San Diego State U. student aided 9/11 hijackers, records say (from Yemen)

A San Diego State University student from Yemen regularly dined and prayed with three San Diego-linked hijackers and helped them obtain Social Security cards, driver's licenses, flight school information and rides from Los Angeles International Airport, according to court records made public yesterday.

The 18-page document, part of the immigration-fraud case against former material witness Mohdar Abdallah, was filed late Monday by federal prosecutors.

It is the first public record to detail Abdallah's relationships with hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid al-Midhar and Hani Hanjour, who were aboard the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

Abdallah "had provided substantial assistance to the hijackers as they acclimated themselves in the United States in planning the Sept. 11th attacks," the document said.

The document also mentions for the first time a spiral notebook seized from Abdallah's car a week after the terrorist attacks. The notebook contains references to "hijacking," "mass killings" and "burning flesh falling from the sky," the document said.

Abdallah's attorney, Kerry Steigerwalt, described the writings as "lyrics to a rap song" that were penned by an 18-year-old student whom he declined to identify. And, he said, the poem was written after Sept. 11 and therefore does not prove prior knowledge of the attacks.

The document was filed by prosecutors to oppose Steigerwalt's requests for either dismissal of the immigration charges or suppression of evidence – such as the notebook and an identification card issued by Yemen in Abdallah's name. The defense said the evidence was obtained during illegal searches of Abdallah's El Cajon apartment and Geo Metro car.

Steigerwalt declined to comment further on the government's response because his motions were sealed by the court and he is prohibited from discussing them.

The FBI took Abdallah into custody Sept. 21 – the day he failed to show up for a polygraph exam. Earlier, he had voluntarily answered questions during three interviews at local restaurants.

Three other San Diego college students also were taken into custody as material witnesses to testify before the grand jury in New York investigating the terrorist attacks.

Osama Awadallah, who was charged with lying to the grand jury about his relationship with one of the hijackers, has returned to Grossmont College. A New York judge dismissed the charges after ruling that he was illegally detained. The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York is appealing.

The others are Yazeed Al-Salmi, who was released in October and also has returned to Grossmont College, and Omer Bakarbashat, who faces deportation after pleading guilty to immigration charges.

The four men and hijackers Alhazmi and al-Midhar had at one time worked at a La Mesa gas station or lived or attended mosque together in La Mesa and San Diego. All four knew the hijackers but say they knew nothing about the terrorist plots.

Abdallah appeared before a grand jury in New York in October and was later returned to the federal jail in downtown San Diego to face charges of lying on an asylum application. The Oct. 24 indictment said Abdallah claimed to be a Somali refugee facing persecution as a member of a minority group known as Barwani, when in fact he is from Yemen.

Prosecutors said Abdallah used a Yemeni passport and identification card identifying him as Midhar Mohammad Al-Midhar Zaid. Abdallah is also known as Mohdar Mohamed Abdoulah. Spellings of his last name vary.

A U.S. magistrate judge in San Diego set bail at $500,000, about 25 times more than the typical $20,000 sum usually set in such cases. Abdallah has been unable to post bail.

During his arrest, Abdallah made unsolicited anti-American comments about Sept. 11, the court document said.

"While being processed at the FBI office, defendant made several spontaneous statements, not in response to any questioning, referencing the hatred in his heart for the United States government, and that the United States brought 'this' (Sept. 11) on themselves," the document said.

The document said FBI agents who interviewed Abdallah believed he was lying to them, in part because he agreed to take the lie-detector test and then failed to show up. Abdallah was told in advance that he would be asked "if he had any participation or knowledge of any terrorist attacks or future attacks," the document said.

"Agents felt that in interviewing defendant, that he had rehearsed his answers prior to the interviews. The defendant continuously made body movements, or gestures that gave the interviewing agents the impression that he knew more than he was telling, and that he was concealing information."

According to the document, Abdallah told investigators that another man, Omar Al-Bayoumi, who authorities have been unable to locate, introduced him to the three men who later became hijackers. Al-Bayoumi, whom federal investigators have identified as the front man who prepared the way for the hijackers in San Diego, asked Abdallah to help them, the document said.

So Abdallah, whose English skills were superior to the hijackers', called flight schools in Florida to help them obtain flight lessons and went to the United Airlines ticket counter with them once to try to exchange the return portion of their Bangkok and Malaysia flight, among other things, the document said.

Here's what you were referring to:

San Diego State Student Charged with Harassment for Patriotism
Student's Crime Was Objecting to Muslim Students' Joy at September 11^th Attacks

by Dan Flynn

Is it a hate crime for an American to voice his objection to Middle Easterners celebrating the September 11^th attacks on America? At San Diego State University, it apparently is.

On September 22, Zewdalem Kebede, a recent immigrant to America from Ethiopia, was studying in the campus library when he overheard a group of Saudi Arabian students discussing the suicide bombings of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. "They started talking about the September 11 action," Kebede recalls. "And with that action they were very pleased. They were happy." The anti-American group, speaking in Arabic, thought that no one would be able to hear what they were saying.

Kebede, who speaks fluent Arabic, surprised the anti-American students by interrupting their conversation in their native tongue.

"Guys, what you are talking about is unfair. How do you feel happy when those 5 to 6,000 people are buried in two or three buildings?" Kebede said to the students. "You are proud of [the terrorists]. You should have to feel shame." Kebede claims that he addressed his fellow students in Arabic because he didn't want to embarrass them in front of others.

A Saudi student sitting at a nearby table then angrily confronted Kebede in English. The ensuing conversation grew heated, with the Saudi accusing the recently naturalized American of objecting to students speaking Arabic. Shortly thereafter, Kebede and the Saudi students went their separate ways.

Thirty minutes later, the police came-for Kebede! They informed him that a complaint had been issued against him. Soon, the university's Center for Student Rights ordered him to attend a disciplinary meeting because, it was alleged, he had been "verbally abusive to other students." He received a letter ordering him to respond to his accusers or face sanctions. Outraged, the Ethiopian immigrant went public with his story in a class. The University subsequently backed off the charges and concluded the matter with an October 9^th letter threatening disciplinary action against the political science senior.

"You are admonished to conduct yourself as a responsible member of the campus community in the future," San Diego State's missive warned. That's precisely what some would say that Kebede was doing on September 22^nd when he castigated those who celebrated the mass-murder of more than 5,000 people.

In the topsy-turvy world of the American campus, expressing glee at the deaths of thousands of Americans is protected free speech. Objecting to such utterances is classified as "harassment." Appreciation for diversity, tolerance, and sensitivity is thrown out the window when it comes to dealing with patriotic students.

Unfortunately, what happened to Zewdalem Kebede at San Diego State is not an isolated incident. While the media is awash in stories about hate crimes-both real and imagined-committed against foreigners, there has been a complete whitewash of the harassment of patriotic students on campus by faculty and administrators.

At Marquette, undergraduates were blocked from holding a moment of silence around an American flag on September 11. The gesture, the school's president and advisors felt, might be "offensive" to foreign students. "[The administration] felt that it showed too much nationalism or patriotism in respect to foreign students," College Republican President Lonny Leitner said. "We wanted to gather around that symbol and express our sorrow."

At Lehigh, the vice provost for student affairs initially reacted to the tragedy by banning the display of the American flag. News of his decision led to outrage, which quickly forced a reversal of policy. "We have such a diverse student body and emotions are so high right now," a Lehigh spokesman explained. "The idea was to keep from offending some of our students, and maybe the result was much to the contrary."

When officials at Arizona State removed an American flag from a school cafeteria out of fear that it might offend international students, Syrian immigrant Oubai Shahbandar introduced a bill in the student senate paving the way for its return. Shahbandar's bill was defeated, but the ensuing bad publicity he generated against the school forced their hand. Alumni threatened to pull their funding for the school. Money talked and the flag was returned.

This aggressive intolerance is transformed into a sudden appreciation of civil libertarianism when those on campus are bashing America.

Professor Robert Jensen of the University of Houston pronounced, "my primary anger is directed at the leaders of this country." The attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center are "no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism-the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes-that the U.S. government has committed in my lifetime." We are "just as guilty," he concluded. University of New Mexico Professor Richard Berthold bluntly declared, "Anyone who would blow up the Pentagon would get my vote."

Undergraduates writing in campus newspapers echoed this hatred against the U.S. These anti-American students received none of the institutional hostility that greeted many students who displayed patriotism.

"We are kidding ourselves in thinking we have been 'wronged,'" Lisa Mann of Wake Forest University wrote, adding, "sometimes it is our fault." "We sponsor dictators who maim, we defend corporations that enslave and then we have the arrogance to pretend we're safe and untouchable," professed West Virginia University's Joshua Greene. In light of the current "destructive" nationalism that calls for war, a Duke student opined, "the sight of the flag burning would be preferable to its display." An article in NYU's student newspaper was bluntly titled, "Take a Look in the Mirror, America, and Ask Why." A University of Colorado student maintained, "we had it coming."

If you hate your country, the campuses are indeed a very tolerant place. If you love America, places like Madison, Amherst, or Ann Arbor are not much more accepting than Kabul, Baghdad, or Nablus. Zewdalem Kebede found this out the hard way at San Diego State, where he was harassed by the university simply for disagreeing with people who welcomed the killing of Americans on September 11^th.

All that he is guilty of, Kebede insists, is loving his adopted country. "Is that a crime?" he asks.

At San Diego State, unfortunately, some people think that it should be.

Daniel J. Flynn serves as the executive director of Accuracy in Academia and editor of Campus Report.

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