San Diego man held as attacks witness charged with fraud
By Ben Fox
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 26, 2001
SAN DIEGO – A San Diego college student who is being held as a material witness in the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will face an immigration fraud charge when he returns from testifying before a grand jury in New York.
Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah has been indicted for making false statements on his application for political asylum in the United States, his lawyer said Friday.
Abdoulah has been testifying before a grand jury investigating the attacks because he knew one of the suspected hijackers. He is expected to be arraigned on the fraud charge when he returns to San Diego, attorney Randall Hamud said.
The indictment alleges that Abdoulah falsely claimed on his asylum application last year to be a native of Somalia fleeing political persecution when in fact he was born in Yemen and had safely resettled in Canada as a student, according to federal court documents.
Hamud said he was unable to contact his client because of tight security surrounding detained witnesses in the investigation and couldn't say how Abdoulah would respond to the charge.
"The charge has nothing to do with planes crashing into buildings. That's important to emphasize," he said.
If convicted of the charge of fraud and misuse of immigration documents, Abdoulah would face a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and possible deportation, federal officials said.
It's not known when Abdoulah might return from New York.
The indictment and an accompanying affidavit allege that Abdoulah filed an asylum application on May 5, 2000, after flying to San Diego from Ottawa, Canada. He claimed that he would be persecuted in his native Somalia because he is a member of the Barwani minority.
FBI agents searched his home in El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego, on Sept. 22 and confiscated an identification card from the Republic of Yemen, identifying him as Mihdar Mohammad Al-Mihdar Zaid, born in Al-Hamra/Al Baidayh, Yemen, on May 8, 1978, according to court documents.
Investigators checked the background of the other name and found that he had obtained a B2 visitors visa from the U.S. Consulate in Ottawa on Dec. 10, 1998, by showing a passport from Yemen and identifying himself as a student in Canada. Six days later, he flew to San Diego.
Hamud said his client was detained and his apartment searched because he was a "casual" acquaintance of Nawaf Al-hazmi, one of the men suspected of hijacking the American Airlines jet that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
The lawyer said the men worked together for two to three months at a car wash and attended mosques together in the San Diego area. Abdoulah also studied at San Diego State University.
Hamud said he could not comment on whether the allegations in the indictment are true.
"To the best of my knowledge, he is a Somali asylee," he said of his client.
Prosecutors: Yemeni spoke of hatred for U.S. after attacks
By SETH HETTENA
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - A Yemeni college student who helped two of the Sept. 11 hijackers told FBI agents he had "hatred in his heart" for the U.S. government, according to court documents.
Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah also helped the men obtain California drivers' licenses and Social Security cards and phoned Florida flight schools to arrange for flying lessons on their behalf, federal prosecutors said.
Less than two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, FBI agents arrested Abdoulah at gunpoint and held him as a material witness in the terror investigation.
Upon his arrest, Abdoulah spoke without prompting of "the hatred in his heart for the United States government, and that the United States brought 'this' (Sept. 11) on themselves," prosecutors wrote.
The documents were filed Monday in response to a request by defense attorneys to dismiss immigration-fraud charges pending against Abdoulah. The defense request remains sealed.
Prosecutors say Abdoulah assisted Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, two of the men suspected of hijacking American Airlines Flight 77 and crashing it into the Pentagon. The men lived in San Diego for several months in 2000. Prosecutors also describe a third Flight 77 hijacker, Hani Hanjour, as Abdoulah's friend.
Federal agents who interviewed Abdoulah say they didn't believe his denials of advance knowledge of the attacks, prosecutors said. Abdoulah "seemed to take great pleasure toying with the agents and schooling them on Islam and jihads," according to the court document.
A spiral notebook found in Abdoulah's Geo Metro "contained references to planes falling from the sky, mass killings and hijacking," prosecutors said. The writings also refer to "burning flesh falling from the sky."
Abdoulah's attorney, Kerry L. Steigerwalt, said the writings were "rap lyrics" penned after Sept. 11 by a teen-ager who left the notebook in his client's car.
In court papers, U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat called defense arguments that the writings were not Abdoulah's "pure speculation." Wheat did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday.
Steigerwalt insisted his client had no advance knowledge of the attacks on New York and Washington.
While he did help Almihdhar and Alhazmi, "that's not to imply or suggest that he had any indication whatsoever that these people were as radical as they were or ... they could possibly be contemplating or planning such a horrific attack," Steigerwalt said Wednesday.
Although Abdoulah's attorneys long have maintained their client was a "passing" acquaintance of Alhazmi's, prosecutors contend he "regularly dined, worked and prayed with the hijackers." He also picked up Almihdhar at Los Angeles International Airport in the summer of 2000 and tried to help the two men exchange the return portion of airplane travel tickets.
Abdoulah, who turned 24 Wednesday, was held as a material witness and testified before a New York grand jury. He was returned to San Diego to face immigration-fraud allegations.
The former San Diego State University student is accused of filing an asylum application in May 2000 in which he falsely claimed he was from Somalia and a member a minority group that faced persecution there. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond.
Three other San Diego-area men who also befriended the hijackers were held as material witnesses and later indicted on charges unrelated to terrorism. Last week, a federal judge in New York threw out perjury charges against 21-year-old Osama Awadallah, a Jordanian student accused of lying about his associations with two of the hijackers.
Abdoulah told the FBI he helped the hijackers at the request of Omar Al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who has drawn scrutiny from investigators for his alleged ties to two hijackers.
Al-Bayoumi, also known as Abu Imard, is suspected of financially aiding the hijackers. He moved in early 2001 to Birmingham, England, where he was briefly detained following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Published: Wednesday, May 8, 2002 15:50 PDT