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Sept. 11 Fake ID Suspect Flees U.S.
AP | 7/31/02

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



TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abdulazizalomari; almihdhar; alomari; atriss; balkans; flight11; flight77; khalidalmihdhar; mohamadelatriss
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To: kattracks; Sabertooth; swarthyguy; Bill Davis FR; vooch; Justin Raimondo; *balkans
Mohamad El Atriss was very active in aiding Kosovo Albanian and Bosnian refugees especially the Albanians that were taken to the US Fort Dix in Jersey.

You fill in the blanks....

101 posted on 07/31/2002 7:27:20 PM PDT by Destro
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To: joyful1
Do you think, on your own, that you can protect yourself from an attack like 9/11??

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.

102 posted on 07/31/2002 7:27:49 PM PDT by Fred Mertz
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To: vannrox
boo!
103 posted on 07/31/2002 7:33:10 PM PDT by Destro
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To: LikeLight
What people here do not realize is that there is NO DIRECT flight to Egypt from the US.
Brittish Airways to Heathrow, and Lufthansa to Frankfurt are the ONLY options out of Newark and JFK. (God, I love having a fiancee who knows airline info!)

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!

104 posted on 07/31/2002 8:26:28 PM PDT by Itzlzha
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To: CholeraJoe
I should know better. Thank you. I stand corrected.
105 posted on 07/31/2002 8:49:25 PM PDT by stylin19a
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To: ventana
Too busy checking old ladies and babies. Anyone who thinks that we will win the so called WOT is fooling themselves. We are lucky that for whatever reason there have been no more attacks.
106 posted on 07/31/2002 8:50:12 PM PDT by willyone
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To: joyful1
Homeland Security. Are you mentally challenged? Who's homeland? The one that will soon belong to the millions of illegals that both parties want to swamp us with? You have no homeland anymore. You are just a shopper in the huge Wal Mart that the US has become. We are no longer citizens just shoppers. Walking,talking ATMs who exist to serve their masters.
107 posted on 07/31/2002 8:57:28 PM PDT by willyone
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To: blam
You are very funny. These dickheads could not catch a cold.
108 posted on 07/31/2002 8:59:38 PM PDT by willyone
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To: Alberta's Child
There's no reason why the U.S. could not exert pressure on Egypt to send this bastard back

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.

109 posted on 07/31/2002 9:27:18 PM PDT by Jubal Harshaw
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To: ventana
How the hell was he able to get on a plane? Homeland security, yah. V's wife. 2 posted on 7/31/02 11:13 AM Pacific by ventana

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.

110 posted on 07/31/2002 9:41:23 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: joyful1
Your position of depending on biometric ID is like the battered wife who thinks a restraining order will protect her.

Lots of dead women in that group...
111 posted on 07/31/2002 9:57:18 PM PDT by null and void
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To: joyful1
I'm more afraid of liberal-socialists with the technology than I am of terrorists getting in for the lack of it.
112 posted on 07/31/2002 10:51:55 PM PDT by piasa
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To: Gritty
They ought to track down the leak and make the leaker serve the sentence. There is no less than a "spy" in the organization.

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!!!

113 posted on 08/01/2002 1:06:03 AM PDT by sleavelessinseattle
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To: joyful1
Any biometric should be something only used to confirm identity (like retina scan, not fingerprints). Any workable system would require a database computer to check against the person posting the "ID" (although the card/passport becomes irrelevant at that point) (e.g. Scan the eyeball "live" and compare it to the file).

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.

114 posted on 08/01/2002 1:28:12 AM PDT by weegee
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Comment #115 Removed by Moderator

Comment #116 Removed by Moderator

To: Destro
You proved my point. If he was working with the CIA to help the Moslems in Kosovo, we need to replace the CIA with a better organization, perhaps one that have more intelligence than a monkey!
117 posted on 08/01/2002 6:25:47 AM PDT by philosofy123
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To: schmidt
False reports last nite that the man was on the way back to the States.............this is just so unbelievable screwed up..............pitiful in the extreme.
118 posted on 08/01/2002 6:44:06 AM PDT by OldFriend
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To: Reactionary
And you'll notice that he got on a plane and left the country hours before they were set to raid his home. In other words, he was tipped off.


I was thinking that the Fibbies might have tipped themselves off. First they get him the high speed embossing copier then presumably other agents try out his services at his "store".

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.

119 posted on 08/01/2002 7:06:29 AM PDT by Tunehead54
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To: null and void; joyful1
Your position of depending on biometric ID is like the battered wife who thinks a restraining order will protect her.

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.

120 posted on 08/01/2002 11:37:26 AM PDT by steve-b
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