Kent man connected to al-Qaida, agent says 10/23/03Karen R. Long Plain Dealer Reporter York, Pa.- Using freshly declassified evidence, an Akron FBI agent testified yesterday that the bureau believes a Kent man is an al-Qaida operative as potentially lethal as the terrorists who flew the hijacked planes Sept. 11, 2001. Ashraf Al-Jailani, a Yemen- born geochemist arrested a year ago in Akron, sat mute as FBI Special Agent Roger Charnesky described him as an al-Qaida "first-stringer, highly educated, highly trained and highly motivated." Charnesky, his forehead glistening with perspiration, asserted that if Al-Jailani "is who the evidence suggests...
