Top News County is on lookout for visitor who is said to have terrorist ties
10/23/01
By ELIZABETH WARMKA
The Express-TimesEASTON - Northampton County’s anti-terrorism task force is on the lookout for illegal aliens, including a Virginia man who was in the county earlier this month and has possible connections to the terrorists behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
But local and federal officials can’t find him, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli announced Monday.
"We don’t think he’s in Northampton County," Morganelli said. "But we don’t know where he is. Last I heard, he was leaving Pennsylvania to return to Virginia, but federal authorities say he never showed up there."
According to authorities, the American girlfriend of an Egyptian man, Saber Hassan Fathallo Abassi, 22, told authorities Abassi may have known a terrorist.
The woman, Roxanne Kopke, contacted authorities after she fled her Fairfax, Va., residence and came to Northampton County to stay with her son because Abassi was allegedly abusive.
Abassi, whose last known address was at the East Meadows apartment complex in Fairfax, Va., came to Northampton County looking for her, authorities said.
Kopke then filed a protection from abuse order at the Northampton County Courthouse on Sept. 25 and told authorities Abassi might have known those involved in terrorist activities, Morganelli said. That prompted the county’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force to notify federal authorities, Morganelli said.
Later, the FBI learned that Abassi had taken some flight-training classes at the same Daytona Beach, Fla., school that some of the Sept. 11 terrorists used, according to Special County Detective Robert Miklich, who is heading the county’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
By the time the information reached local officials, Abassi had left the area, Miklich said.
The Internal Revenue Service and FBI are still looking for Abassi to question him in relation to the terrorist attacks and for possible deportation, Miklich said.
According to the INS, Abassi is in this country illegally, Miklich said.
Alexander Karem, who represented Abassi during the PFA hearing, was surprised to hear authorities were looking for Abassi. Karem and said there was nothing suspicious about him.
"I do recall that the police wanted to talk to him and he had a meeting sometime this month with the INS," Karem said.
Kopke dropped her complaint against Abassi during her protection from abuse hearing Oct. 3.
Karem said the couple were very affectionate after the hearing and Kopke left with Abassi afterward, according to authorities.
"Once she dropped the PFA order, we had no jurisdiction to hold him," Morganelli explained.
There was no telephone number listed for Abassi’s Virginia address. Neither he nor the woman could be reached for comment Monday.
In her Sept. 25 order, Kopke said that on Sept. 21, Abassi "didn’t want me to leave him and he thought that I was being distant from him. He grabbed me by my wrists and would not let me go and blocked the doorway ..."
In the order, Kopke described several other events in which Abassi allegedly pounded on the car windshield threatening to break it if she left. She also said in the order that Abassi allegedly threatened to kill her in February 2000 and he had said, "Believe me, I can do it."
Authorities did not release Kopke’s son’s name, so he couldn’t be reached for comment.
"People think the connections in our area to the terrorists are remote, but this shows that we just don’t know," Morganelli said. "I’m not saying he is a threat, but we have reason to suspect. That’s why we have to be vigilant."
Morganelli created the county’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force on Sept. 21 at the request of Patrick Meehan, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Similar task forces were created in eight other eastern Pennsylvania counties.
The task forces work as liaisons through which local information on possible terrorists and illegal aliens can be filtered more efficiently to the FBI and INS.
Since its inception a month ago, Morganelli said, the task force is right on schedule.
Miklich was hired about two weeks ago to head this task force. The four-year Navy veteran worked with the Pennsylvania State Police for 25 years before taking a job with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Department five years ago. He also has experience with private security.
"I’m only one person," Miklich said. "I need the cooperation of all the police departments and the people. The people are our eyes and ears."
Morganelli said the task force is already "cracking down" on illegal aliens.
A meeting with all of the county’s municipal police departments was held Oct. 1. Morganelli said he has asked all local colleges to check their students’ credentials and make sure no foreign students are here illegally or improperly.
Morganelli said he is working with Lehigh County officials to establish a protocol for handling suspicious mail and a central location where suspicious packages can be handled, inspected and forwarded to Philadelphia for further examination.
Northampton County Sheriff Jeffrey Hawbecker established a local terrorism tip line. People who call the line will hear a recording, he said, and they are asked to leave a message. Emergencies should be directed to the 911 dispatch center, he added.
Hawbecker said he will screen and prioritize the messages to make the load manageable. He said most of the calls so far have been about suspicious mail. Eventually the task force will focus more on illegal aliens, he said. --Express-Times (looks like a PA paper)
