9/11 panel never met friend of 2 hijackers

By Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Khalid Almihdhar

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WASHINGTON — A Yemeni man who befriended two of the Sept. 11 hijackers may have known of their plans, according to the commission investigating the attacks.

Commission executive staff director Philip Zelikow said Friday the panel was "troubled" by what it learned about Mohdar Abdullah, who allegedly bragged to another inmate at an immigration detention facility in San Diego that he knew beforehand of the al-Qaida plot to hijack planes and slam them into buildings.

The FBI investigated Abdullah for nearly two years, but the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California declined to prosecute. Abdullah was deported in May to Yemen even though a jailhouse informant told investigators this spring that Abdullah confessed to him that he had prior knowledge of the hijacking plan. Abdullah never was interviewed by investigators from the Sept. 11 commission who had been trying to speak with him.

"We were puzzled that he was deported," Zelikow said.

The FBI long has held that no one in the United States knowingly collaborated with the Sept. 11 hijackers or knew in advance what they were planning to do.

Randy Hamud, Abdullah's San Diego lawyer, said his client "categorically denies" knowing of the hijackers' plans beforehand or telling anyone that he did.

"If there were a scintilla of credibility to that claim they would have prosecuted him," Hamud said Friday.

Abdullah became friendly with hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar after meeting them at the Rabat mosque in suburban San Diego. The pair, who arrived in San Diego in 2000, spoke little English, and Abdullah helped them do things such as apply for drivers' licenses, exchange airline tickets, make inquiries about flight schools and enroll in English classes, said FBI agent Jacqueline Maguire, who is working on the Sept. 11 probe.

The other hijackers were instructed to avoid mosques and blend in as best they could while in the United States. Because Alhazmi and Almihdhar spoke almost no English and were not familiar with Western culture, they were permitted to seek help from the local Muslim community, Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has told his interrogators.

The FBI learned of Abdullah soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. Documents found in the Toyota Corolla Alhazmi left parked at Dulles International Airport led to their old apartment in San Diego. An ex-roommate there directed them to Abdullah.

He was jailed on charges of lying on immigration forms and was interviewed several times by FBI agents about his relationship with Alhazmi and Almihdhar, Maguire said. Abdullah denied knowing about the deadly attack they were preparing.

"He knew the hijackers," Maguire said. "It appears that he did assist them, albeit to this day we do not have evidence that that support ... was witting."

Charges never were filed, and the Justice Department declined to delay his removal proceedings while the new information was investigated further, the commission report said.

Since returning to Yemen, Hamud said, Abdullah has been under almost constant surveillance and was surprised to learn that his name had surfaced in the commission report.

"They are ruining his life with distortions and inaccuracies," Hamud said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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