[leadhead]

This is what you probably heard:

Alien Arrest In Highlandtown

June 24, 2002

The Associated Press

Agents from the F-B-I and the State Department have arrested a 27-year-old Jordanian national suspected of making illegal payoffs for visas obtained from a U-S embassy overseas.

Rasmi Alshannaq was arrested this morning at the home he shares with his father in Baltimore's Highlandtown neighborhood.

According to the warrants, agents were looking for evidence that an insider at a U-S embassy in the Middle East is illegally supplying documents to help people who've been denied entry into the United States.

Authorities say Alshannaq lived in Jordan but entered the United States from Qatar in October of 2000. Authorities believe he may have obtained a visa illegally in Qatar after his attempts to emigrate from Jordan were unsuccessful.

[Aliska]

Yes, that's it. This doesn't seem related to anthrax business. You have more info than I've heard here. They got him on immigration charges.

I am wondering if the anthrax raid (if real) and this arrest are separate incidents.

[aristeides]

According to a report I heard on WMAL radio at 9 PM, a guy arrested in Baltimore (presumably this same guy) had shared an apartment in Virginia with two of the hijackers, Hanjour and (I think) Alhazmi, in the summer of 2001.