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FBI Looks at Bin Laden's Boston Ties
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
September 12, 2001, 7:36 AM EDT
BOSTON -- Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden has strong family ties and a
group of supporters in Boston, where the two hijacked airliners that
demolished the World Trade Center took off.
One of bin Laden's brothers set up scholarship funds at Harvard, while
another relative owns six condominiums in an expensive complex in the
Charlestown section of Boston. Two bin Laden associates once worked as
Boston cab drivers, including one who was jailed in Jordan on charges of
plotting to blow up a hotel full of Americans and Israelis.
Bin Laden's ties to Boston are now being closely scrutinized as authorities
focus their investigation on terrorist cells with possible ties to him, said
Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command at the FBI's Boston office.
"The activity of this group here is obviously significant," Fitzpatrick said
Wednesday.
Investigators are interviewing drivers from Boston Cab Co., where two known
associates of bin Laden once worked, to see if they had ties to baggage
handlers, who in turn may have supplied weapons to the hijackers,
Fitzpatrick said.
"They are going to look at the cab drivers again -- since they are
predominantly Middle Eastern -- and they are going to look at a possible
link between them and the baggage handlers," Fitzpatrick said, based on his
information from law enforcement colleagues.
"They could thwart the security by having a baggage handler put the material
aboard the plane. That link is being investigated."
Last year, the FBI investigated the Boston activities of the two cab
drivers, Bassam A. Kanj, a Lebanese native, and Raed M. Hijazi, a
Palestinian. The men were tied by investigators to separate military and
terrorist plots allegedly financed by bin Laden.
Both men lived for years in Boston and Everett, a suburb north of Boston.
Kanj, 35, was killed in Lebanon last year in an attack against the Lebanese
army. Hijazi was charged in Jordan with plotting a New Year's Day 2000 hotel
bombing.
Bin Laden, a rich Saudi exile who is believed to be living in Afghanistan,
also has had family members living in the Boston area for the past decade.
In 1994, one of his brothers, Sheik Bakr Mohammed bin Laden, made a large
donation to Harvard Law School to fund visiting scholars to do research in
Islamic legal studies.
Harvard Law spokesman Michael Armini would not disclose the amount of the
gift, but typically it takes about $1 million to establish a research
fellowship. The sheik established a second scholarship at the Harvard School
of Design.
Harvard officials were quick to distance the school from Osama bin Laden,
emphasizing that he has no role in the scholarship programs.
"This is in no way connected to Osama bin Laden, who has been ostracized
from his family and from Saudi Arabia," Armini said. "The purpose of this
gift was to foster mutual understanding between the western and Islamic
legal worlds."
Stephen Walt, a professor of international politics at the JFK School of
Government at Harvard, likened the relationship of the bin Laden brothers to
that of University of Massachusetts President William Bulger and his
brother, reputed mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, who is among the FBI's 10
Most Wanted.
"I think that bin Laden is responsible for his action, but his brother is
not responsible for Osama's actions, and vice versa," Walt said.
Another relative, Mohammed M. bin Laden, owns six condominiums in the ritzy
Flagship Wharp condominium complex in Charlestown. His relation to bin Laden
could not immediately be determined. A woman who answered the telephone at
the management company for the complex refused to answer questions.
The condos were bought in the mid-1990s and range in assessed value from
$296,000 to $877,000, The Boston Globe reported.
Juliette Kayyem, a former member of the National Commission on Terrorism,
said Boston has several factors that may have attracted bin Laden's
supporters.
"Our proximity to the Canadian border and Boston being a big city where
people can hide is likely why Boston became the center," Kayyem said. "Also
being on the Eastern Seaboard, we have wide-bodied jets with large fuel
tanks. When you don't have other weapons, that's your weapon."
Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press
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