Peoria Journal Star

January 29, 2002

A West Peoria man taken into custody last month for questioning by federal authorities apparently was a computer hacker who committed widespread credit card fraud, court records indicate.

Ali S. Al-Marri, 36, was detained in mid-December in the midst of the federal crackdown on terrorism. The U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S. Marshal's Office and the FBI all have refused to discuss the case, fueling speculation Al-Marri, a citizen of the Middle Eastern county of Qatar, might have ties to a terrorist network.

However, a four-page complaint, filed Monday in the Southern District of New York, says nothing about any alleged involvement in terrorism or connections with any plots against the United States.

The compliant details the items found on Al-Marri's computer, items that one FBI agent said could "be used to remotely gather information and intelligence on computer systems by hackers so they can intrude or impair these computer systems, even when measures have been taken by the owners to protect the systems."

Further information on the charge, when Al-Marri will next appear in court and if the case will be prosecuted in New York or in Peoria was unavailable Tuesday night.

Among the things found on his computer:

- Four files that contained more than 1,000 apparent credit card numbers. At the beginning of one of the files was the statement, "Here is a list of Visa numbers for my fellow hackers ..."

- A report generated by the computer program "CreditMaster 4.0" that had a list of 38 credit card numbers.

- Computer folders with links to Internet sites dealing with computer hacking, fake driver's licenses and other fake identification cards.

- Programs used to hide the identity of a user's origin or his identity on the Internet.

During an interview with FBI agents in October, Al-Marri said he returned to Peoria on Sept. 10 after being gone for 10 years to study for a master's degree in computer information systems at Bradley University, according to the compliant. He lived here from 1983 to 1991 and had received an undergraduate degree from Bradley.

This time, he returned on a student visa with his wife and five children, the complaint stated.

Two months later, the agents returned to his West Peoria apartment and searched it, including his laptop. Inside the computer's carrying case, agents found a two-page handwritten document that listed 36 apparent credit card numbers along with the names of the account holders and whether the card was a MasterCard or a Visa.

None of the cards were issued to Al-Marri, the compliant stated.

Al-Marri was arrested shortly afterward by federal authorities who wouldn't even admit he was in their custody. The federal government has detained hundreds of men, most of them immigrants from Islamic countries, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.