New York Daily News
January 12, 2003, Sunday
MYSTERY MAN IN 9/11 TERROR CASE Who is Ali Al-Marri? FBI links him to hijackers
BY RICHARD T. PIENCIAK
In the 16 months since the Sept. 11 attacks, thousands of
Middle Eastern men have been questioned and detained by the FBI.
Many Americans have wondered what became of these people. How many were actually
terrorists? How many were actually rabid followers of Osama Bin Laden's jihad
against America?
One of them, Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri - a 37-year-old from Qatar who returned
to the United States on Sept. 10, 2001, less than 24 hours before the World
Trade Center attacks - has become the target of a massive terrorism
investigation.
FBI agents first questioned Al-Marri at his West Peoria, Ill., home Oct. 2,
2001. They asked him about a steamer chest he had shipped to the United States
from his homeland and about his enrollment in a master's degree program at
Bradley University in Peoria.
The chest had only clothes and spices in it, and there was nothing particularly
troubling about his college enrollment.
But over the next year, agents weaved a circumstantial web of evidence around
Al-Marri. According to court papers reviewed by the Daily News, his laptop
computer contained:
* An Arabic prayer asking God to protect Osama Bin Laden.
* Audio files of lectures by Bin Laden and his associates advocating martyrdom
and support for the Taliban.
* Other lectures urging opposition to Jewish and Christian control of Palestine,
Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, while advising how to train in Bin Laden's Afghanistan
camps.
* A note in Arabic proclaiming: "Neither the U.S. nor anyone living in it
will dream of security/safety before we live it in Palestine and before the
infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed."
* Photos of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Arab prisoners held in
Kabul.
* Extensive evidence of credit card fraud.
* Links to Web sites on hazardous chemicals and how to buy them, weapons and
satellite equipment.
On Dec. 23, Al-Marri was charged with making false statements to the FBI by
denying that he had called a telephone number in the United Arab Emirates that
has been linked to Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and
Mustafa Ahmed Al-Hawsawi, a fugitive suspected of financing the hijackers.
Al-Marri also is charged with lying to federal agents when he said he had not
been in the United States from 1991 to 2001, when in fact he was here in the
summer of 2000.
During that time, the government contends, Al-Marri created a phony company -
AAA Carpets - out of room 209 in the Time Out Motel in Macomb, Ill., under the
name Abdullakareem A. Almuslam.
By using the false name and the stolen Social Security number of a woman,
authorities charge, Al-Marri opened accounts at three banks in Macomb for his
fictitious business. He also is accused of using stolen credit card numbers
found on his laptop to process fraudulent transactions through the AAA business.
In court papers, federal prosecutors Michael McGovern and Jonathan Kolodner say
it also has been established that while Abdullakareem Almuslam was scheming in
Illinois with his AAA Carpet firm, an Ali Al-Marri took an American Airlines
flight from Peoria to Chicago's O'Hare and then on to LaGuardia Airport on Aug.
18, 2000. Al-Marri flew from New York to Chicago the next day and did not
connect with a reserved flight to Peoria, the records show.
The FBI also says it now knows how Al-Marri came to the United States and left
in 2000. Lufthansa Airlines records show that an Ali S. Al-Marri traveled from
Dahman, Saudi Arabia, to Frankfurt and on to O'Hare on May 25-26, 2000, and flew
from Frankfurt to Dahman on Aug. 21, 2000. It is not known how Al-Marri got from
the United States to Germany.
Al-Marri, who arrived here on a student visa to study for a graduate degree in
computer information systems at Bradley, would represent a new terrorist
profile. Unlike the 19 loners who attacked Sept. 11, Al-Marri arrived in the
U.S. 16 months ago with a wife from Saudi Arabia and five children, ranging in
age from 9 months to 9 years.
WHO IS AL-MARRI?
He carries a passport from Qatar, an American ally in the Middle East that will
serve as an operations center to run any war against Iraq.
He first came to the United States in 1983, enrolled at Bradley in the summer of
1987 and received a bachelor of science degree Dec. 21, 1991, majoring in
management and administration, according to a spokeswoman at the college.
He is believed to have two elderly parents in Qatar. It is unclear how he
afforded the journey to America and his education.
Shortly after graduation, Al-Marri returned to his homeland.
STEAMER CHEST & CELL PHONE
Like so many other Middle Eastern men living in the United States at the time,
Al-Marri became a so-called person of interest to the FBI within a week of the
Sept. 11 attacks.
The FBI office in Peoria had received a lead from its Indianapolis office
regarding a steamer chest that Al-Marri had shipped to the United States. The
Peoria office also had gotten a call from a salesman at US Cellular who
expressed concerns regarding Al-Marri's cell phone account.
FBI agents Nicholas Zambeck and Robert Brown began a preliminary investigation
and discovered that the Social Security number used by Al-Marri also was being
used by two others, someone in California and someone in Illinois. They also
found a discrepancy in the date of birth on his enrollment form at Bradley. Al-Marri
had first said he was born Feb. 3, 1965, and on a later form listed his date of
birth as Sept. 24, 1965.
About 4 p.m. on Oct. 2, 2001, the agents visited Al-Marri at his two-bedroom
apartment in West Peoria.
When the agents knocked on the back door, a small boy peeked through the window,
then answered the door. Moments later, Al-Marri appeared dressed in a
traditional kaftan.
Once inside, the agents noticed the steamer chest. Al-Marri confirmed that he
had shipped it from overseas. The agents looked inside and found the clothing
and spices.
When asked, Al-Marri said he was unaware of any problems with his Social
Security number. He also said that in Qatar, when he was born, official records
listed only a year of birth, not a month and specific day. After Al-Marri
produced his Qatar passport for review, Zambeck gave the man his business card
and the agents departed.
THE FBI RETURNS
The FBI continued to look into the background of Ali Al-Marri, and on Dec. 11,
2001, agents paid him another visit.
The agents said they still had questions about his date of birth and enrollment
at Bradley. Al-Marri's wife was not wearing her veil and, according to custom,
could not be seen uncovered by male strangers. The agents waited while Al-Marri
took his wife into the master bedroom.
Zambeck explained that it would be best if Al-Marri came to the FBI office for
the reinterview. The agent suggested that Al-Marri bring along his college and
immigration documents.
And while they were at it, Zambeck wondered, could he and Brown take a look
around the apartment?
Al-Marri agreed to the requests, according to testimony the agents gave at a
suppression hearing in September.
In a bedroom, the agents found about a dozen VHS tapes. Al-Marri told them they
were for the children. Brown asked whether he could take two of the cassettes
back to the office, and Al-Marri agreed.
Before the agents could look in the master bedroom, Al-Marri had to move his
wife again, this time into the bathroom.
Once inside the master bedroom, the agents noticed a large monitor hooked up to
a laptop computer. Zambeck asked whether they could bring the computer to the
office to look at it, and Al-Marri agreed to that request as well. Al-Marri
slipped the laptop in a carrying case.
The three men next went outside for a search of Al-Marri's green minivan.
Inside, the agents found a hand-held global positioning system and his Qatar
passport.
Before they could leave for the FBI office, Al-Marri told the agents, he needed
to go back inside and change into Western garb. He said he also needed to pray.
Al-Marri said he planned to break the Ramadan fast that evening at dinner with
his family. He wanted to make sure he would be back in time.
"It shouldn't take long at all," Zambeck replied, according to court
documents.
Once inside the FBI office, Al-Marri was asked about his travels within the
United States, phone calls he had made overseas and his travels abroad. He told
the agents he had not been in the United States during the period between his
1991 departure after graduating college and his return Sept. 10, 2001.
According to a joint statement issued by the FBI and federal prosecutors in
Manhattan and Springfield, Ill., during that interview Al-Marri specifically
"falsely denied knowing Al-Hawsawi and denied ever calling the United Arab
Emirates telephone number."Before ending the conversation that evening,
Zambeck made clear that he was not satisfied with Al-Marri's answers. Zambeck
wasn't saying, but by that point the agency had obtained Al-Marri's cell phone
records and the Lufthansa airplane manifests from 2000.
Zambeck warned Al-Marri that lying to a federal agent could lead to a lengthy
prison term and keep him from his family for a very long time.
With the interview finally over, Al-Marri and Brown waited for Zambeck in a
public hallway on the seventh floor.
"Do I get my computer back tonight?" Al-Marri asked.
"No, not tonight," replied Brown.
Zambeck and Brown drove Al-Marri home after 10 p.m., presumably well past the
dinner hour for his children.
Before saying good night, the agents asked him to return the next day for a
polygraph test. Al-Marri agreed.
The FBI posted a surveillance team overnight outside the residence, in clear
view.
CONFLICTING EVIDENCE
When Zambeck returned in the morning, Al-Marri mentioned a desire to consult a
lawyer and with someone at his country's embassy. When they got back to the
Peoria FBI office and Al-Marri met with the polygraph expert, he refused to take
the exam.
As the agents waited for instructions from terrorism task force prosecutors in
New York, Al-Marri was kept waiting in an office through the early afternoon.
Shortly after 3 p.m., Zambeck and Brown told Al-Marri that one of their
colleagues had found two folded pieces of paper in his laptop carrying case.
The agents said that about three dozen credit card numbers were written on both
sheets, along with the owners' names, expiration dates of the cards and the
brand names - Visa or MasterCard.
Al-Marri looked at the sheets and told the agents the handwriting was not his
and that he knew nothing about the papers, according to court documents.
"Al-Marri then asked if he could go home," wrote Jonathan Etra, an
assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan. "Al-Marri also stated that as soon as
he left the interview, he immediately was going to leave the United States with
his family."
Back in Manhattan, Etra gave his approval to arrest the Qatari man as a material
witness in the government's Sept. 11 investigation.
Al-Marri would be held in the Peoria County Jail for several weeks, then flown
to New York and placed in the Special Housing Unit at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center, a five-minute walk from where the World Trade Center towers
once stood.
A SEARCH WARRANT
On Dec. 14, 2001, two days after Al-Marri's arrest, Zambeck and other FBI agents
executed a search warrant at the suspect's apartment. They found more
potentially incriminating evidence.
Inside an almanac, they found business cards to mark pages depicting major U.S.
dams, reservoirs, waterways and railroads.
The agents also seized a copy of an Arabic prayer that calls for the defeat of
the "villainous" Christians and Jews and seeks victory for Muslims in
Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya.
BAD BYTES
FBI computer expert Connie Lawler analyzed everything on Al-Marri's 80-gigabyte
hard drive. In addition to the anti-American, pro-Taliban rhetoric, she found
files containing more than 1,750 credit card numbers. None of the numbers
belonged to Al-Marri.
She also collected the bookmarked Web sites and found sites related to computer
hacking, fake driver's licenses and credit card fraud, according to a federal
complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Lawler also discovered a series of programs that hackers can use to gather
information and intelligence about someone else's computer. In addition, she
found proxy software that can be used to hide a user's origin and identity when
connected to the Internet.
After more than a month of such data analysis, federal prosecutors in New York
were ready to make their next move against Al-Marri. On Jan. 28, he was arrested
and named in a one-count complaint charging him with unauthorized possession of
"more than 15" access devices - the credit-card numbers - with the
intent to defraud. He was indicted on the charge Feb. 6.
Nine days later, the federal government filed a sealed document in Al-Marri's
case. A second one would be filed May 30. Those documents remain sealed.
NEW CHARGES
As the scheduled trial date for the credit card fraud case approached - it had
been set to begin tomorrow - prosecutors had a decision to make. They had to
turn over their evidence to the defense within 14 days of the start of trial.
Instead, Al-Marri was arrested a third time - Dec. 23 - on charges relating to
the attempted calls to the 9/11-related number in the United Arab Emirates and
the phony AAA carpet company he ran in Illinois in 2000.
The latest charges could bring Al-Marri closer to the Sept. 11 conspiracy, but
his attorney, Richard Jasper, does not agree.
"The government, in its understandable concern to investigate this crime
that was committed on 9/11, has made some mistakes - and they've made big
mistakes," Jasper said during a court proceeding last year. "I think
they are going to make a mistake here with Mr. Al-Marri."
As a result of the new complaint, the trial has been postponed. A conference has
been scheduled for 4 p.m. tomorrow to decide what happens next.
Meanwhile, Al-Marri's wife and children are living in Washington, their bills
being paid by the government of Saudi Arabia.
Graphic: 01-971-4-XXX-XXXX