Posted on 05/11/2002 3:34:19 PM PDT by knak
Raids in Virginia: Drawing shows plane striking World Trade Center
Steven Edwards National Post
NEW YORK - Five Middle Easterners, suspects in a student visa scam, are being investigated for ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization after authorities uncovered a chilling cache of material evoking the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The suspects -- three Saudi men, a man from Qatar and a Saudi woman -- each had stand-ins take English proficiency exams for them, authorities charge.
But prosecutors are most alarmed by what agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered while executing a series of search warrants throughout Virginia, the state where the suspects lived.
A search of one home in northern Virginia uncovered a hand-drawn picture of a plane striking one of the World Trade Center towers, and a date book containing just one entry -- on Sept. 11.
The entry said, "Trackd the World Trade Center or the Pentagon trackd for the plaen." Investigators are working on the possibility "trackd" and "plaen" are "tracked" and "plane" misspelled.
The same home also contained photos of men posing inside and outside the twin towers, and an aerial photograph of the Pentagon.
Alongside these items were materials that may have been destined for use in seeking new targets. A Rolodex contained locations of oil refineries. There was a book identifying commercial airliners. Videos titled Incredible Air Disasters and Incredible Water Disasters were also found, as well as a student flight manual issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Court documents listing the items identify neither the exact location of the home, nor its owner. A judge had sealed the documents from public scrutiny, but a court official inadvertently showed them to a journalist with the Virginian-Pilot newspaper who was investigating the visa fraud accusations.
An FBI spokesman in Norfolk, Va., refused to comment on the materials or say whether they were connected to the five Middle Eastern students.
But a separate search of the 1992 Mitsubishi car owned by one of the five uncovered a CD-ROM marked with the words "Gainesville" and "flight school." This raised flags with the investigators because Gainesville is in Florida, the state where some of the Sept. 11 hijackers took flying lessons.
The FBI is reviewing the CD-ROM, but cannot interview the student, who returned to Saudi Arabia at an unspecified date.
Court documents show that his former roommates put his belongings in the car. It appears he abandoned almost everything he owned in the United States. Investigators are also trying to find out why the car was registered in Kansas.
FBI agents seized box-loads of materials belonging to the other four students, who have each appeared in court charged with visa fraud and cheating on an educational test.
Items included computers, computer disks, passports and identity cards, cameras, immigration forms, appointment books, bank statements, notebooks, photo albums and airline tickets.
The five students -- aged between 26 and 31 -- were identified as part of a nationwide visa fraud investigation.
Nearly 60 people have been charged with fraudulently taking Test of English as a Foreign Language examinations for 130 foreign students, including the five in Virginia.
Students must pass the exam before they can enrol in many colleges and universities. They need proof of enrolment to obtain a student visa.
The probe -- centred in New Jersey because that is where the company that administers the exam is based -- pre-dates Sept. 11.
But Christopher Christie, U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, said the investigation is now part of a strategy to capture potential domestic terrorists before they can strike. He would not say if the case had uncovered any links to terrorism.
A search warrant issued on or about Dec. 7 led to the discovery of the materials in the northern Virginia home. The location had been used by a student involved in the visa fraud scheme, but not necessarily one of the five Virginia students.
"The five are being investigated because they came into this country and broke the law," said Mike Drewniak, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey.
Three of the students appeared in court on Tuesday and were released after each signed a US$2,500 unsecured bond. The man from Qatar was held while investigators checked his name against a terrorist watch list.
The scheme allegedly involved test-takers in 13 states and the District of Columbia, and operated between 1999 and last month. Prosecutors say students paid between US$1,000 and US$5,000 for an exam stand-in.
I don't mind because I REALLY appreciate this post. See, my Mom, who lives fairly close to Hampton Roads, sent me a Virginia Pilot article, which I just read about an hour ago...maybe the publication didn't want to "alarm" the locals, and take the chance they may feel "intolorant" toward their Arab brothers, BUT DAMN!
"NORFOLK -- The FBI interviewed a Qatar native living in Chesapeake four days after the Sept. 11 attacks after they found suspicious evidence, including clothing that looked like airline pilots' uniforms, in a Los Angeles hotel room that he paid for.
"Prosecutors said in federal court Friday that Fahad A. Alhajri's credit card was billed for round-trip plane tickets for three friends who stayed at the hotel after flying from Washington in August. Alhajri's phone number was found in a cell phone left in the room.
The plane the three men were to have taken back to Washington on Sept. 10 was the same American Airlines jet that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, prosecutors said. They never boarded the flight.
"While Alhajri's attorney said the government was 'overreaching' in its case, prosecutors called the string of evidence a set of 'bizarre coincidences' worthy of caution....
[According to the article, all the FBI found in addition to the uniforms was :]
"Mitchell said agents discovered a computer in Alhajri's Chesapeake apartment that contained images of the Sept. 11 attacks and writings described only as 'military terms' and 'angry Arabic words.'
"Alhajri told the agents he could not explain those items.
"Mitchell said federal agents discovered human feces in a trash can and a used condom, items 'consistent with drug trafficking,' at Alhajri's home. WATERED DOWN, VIRGINIA PILOT VERSION
Bottom line: the VA Pilot version of this story makes it seem like the FBI's case is a purely circumstantial witchunt for innocent Arab students with a fetish for backdoor sports, while the National Post version is a HECKUVALOT scarier.
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When are we going to realize we are in an all-out war with these vermin and start acting like it?
Instead of searching Granny at the airport, we need to identify, locate, and round these people up.
That would be most UN PC, but I agree. Down with PC.
The date was probably 9/12.
It is a good thing we have our good allies the Saudies, they will find this guy and turn him over right away.(yes indeed that is sarcasm.)
Yep, and Virginia is bad because of all of the maritime traffic.
Maybe that is why they are there!
Both Atta and al-Shehhi were here twice that we've been told of, so we alread knew that there's at least one cell here.
Here are other articles about these arrests:
Probably just products of the publik skoolz.
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