Kent man connected to al-Qaida, agent says
10/23/03Karen R. Long
Plain Dealer Reporter
York, Pa.- Using freshly declassified evidence, an Akron FBI agent testified yesterday that the bureau believes a Kent man is an al-Qaida operative as potentially lethal as the terrorists who flew the hijacked planes Sept. 11, 2001.
Ashraf Al-Jailani, a Yemen- born geochemist arrested a year ago in Akron, sat mute as FBI Special Agent Roger Charnesky described him as an al-Qaida "first-stringer, highly educated, highly trained and highly motivated."
Charnesky, his forehead glistening with perspiration, asserted that if Al-Jailani "is who the evidence suggests he is, then he would be a monumental threat to the community, particularly to the Jewish community."
The agent testified that GoJo Industries, an Akron manufacturer of soaps and cleaning products, was Al-Jailani's highly flammable probable target. Al-Jailani worked as a quality control chemist for the Jewish family- owned business for two years before his workplace arrest Oct. 23, 2002.
Immigration Judge Walt Durling ran out of time before Al-Jailani's lawyer could completely cross-examine Charnesky. Al-Jailani asked the court twice to speak, but Durling ordered him returned to Berks County prison, outside Read ing, Pa., where Al-Jailani has been incarcer ated since No vember.
No charges have been filed against him.
Charnesky testified that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft declassified some intelligence yesterday to present at Al-Jailani's bond hearing.
It concerns a Saudi-born man who bought computers and satellite communications for al-Qaida while maintaining a home in Chicago.
This man, identified only as Mr. Khaleel, had links to Al-Jailani, Charnesky said.
When the FBI searched Khaleel's home in April 1999, agents discovered Al-Jailani's business card, along with contact information for a terrorist suspect the FBI calls Suspect B. Then, when Charnesky searched Al-Jailani's camouflage fanny pack the day he was arrested, Charnesky discovered Al-Jailani's Wisconsin ID card.
The address on the card - 1826 Fordham Ave. in Madison, Wis. - was the same address as on Suspect B's ID card.
Charnesky argued that these facts, taken together with phone calls placed from Al-Jailani's home to four New York numbers also dialed by Yemeni men convicted of money-laundering, puts Al-Jailani firmly in terrorist circles.
"It's not a guess, it's not a hunch," Charnesky testified. "It's a mathematical probability."
Charnesky said Al-Jailani fit the profile of a sleeper-cell operative down to his disdain for his wife and allegations that he praised the 9/11 hijackers. In jailhouse interviews, Al-Jailani has denied such sympathy or any terrorist ties.
"The attacks were completely wrong," he told The Plain Dealer in a previous interview. "I told this to my friends. I have a family, too."
Durling, who will resume Al-Jailani's bond hearing when all parties are again available, said he will consider just two criteria: Is Al-Jailani a flight risk, and is he a danger to the community? Durling told the lawyers he will focus on the second question.
Most of yesterday's hearing, conducted under tight security in a concrete-block room, centered on untangling the conflicting testimony of Michele Swensen, Al-Jailani's Ohio-born wife of seven years. They met as exchange students in Japan.
Jeffrey Bubier, an immigration trial attorney, established through Swensen's electronic diary and e-mail that Al-Jailani had dragged her down their Kent apartment steps, hit her repeatedly with a shoe and threatened to take their three children to Yemen.
The court allowed Al-Jailani, who had not seen Swensen for almost a year, to greet her before the hearing. He carefully took her hand and nodded. Throughout the hearing, Al-Jailani appeared tense and sad, smiling only when Swensen explained that she reverted to her original surname because Al-Jailani is too difficult for people to say and spell.
Durling asked Swensen, given her difficult marital history, why she now wants Al-Jailani to come home.
"He's my husband," she answered. "I married him for life and I want things to work out."
When Durling asked Swensen if she also was afraid that brutality would return to her marriage, she paused a long time. "Yes," she whispered.
If Durling affirms his March decision to grant Al-Jailani bond, the Board of Immigration Appeals will hear the government's objections.
© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
