Terrorism Notebook
Report faults screening of hijackers

By Seattle Times news services

	Melendez- Perez
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. government fumbled repeated opportunities to stop many of the men responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks from entering the country, missing fraudulent passports and other warning signs, according to a preliminary report released yesterday.

The findings, released at the start of a two-day hearing on border and aviation security by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, contradict earlier assertions by top Bush administration officials that the hijackers entered the country legally.

The report pointed out that FBI Director Robert Mueller had testified all the hijackers came "lawfully from abroad," while CIA Director George Tenet described 17 of the 19 hijackers as "clean."

"We believe the information we have provided today gives the commission the opportunity to re-evaluate those statements," commission staff said.

Among the report's findings:

• At least two hijackers' passports were "clearly doctored." Because details are classified, the statement said only that they were "manipulated in a fraudulent manner" in ways known to be "associated with al-Qaida."

• Two hijackers had passports with "suspicious indicators." Again, no details were offered.

• Three hijackers submitted applications containing statements that could have been proved false when they applied.

• At least six hijackers violated immigration laws while in the country, either by staying longer than allowed, failing to show up for school or leaving and returning with a visa application pending.

• Suspicious agents sent several hijackers through "secondary inspection" as they entered the country.

The report detailed how Saeed Alghamdi, one of the hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, talked his way through the process in June 2001, even though he spoke little English, had no address on his arrival form, came with a one-way ticket and had only $500. Mohamed Atta, the 9/11 ringleader, and hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi also made it through, even though they had only tourist visas but said they intended to enroll in flight school.

Several current and former government officials testified that little more could have been done to detect the plotters. "I don't believe that in a visa interview, you would ever uncover a terrorist," said Mary Ryan, former assistant secretary for consular affairs in the State Department.

Customs agent Jose Melendez-Perez also testified. He said suspected 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta raised enough red flags, including having the wrong student visa, that he should have been blocked from entering the United States. Melendez-Perez said Atta's age and impeccable clothes appeared to contradict his story about being a student: "I would have recommended refusal."

Melendez-Perez is credited with stopping a man U.S. officials think may have planned to be the 20th hijacker. The man, identified by federal officials only as al-Qahtani, was stopped at Florida's Orlando International Airport in late August 2001. Melendez-Perez said he became suspicious when al-Qahtani provided vague answers about what he was doing in the United States.

U.S. officials put al-Qahtani on a plane back to Saudi Arabia. He was later captured in Afghanistan and is being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Judge voids part of Patriot Act

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge has thrown out a section of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to designated foreign terrorist organizations.

An attorney who argued the case on behalf of a civil-liberties group said the ruling marks the first court decision to declare a part of the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

In the ruling late Friday made available yesterday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said the ban is impermissibly vague.

The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the ruling, spokesman Mark Corallo said.

The case before the court involved five groups and two U.S. citizens seeking to provide support for lawful, nonviolent activities on behalf of Kurdish refugees in Turkey.

The judge's ruling said the law, as written, does not differentiate between impermissible advice on violence and encouraging the use of peaceful, nonviolent means to achieve goals. Under the Patriot Act, the U.S. prohibition on providing "material support" or "resources" to terrorist groups was expanded to include "expert advice or assistance."

Also ...

An al-Qaida program to develop chemical and biological weapons was in the early "conceptual stages" when it was cut short by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. and Malaysian security officials told The Associated Press. ... Security guards who repelled four simulated terrorist attacks at the Y-12 nuclear-weapons plant last summer in Oak Ridge, Tenn., had been tipped in advance, undermining the encouraging results, the Energy Department's watchdog office said yesterday. ... Plague researcher Thomas Butler — cleared of the most serious charges related to a bioterrorism scare but convicted of 47 lesser ones — would resign from Texas Tech University under a deal expected to be sealed by week's end.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company