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Posted on 11/27/2001 10:01:54 AM PST by Teacup

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - The case against an Indonesian man who the FBI thinks is linked to the Sept. 11 terrorists was delayed Tuesday when his court-appointed attorney recused himself as an FBI agent testified about the man's links to the terrorists.

On the surface, the document fraud case against Agus Budiman, 31, has nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. But prosecutors think Budiman is a close associate of Mohammed Atta, a ringleader in the Sept. 11 hijackings.

In addition, authorities suspect that the man Budiman allegedly helped to obtain a fake Virginia ID card, Mohammad Bin Nasser Belfas, is a contact for Osama bin Laden.

At a detention hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, FBI Special Agent Jesus Gomez began to detail Budiman's contacts with Atta, another hijacker, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ramsi Binalshibh, a Muslim cleric identified by FBI director Robert Mueller as ``the 20th hijacker.''

At that point, defense attorney Gregory English asked U.S. Magistrate Theresa Carroll Buchanan to be recused.

English, a retired Army officer who was appointed to the case Friday, said he had friends who died Sept. 11 when hijackers crashed an American Airlines jet into the Pentagon.

``On the surface of the papers, it appeared to be a run-of-the-mill immigration fraud case,'' English said after the hearing. ``I particularly couldn't represent anyone for anything regarding the Sept. 11 attacks.''

Buchanan removed English from the case and rescheduled the preliminary hearing for Thursday. Before the hearing was interrupted, Gomez testified about discussions Budiman had with Atta and with Binalshibh, also known as Ramsi Omar.

Mueller has said that Binalshibh, a Yemeni citizen who had been living in Hamburg, Germany, was likely supposed to have been the fifth hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field while on a flight path to Washington. Binalshibh is now the subject of a worldwide manhunt.

Gomez said that Binalshibh twice tried unsuccessfully to use his association with Budiman as a means to enter the United States.

He also said the Binalshibh told Budiman of his desire to fight an Islamic holy war in Bosnia.

Both Budiman and Belfas are on a list of 370 names sought by the FBI for questioning in the Sept. 11 attacks. The list was made public by Finnish authorities more than a month ago.

Budiman is identified on the list as a U.S. contact for Atta. Belfas is identified as a contact for bin Laden. No charges against Belfas have been made public, and his whereabouts are unclear.

Ivan Yacub, Budiman's immigration lawyer, said Budiman only knew Atta casually, because they attended the same mosque in Hamburg several years ago.

Budiman, who knew Atta by the alias Mohammed Al-Amir, has not seen Atta since he came to the United States in October 2000, Yacub said.

Four people have been charged in federal court in Alexandria with helping some of the hijackers obtain fake Virginia ID cards. One has pleaded guilty, while another pleaded guilty to related charges.

At one point, though, investigators were suspicious that one of the four, Luis A. Martinez-Flores, was closely tied to the hijackers, But investigators no longer think that any of the four charged prior to Budiman had any knowledge of the hijackers' intentions.

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