulate in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, was arrested Thursday in a Las Vegas Strip hotel room, authorities said. He is being held in federal custody.
The FBI is not specifically probing ties between Noman and terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, but they are not ruling out a connection, said Daron Borst, a spokesman for the Las Vegas FBI.
"There is no indication that this man's activities are connected to the attacks," Borst said. "If that information would come up during the course of the investigation obviously we would follow it, but it's not something that has become apparent yet."
Fifteen of the 19 suicide hijackers who participated in the terrorist attacks came to the United States from Saudi Arabia. All 15 had obtained American visas.
A federal criminal complaint filed against Noman in New Jersey does not mention the attacks. The complaint states that an informant cooperating with a New Jersey-based FBI investigation told agents that he paid Noman more than $3,000 in 1998 for his "assistance in obtaining an American visa under false pretenses."
FBI Agents in the Newark, N.J., field office tracked Noman to Nevada last week, Borst said.
In a sting organized with the Las Vegas office, the FBI said it monitored Noman in a meeting Thursday night with the same informant, accepting a bribe in exchange for a visa.
"It was an undercover operation," Borst said. "He (Noman) was in town on business and we took him down."
At Noman's initial appearance in federal court on Friday, prosecutors termed him a flight risk. Noman's detention hearing is scheduled for this week.
Borst said the U.S. government commonly employs foreign nationals to perform a variety of overseas functions, including issuing visas granting a passport holder permission to enter a foreign country.
"I love it when a plan comes together!"
By the way, what was going on in Las Vegas? If people were already in the country, what need would they have of a new visa?
I guess we may be about to find out why Atta and the other hijackers spent so much time in Las Vegas.
"...I'm at where I'm at now."
How we ever going to find the second-language people we need if we can't even find first language competence?
Ain't gubmint grand . . . . and the bigger the better . . . . . especially in the Dept of Education.
they've had the deal w/ china on the atomic scientist for over a decade now.
china prolly farmed out the security company concession to the sikhs (gummit bldgs) & saudis (airports).
it would be interesting to cross reference abdullah norman's trips to LV with atta & the other skyjackers.
p.s. IIRC, didn't "Omar" meet w/ several members of the Kingman AZ branch of the murrah gang in LV???
the way I understand it is Congress has mandated that a certain number of visas be issued each year to foriegn countries.
"making quota" seems to be more of a concern than allowing unsavory characters into the US.
couple the congressional quotas with lack of staff & funding to conduct background investigations on foriegn applicants, and the odds are pretty good that osama, hisself, could prolly get a US visa...if he doesn't all ready have one.
Samir Khalil spent a lot of time in Las Vegas. In fact, even though his ex-wife, employee, and mother of his daughter died in the OKC bombing, Sam was in Las Vegas, the day after the bombing.
Nichols spent some time in Las Vegas and there was some evidence presented he was meeting with Middle Eastern types in Vegas.
And the Dems (and that RINO McCain) want to place airport security under federal jurisdiction. If people can't live with beafed-up privatized security then we should go to the states. If it is a law enforcement issue then give it to the State Police. Hire on more, better equipped better armed state bulls and preserve states rights. I can deal with it on this level. The federal goverment is out of control. INS is just one good example. Affirmative action, PC and a firing policy called "mission impossible" play huge roles in my dissatisfaction with "big" government.
Iraqi accused of forced marriage is paroledBy MARGERY BECK, Associated Press Writer
September 28, 2000, Thursday, BC cycle
LINCOLN, Neb.
One of two Iraqi men sentenced to prison for marrying and having sex with the teen-age daughters of a fellow refugee was paroled Thursday under strict conditions.
The state Parole Board voted 4-0 to parole Majed Al-Tamimy.
Conditions of his release from prison can be lifted only by another vote of the board. Al-Tamimy must wear an electronic monitor and have no contact with the girl he married, the board said. Al-Tamimy, who planned to live at a home in Lincoln with a friend, also will be registered as a sex offender and will be required to receive sex offender and cultural counseling.
Al-Tamimy, 31, was accused of having sex with the 14-year-old daughter of a friend after an arranged marriage during a Moslem ceremony in November 1996. He was accused of forcing the girl to have sex several times before she ran away.
Another Iraqi, Latif Al-Hussani, 37, was accused of marrying a 13-year-old daughter during the same ceremony and forcing her to have sex before she ran away.
The two men, refugees of the Persian Gulf War who came to Lincoln in 1995, denied doing anything wrong. They were sentenced in 1997 to four to six years in prison.
In Nebraska, people cannot marry if they are under 17 years old.
Al-Hussani was not up for a parole board hearing Thursday.
If the Immigration and Naturalization Service decides to deport Al-Tamimy to Iraq and he is found in the United States without the permission of the U.S. Attorney General, the parole board said Al-Tamimy will be in violation of his parole and will have to finish out his sentence in Nebraska.
Because the United States has no deportation policy with Iraq, Al-Tamimy would automatically be in violation of his parole if the INS rules to deport him, parole board officials confirmed.
Officials said a deportation hearing had not been set, but probably would be held.
When asked if he feared being killed if he returned to Iraq, Al-Tamimy said, "Yes, absolutely I would be killed."
An attorney for the victim, Michelle Smith Chaffee, opposed Al-Tamimy's parole. She reminded the parole board of Al-Tamimy's outburst last year when his parole was denied.
"Imagine what that would have been like if you had been a 15-year-old girl," she said.
thanx for showing up on this one.
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