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Detriot arabs accused { September 15 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19758-2002Sep15.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19758-2002Sep15.html
Skepticism of Detroit's Arab Americans Grows
Some Doubt Charges Against 4 Accused of Operating Terror Cell
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 15, 2002; Page A03
DETROIT -- The peculiar activity at the brick duplex on Norman Street in this worn, working-class neighborhood piqued neighbors' curiosity. Groups of men sat for hours in a car in front of the house. And shortly before last Sept. 11, a neighbor says, she saw three men in the back yard, burning computer paper in a trash can.
Such events were hardly worth a second thought until Sept. 17, when the FBI raided the home and arrested three Middle Eastern men on suspicion of terrorism.
Nearly a year later, after countless investigations of thousands of suspects, the trio became the first people since the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to be accused of operating a terrorist cell in the United States.
The indictment, which calls the detainees a "sleeper operational combat cell," describes some of the most extensive efforts to date in the United States to aid the al Qaeda network. It alleges that the men, two of whom have been in custody since the Sept. 17 raid, operated an underground support unit to collect guns and intelligence, recruit members and produce false documents for "the purpose of engaging in violent attacks against persons and buildings within the territory of Jordan, Turkey and the United States."
Also indicted was a fourth person, the alleged cell leader, known only by the name "Abdella." Authorities suspect he may be overseas.
In Washington, the indictment is being hailed as an important victory in the war on terror. But here in Detroit, home to one of the nation's largest Middle Eastern populations, some are skeptical. They question whether the men are terrorists or simply immigrants with menial jobs who were in the wrong place when federal agents arrived, looking for another suspect.
The skepticism increased earlier this month when that suspect, Nabil Almarabh, whom the government initially considered an important terror suspect, was cleared of links to terrorism and ordered deported to Syria.
"If they did something wrong, prosecute them. But if they didn't, don't blow it up like it's an al Qaeda cell," said Don Unis, a Lebanese American and retired captain of the Dearborn Fire Department. "It sounds a little far-fetched to the Arab community."
Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Detroit, said that, "at this point, we see it as premature. When it comes to linking people to terrorism, we have to be very careful."
Authorities have discovered only two other similar alleged domestic plots. Yesterday, the Justice Department announced that law enforcement agents had broken up a terror cell operating in a Buffalo suburb, this one a group of eight U.S. citizens, some of whom had allegedly trained in al Qaeda camps last year. And a Seattle man, James Ujaama, is charged with conspiring to aid al Qaeda by attempting to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
The 24-page Detroit indictment alleges that Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 23, Ahmed Hannan, 35, Karim Koubriti, 25, and Abdella belonged to Salafiyya and al-Takfir Wal Hijira, religious movements that include radical adherents who are part of "the greater global jihadist organization known as al Qaeda." All three men have pleaded not guilty.
The indictment relies heavily on an informant, Youssef Hmimssa, a former roommate of the defendants and a suspected con artist who faces criminal charges in Chicago and Detroit.
The indictment contends that a videotape of U.S. landmarks seized on Sept. 17 belonged to the men, as did a day planner found in the apartment that contained crude sketches of a U.S. air base in Incirlik, Turkey. Sources have said that then-Defense Secretary William S. Cohen canceled a 2000 trip to the air base, in part because of concerns about an attack on him.
To avoid the risk "that the written records would be attributed to them," the trio had a mentally unstable man sign the day planner, the indictment alleges. That man, Ali Ahmed, 19, tumbled to his death from a freeway overpass in Dearborn on March 2, 2001, sources said, in what Dearborn police ruled a suicide.
Kevin Ernst, Ali-Haimoud's attorney, said his client has "no connection to terrorism. All the allegations are based on one single snitch who was in more trouble than the three men combined before he decided to cooperate with the government."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino responded that such comments are "unprofessional and purposefully intended to inflame the community." He declined to comment in more detail, citing a gag order imposed by U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen.
The indictment also alleges that the four defendants traveled to Detroit Metropolitan Airport -- where three of them had worked -- to check for "security breaches."
Two of the men -- Koubriti and Hannan -- worked as dishwashers from May to July 2001 for an airline caterer located off airport grounds. They had limited security clearance, which barred them from ramp areas. However, an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent testified at a hearing earlier this year that they could have gained access to off-limits areas because of lax security.
Ali-Haimoud was arrested on Sept. 17, but he was soon released for insufficient evidence. In February 2002, with his roommates still behind bars, he landed a job at an ice cream shop inside the new Northwest Airlines terminal at the airport. Two months later, he was arrested there on charges of possessing false documents.
Ernst says there was nothing sinister about his client getting the airport job, explaining that Arab community members would not hire him for fear of becoming entangled in his problems. Ali-Haimoud cleared a criminal background and fingerprint check, and he was required to pass through a metal detector each day, authorities said.
"It's important to note that he was [cleared] by the government" to work in the airport, Ernst said. "He did not misrepresent himself. He did not go there under a false name. It's not against the law for an Arab to work at an airport."
Koubriti and Hannan, both from Morocco, entered the country through New York in 2000. They met while working at a chicken processing plant outside Canton, Ohio. In 2000, Hannan lived briefly on the same block in Alexandria as two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. In the spring of 2001, he and Koubriti moved to an apartment on Riverside Street in Dearborn.
They lived there with Hmimssa, a flashy dresser who had computer skills. Hmimssa was a fugitive, wanted in Chicago on charges of credit card fraud in excess of $150,000.
The roommates tried to recruit Hmimssa to "participate in the global jihad" against Turkey, Jordan and the United States, according to the indictment and sources. They also talked of creating false documents for themselves and others so they could smuggle compatriots into the country, the court documents allege.
In June, Ali-Haimoud, who previously knew Koubriti and Hannan, told Hmimssa that he planned to send money and weapons to "brothers" in Algeria and that he and the other men were trying to obtain a large number of weapons, the indictment and sources allege. But the plans soured. Hmimssa had a falling-out with his roommates and moved out in early July. Ali-Haimoud, an Algerian, moved in. He was the most religious of the three, according to people familiar with the men. The other two reportedly drank beer and were far less observant.
The men slept a lot during the day and were out all times of the night, according to a landlord and a neighbor. People came in and out of the apartment all night, sometimes carrying out suitcases.
"I was thinking something was going on somewhere," said the landlord, an immigrant from Yemen who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. "I was thinking they were smuggling cigarettes or smuggling drugs."
Authorities suspect that one of the many visitors was the fourth defendant, Abdella, who lived in Chicago and went by many aliases, including Jean Pierre Tardelli and George Labibe. According to the indictment, Abdella, who may be from Morocco, had expertise in areas including airport security and the manufacture of false identification.
By August, the landlord was growing weary of the three men's lifestyle and suspicious because they had no furniture in the apartment. In late August, he evicted them. They moved two miles away, to a $400-a-month duplex on Norman Street in an ethnically diverse neighborhood just inside Detroit that includes Yemenis, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, whites and blacks. The name of Almarabh, the previous tenant, was still affixed to the mailbox.
The last real excitement on the block was in 2000, when a crack house burned down. This time, neighbors watched the newcomers with curiosity. They had barbecues on the front lawn, attended by seven or eight male friends. Sometimes men sat in a car for hours in the dark. People came and went.
"They pretty much kept to themselves," said neighbor Kay Hickman, who stood on the porch of the house where she has lived for 30 years. "Terrorism was the farthest thing from our minds."
About a week or two before Sept. 11, a neighbor named Yvette, who declined to give her last name, said she was looking out the rear window at night and saw three men burning paper in a trash can. "I was surprised," she recalled. She mentioned it to her husband, who told her not to be concerned.
On Sept. 17, as the country was reeling from the attacks, federal agents from a counterterrorism task force went to Norman Street, looking for Almarabh, who was on a terrorist watch list. He had moved out. But agents searched the two-bedroom flat and found fake government documents, more than 30 passport-sized photos, the day planner and the video of landmarks, including Disneyland. Some of the fake documents bore Hmimssa's photo.
Later that month, authorities arrested Almarabh in a Chicago suburb and Hmimssa in Iowa. Authorities initially believed the day planner was Hmimssa's, but that theory changed after Hmimssa began cooperating with the government. Unlike the others, he has not been charged with aiding terrorist groups, but he still faces charges of credit card fraud in Chicago and charges of document fraud in Detroit.
Nearly a year later, things have quieted on Norman Street, but the indictment has inflamed some Arab Americans' emotions anew. "If we catch terrorists, God bless us," said Osama A. Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News in Dearborn. "Let's just make sure they are terrorists."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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