Posted on 07/31/2002 11:11:13 AM PDT by kattracks
PATERSON, N.J., Jul 31, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A man who authorities said sold fake identification to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers apparently left on a flight to Egypt hours before authorities raided his home and businesses Wednesday, officials said.
Mohamad El Atriss operated businesses in Paterson and Elizabeth where he sold the IDs, said Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale. Authorities raided his home and business Wednesday afternoon and were told Atriss had took a flight from Newark to Egypt earlier that morning, Speziale said.
Atriss sold a fake identification card to Khalid Almihdhar, who was on Flight 77 as it hit the Pentagon, and one to hijacker Abdul Aziz Alomari from Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center, Speziale said.
Authorities said they had 75 fake IDs that Atriss generated and sold for as much as $800 each, though they believed he made many more. The IDs included international driver's licenses and New Jersey state ID cards, neither of which legally exist.
Wednesday's raids followed a four-month investigation by sheriffs in Passaic, Bergen and Essex counties, the Paterson police and the FBI, Speziale said.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Paper Trail, began after police in Bergen and Passaic counties starting finding similar fake ids, Speziale said.
Authorities were tipped to Atriss by a St. Paul, Minn., company after he contacted it about paying cash for a high-speed copier machine capable of embossing seals.
Atriss never bought the copier from Minnesota, but did contact a Paterson company about a similar purchase, Speziale said. That company also became suspicious when Atriss offered to pay cash for the machine and they called the FBI, Speziale said.
FBI agents posed as merchants at the store and sold Atriss the copier, Speziale said. Law enforcement authorities also purchased fake IDs at Atriss' stores, known as All Service Plus, Overseas Development and Trading Co. and Green Palm Investments.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
You fill in the blanks....
I think that if I have my faith, my dog and my baseball bat no one can touch me.
You still want the feds? I don't.
So, if they knew he got out 6 hours earlier, there should have been a WARM reception at either location...hence the comment I heard that he's on his way back as we read this...
I'm interested in which airline he used, and what hoops he jumped thru to get a last minute out ticket, as those are now FLAGGED...someone needs to research THAT connection!
MAJOR strings were pulled here...
Nice to see the INS/FBI or whoever it was in this Country that tipped him off are SO CONCERNED with OUR safety...
Death is TOO GOOD for traitors and spies!
Finding a prominent diplomat is one thing. Finding a single "ordinary" guy in the hot, dusty rabbit warren that is Cairo is quite another. Ordinary Egyptians have almost no credit card use, little legal / registered ownership of land, widespread corruption in the issuance of whatever few licences (driver's licence, etc) anyone might want to get, no ID checks in hotels ... there's no way to track someone down who doesn't want to be tracked. If he actually made it to Egypt (instead of being secretly detained along the way) that guy is GONE.
Good question. "Paging Tom Ridge..."
There is a very sensible approach that needs to be taken with foreign nationals from hostile Middle Eastern countries. They should have to report in to the police (FBI or INS)once a month to renew their visas and give an account of the nature of their activities in the U.S. Fingerprinting ought to be part of this. The boys and girls in Washington have wasted enough time debating national IDs for normal Americans, it's time to get tough on the aliens in question, i.e., those from established hostile nations known for extremism and terrorism. This is just common sense. One wonders sometimes what our taxes are paying for when protecting us from enemies foreign and domestic doesn't seem to be getting through to competent adults.
If they don't bring this guy back from Saudiland to stand trial...I say we just remove the puppet government there while we're uprooting the countryside of Iraq for Sodamn INSANE. I've waited long enough for a condemnation of suiciders and denial of Israel's right to exist...if they harbor terrorists THEY ARE TERRORISTS... I WANT A PIECE OF THE ROCK!!!
Perhaps some corrupt officials would try to insert false identities in the computer but the system could perform "offline" comparisons of the data for any duplicate entries (multiple IDs).
And if you are not in the system, deny boarding privillages or entry into our country.
Maybe he cranked out the needed IDs and headed east to hand'em out ... Thanks to the FBI they should be pretty good fakes. Sigh.
I notice that joyful1 is too cowardly to address my repeated reminder of the one thing that will protect a battered wife, or an American citizen in general.
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