Student's Arrest Arouses Terror Concerns *BREAKING*

The Indy Channel ^ | 2/26/03 | WRTV

[agenda_express]

Student's Arrest Arouses Terror Concerns

Flight Manuals Allegedly Found In Hit-And-Run Suspect's Car

POSTED: 8:09 a.m. EST February 26, 2003

UPDATED: 11:27 a.m. EST February 26, 2003

INDIANAPOLIS -- A seemingly routine traffic accident Tuesday has triggered investigations by the Marion County Sheriff's Department and the FBI.

Police said Ayman Al-Salmi, 21, ran a stop sign at Raymond Street and Executive Drive -- less than a mile from Indianapolis International Airport -- struck a vehicle, and fled the scene on the wrong side of the road.

A witness, Dean Fulbright, said he saw the accident, chased Al-Salmi, and returned him to the crash scene, RTV6's Jack Rinehart reported.

Fulbright characterized Al-Salmi as "suspicious."

"He was acting kind of nervous-like," Fulbright said. "He either didn't have insurance or he done something he wasn't supposed to be doing. But he was wanting to leave the way he was."

Fulbright kept Al-Salmi at the crash scene until police arrived.

According to the police report, Al-Salmi -- a foreign national -- kept changing his story as to why he fled the scene, including: "He was confused, he was lost, he was trying to find a business and was frustrated and the he didn't know why he left."

Police said Al-Salmi kept insisting that a police report not be taken, and offered to take the hit driver to a bank to withdraw $5,000.

According to the police report, Al-Salmi also tried to offer the tow truck driver money to tow the car to his cousin's home, and to not tell the officer that it wouldn't be heading to the wrecker lot.

The deputy also said Al-Salmi acted "agitated," and as he walked toward the car "he followed extremely close, bumping his stomach into my right gun side. I turned toward him, and he stood staring at me. I then asked him not to bump me, and just stood there and stared."

The deputy said Al-Salmi tried to block his view of the car's damage.

According to the police report, a search of the car uncovered numerous loose papers with instructions on how to fly a plane and a handwritten note on how to get to the Federal Building in downtown Indianapolis. The paper also reportedly stated "not to wear metal; there was a metal detector; not to take a number; to be quiet; stand by the window."

"Believe me, When we saw all these circumstances, we thought immediately that we have to look at this a little closer -- and we did," MCSD Deputy Chief Herman Humbles said.

The deputy said Al-Salmi kept trying to distract him from the vehicle by continuing to ask questions, and insisting that he be allowed to pay off the driver.

Al-Salmi was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of failing to stop for a property damage accident. He entered a plea of not guilty, Rhinehart reported.

Investigators later served a search warrant on Al-Salmi's Speedway apartment. They learned he's an aviation engineering student taking classes at Vincennes University, Rinehart reported. They also said he has a roommate who needed to go to the Federal Building to address immigration issues.

"The chances of it all coming together like that in one time was just coincidence," Humbles said.

The Marion County Prosecutor's Office referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

FBI officials confirmed that they were investigating Al-Salmi and his roommate's backgrounds, family ties and American contacts.

Sheriff's investigators said the two men were cooperating fully with the investigation.

Copyright 2003 by TheIndyChannel.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[wasp69]

I wonder if he’s Iranian.

Oooohhhhh! Nice........

[mabelkitty]

"Police said Al-Salmi kept insisting that a police report not be taken, and offered to take the hit driver to a bank to withdraw $5,000."

Whoa! Let's look into his cash flow, shall we?

[ConservativeMan55]

Doesn't everybody remember that Mohammad Atta was in a traffic accident. He was given a ticket as well, and he wodded it up and threw it on the floor of the car. It was later found in the car.</Font Size>

[mabelkitty]

I don't know. I may be missing something. There was the oil refinery fire in New York on Friday, Minnestota yesterday, and somene said there was one on Monday. I thought it was Chicago. Could there have been two oil refinery fires on Monday?

[mabelkitty]

I don't know. I may be missing something. There was the oil refinery fire in New York on Friday, Minnestota yesterday, and somene said there was one on Monday. I thought it was Chicago. Could there have been two oil refinery fires on Monday?

[browardchad]

It looks like the Al-Salmi's of the world were born to fly. This Al Salmi, linked indirectly to 9/11 hijacker Hani Hanjour, was convicted of lying to the FBI in February, 2002,  served 34 days plus time served, and the Justice Department has requested he be deported. I can't find any confirmation that he was actually deported.

 

Detroit News:
Social events link Mideast immigrants
But do those ties signify terrorist network, FBI asks as they trace cells
by Dennis Wagner

They prayed together, partied together and practiced flying together in Arizona. They also socialized with Hani Hanjour, the hijacker who crashed a jetliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

But does that mean the group of Middle Eastern immigrants comprised a terrorist network? Or simply that Muslim men with similar backgrounds and aviation interests have an affinity?

The question hounds FBI agents as they seek al-Qaida cells and any possible ties among potential suspects here and abroad.

The latest disclosure comes from an FBI interrogation of Malek Seif, 36, a French citizen jailed in Phoenix who is facing 41 charges of fraud and using a false identity. In the FBI report, Seif offers no smoking gun about Osama bin Laden or the terrorist hijackings. During hours of questioning, Seif described his ties with Hanjour and others caught in the post-Sept. 11 probe as social.

Among the disclosures:

Seif met Hanjour at a 1999 Tempe, Ariz., dinner party for a mutual friend who had graduated from flight-training school. Also at that party was Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian who has been identified by British prosecutors as an instructor for the Sept. 11 suicide pilots.

Raissi, 36, has denied any role in terrorism. He was indicted in Phoenix on multiple counts of filing false documents. U.S. prosecutors are attempting to extradite him from England, where he is being held. Authorities have suggested in recent news reports that the evidence may not support claims that Raissi was a key conspirator.

Although Seif failed a test in instrument flight training, he provided several private lessons to associates, including Faisal Al Salmi, a 34-year-old Saudi national who is in custody on federal charges that he lied to FBI agents about his ties with Hanjour.

One session was held in the Arizona State University library, another at Falcon Field in Mesa. And two months before the World Trade Center was attacked, Seif taught Al Salmi and another man in Sawyer Aviation's simulated jetliner at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The three men also conducted a Muslim prayer session in the simulation room.

Seif told agents that Al Salmi asked him not to tell anyone he was training to be a pilot, a request he considered "weird." But the FBI report says that Seif also struggled when asked about his last contact with Hanjour. The report says Seif "avoided answering the question ... then began to cry during this portion of the interview, and advised that he had last seen Hanjour in the (Tempe) mosque."

Defense attorney Thomas Hoidal submitted the FBI account of Seif's late-October interview as an exhibit in U.S. District Court last week. Hoidal, who could not be reached for comment, argued in a court motion that Seif's statements should be suppressed because federal agents did not issue a Miranda warning against self-incrimination or advise him of his right to contact the French consulate.

Seif, who was born in Djibouti, denies any knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks.

 

[mabelkitty]

Deported? Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned firing squad.

By the way, where's John "no such thing as terrorism" H K?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Police said Ayman Al-Salmi, 21, ran a stop sign at Raymond Street and Executive Drive -- less than a mile from Indianapolis International Airport -- struck a vehicle, and fled the scene on the wrong side of the road.

His cousin, Ayman Ah-Sol, could not be reached for comment.

[Spruce]

I always assumed that if I made contact with a police officer I would be eating asphalt with a knee on the back of my head. What on earth was that officer doing?

[728b]

"They also said he has a roommate who needed to go to the Federal Building to address immigration issues."


"The paper also reportedly stated 'not to wear metal; there was a metal detector; not to take a number; to be quiet; stand by the window.'"

Brilliant! Immigration issues that will never be taken care of if he does not take a number, and no metal, or they will not let you immigrate.

Liberals will buy his story, no doubt.

[cake_crumb]

"...a handwritten note on how to get to the Federal Building in downtown Indianapolis. The paper also reportedly stated "not to wear metal; there was a metal detector; not to take a number; to be quiet; stand by the window."

How exactly does one manage to address immigration issues whilst being paranoid about metal detectors, refusing to take a number so one can be served, not speaking and hovering by a window? LOL!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Oh, come on... This is getting rediculous... If anyone bothered to try a google search, they'd find that Middle-eastern men are always getting in car wrecks near major airports, flee the scene, act suspicious, and have incriminating documents on them... it happens all the time. It's only because of the terror alerts that we hear about it now...

God, I swear that some people on FR have a vested interest in claiming EVERYTHING is 'terrorism' these days...

(I kill me...)

[agenda_express]

I'd laugh, but I know all too well that this is serious. I do know that there's an Islamic (terrorist) cell in Plainfield (about 5 miles from Indpls. International), so this doesn't surprise me, at all.

See:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/679270/posts

(there was a map showing all terrorist cells, but it's not here, anymore).

[harpseal]

I would suggest we have a candidate for intense questioning.

[cake_crumb]

"This officer is lucky to be alive."

I couldn't believe that when I read it either. I'm hoping it was the REPORTER who made the officer out to be that utterly incompetent. IMO, he's probably not the only one of the group at the accident scene lucky to be alive.

[zeaal]

Just seems that after 9/11 there would be a different attitude about flight school students.

[jigsaw]

His cousin, Ayman Ah-Sol, could not be reached for comment.

ROTFLMAO!   Shame on you!   Not.

[JoJo Gunn]

Is it just me? I don't see any mention of this story elsewhere in the press....

[agenda_express]

Nope. I haven't seen it anywhere else, either.

[DietCoke]

!!!!!!!!!!!