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 worry about the Bay Bridge tunnel...
LOL! Take your pick, guy; we've got it all. Military bases, shipyards, aircraft carriers & battle groups, coast guard, Langley AFB, probably the largest commercial port on the east coast, manufacturing, tourism with lots of crowds, big malls, etc., tunnels & bridges, airports, Amtrack, and a nuclear power plant...and we're not that far from DC.
Aside from this cell that they're working on, I imagine there are others. Newport News has at least two Islamic schools, so I'd bet there's a cell across the river.
I didn't know enough about Arab names to know that one of them was a woman--so that's news to me :)
...NOAA, NASA
"When preparing men and women for military activities that can literally involve life or death, it's essential that training simulations be as realistic as possible," said Charlie Miller, CEO of InterSense. "For this reason, we are honored that so many leading vendors have chosen to incorporate InterSense technology into their military training solutions."
ok, I'll take off my tin foil hat now!
Forget screening them harder, foreign students should be banned outright until further notice. This is wartime, the leftist whiners can stick it right in their jumper.
This raises the issue of who else knew of the CONSPIRACY to destroy the WTC before Sep. 11th and who is now not talking.
What in the H*LL are they doing releasing these possible terrorists???? These animals are our stated enemies, taking advantage of every benefit of America's freedoms and technologies .. so they can turn them on us. I want them all dead or rotting in some filthy cell for the rest of their days!!!!
Thanks for the post.
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