Posted on 10/15/2001 9:55:23 PM PDT by Sooner
FBI detains friend of Moussaoui
The man is the third material witness from Norman.
10/14/01
Ryan Chittum
A third Norman friend of Zacarias Moussaoui is in FBI custody as a material witness in the investigation into last month’s terrorist attacks.
The FBI detained Mujahid Abdulqaadir on Wednesday, Abdulqaadir’s wife said. He was picked up shortly after an interview with a London reporter.
His wife does not know where he is and has not heard from him since his detention, she said. The FBI came to her Wednesday night to ask her questions.
“They just told me they picked him up,” she said.
The FBI, through its Oklahoma City spokesman, Gary Johnson, refused to comment on any aspect of the investigation.
Operators at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City refused to answer questions about the status of Abdulqaadir, referring them to the center’s press relations office, which was closed Sunday.
Abdulqaadir’s wife said she believes he is on his way to New York but does not know.
Her husband has an attorney with whom she has talked, she said. She did not know the attorney’s name.
“[The attorney] said she doesn’t even know where he is,” Abdulqaadir’s wife said.
Abdulqaadir is the third Norman man with ties to Moussaoui to be detained by the FBI as material witness. The FBI detained Hussein Al-Attas and Mukkaram Ali — friends of Abdulqaadir and Moussaoui — last month. They are being held in New York.
Abdulqaadir is a middle-aged American citizen born in the United States.
Material witnesses are not necessarily suspects in an investigation, but they may know valuable information about people who are suspects.
A grand jury determines whether a person is detained as a material witness. The person's identity, incarceration and reasons for being held are not disclosed by authorities, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A judge signs an order designating the material witness, and the witness can be held for as long as the investigation takes. That can be years.
Moussaoui has refused to cooperate with federal investigators who suspect he may have planned to be the 20th hijacker in the attacks.
Moussaoui attended Airman Flight School at OU’s Max Westheimer Airport from February to May 29 before leaving without warning. His flight instructors said he was a poor flier who was never allowed to fly solo.
In August, his friend, University College senior Hussein Al-Attas, drove him to Minnesota, where Moussaoui enrolled at Pan Am Flying Academy. A few days later, a flight instructor tipped off the FBI that Moussaoui was behaving suspiciously. He wanted to learn to fly a jumbo jet in mid-air, but had no interest in learning to take off or land the plane.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested Moussaoui on Aug. 17 for having a false passport.
Abdulqaadir had been a mentor to Moussaoui while he was in Norman, giving him advice on things like how best to study.
He often ate with Moussaoui, Al-Attas and Ali, he said.
He said Moussaoui, a man he knew as “Shakur,” was not involved in the terror plot, saying his friend disavowed physical violence.
“I believe I was as close to him as anyone,” Abdulqaadir told The Oklahoma Daily in an Oct. 4 interview. “I can’t see him as a terrorist. I just don’t.” Now, his closeness to Moussaoui has him caught in the biggest investigation in U.S. history.
Abdulqaadir told The Daily that his friend had been wrongly detained.
“This witch hunt has caught so many innocent people up,” he said.
Abdulqaadir’s wife said she and her children cried when they found out he had been taken by the FBI.
“I can’t sit here and cry every single day,” she said. “I have children.”
• If you have any information about Moussaoui or the investigation, please contact Ryan Chittum at The Daily at 325-3665 or rckrist@ou.edu.
Very unusual choice of words.
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