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Ali has been charged in U.S. District Court in New York with lying to a grand jury for saying he never met or spoke to bin Laden. He also has been charged with criminal contempt for refusing to complete his testimony. Originally, federal officials were interested in Ali for knowledge he might have about the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Ali has not been accused of wrongdoing in the bombings. His name resurfaced when FBI agents learned that he had received a pilot's license at Airman Flight School in Norman in 1993 or 1994. The aviation school has come under scrutiny in connection with two suicide hijackers who visited the school before the Sept. 11 jet attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This is ridiculous," Nubani said Wednesday. You'd do better to spend your time somewhere else. You guys are just stirring up craziness for Arabic communities. I'm an (Arab) attorney. I'd be terrified to get a pilot's license after this." Nubani said he could not comment on Ali's arrest or whether he had earned a pilot's license at Airman Flight School. Ali remains in police custody. Federal court documents and news reports have revealed that Ali received a pilot's license at the Norman school. Before his arrest, Ali had lived in Florida and worked as a taxi driver. Airman Flight School has no record of Ali graduating from the school, said Admissions Director Brenda Keene. She said the school's records go back to 1994, the year after Ali reportedly earned his license there. Keene said federal agents showed up at Airman Flight School about two years ago seeking information about a Middle Eastern man for unspecified reasons. She said she could not remember the man's name but remembered that he was employed possibly as a taxi driver. FBI officials visited the aviation school at least twice before the terrorist attacks, seeking information about international students and their interest in the school's training programs. Just two weeks before the New York and Pentagon tragedies occurred, Keene said federal agents showed up with questions about a French- Algerian man who is now in custody who had trained as a pilot. Keene said agents asked Airman employees to identify a photo of Zacarias Moussaoui. |
Moussaoui had inquired about training at the school as early as September 2000, school officials said. He was detained Aug. 17 on immigration charges in Minnesota after he aroused suspicions by seeking to buy time on a flight simulator for jetliners, federal officials said. Since the attacks, he has been flown to New York, where a federal grand jury has been convened. Gary Johnson, an FBI spokesman in Oklahoma City, refused comment. Moussaoui took 57 hours of flying lessons at Airman Flight School between February and May yet was not allowed to fly solo and didn't get his pilot's license. Most students are allowed to fly alone after 12 to 20 hours of training, Keene said. Moussaoui arrived at the school in late February and signed up for flight lessons, paying half of the $5,000 cost in cash, which Keene said was not unusual. France's internal security service told The Associated Press they had placed Moussaoui on a 1999 list of those possibly affiliated with the militant group Islamic Jihad. Suicide hijacker Mohamed Atta reportedly called Airman Flight School in April 2000. He and a second suicide hijacker, Marwan Al-Shehhi, toured the school in July 2000 but did not enroll. Atta reportedly was aboard a jumbo jet that crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, while Al-Shehhi was aboard a jet that rammed the south tower. TIMELINE Years before the attacks in New York and Washington, FBI agents investigated at least two Middle Eastern pilots at an Oklahoma flight school. 1993 or 1994: Ihab Mohamed Ali is trained to fly airplanes while attending Airman Flight School in Norman. May 1999: An FBI agent from the New York office's "terrorist division" calls Oklahoma repeatedly, seeking Ali's flight school records. "They never said what he had done," said Brenda Whitehead, the school's admissions director. "He said, I wouldn't be hassling you unless it was serious.' " September 2000: In an indictment, prosecutors write that they wanted to ask Ali about his pilot training, his alleged contact with Osama bin Laden and other matters. The indictment accuses Ali of criminal contempt for refusing to answer questions before New York grand juries probing terrorism. Late August: The FBI visits the Norman flight school to inquire about Zacarias Moussaoui, who is now in custody in New York. The FBI had a picture of Moussaoui and asked if people at the school could identify him. Moussaoui was held Aug. 17 in Minnesota on immigration concerns after he aroused suspicions by seeking to buy time on a flight simulator for jetliners in Minnesota, law enforcement officials said. Sources: Federal Aviation Administration records, the Orlando Sentinel, Tulsa World archives and the Associated Press. |
DENVER
Jones said in his book, "Others Unknown," that the meeting between Nichols and Ramzi Yousef allegedly occurred sometime in the early 1990s on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, a "hotbed of fundamentalist Muslim activity." Present were Nichols - who referred to himself as "The Farmer" - Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah, Jones said in the 331-page book that will be in bookstores Nov. 9. The subject of the meeting, Jones claims, was terrorism: bombing activities; providing firearms and ammunition; and training in the making and handling of bombs. |
The material mirrors arguments Jones made in a writ of mandamus filed on McVeigh's behalf before the start of McVeigh's trial. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch did not allow Jones to present the material at trial. "It is false, it is defamatory and he (Jones) knows it," Tigar told the Denver Post. "From the beginning, one of his tactics has been to create a smoke screen by seeking to divert attention from the real serious issues that had to be decided in this case." Jones said his claims about the Nichols-Iraqi intelligence meeting are based on alleged interviews Filipino police had with Edwin Angeles, described as a Yousef associate, who was arrested in the Philippines and purportedly turned informant against Iraq. In videotaped and written interviews, Angeles said he met "The Farmer" at the meeting where "The Farmer" discussed terrorism with Yousef, Murad and Shah. Jones said Angeles also showed a sketch of "The Farmer," who "was a dead ringer for ... Nichols." After their meeting with Nichols, Murad, Shah and Yousef were charged in the plot to blow up the 12 U.S. jetliners, Jones said. They were convicted in September 1996 and are serving time in U.S. prisons, the Enid, Okla., lawyer said. Jones said that one of the convicted plotters, Shah, was acquainted with Nichols' wife, Marife Torres Nichols, a Filipino by birth. Nichols' marriage to Marife was little more than a cover for Nichols as he made his way six times to the Philippines to perfect bomb-making techniques he originally tried to develop on the Nichols farm in Decker, Mich., Jones alleged. Jones accused Nichols of setting up McVeigh, using methods that Yousef had used over the years, including the attempt to hide the real perpetrators of the World Trade Center bombing. Jones said he wondered whether the Oklahoma City bombing may have been a "very well executed conspiracy" designed to protect and shelter everyone involved - except McVeigh. The April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building left 168 people dead. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the bombing. McVeigh was sentenced to death. |