HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Saddam's stepson sparks anti-terrorist
false alarm
Ewen MacAskill,
diplomatic editor
Friday July 5, 2002 The Guardian Given the current heightened state
of alert of US security services, suspicion was aroused when a man of Middle
Eastern appearance turned up at passport control this week and was discovered to
be planning to sign up for a Florida flight school.
Concern grew when investigators found that the school, the Aeroservice
Aviation Centre, was the same as that attended by one of the September 11
hijackers.
Suspicion turned to alarm when the man, Mohammed Nour al-Din Saffi, was found
to be the stepson of one of America's foremost public enemies, Saddam Hussein.
But the fears appear to be groundless. Although Mr Saffi, 36, is apparently
related to Saddam, he is now a New Zealand citizen. He has lived there since
1997 and works as an engineer for a New Zealand airline.
Intensive investigations by the New Zealand security services after September
11 found no terrorist links. US security agents have reached the same
conclusion.
But he is being held at the Krome detention centre in Miami and is to be
deported to New Zealand because his papers were not in order.
There has been no history of Iraq sponsoring terrorism overseas for 10 years.
A suspected Iraqi agent was convicted of the attack on the World Trade Centre in
1993 and there was an assassination attempt on the then president, George Bush,
in Kuwait about the same time.
Ms Orihuela said intelligence agents tracked Mr Saffi after he flew into Los
Angeles from New Zealand late on Tuesday or early Wednesday. He flew on to Miami
international airport and was arrested soon after checking into the Comfort Inn.
James Goldman, assistant director of investigations at the US immigration and
naturalisation service, said Mr Saffi turned up on a tourist visa and failed to
tell customs agents of his intention to take the air training course. He had not
applied for the required student visa.
Mr Goldman said Mr Saffi, who has a pilot's licence, was seeking
recertification training at the flight school.
US papers reported that Mr Saffi is the eldest son of Samira al-Shahbandar,
Saddam's second wife.
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