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DOSSIER OF (AMERICAN) SACRAMENTO STATE UNIV. STUDENT REPORTED KILLED IN YEMENI C.I.A. DRONE ATTACK
State Hornet Student Newspaper ^ | 27 November 2001 (Originally) | State Hornet Student Newspaper

Posted on 11/07/2002 10:54:40 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo

Original Article: Accused Terrorist on Trial in Jordan Attended Classes at Sac State; Initiation to Terrorism May Have Started in Sacramento, According to Published Reports.

Layla Bohm State Hornet (Student Newspaper) November 27, 2001

Former Sacramento State student Raed Hijazi at his trial in Jordan Nov. 26. Hijazi pleaded innocent to nine charges stemming from a plot to execute terrorist attacks on America and Israel during Millenium celebrations in December 1999. Courtesy Photo/A

He was a typical California student. Born in San Jose Dec. 3, 1968, Raed Hijazi eventually attended Sacramento City College, took a Sacramento State extension course in the spring of 1988, then began attending Sac State as a full-time business major in the spring of 1989. Hijazi enrolled in five classes that first semester, including three upper division business classes, and earned a 2.43 grade point average, according to his transcript. He returned in the fall, took 15 units, withdrew from one class and finished the semester with a 1.65 grade point average. That fall marked the end of the 21-year-old’s studies at Sac State and, like so many other students, he faded into oblivion without appearing in the college yearbook or in the alumni directory.

But Hijazi’s life has changed drastically in the past 12 years. On Monday, he pleaded innocent in a Jordanian court to nine charges, including "possession of arms and explosives and conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks against American and Israeli targets” during millennium celebrations nearly two years ago, according to an Associated Press report from Jordan.

Local NBC affiliate KCRA3, in addition to several other news sources including CNN and The New York Times, recently reported that Hijazi has possible connections to Osama bin Laden, the man suspected of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York. In addition, U.S. Customs officials found evidence of financial transactions between Hijazi and Nabil al-Marabh, a man being held in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hijazi was first tried in absentia last year, because he could not be found at the time of his trial, according to the Jordan Times. In September 2000, he was sentenced to death for the millennium bomb plots. According to a CNN report, Hijazi “was apprehended in Damascus on Oct. 1 (2000) and was later extradited to Jordan.” Under Jordanian law, he may be retried, and that trial began in September.

Although Hijazi pleaded innocent Monday, an Oct. 24 article in the Christian Science Monitor cited a Jordanian government prosecutor who confirmed that Hijazi had admitted to plotting to bomb a hotel containing hundreds of American and Israeli tourists. He supposedly bragged that “there wouldn’t be enough body bags in all of Jordan to carry away the dead.”

Hijazi has since claimed that he was tortured in prison and forced to confess, according to a Sept. 5 Jordan Times article.

What happened to Hijazi in the 10 years between the time he left Sac State and when the millennium plot was uncovered is still not clear. However, one possibility is that Hijazi became involved in terrorist activities while at Sac State.

“[Hijazi] told prosecutors that he had been converted to the Islamic cause while studying business at California State University in Sacramento,” read a New York Times article by Judith Miller. Why Hijazi might have gotten involved with potential terrorists is a mystery, although Miller wrote that he became involved with a Sacramento group called the Islamic Assistance Organization after attending a mosque.

“It was there, he told Jordanian investigators, that he met a Muslim from the Fiji islands who schooled him in radical Islamic philosophy and persuaded him to go to Afghanistan,” Miller wrote in the Jan. 15 article.

Whether that report is accurate is not known, but Mohamed Hamada, president of the Sac State Muslim Student Association, thought it was false. He had no knowledge of any such organization, and neither did his faculty adviser.

“Mosques don’t send people to other countries,” Hamada said, adding that neither he nor his faculty adviser had ever heard of the radical group.

Imam Hamdani of the Islamic Center of Sacramento has been in Sacramento since 1975 and also said he had no recollection of a group like the one described by Miller. Calls to several other mosques in the Sacramento area were not returned.

Officials and faculty members at Sac State didn’t recognize Hijazi’s name, although one professor did recognize his face when shown a copy of Hijazi’s 1997 Boston cab driver’s license.

“His face is familiar, but I cannot remember anything about him,” said Ayad Alqazzaz, who taught a sociology class taken by Hijazi in the 1989 winter inter-session. “You remember the ones who talk in class and ask questions,” he said.

This article was updated Nov. 28, 2001.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1968; 196812; 19681203; 1999; 199912; 20001001; 20011126; abuali; ahmedhijazi; alharithi; almarabh; alqaeda; bostoncell; buffalocell; cia; csu; droneattack; fiji; fijiislands; higazi; hijazi; iao; judithmiller; lackawannacell; marabh; milleniumplot; miller; nabilalmarabh; raedhijazi; riadhijazi; sacramento; sacramentocell; sacstateuniversity; sanjose; usscole; yemen
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The newspapers around the world, particularly in the Arab world, are breaking with the story of the reported American citizen, Ahmad (Ahmed) Hijazi (with a number of aliases) who reportedly was in the car with five others, which was obliterated by CIA drone in Yemen east of Saana, in the desert. Other web reports show Hijazi was a fugitive and was also an al-Qaeda trained terrorist, and to top this off, WAS AN AMERICAN-CITIZEN & COLLEGE STUDENT IN LIBERAL CALIFORNIA.

Anyone care to theorize that there are even MORE California-nurtured "Johnny Jihads" out there?

1 posted on 11/07/2002 10:54:40 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
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To: AmericanInTokyo

TEXT: "CAB DRIVER
RAED HIJAZI

Age: 33
Last U.S. address: Boston

His father once called him "a typical American." A former Boston cabdriver, Hijazi now sits in a Jordanian jail, sentenced to death by hanging for his role in plotting terrorist attacks over the millennium holiday.

In a plot tied to Osama bin Laden, the heavyset Hijazi allegedly hoped to murder hundreds of Americans, Israelis, and others by bombing Christian holy sites, border crossings, and the Radisson Hotel in Jordan.

Hijazi was born in San Jose, Calif., the son of a San Francisco-educated Palestinian engineer. Although he grew up mostly in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, his family had a love affair with America and vacationed at Disneyland and in Florida. Hijazi fell in with Islamic radicals while studying business at California State University- Sacramento around 1989. He later left for Afghanistan and allegedly studied bomb making at an al Qaeda camp."
2 posted on 11/07/2002 10:57:05 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
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To: AmericanInTokyo
Whoa.....another cockroach.
3 posted on 11/07/2002 10:57:46 AM PST by Dog
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To: AmericanInTokyo

Middle Photo ID

4 posted on 11/07/2002 10:58:34 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
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To: AmericanInTokyo
Hijazi was first tried in absentia last year, because he could not be found at the time of his trial, according to the Jordan Times. In September 2000, he was sentenced to death for the millennium bomb plots.

Sentence carried out...NEXT

5 posted on 11/07/2002 10:59:06 AM PST by SamAdams76
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To: AmericanInTokyo

6 posted on 11/07/2002 10:59:38 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
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To: AmericanInTokyo
I don't doubt it. According to Sheikh Kabbani (who has been fighting to stop terrorism from flowing from the mosque), around 80% of US mosques are controlled by the Saudi-based Wahhabi sect, as well as CAIR and AMC. They act as the "good cop" to al-Qaeda's "bad cop."

I would hypothesize that the combination of leftist anti-Americanism, Wahhabi extremism, and hatred of the bohemianism that populates left-wing universities added yet another foot soldier to Osama bin Laden's shadow army.
7 posted on 11/07/2002 11:00:16 AM PST by Angelus Errare
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To: SamAdams76
Yes, but not by Jordanian courts and prison system!
8 posted on 11/07/2002 11:00:28 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: AmericanInTokyo
He was a typical California student.

BUMP

10 posted on 11/07/2002 11:00:58 AM PST by concerned about politics
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To: AmericanInTokyo
Good riddance to him and anybody that looks like him.
11 posted on 11/07/2002 11:02:12 AM PST by TexasRepublic
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To: AmericanInTokyo
Hijazi's 1997 Boston cab driver's License

And he drove a cab too!!?

Shocked I say....Shocked!

12 posted on 11/07/2002 11:02:14 AM PST by Jimmyclyde
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To: AmericanInTokyo
Micheal Savage is going to have a field day with this story.
13 posted on 11/07/2002 11:02:25 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: AmericanInTokyo
He was a typical California student.

I don't think so...

14 posted on 11/07/2002 11:02:40 AM PST by sockmonkey
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To: SamAdams76
BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...Another one bites the dust!
15 posted on 11/07/2002 11:03:34 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: AmericanInTokyo
I am offended by the use of the term "American" in describing this creep. An American wouldn't have been in that car with Al Queda.
16 posted on 11/07/2002 11:03:52 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants
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To: AmericanInTokyo
If a total loser like this can get so close to al Qaeda's top men, the CIA ought to be able to thoroughly infiltrate the group.
17 posted on 11/07/2002 11:04:05 AM PST by LibWhacker
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To: KC_Conspirator
Why do you think I researched the Arab papers just now and posted!!?? ;-)

Say, I wonder what the liberals will "FEEEEEEEEL" about this, as Michael Savage would say on the radio (hopefully TONIGHT!)??

18 posted on 11/07/2002 11:04:30 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
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To: AmericanInTokyo
This article seems to be about a different terrorist who is in a Jordanian prison. Name mix up?
19 posted on 11/07/2002 11:06:07 AM PST by dennisw
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To: AmericanInTokyo
I'm familiar with this creep and am pretty sure he's in a Jordanian prison.
20 posted on 11/07/2002 11:07:27 AM PST by dennisw
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