28 Nabbed by Feds at Fort Worth Site (Possible Terrorist Link)

28 Nabbed by Feds at Fort Worth site Some may have ties to extremist group

By DEANNA BOYD

Copyright 2002 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH -- Federal agents raided an aviation repair facility at Fort Worth Meacham Airport on Friday morning, arresting 28 workers on immigration violations. Some of them, sources said, may be affiliated with a Muslim extremist group responsible for a string of kidnappings in the southern Philippines.

Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney's office for Northern Texas, said federal felony charges will be filed Monday against some of the detained mechanics, who were working for Spirit Aviation Services. Colvin said the workers apparently entered the United States through Mexico, the Philippines and Peru.

Officials said the charges will relate to false statements on immigration documents.

Sources said some of those arrested appear to have ties to Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group in the Philippines that abducted more than 100 people in the past year, including a Philippine nurse and a missionary couple from Wichita, Kan. The three were the target of a rescue attempt this month in which the nurse and husband were killed and the wife was wounded.

Sources declined to discuss the extent of the connections between those arrested and Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked by federal authorities to the al Qaeda terrorist network.

In May, the United States offered a reward of up to $5 million for the capture of the group's leaders. The Philippine government has had a $100,000 reward on the heads of five Abu Sayyaf leaders for almost a year.

One notorious leader of the gang, Abu Sabaya, is presumed dead after reportedly exchanging gunfire with U.S.-trained forces June 21 while apparently trying to flee in a boat from Mindanao island, in the southern Philippines. According to published reports, one soldier reported shooting Sabaya in the back as he tried to swim away.

About 40 agents from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service and the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force participated in the 9 a.m. raid at Spirit Aviation.

"The company was very cooperative," said David Davidson, a supervisor with the U.S. Marshal's Service in Fort Worth.

Sgt. Mike Jones, supervisor of the Fort Worth Police Department's criminal intelligence unit, which also participated in the investigation and raid, said the joint operation's purpose was to "make our country safe."

Since the unit formed in December, Jones said, investigators have received "complaints and concerns from citizens regarding Meacham Airport and certain foreign nationals." He declined to elaborate on the complaints.

Spirit Airlines, the largest privately held airline in the country, started as a Detroit charter company 12 years ago. Today, it is a passenger line with 28 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 planes and makes 100 flights a day to 15 destinations across the United States and to the Caribbean.

The airline's headquarters are now in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Its planes undergo repair, modifications and painting at the Fort Worth facility, which employs more than 100 workers, said Laura Bennett, a Spirit Airlines spokeswoman.

The airline does not operate commercial flights in or out of Meacham Airport, she said.

Bennett said the company has cooperated with authorities since learning of the federal investigation several days ago and had handed over requested documentation regarding its workers' immigration status.

Bennett said that while all employees had provided the company documentation, such as driver's licenses, passports and mechanic's licenses, the investigation apparently revealed that some of the documents were fraudulent.

"This is very sad for us. Some of these people have become friends and were longtime employees," Bennett said. "The picture that is often painted is (that) these are negative people, but in this case, though some of them may be, it certainly wasn't all of them. They were very hardworking, very professional people who, yes, had bad documents."

A licensed mechanic working with the company, who asked not to be identified, said the company had recently finished running background checks on employees.

"I think that was because of September 11," the mechanic said. "We didn't have September 11 before. That's why they didn't do anything before."

Bennett acknowledged that background checks and fingerprinting of employees were recently done by the company.

The mechanic said he had worked previously with some of the men arrested in Friday's raid. He said those detained included a man recently promoted, another who had just bought a new truck and a third who had gotten married just months ago.

"I feel sorry for the good people -- the good workers," the mechanic said. "They work for money. Everybody works for money and to put food on the table."

From WordNetDaily, October 16, 2001

WASHINGTON – In just the past two days, 14 Syrian men entered the U.S. through Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on student visas to attend flight schools at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, WorldNetDaily has learned exclusively.

The State Department lists Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Syrian men, whose M-1 visas expire April 2002, flew in from London aboard two British Airways flights, with one group of seven arriving Sunday and the rest on Monday – the day before the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its post-attack ban on novice pilots flying private planes solo in airspace around major metropolitan areas.

"Seems that they knew the private plane ban was going to be lifted today," said an Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector at DFW.

After the second wave of Syrians deplaned, INS inspectors called the FBI, which asked inspectors to photocopy their passports and other papers, according to the INS source.

The men, all clean-shaven and in their mid-20s, were not detained, however, and the FBI did not interview them – although agents have recently questioned Middle Eastern students enrolled at Meacham field schools.

The Syrians told immigration inspectors they came here to train to be pilots for their country's national airline, and were enrolled at Delta-Qualiflight Aeronautics.

Delta is one of four Meacham field schools run by Middle Eastern men, airport records reviewed by WorldNetDaily show. There are eight schools in all.

Delta-Qualiflight Aeronautics, owned by Khaled Miloud, enrolls the largest share of Middle Eastern students, according to airport sources, who say Arabic is the main language spoken at the school. Miloud did not return phone calls.

The schools, using Meacham field's two runways and flight simulators, train students to fly primarily single and twin-engine aircraft.

The FBI would not comment on the Syrian students. But a spokeswoman for the bureau's Dallas office said agents have been "working very closely" with INS inspectors at DFW to monitor Middle Easterners coming into the U.S. on flight-school visas.

"We're getting thousands of leads here at the Dallas division, many of them concerning Middle Eastern individuals coming in and going to flight schools," Dallas FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey told WorldNetDaily. "We have several flight schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area."

INS inspectors at DFW have detained "numerous" Middle Easterners who are in violation of immigration laws, she said. But the FBI has not arrested any in connection with the PENTTBOM investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

After the 9-11 hijackings, FBI agents tracked a suspicious Algerian man to another Meacham field flight school called American Flyers, WorldNetDaily has learned.

According to a spokesman for American Flyers, agents questioned the man at his Fort Worth-area apartment.

"He was very cooperative," he said, "and they gave him their blessing" to attend the school.

The American Flyers manager says that despite "some obvious bad apples," most of the Middle Eastern students who train at American flight schools are "all right."

"I get a lot of people asking me lately, 'Hey, how come you're still letting people from the Middle East train to fly at your school?'" he said. "But I tell them that before they ever get here, their applications are approved by the State Department."

Indeed, foreigners applying for a student visa have to fill out a federal application, called an I-20 form, and submit it to the American embassy in their country for approval. The form includes the name and address of the U.S. flight school.

"I don't know why the feds are surprised" by the number of Middle Easterners enrolled at U.S. flight schools, he said. "The information is available in advance. They know these guys' names and where they're enrolled long before they arrive here."

A State Department spokesman says the Bush administration has no plans to stop issuing visas to flight-school applicants from the Middle East.

"The Department of State has changed no laws and no regulations from what was in effect Sept. 10," spokesman Chris Lamora told WorldNetDaily.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has not told the INS to turn back or detain Middle Easterners entering the U.S. with flight-school visas – not even those from countries that sponsor terrorism, such as Syria.

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