INS Deported bin Laden Brother-in-Law Just Days After OKC Bombing

whoisjohndoe2.com ^ | 10/06/03 | J.M. Berger

[JohnBerger]

Just days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the INS deported Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, even though the FBI had evidence that linked the Saudi businessman to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Bojinka plot and Oklahoma City.

Not only was Khalifa deported to Jordan, where he was subsequently freed, but the U.S. government let him leave with potentially incriminating evidence and cleared his record of terrorism charges.

Evidence in the FBI's possession at the time potentially implicated the Saudi businessman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the airliner bombing plot and the Oklahoma City bombing. Khalifa was formally named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center case and the FBI has d connected him to bomb-making documents that included information on every component of the Oklahoma City bomb.

Arrested in San Francisco on an immigration violation in December 1994, Khalifa was a figure of primary interest to the FBI, which suspected him of assisting al Qaeda operatives Ramzi Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad in a plot to bomb a dozen U.S. airliners from their base in the Philippines earlier that year, according to Peter Lance, author of "1000 Years for Revenge," a new book covering the FBI's investigation of Yousef.

By April 1995, both Yousef and Murad were already in U.S. custody, according to Lance. Interrogation reports obtained by Lance show that both Yousef and Murad were questioned about their links to Khalifa within hours of entering U.S. custody, and that the decision to deport Khalifa came just days after Murad had confessed responsibility for the Oklahoma City blast.

Full story at whoisjohndoe2.com

[JohnBerger]

OK, this is the new information I've been promising from the John Doe 2 investigation. There's a lot of all-new stuff in this article, and I think there may be enough here to get the ball rolling on a new investigation, from the angle of how the FBI dropped the ball in 1995. So consider passing this article around to interested parties...

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[JohnBerger]

Ping.

[TexasCajun]

How could the FBI properly investigate this, they were too busy funding Hammas and running international operations!

[Diddle E. Squat]

The One We Gave Away
INS Deported al Qaeda-Linked Suspect Just Days After Oklahoma Bombing
Gov't Returned Evidence, Erased Charges, Despite Ties to OKC Bombing Confession
By J.M. BERGER


For more about this story, see the top right column of this page.

Seven days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the INS agreed to deport a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden who had been implicated as a possible accessory to the attack by a jailhouse confession and documents relating to bomb construction.

At the same time, the government agreed to remove allegations of terrorism from Mohammed Jamal Khalifa's INS records and to return evidence seized from his luggage.

Arrested in San Francisco on an immigration violation in December 1994, Khalifa was a figure of primary interest to the FBI, which suspected him of assisting al Qaeda operatives Ramzi Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad in a plot to bomb a dozen U.S. airliners from their base in the Philippines earlier that year, according to Peter Lance (http://www.peterlance.com), author of "1000 Years for Revenge," a new book covering the FBI's investigation of Yousef.

Evidence in the FBI's possession at the time potentially implicated the Saudi businessman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the airliner bombing plot and the Oklahoma City bombing. Khalifa was formally named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center case.

LINKS WERE SUSPECTED EARLY

Khalifa's deportation was ordered after direct intervention in the case by then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher in January 1995, but the Saudi businessman fought the action in immigration court through April, according to court documents and newspaper accounts.

By April 1995, both Yousef and Murad were already in U.S. custody, according to Lance. Interrogation reports obtained by Lance also show that both Yousef and Murad were questioned about their links to Khalifa within hours of entering U.S. custody.

On the basis of evidence in the FBI's hands at the time a deal was finally approved in April, Khalifa was at minimum a material witness in the three biggest criminal cases in the history of the United States.

On the day of the Oklahoma bombing, Murad told a prison guard that the "Liberation Army" was responsible for the attack, an allegation he repeated to the FBI the following day, according to documents obtained by Lance, who contributed to this article.

Convicted World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef had claimed responsibility for the 1993 WTC attack on behalf of the Liberation Army. Items seized from his Manila apartment and at the time of his arrest also contained references to the group.

According to Lance, Philippines investigators had forwarded a complete report on the Manila airline-bombing plot, known as Project Bojinka, to U.S. authorities by April 1995. Khalifa's deportation wasn't completed until May 1995, according to a contemporaneous UPI report.

Just one day before the Oklahoma City bombing, on April 18, Khalifa had made an immigration court appearance in which his attorney continued a monthlong fight against INS efforts to deport the Saudi businessman to Jordan, according to contemporaneous newspaper accounts in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner.

On April 19, Timothy McVeigh used a truck bomb to blow up the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. On April 21, his accomplice, Terry Nichols, surrendered to police.

By April 23, the Chicago Tribune printed one of the first news stories about Nichols' longstanding connection to Cebu, a city in the south of the Philippines. In 1990, Nichols married a Filipina he met through a "mail-order bride" service and visited her family the country several times subsequently.

His last trip to the Philippines took place from November 1994 to January 1995, the same period that Yousef and his coconspirators had been working out of Manila.

Khalifa had lived in the Philippines for several years prior to the U.S. visit, according to dozens of sources. Contemporaneous news accounts of his INS proceedings detailed Khalifa's Philippines history as well as his alleged ties to Yousef, which were well-known.

While in Manila, Khalifa founded a series of businesses and charities that federal investigators now claim transferred money and resources on behalf of al Qaeda. Philippines investigators charged that Khalifa funded the Bojinka plot through a charity front in Manila, according to Lance.

But the FBI was in possession of even more evidence suggesting Khalifa could be linked to the 1993 WTC attack, Bojinka and Oklahoma City.

RECIPES CONSISTENT WITH OKC

An indictment of the Benevolence International Foundation in 2002 claims that Khalifa was in possession of a phone number connected to the Bojinka plot when detained by the INS in December. According to that indictment and Bojinka trial records, the Manila terror cell was in frequent contact with Khalifa during November 1994.

The 2002 indictment alleged that an alias used by Khalifa was found on one of several bomb-making manuals brought into the U.S. in 1992 by an accomplice of Ramzi Yousef.

Those manuals included detailed instructions about how to build improvised explosives, including recipes for urea nitrate (used in the World Trade Center attack) and ammonium nitrate (used in Oklahoma City), according to trial records.

The manuals included instructions on the use and handling of every major component currently believed to have been part of the Oklahoma City bomb, including ammonium nitrate, nitromethane, PETN, blasting caps and instructions on creating shaped charges for use in destroying buildings.

The manuals also contained entries on using hydrogen peroxide and aluminum powder. Ammonium nitrate, hydrogen peroxide, aluminum powder, diesel fuel and blasting caps were found at the Michigan farm of James Nichols, brother of Terry, during an FBI search around April 21, according to a criminal complaint filed in April 1995 but subsequently dropped.

The Bojinka airline-bombing plot had been exposed by an accidental fire in Yousef's apartment in early January 1995, which resulted in the arrest of Abdul Hakim Murad (the prisoner who had claimed responsibility in the Oklahoma bombing). In that apartment and in related phone records, Philippines police also discovered information related to Khalifa, according to court filings. When Yousef was arrested in February 1995 in Pakistan, he was carrying one of Khalifa's business cards.

A spiral-bound notebook seized when Murad was arrested contained a page of instructions on the properties of nitromethane, one of the Oklahoma City bomb components, according to evidence presented at Murad's trial. Murad had used the notebook to record instructions on bomb-making provided by Yousef, who is universally considered an explosives genius.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NITROMETHANE

The notation on nitromethane is located in a section of the notebook that can be dated to late December 1994, at which time Terry Nichols was staying in the Philippines, according to trial testimony.

The entry on nitromethane appears to differ from other content in the notebook, which consisted largely of shopping lists for the Bojinka plot and notes on the manufacture of chemicals specifically used in that plan, as described at length during Murad's trial.

Nitromethane was not visibly used in the Bojinka plan, according to trial testimony, but it was a significant component of the OKC bomb.

The basic idea for that bomb is believed to have been inspired by the racist novel "The Turner Diaries," which describes white supremacists using an ammonium nitrate-fuel oil bomb to blow up FBI headquarters.

According to author Lance, Ramzi Yousef employed a similar ammonium nitrate-diesel fuel oil bomb in a thwarted attempt to destroy the Israeli embassy in Bangkok just a few months earlier, in March 1994.

McVeigh and Nichols followed the "Turner" blueprint closely, but the choice to replace fuel oil with nitromethane was a deviation that made the bomb more powerful. The specific recipe appears to have been first used in Oklahoma City.

Subsequent to the Oklahoma City bombing, ammonium nitrate bombs became a favorite weapon of al Qaeda, and have frequently been used in attacks connected with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the Manila plotters.

Yousef had arrived in Manila in November 1994, shortly before Terry Nichols, to begin planning several ambitious terror attacks against U.S. and Western interests.

The al Qaeda cell in Manila consisted of Yousef, Murad, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (now believed to be the mastermind of the September 11 attacks) and Wali Khan Amin Shah, a Malaysian al Qaeda operative who called Khalifa's cell phone several times during November, according to FBI affidavits and other trial testimony.

INS RECORD PURGED, EVIDENCE RETURNED

Prior to the Oklahoma City bombing, Khalifa had been fighting the extradition to Jordan, where he faced a death sentence related to a terror-bombing plot. In court on April 18, he continued fighting the deportation even after his in absentia conviction in Jordan had been overturned and a new trial ordered, as reported at the time in the San Francisco Chronicle.

A key witness in Jordan recanted a confession implicating Khalifa, according to court documents. Khalifa maintained his innocence throughout, saying he knew the Jordan plotters but disavowed them when he learned they were violent.

On April 26, 1995, Khalifa abruptly changed strategy and requested the deportation proceed. His lawyer blamed an "anti-alien climate" generated by the OKC attack for his change of heart.

The U.S. government not only agreed to Khalifa's request for deportation to Jordan, but in exchange for his cooperation it expunged terror-related charges from his INS record, according to contemporaneous newspaper accounts of his INS hearing in the Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner.

According to author Peter Lance, the Justice Department had wanted to hold Khalifa and investigate his alleged ties to terrorism as early as December. But Secretary of State Warren Christopher wrote a three-page letter to Attorney General Janet Reno in January urging that the deportation proceed.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained in the course of this investigation, argued that refusing to deport Khalifa could put the U.S. at a disadvantage when seeking the extradition of suspects from abroad, as well as putting pressure on American relations with Jordan.

As he fought the deportation in immigration court, Khalifa filed a separate civil court suit in March 1995 seeking the return of items seized from his luggage, including literature related to training terrorists in the Philippines, an address book and an electronic organizer listing Wali Khan Amin Shah's phone number in Manila, and immigration papers relating to his return to the Philippines. The documents are described in exhibits related to the civil suit and in a 2002 indictment related to the Benevolence International Foundation.

According to evidence presented during one of Yousef's trials, Shah called a mobile phone number for a "Mr. Jamal" on several occasions in November 1994, while Shah was in Manila making early preparation for the airline-bombing plot. Khalifa's full name was never mentioned in open court during the trial.

Despite the fact that Shah was the subject of an ongoing international manhunt at the time, and Yousef was already under indictment in America, the U.S. attorney's office wrote in late March that it had "no objection" to returning the material seized from Khalifa's luggage. The civil case was amicably closed a short time after Khalifa's deportation was completed in early May.

KHALIFA MAINTAINS INNOCENCE

Khalifa claims to be a philanthropist and businessman, and he has repeatedly and vehemently denied any involvement in terrorist activities, most recently in a September 2003 interview with Arab News.

"I spend all my life helping people," Khalifa tearfully told his immigration judge in April 1995.

While in the Philippines, he founded or directed various charitable operations, including the International Islamic Relief Organization, which has been accused by the FBI of helping fund terrorist activities. According to most accounts, IIRO did take part in some legitimate charitable activities, including funding orphanages and Islamic schools in the Philippines.

"My assessment at the time (1995) was that this was guilt by association in the basest form," Khalifa's attorney Marc Van der Hout told the Christian Science Monitor in early 2003. (Van der Hout did not return an e-mail seeking information related to this story.)

Nevertheless, Khalifa has been repeatedly charged with laundering and moving money on behalf of al Qaeda, particularly in the Philippines. The charges stem from the U.S. government as well as testimony and published accounts from leading terrorism researchers, including Peter Lance, Simon Reeve and Steve Emerson.

The FBI alleges that Khalifa is linked to Yousef, Benevolence International, the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines, and al Qaeda proper. Khalifa is currently living in Saudi Arabia. According to some reports, he is living freely; others suggest he is under house arrest.

Khalifa was detained by the Saudi government after September 11, according to the New York Times, but was subsequently released.

In several media interviews given during 2003, Khalifa vociferously denied any link to his brother-in-law's terrorist activities, most recently in a Sept. 21, 2003 interview with Arab News, a English-language daily newspaper. Khalifa also claimed in 2003 to have been financially ruined by the allegations of terrorist activity.

"Why do they point at me for every terrorist operation?" he asked in September. "Osama has 29 in-laws and I am just one of them."

— Contact J.M. Berger

[swarthyguy]

Ping!

[mewzilla]

Have you read Richard Miniter's new book Losing Bin Laden? The reason I ask is that in one of the chapters Miniter discusses the use of human cut-outs, guys who are meant to be caught to lead investigators astray. Miniter says they're called "classic expendables". Seems to me a perfect description of McVeigh and Nichols.

[VU4G10]

INS deported someone? wow!

[aristeides]

Laurie Mylroie argues in Bush Versus the Beltway that the people arrested for the '93 WTC bombing were similar expendables.

[Rocky Mountain High]

I always though those two bone-heads could never have pulled it off by themselves. How do you think they were recruited?

[mewzilla]

Well, Nichols spent some time in the Philipines, didn't he? Would've been a perfect place to recruit him.

[mewzilla]

Yup. You'd think that kind of practice would put a dent in their recruiting, wouldn't you? But I guess there's a bottomless well of these murderous idiots out there.

[EagleMamaMT]

Read later.

[wizardoz]

Read later.

Me too.

[Dante3]

Very interesting. A number of things about McVeigh trial and execution appeared weird and left unanswered questions.

[Tacis]

As I understand it, Janet Reno not only made this guy a couple of sandwiches for the trip, she actually gave him a hug goodbye as he got on the plane. He was grateful for the sandwiches.

[swarthyguy]

>>How do you think they were recruited?

McVeigh during Desert Storm; the ole Jew war line used by the Saudis. He then recruited Reynolds; hence the trip to the Phillipines.

Look at the other converts during Desert Storm; Sniper Mo, Imam Yee?,

[StriperSniper]

I haven't read Laurie's book, does she mean Ramzi Yousef?

I just did search to see more detals about his rejected appeal, and found out that he is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I wouldn't call that expendable, unless he was not well liked in the family.

Source

Justices Reject World Trade Center Bombing Case
Mon October 6, 2003 12:19 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by Ramzi Yousef, who is serving a life term in prison after his conviction for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.

Without comment, the justices let stand a U.S. appeals court ruling that upheld Yousef's conviction for the 1993 attack that killed six and injured more than 1,000 in what prosecutors at the time called "the worst terrorist attack" on U.S. soil.

Yousef is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda operative who U.S. officials have identified as the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and also involved a plane crashing into the Pentagon.

Yousef, who fled New York after the blast, was one of the world's most wanted fugitives until his arrest in 1995 in Pakistan. He was returned to New York to stand trial.

He was convicted in 1997 for the World Trade Center bombing and for plotting in an unsuccessful scheme to blow up a dozen U.S. jumbo jets over the Far East in 1995.

The airline plot was discovered in 1995 when a fire broke out in a Manila apartment shared by Yousef and another person.

Yousef's appeal was one of about 2,000 the Supreme Court rejected as it officially opened its new term. The appeals had piled up during the court's summer recess.

[StriperSniper]

Oops! Source

[JohnBerger]

Have you read Richard Miniter's new book Losing Bin Laden? The reason I ask is that in one of the chapters Miniter discusses the use of human cut-outs, guys who are meant to be caught to lead investigators astray. Miniter says they're called "classic expendables". Seems to me a perfect description of McVeigh and Nichols.

I haven't read it, but I am generally familiar with its contents. For myself, I think McVeigh and Nichols are still central players in this story; however I do think they had help.

jmb

[JohnBerger]

I always though those two bone-heads could never have pulled it off by themselves. How do you think they were recruited?

I may have something fairly detailed to say about this subject in subsequent stories. I'm still chasing a few things I need before taking that one on.

jmb

[InterceptPoint]

I hate to through cold water on hopes that the OKC bombing will be "solved" by the U.S. Government but I just don't believe it. The Justice Department has access to all of the data and it is near certain that Bush had someone take a good look at it when he came into office. If he didn't it is certain that Ashcroft would have. The bottom line is that that they don't want to mess with OKC and they aren't going to. The McVeigh rush to the death chamber was proof enough of that for me.

Like it or not it is Case Closed, probably for "National Security Reasons". That reason is that our security would be weaker if people reallay new how incompetent the FBI is and how involved the BATF was in the run up to the OKC bombing. We the people just "can't handle the truth".

[JohnBerger]

I think some members of the US Government probably already have a pretty good idea of the outlines of the story. I agree that it's highly unlikely that the US Government will step up to the plate and disclose those outlines. I still think it's possible to drag it out of them kicking and screaming, but that may well be wishful thinking.

jmb

[Prince Charles]

Back to the top.

[Peach]

BTTT.

[Lexington Green]

marked

[Pro-Bush]

It was a miracle that there were no BATF agents in the building at the time of the bombing.

[aristeides]

No, she doesn't mean Ramzi Yousef. He wasn't caught till '95. She means those arrested in '93, after the guy returned for the deposit for the rental truck.

[tinamina]

Timothy McVeigh could've been converted to Islam during the Gulf War? It's being said now that Saudi Arabia actively proseltized US military members during that time, right?

[chance33_98]

More info from Govt sources here

[StriperSniper]

Thanks!

[Donna Lee Nardo]

As always, I am open to a Islamic terrorist-OKC connection. I just do not understand what Muslim terrorists got out of the OKC bombing, since no glory claim was claimed by them. Human cut-outs would help as decoys to avoid detection as an attack is planned, but after an attack is implemented, how does this give any notoriety at all to Muslim extremists? How does it further the jihadist cause? Terrorists do not like to work anonymously. I would really like to read all opinions on this.

[JohnBerger]

As always, I am open to a Islamic terrorist-OKC connection. I just do not understand what Muslim terrorists got out of the OKC bombing, since no glory claim was claimed by them. Human cut-outs would help as decoys to avoid detection as an attack is planned, but after an attack is implemented, how does this give any notoriety at all to Muslim extremists? How does it further the jihadist cause? Terrorists do not like to work anonymously. I would really like to read all opinions on this.

Excellent question. Al Qaeda's MO, particularly in the 1990s, was to pull off attacks with deniability. Really, Mohammed Shaikh Khalid's admission that he masterminded 9/11 was a shocking break with tradition.

Usually, al Qaeda simply funds efforts that will create instability and terror among their targets, and usually it attempts to keep that support anonymous. Other examples of this include WTC 1993, now commonly accepted as an al Qaeda attack (see Cheney's remarks this weekend); the aborted Landmarks plot, also in 1993; Jemaah Islamiah, which has been funded by al Qaeda; Abu Sayyaf, which has been funded and trained by al Qaeda; the Chechyn rebels, etc.

All of these groups and individuals are documented as having received operational and/or financial assists from al Qaeda, but al Qaeda has never publicly taken responsibility for any of their actions. It's like the CIA, which does lots of things to destabilize and hurt their designated targets but functions more efficiently under the shroud of anonymity.

jmb

[dagnabbit]

Bin Ladin family members assisted in leaving the USA. Now where have I heard that lately?

[eleni121]

Ping for later

[JohnBerger]

Bin Ladin family members assisted in leaving the USA. Now where have I heard that lately?

Quite. If I had been CBS News, I would have called up Warren Christopher with a few choice questions about what factors went into the decision to deport, but I decided to leave that to others. I have some small hopes of getting someone to pursue this. We'll see if it pans out.

jmb

[Donna Lee Nardo]

I should clarify that this is what I meant: What did any Muslim terrorist group get out of the OKC bombing, al qaeda or not, anonymously or not? We knew the '93 WTC attack was by Islamic extremists and we also knew that about all the other attacks right up until and including 911. But how does OKC fit in? Was a Muslim connection meant only to stir things up within the U.S., and did clintoon really buttonhole the situation so airtight that such a connection was ignored?

I follow Laurie Mylorie, so again, I have an open mind as far as a Muslim link; especially an Iraq link. I just cannot -- no matter how much I try -- see the logic or value of a hidden Muslim link to OKC. They gained nothing; there was no bragging to fellow extremists, etc. For the attack(s) before the OKC bombing and the ones after the OKC bombing, there was always much more than light rumors. Even plans for sabatoging the NYC subway and an actual Muslim extremist shooting at I believe the Empire State Building in the late '90s was openly Muslim extremist.

[Ethyl]

As I understand it, Janet Reno not only made this guy a couple of sandwiches for the trip, she actually gave him a hug goodbye as he got on the plane. He was grateful for the sandwiches.


I hope they were HAM sandwiches.

[JohnBerger]

I see what you mean. But you can ask the same question about the 1998 embassy bombings, or the Cole attack, etc., etc. The purpose of terror is to terrify, and the OKC attack was (until 9/11) the most effective and terrifying attack ever against a U.S. target.

Destabilization, fomenting fear and revolution (at least theoretically), forcing the U.S. to focus on its home front...

I agree it's not as cut and dry as it could be, and there may be more that needs to be explained on this front. But there was never a specific message attached to 9/11 or WTC 1993 either. During the 1990s, al Qaeda spread a lot of money around with the main goal of encouraging chaos. They were mainly out to hurt us, which they did.

I should perhaps add that before actually investigating, I was never a big fan of this particular conspiracy theory, and I'm not at all political about the story. I just ended up finding so much circumstantial evidence to support the notion that I concluded there had to be a fire behind the smoke. I still don't know the whole story, and we may never know it...

jmb

[ApesForEvolution]

Good work. Thanks for taking the risks to get the truth out. Some people won't believe the truth regardless, but it's not for lack of good intel.

[Calpernia]

I have followed quite a few articles with some similar information. But the domain this article is hosted at: http://www.fuckedworld.com/johndoearticle-khalifa.shtml really bothers me in terms of credibility.

[Quilla]

I wonder if bin Laden's brother-in-law looks anything like the sketch of the John Doe released just after the bombing?

BTW, great post.

[TLI]

bump for records

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Hmmmmm.

[NordP]

So that Philly reporter may have been on to something!

[ping jockey]

bump

[DaGman]

The sun also rose the day of the OKC bombing. Coincidence or ...?

[Frank_2001]

Good article!

[browardchad]

We knew the '93 WTC attack was by Islamic extremists and we also knew that about all the other attacks right up until and including 911. But how does OKC fit in?

I don't know about you, but I remember the day the OKC federal building was hit, and everyone I knew immediately thought Middle Easterners. I think that's why skepticism that McVeigh and Nichols acted alone is still so strong. That, and the fact that two ex-military white supremacists as the only perps fit so neatly into Clinton's agenda, i.e., non-confrontational with radical Islamists, but hell-bent on destroying right-wing extremists (which for Clinton included all Conservatives).

Bin Laden and crew have often referred to striking the American heart in their threats -- OKC is definitely in the heartland. After OKC, IMO, they decided they could get more spectacular results (and kill more Jews) by concentrating on the East Coast, and in particular, New York City.

[TXnMA]

Murad had confessed responsibility for the Oklahoma City blast.

News to me. Please elaborate.

FWIW, I'm not exactly a novice re the OKC bombing...