Excerpt:
In a rare glimpse at the government's domestic war on terror, a Jordanian student from Arlington admitted in court Friday that he had considered becoming a suicide bomber if the United States invaded Iraq.
Tahir Ibrihim Aletwei, a 30-year-old software engineering graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington, spoke freely about his inclinations toward terrorism and divulged details of his interviews with federal agents during his deportation hearing.
< snip >
"I abhor the thought processes that you acknowledge," Judge Rogers said. "The issue we have in this nation since 9-11 is we want to act on the side of caution, and it will be necessary to send you home. That's my final ruling."
At one point, Mr. Aletwei proposed that he be allowed to stay in exchange for cooperating further with authorities, who had interviewed him extensively. The judge deferred to INS prosecutor Heidi Graham, the government's representative in the proceeding.
She declined the offer: "Had we known about what he calls his misguided thinking, we would never have issued him a visa."
< snip >
"He's a peculiar case, I have to admit. I haven't heard of one like that, and I've been in the business for 35 years," Mr. Revell said.
Mr. Aletwei said that when agents asked him whether he was involved in terrorism, he said yes.
He said he proceeded to explain to agents that his desire to become a martyr was cultivated by his home country's hatred of the neighboring state of Israel and its most powerful ally, America.
Mr. Aletwei said in court Friday that he came to the United States as part of a Jordanian-sponsored student exchange program in August 2001. He said he came to earn an advanced degree in computer software engineering but secretly hoped for an opportunity to carry out a suicide bombing using explosives strapped to his body.
He said that though he had no formal training to carry out a suicide attack, he was mentally prepared.
"In my mind, I was doing a noble thing," Mr. Aletwei told Judge Rogers.
UT Arlington. My alma mater. The cradle of Middle-Eastern students...
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!