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al-Qaeda Still An Internal Threat

Source: MSNBC/Reuters/CBS

WASHINGTON (June 27) - The arrest of a Palestinian man from Florida has convinced U.S. officials that a network of al-Qaida operatives exists in the United States, as reported by CBS on Thursday.

Adham Hassoun, arrested earlier this month, was an ''important link'' to accused al-Qaida member American Jose Padilla, according to Justice Department Officials. And Hassoun is tied to other groups based in the United States who may be awaiting orders for future attacks.

''A number of people are under surveillance. None is believed to have had a supporting role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Some may have been slated to assist Zacarias Moussaoui,'' CBS said.

Moussaoui has been charged in connection with the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks. He has been referred to as the 'suspected 20th hijacker'.

CBS said senior officials, whom it did not name, now believe Moussaoui was, in fact, not scheduled to be part of the Sept. 11 attacks but was to have carried out a separate, unknown mission.

''U.S. officials have collected intelligence that appears to confirm what they have feared most since Sept. 11, that al-Qaida is still active in the United States,'' CBS said.

CBS reported that Padilla was apparently expecting help from such a network when he returned to the United States last month on an alleged target-scouting mission.

U.S. officials said Padilla was enroute to meet Hassoun when the latter man was arrested, the network said. Hassoun was arrested after his communication with Padilla was monitored.

Hassoun, a 13-year U.S. resident, is now being held on an immigration charge at an Immigration and Naturalization Service facility.

Reuters 20:19 06-27-02

U.S. Says It Thwarted Dirty Bomb Attack by Al Qaeda

10 June 2002

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General John Ashcroft said U.S. authorities had prevented an attack on the United States with a radioactive dirty bomb by capturing an Al Qaeda operative.

"We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or dirty bomb, in the United States," Ashcroft said in a televised announcement from Moscow that was monitored in Washington.

06/10/02 10:37

FBI Gets Broad Domestic Spy Powers

By PETE YOST

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration gave the beleaguered FBI broad new powers to monitor Americans on Thursday, saying the agency needed a new weapon in the battle against terrorism and promising not to return to the file-building abuses of the past.

In a move aimed at averting another Sept. 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft freed the FBI to monitor Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations, calling restrictions on domestic surveillance ``a competitive advantage for terrorists.''

Civil liberties groups criticized the move. But President Bush said, ``We intend to honor our Constitution and respect the freedoms that we hold so dear.''

``The FBI needed to change,'' said the president. ``It was an organization full of fine people who loved America but the organization didn't meet the times.''

Under revamped guidelines, agents can attend public meetings for the purpose of preventing terrorism. The old guidelines issued in the 1970s were aimed at solving crimes already committed.

The earlier restrictions were clamped on the FBI's domestic surveillance in response to controversies about the bureau's building of case files against prominent Americans, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The revised guidelines will push the decision-making for an array of investigative steps away from FBI headquarters in Washington and down to individual offices around the country. The special agents in charge of each office will hold the keys to setting investigative steps in motion.

``These major changes will free field agents to pursue terrorists vigorously without waiting for headquarters to act,'' said Ashcroft. He said agents in the field ``are frustrated because many of our internal restrictions have hampered'' their efforts to move quickly on investigations.

Under present guidelines, Ashcroft said, agents ``cannot surf the Web, the way you and I can,'' and cannot simply walk into public events to observe people and activities.

The new guidelines give FBI agents more freedom to investigate terrorism even when they are not pursuing a particular case.

Mueller said the changes ``will be exceptionally helpful to us.''

``Our reforms of the FBI will and must strengthen our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks,'' the FBI director said.

A senior Justice Department official was asked what reason an FBI agent must give to a superior, under the new guidelines, before entering a mosque.

If it's a public meeting, then ``the agent is free to attend on the same terms'' as a member of the public, as long as the FBI agent's presence is in connection with detecting or preventing terrorism, said the official, who discussed this scenario only on grounds of anonymity.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the lifting of restrictions could renew abuses of the past. King's ``persecution by law enforcement is a necessary reminder of the potential abuse when a government with too long a leash seeks to silence voices of dissent,'' said ACLU legislative counsel Marvin Johnson.

Shaker Elsayed, secretary general of the Muslim American Society, said the new tools are an unnecessary intrusion.

``It only serves the purpose of heightening the scare in the society and the paranoia against Muslims,'' he said.

Ashcroft said the powers would be used only ``for the purpose of detecting and preventing terrorism.'' Nothing in the guidelines would permit the FBI to routinely build files on people or organizations, he said.

``The abuses that have been alleged about the FBI decades ago ... would not be allowed,'' he said, referring to the practice of keeping files and records on prominent figures.

The FBI has always had the authority to conduct surveillance by following people, but has required warrants to tap phones and intercept e-mail. Since the 1970s, the FBI has required special permission when traditional surveillance carried into arenas protected by free speech and freedom of worship. It is those rules that the FBI relaxed.

King was subjected to surreptitious electronic surveillance of his private life. Disclosures of it and other controverisal monitoring led to the rules that are now being loosened. The CIA and other intelligence agencies don't have the same restrictions, since their spying involves foreigners not on U.S. soil.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said, ``Any government effort to institutionalize the same powers that allowed the FBI to wrongfully spy on the activities of civil rights organizations and disclose information on the private affairs of Martin Luther King Jr. would constitute an embarrassing step backwards for civil liberties in this country.''

Another civil liberties group said the changes will go far beyond how the FBI conducts the war on terrorism.

``They are using the terrorism crisis as a cover for a wide range of changes, some of which have nothing to do with terrorism,'' said James X. Dempsey, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Dempsey predicted that one new tool, the power to mine commercial databases, will be used in drug and child pornography and stock fraud and gambling and ``every other type of investigation the FBI does.''

Added Margaret Ratner, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights: ``Apparently, Attorney General Ashcroft wants to get the FBI back in the business of spying on religious and political organizations. That alone would be unconstitutional but history suggests the FBI won't stop at passive information gathering.''

Nicholas Graham, a spokesman for America Online, said, ``If law enforcement asks for our cooperation, we absolutely do cooperate with them in a criminal investigation. We have always been careful to strike a careful, reasonable and appropriate balance between protecting our members' privacy and their safety while working with law enforcement.''

The new rules allow agents to conduct ``general topical research'' and ``pure surfing'' designed to find Web sites, chat rooms or Internet bulletin boards with information about terror, bomb-making instructions, child pornography or stolen credit cards.

05/30/02 22:17

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

FBI Warned of 9-1-1 Possibility

On Aug. 16, FBI Agent 'Predicted' 9-11

By Cathryn Conroy, CompuServe News Editor

In a chilling admission, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Wednesday that his agency ignored an agent's warning on Aug. 16 that Islamic militant Zacarias Moussaoui was the kind of person who might "fly something into the World Trade Center." According to the New York Post, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui in Minnesota on Aug. 16 "took the belief that this is the type of individual to take a plane and hijack it. In one of the notes, the agent in Minneapolis mentioned the possibility of Moussaoui being the type of person who could fly something into the World Trade Center."

Moussaoui was later described as the "20th hijacker." Because he was in prison on Sept. 11, he could not participate in the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Mueller's admission showed for the first time that an FBI agent had envisioned the horrifying scenario that actually occurred on Sept. 11. The Associated Press reports that Mueller also told the congressional hearing that the hijackers left no paper trail. "We have not yet uncovered a single piece of information, either here or in the treasure-trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere, that mentioned any aspect of the Sept. 11 plot,'" he explained. "As best as we can determine, the actual hijackers had no computers, no laptops, no storage media of any kind."

FBI Links Charity to al-Qaida

By MIKE ROBINSON

CHICAGO (AP) - An Islamic charity and its director were charged with perjury Tuesday and accused by the FBI of supporting terrorists who tried to obtain nuclear weapons for Osama bin Laden and plotted to assassinate the pope.

Federal agents said the Benevolence International Foundation had links to bin Laden going back decades and moved sizable amounts of cash for his al-Qaida terrorist network during the 1990s.

The FBI said, the foundation forwarded $685,000 to Islamic guerillas trained by bin Laden's group to fight Russians in Chechnya, as recently as 2000

The FBI also said that members of al-Qaida have held positions within the charity, and that a man who tried to obtain uranium for bin Laden even listed the charity's Illinois address as his home.

``This complaint alleges Benevolence International Foundation was supporting violence secretly,'' U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.

Enaam M. Arnaout, the head of the charity based in suburban Palos Hills, was arrested at his home Tuesday and described by authorities as a trusted acquaintance of bin Laden. The 39-year-old Syrian-born naturalized American was ordered held for a hearing May 7.

``I am confident that Mr. Arnaout is not engaged in terrorist activities, nor has he supported such activities knowingly or directly,'' said his attorney, Stephen Levy. He suggested his client would be ``more than helpful'' if federal officials grant Arnaout immunity from prosecution.

An attorney for the charity, Matthew Piers, did not return a call.

The foundation is one of two Chicago-area Islamic charities whose assets were frozen Dec. 14 on suspicion of supporting terrorism. Federal agents also raided their offices that day. The co-founder of Global Relief Foundation, the other organization, is being held on an immigration charge.

Both groups have sued the government, denying they have anything to do with terrorism and asking that their assets be released. Arnaout and Benevolence International were charged Tuesday with lying under oath in that case when they said the foundation doesn't fund terrorism or military activity.

Federal investigators have been watching Benevolence International for years. An FBI affidavit said a search of the group's trash in 1999 turned up a clipping from a Seattle newspaper focusing on the danger of a smallpox epidemic.

Brochures for Benevolence International describe it as a humanitarian organization ``dedicated to helping those afflicted by wars and natural disasters'' in Afghanistan and other countries. IRS reports show that it received $3.3 million in contributions for the year ending April 2000.

The FBI affidavit said the charity was founded in the 1980s by Saudi sheik Adil Abdul Galil Batargy, a bin Laden associate, and that control of the group was later given to Arnaout.

According to the affidavit, Benevolence International had links to people involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a plot to bomb U.S. airlines and a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his 1995 visit to the Philippines.

The affidavit does not accuse Arnaout or the charity of involvement in the alleged plots. But it says they lied about their ties to terrorists who were involved.

Several unidentified witnesses told authorities that al-Qaida members have held positions within the charity and that the group was used by bin Laden in the 1990s to transfer money, the affidavit said.

Specifically, the FBI said two men tried to obtain nuclear weapons or weapons-grade material for bin Laden in 1994 in the Sudan.

In one case, bin Laden associate Mamdouh Salim ``participated in efforts to obtain nuclear and chemical weapons for al-Qaida,'' the affidavit said. In the second case, Mohamed Bayazid was given approval by Salim to try to ``get uranium for al-Qaida to develop a nuclear weapon.''

Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said there is no evidence the men succeeded.

Salim is awaiting trial in New York on charges of conspiring to kill Americans. According to the FBI, the charity sponsored his visa for a 1998 visit to Bosnia and sponsored him for housing there.

Bayazid is not in custody and his whereabouts were not immediately known. The affidavit said he obtained an Illinois driver's license that listed the charity's Palos Hills office as his home address. Illinois officials said they could find no record of the license.

The FBI said bin Laden trusted Arnaout, citing a time in 1989 when Arnaout lived in Pakistan and allowed one of bin Laden's wives to live in his apartment for a week.

During a March raid on the charity's offices in Bosnia, authorities found guns, military manuals and a fake passport as well as photos of bin Laden and of Arnaout ``handling rifles, a shoulder-fired rocket and an anti-aircraft gun,'' the affidavit said.

In other terrorism-related developments Tuesday:

A Somali man arrested last fall in a government crackdown on money transfer businesses was convicted in Boston of operating without a state license. No terrorism charges were filed against Mohamed Hussein, though investigators say al-Qaida skimmed from the millions of dollars that annually flow overseas through money outlets like the one Hussein operated.

A federal judge in New York threw out a perjury indictment against a 21-year-old Jordanian college student who knew two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The judge declared that the government's practice of jailing material witnesses in the Sept. 11 grand jury investigation is unconstitutional.

The government said courts approved 934 warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, a decline from 1,003 in 2000. Under the new Patriot Act, the government does not have to seek as many warrants since they do not expire as quickly and can be used in some cases across jurisdictions.

04/30/02 22:27

From: The Wall Street Journal

January 9, 2002

Reid's Shoe Bomb Was Sophisticated, Like An Explosive Used By Palestinians

By Christopher Cooper, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

LONDON -- The bomb that terrorist suspect Richard Reid hid in his shoe, in

what the FBI calls a foiled attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound American

Airlines flight last month, suggests a knowledge of explosives that probably

goes far beyond his abilities, European experts say. They say the device is

reminiscent of one commonly used by Palestinian suicide bombers, but more

sophisticated.

Arriving on Dec. 22 unkempt and unshaven, without luggage and with a ticket

he bought with cash for his Paris-to-Miami flight, Mr. Reid would have made

for a very unsophisticated terrorist, relatives and acquaintances say --

certainly far less polished than the 19 hijackers who commandeered four U.S.

jets on Sept. 11 for their suicide missions.

But there was nothing unsophisticated about Mr. Reid's intended weapon: a

wedge of plastic explosive dyed black and concealed in the sole of his

high-top suede sport shoe. An official of the Federal Bureau of

Investigation has confirmed that a highly unstable component known as

triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, served as the trigger. Threaded through the

plastic explosive and topped with a long, black-powder fuse running up

through his shoelace, the TATP igniter would have allowed the British-born

Mr. Reid to set off his charge without wires and batteries -- parts likely

to be discovered by airport X-ray machines.

Mr. Reid was subdued by fellow passengers after a flight attendant saw him

using matches in an apparent attempt to ignite his shoe during the flight,

by her account. The flight was diverted to Boston, where Mr. Reid was

arrested and where he remains in custody.

TATP increases the likelihood of premature detonation, so Mr. Reid's bomb

wasn't the surest bet, yet Roger Davies, former head of Britain's IRA Bomb

Squad, considers its design elegant and says that whoever fashioned the

weapon knew what he was doing. "It's clever and very simple," Mr. Davies

says. "The best bombs, the most significant devices, are very simple in

nature."

Used alone, Mr. Davies says, TATP is favored only by the foolhardy. The

concoction, which he describes as the "explosive of last resort," is easily

mixed -- it is known as a bathtub explosive -- but less powerful than

plastic explosives and far more volatile. Commonly employed by Palestinian

extremist groups such as Hamas, TATP can be set off by random sparks and

sudden movements. "It's very sensitive," Mr. Davies says, "and it's the main

reason these Palestinian groups have lost so many bomb makers over the

years."

Far stabler is the plastic explosive known as PETN, which the FBI said also

was present in Mr. Reid's shoe, serving as the primary charge. Mr. Davies

says that "you can burn [PETN] on the stove and it won't go off." The

drawback for a would-be bomber is that in its pure form, PETN requires an

electrical charge to set it off.

Combining PETN and TATP in a single bomb is unusual, Mr. Davies says. A

French investigator agrees, saying an explosive mix of the sort with which

Mr. Reid boarded is "not classic at all." But the mixture makes sense, Mr.

Davies concludes, if the bomb maker is trying to avoid setting off metal

detectors.

Unlike TATP, PETN is difficult, though not impossible, to come by in Europe,

with the Balkans being the most likely source. "He was taught this

somewhere," the French investigator says. "He didn't come up with it on his

own."

The role of TATP in the thwarted attack harks back to other bomb incidents,

most notably one aboard a Philippine Airlines flight to Japan in December

1994. In that incident, the explosion didn't pierce the plane's fuselage, as

the FBI says Mr. Reid apparently intended to do, but killed one passenger

and injured six more as it ripped a hole in the floor. Also in 1994, a pair

of TATP-based car bombs were detonated in London, outside the Israeli

Embassy and a Jewish philanthropic institution. Two Palestinian students

later were convicted of conspiracy in the case.

Both Mr. Davies and the French investigator say the TATP in Mr. Reid's shoe

suggests a connection to Palestinian extremists, noting that Mr. Reid

visited Israel in July. They add that their assessment doesn't rule out Mr.

Reid's connection to al Qaeda, the terror network headed by Osama bin Laden,

since some Palestinian extremists are closely allied with the organization.

-- Gary Fields in Washington and John Carreyrou in Paris contributed to this article.

Kenya Arrests Embassy Bombing Suspect

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Authorities have arrested a man with suspected ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network who allegedly participated in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya, police said Monday.

Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, whose name appears on a list of 22 most wanted terrorists issued Oct. 10 by President Bush, was arrested Saturday in Mandera, 500 miles northeast of Nairobi on Kenya's border with Somalia, spokesman Dola Indidis said.

Swedan's name and those of four other suspects are on a Dec. 16, 1998 U.S. indictment that accuses bin Laden of masterminding both the Nairobi embassy bombing and a simultaneous attack on the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam in neighboring Tanzania. The State Department offered $5 million each for information leading to the arrests of the fugitives.

Indidis said Swedan was arrested ``over concerns for the security of the country'' but did not elaborate. Swedan has not been charged and it was not clear whether the suspect had been transferred to Nairobi.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair identified Swedan as one of two al-Qaida operatives who bought a truck used in the Aug. 7, 1998 Nairobi embassy bombing in which 219 people were killed, including 12 Americans.

Independent Daily Nation reported Monday that 18 people had been arrested in Mandera, including an unidentified Muslim cleric, apparently on a request from the FBI.

Police spokesman Indidis said Swedan was the only person arrested in Mandera. U.S. Embassy spokesman Tom Hart said Monday that the FBI was not involved in the arrest.

12/10/01 09:11

14 Masood Murder Conspirators Nabbed

French and Belgian police have arrested 14 people in an investigation connected with the killing of Afghan Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood.

A French police spokesman said 12 people were being questioned in Belgium and two in France about the trafficking of stolen passports, two of which were found on the bodies of Mr Masood's killers.

Mr Masood died after two suicide bombers posing as journalists tricked their way into his base in northern Afghanistan on 9 September.

France's Europe 1 radio said one of those held, a Tunisian, was an associate of Osama Bin Laden, America's prime suspect for the attacks on New York and Washington carried out two days after Mr Masood's murder.

Jos Colpin, a spokesman for the Belgian public prosecutor's office, said police detained the suspects after house raids in Paris, Brussels and the Belgian towns of Mons and Leuven and at a farm in northern France.

Documents investigated

He said a Belgian examining magistrate would decide by Tuesday whether to keep those detained in Belgium under arrest.

A French police spokesman said it was too soon to establish a link with Mr Masood's killing.

"We are working on their papers, their passports, but to jump from there to say it is all linked to the assassination would be premature," he said.

A radio report says the arrests are linked to Osama Bin Laden

Mr Colpin declined to confirm a report by Europe 1 that those arrested were Tunisians and Moroccans suspected of organising the attack on Mr Masood.

The station said the arrests were also co-ordinated with British police.

In September, the Belgian government said Mr Masood's killers had been travelling on stolen Belgian passports.

Other reports said the killers were Moroccans and the passports had been stolen from consulates in Strasbourg and The Hague.

Belgian TV station RTL-TVI said that at least one of the suicide bombers had travelled to Brussels where he was helped by all or some of the suspects arrested on Monday.

In October, the trial in London of an Egyptian man accused of plotting to murder Mr Masood was postponed to allow the prosecution more time to prepare its case.

Yasser al-Siri, who was director of the Islamic Observation Centre in London and is seeking asylum in Britain, is being held in custody.

Court officials have said it is unlikely the case will resume before January.

The charges faced by Yasser al-Siri include conspiracy to murder and soliciting support for a banned organization.

He has denied the charges.

November 12, 2001

WIESENTHAL CENTER AND GERMAN LABOR MINISTRY JOINT PROJECT LEADS TO CANCELLATION OF PENSIONS FOR 72 NAZI WAR CRIMINAL PENSIONS

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today learned from officials of the German Labor Ministry that the joint research project it is conducting with the Center had already led to the cancellation of 72 pensions of Nazi war criminals.

This information was released today by ministry officials in a meeting held in Bonn with Center officials.

The project is being carried out under a law passed in the Bundestag in January 1998 whereby those who "violated the norms of humanity" during World War II would lose their special disability pensions.

Ministry officials said that 11 additional pensions would be cancelled soon and that investigations had been started in 250 other cases, with hundreds more such checks to be launched in the near future.

Source: Wiesenthal Center News

Suspect in USS Cole Bombing Arrested

By MUNIR AHMAD

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan AP) - Pakistani authorities arrested and turned over to American custody a Yemeni microbiology student wanted in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole, Pakistani officials confirmed Sunday.

Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, 27, is suspected of being an active member of the al-Qaida network run by Osama bin Laden, the alleged organizer of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, according to government officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Mohammed was secretly turned over to U.S. authorities - bypassing normal extradition and deportation proceedings - as part of a broad investigation of Arab students suspected of having ties to al-Qaida, the Washington Post said Sunday in an account of the handover.

U.S. officials in Pakistan declined comment, as did a senior FBI official in Washington, the newspaper said.

Pakistani officials told the AP the handover had taken place Thursday at the airport in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Airport authorities, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plane arrived from Amman, Jordan.

Mohammad, who arrived in Pakistan in 1993, was a student in the microbiology department of Karachi University, classmates and university officials said. A classmate, who declined to be named, said he had abandoned his studies.

An official at the university, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Mohammad's school records were examined last week by the authorities.

A Pakistani presidential spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, denied any knowledge of the handover. However, he said that ``recently some U.S. security officials had visited Pakistan to share information about some Arab suspects.''

``We helped them in finding clues to combat terrorism,'' he added.

Officials at Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, confirmed Sunday that Mohammed had been turned over to U.S. officials.

Mohammed is the first person known to have been arrested outside Yemen for the October 2000 attack on the Cole as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 37 injured when suicide bombers brought a boat alongside the warship and detonated explosives.

Eight suspects were arrested in Yemen and are awaiting trial.

10/28/01 09:30

# # #

Source: AP News Service

Tracking the would-be destroyer of LAX

By Rob Lowman

...Terrorist Ahmed Ressam almost got into this country intending to bomb Los Angeles International Airport as part of a plot for a millennium attack on America.

Ressam was detained at the U.S./Canadian border near Seattle on Dec. 14, 1999, when a customs agent became suspicious of his answers to her questions. When the trunk of his car was opened, agents discovered a powerful bomb. It was a lucky escape for America, but as ...Ressam's story, (unfolds) you wonder if, had he succeeded, would U.S. authorities have been more alert to later threats.

In fact, the Algerian-born Ressam had come to French authorities' attention in the mid-'90s during a series of terrorist attacks in Paris, including trying to hijack a fully fueled plane and fly it into the Eiffel Tower. Ressam than turned up in Montreal, asking for political asylum because of what he claimed was persecution in his homeland. He was able to live in Canada on welfare payments and by stealing luggage from tourists at the airport. Though he was caught four times, Ressam never paid more than a fine. When his asylum was denied, Ressam simply stole a birth certificate from a church, filled it in with a fake name and obtained a Canadian passport, which easily served him well for establishing a new life.

In 1998 he traveled to Osama Bin Laden's terrorist camps in Afghanistan, where he became skilled in urban warfare, sabotage and covert operations. Afterward, he met with one of Bin Laden's chief aides, received seed money for a terrorist act and traveled back to Canada through LAX -- where he got the idea to blow it up.

LA Times/US Customs