Posted on 02/14/2002 4:19:33 AM PST by GailA
Flaming death no accident, FBI says
Gasoline found on clothes of license examiner
By Bill Dries dries@gomemphis.com
The fiery death of a driver's license examiner at the center of a federal fraud investigation was not an accident, an FBI agent said here Wednesday in federal court.
Federal and state investigators found gasoline on the clothes Katherine Smith was wearing when she died Sunday in a car crash on a stretch of U.S. 72 in Fayette County, FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash told U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Daniel Breen.
Nash also testified that investigators found evidence of some kind of accelerant in the burned-out interior of Smith's car.
"Katherine Smith obviously lived two lives, maybe more. She may have had other things going on in her life that may have led to her death." - Karen Cicala
Her testimony came during a probable cause and bond hearing for three of Smith's five co-defendants in an alleged scheme to get Tennessee driver's licenses using false information for men with Middle Eastern ties who lived in New York City.
Breen found there was probable cause to charge Mohammed Fares, Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad. He also denied them bond.
Fares, Hammad and Abou-Shahin, wearing tan prison scrubs and blue windbreakers, listened to the proceedings through cell phones with an Arabic interpreter on the other end of the line in another city. The courtroom's sound system was piped through the phone line for the interpreter to hear.
After hearing the translation of Breen denying him bond, Fares, 19, set his cell phone on the table and put his head in his hands.
Smith and her co-defendants, including alleged ring leader Khaled Odtllah and Hammad's cousin, Sakhera Hammad, were charged Feb. 6 with conspiracy to fraud ulent ly obtain Tennessee driver's licenses.
While her five co-defendants have been imprisoned without bond since their Feb. 5 arrest, Smith was released on her own recognizance. She died one day before she was due to appear at a detention hearing before a federal magistrate judge.
"Was this death a result of an accident?" federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza asked Nash, who was the only witness to testify during Wednesday's two-hour hearing.
"No, it was not," Nash replied.
According to Nash, this is what FBI agents and Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators have concluded about the car crash:
Six unnamed witnesses - all related to each other - saw Smith's 1992 Acura Legend veer off U.S. 72 around 12:45 a.m. Sunday. They said the interior of the car was on fire as the car drove across a ditch and hit a utility pole.
The fire was arson, Nash said.
"Every single thing inside the car is burnt," she said before noting that the trunk and gas tank were untouched by a blaze so intense that Smith's arms and legs were "burned off."
There was only "slight damage" to the front end of the car from hitting the utility pole, she added.
Nash said gasoline was found on Smith's clothing. She said investigators are still waiting on test results of traces of an unknown accelerant found in the car. A dog trained to sniff out such chemicals detected the accelerant.
Smith died from "inhaling the actual flames," Nash testified.
"Her airway system is actually singed."
Attorneys for the three defendants were quick to point out that their clients were all in prison at the time of Smith's death.
"Katherine Smith obviously lived two lives, maybe more," said Karen Cicala, who represents Fares. "She may have had other things going on in her life that may have led to her death."
She also questioned whether Fares is being treated differently because of ties to the Middle-East.
Attorney Jake Erwin, representing Hammad, urged Breen to consider only the fraud conspiracy charge.
"You're not saying that Mr. Hammad had anything to do with Katherine Smith's death, are you?" Erwin asked Nash.
"No, not at this time," she replied.
"You're not saying he had anything to do with the World Trade Center attack, are you," he asked again.
"No, not at this time," she repeated.
DiScenza has said there are "connections" linking two of the accused to the World Trade Center in the days before it was destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those connections include a visitor's pass to the WTC dated Sept. 5 that belonged to Sakhera Hammad.
DiScenza focused on Smith's death as a factor that Breen should consider in denying bond.
"This court has to consider that Katherine Smith died under very suspicious circumstances, in a manner that was clearly not an accident," DiScenza told Breen. "Coincidence only goes so far."
- Bill Dries: 529-2643
It sure does! Geeeeez!
Yes, he is. Does anyone here have a problem with that? This whole thing will be a crapshoot in liberal Memphis. They may just get a severe attack of political correctness and cut these guys loose. Is there any doubt that these guys are members of a terror cell? What does a law abiding citizen or visitor to this country come all the way to Tennessee to get a fake driver's liscence for? One of these guys had a receipt on him showing that he had been inside the WTC on 9/5/01. He then left NYC on 9-11 and drove to Memphis. Yeah, he's being treated differently. Again I ask, does anyone have a problem with that?
There should be a law against driving with an open accelerant in the car.
I sure as h*ll don't!
This is a little vague.....what did they see that isn't being told......how did they only see the car on fire going down the road and not the people who set the fire then put the car in gear with the accelarator depressed?.....this car did not travel far from the point of ignition....
Remote trigger, timer, speed monitor, millions of easy ways.
I know, reading that makes you want to shake your head in disbelief.
Khaled "Kal Odtllah, 31. Came to the United states from Jurusalem 13 years ago. Lived in Shelby County past 2½ years. Owned Phippips 66 gas station until recently.Buys and sells cars, including 1992 Accura bought by Katherine Smith. Formerly lived at 2840 Morning Lake in unincorporated Cordova. Used this address on multiple driver's license applications.
That appears to be a multi-unit apartment complex, per several other listings I've found for that same address:
American Society of Exercise Physiologists
Directory
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F) (G) (H) (I) (J) (K)-Page 2-
Members by State
Michael F. Criqui, R.D.
Student Member
2840 Morning Lake Drive
Apartment 304
Cordova,TN 38016
901-874-4268(work) 901-874-6831 (fax)
-P/ 2001-2002-
***************************
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
Program in Sports Medicine
Flash | Athletic Training Education Program | Sports Medicine Health Care | Events/Activities | Alumni | Home
Program in Sports Medicine Alumni
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | W
Ashly Benton Lord, ATC
(H) 2840 Morning Lake Drive, Apt. 201, Cordova, TN 38018
(H) Phone: 901-373-6632
(W) Address:
(W) Phone:
Detonator attached to small container of gasoline, hidden either under the seat or under the dashboard. Either remotely command-detonated, or timer-detonated. More likely command-detonated from someone in a following car
She drives along, then BOOM, fire in the car, she loses control, and burns
Remote trigger, timer, speed monitor, millions of easy ways.
Nothing so sophisticated, I'd expect: though professional spooks might- or might not- use such devices if they weren't concerned that there'd be clear evidence of such equipment left behind, particularly if foreign-made equipment could be used to point the blame elsewhere in a *false flag* operation, these guys are supposedly cut off from such support from embassy and other convenient means of smuggling such tech gear into a country. And the recovered Al-Quiada terror manual stressed the ability to create explosives and incendiary devices from locally available materials, such as those available from the average discount Mart-Mart, Home Depot, or, just for instance, a gas station. I can think of a couple of simple chemical compounds that would create a sudden and intense flame, and combined with a liter bottle of gasoline, would thoroughly incinerate the front seat occupants of a car if left under the driver's seat and the flames were confined inside, as in a car with the windows rolled up in the wintertime.
Well, when somebody asks for my address and I don't care to give my real one, I've got a better answer than *1060 West Addison St. Chicago, Ill. 60613* now, don't I....
? -archy-/-
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