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From Detroit Free Press
Terror task force nabs 5 more Michigan men
Investigation widens; authorities cite plot to obtain licenses for hauling chemicals
September 27, 2001BY JIM SCHAEFER, DAVID ASHENFELTER AND JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERSFive men were arrested in Michigan on Wednesday as part of a multistate dragnet by federal terrorism investigators to round up truck drivers who fraudulently obtained licenses to haul hazardous cargo. Five others were arrested in Missouri and Washington state. The arrests came as federal officials examined the possibility of terrorists using trucks full of toxic chemicals or explosives, instead of hijacked airliners. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh and unsealed Wednesday, investigators said 20 people, including nine from Michigan, had fraudulently obtained licenses to drive tractor-trailers. They had a contact inside the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the complaint said; licenses, which in one case cost at least $350, were issued between July 1999! and February 2000. Eighteen of the 20 also fraudulently obtained certification to haul hazardous cargo, thecomplaint said. Three of the five men arrested in Michigan made brief appearances Wednesday evening before a magistrate in federal court in Detroit. They are Hussain Al-Obaidi, 34, of Detroit; Samir Al Mazaal, 29, of Detroit, who said he is an Iraqi citizen, and Hatef Alatabi, 35, of Dearborn. Alatabi works as a dishwasher for LSG Sky Chefs, which caters in-flight meals for airlines at Detroit Metro Airport. Also charged but not appearing were Akeel Al-Aboudy, 24, of Detroit, and Arkan Alandon, 29, of Dearborn. All are charged withconspiring to produce and possess false IDs related to interstate commerce. The five men are scheduled to appear at detention hearings at 1 p.m. today. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft told a Senate hearing Tuesday there is a "clear and present" danger of additional terrorist attacks that could include trucks carrying hazardous chemicals. Po! lice across the nation have been put on alert for anything suspicious involving hazardous materials because people with possible ties to the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers have obtained or tried to obtain licenses to transport hazardous cargo, Ashcroft said. Ashcroft's statements and Wednesday's arrests came nearly a week after the Free Press began reporting details about how Nabil Almarabh had received training in Dearborn to drive a big rig and obtained certification on his Michigan driver's license to haul hazardous cargo. Almarabh, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden, who was on the FBI's list of people wanted for questioning about the Sept. 11 attacks, was arrested Sept. 19 near Chicago and flown to New York for questioning. Wednesday's arrests raise further questions about what role, if any, trucks may play in the terrorism investigation. One of the agents who filed the affidavit in the arrests, John Kelly, is assigned to the FBI's national team investigating the terrori! st attacks in which hijacked jetliners hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 7,000 people are dead or missing. In a 13-page affidavit, Kelly and Pennsylvania State Trooper Francis Murphy III said the 20 men obtained the licenses and hazardous-materials certifications with the aid of an unnamed Pennsylvania Department of Transportation driver's license examiner who worked in a state office building in Pittsburgh. The affidavit said a middleman named Abdul Mohamman, known as Ben, facilitated the transactions. People seeking the fraudulent licenses would stand by Ben's car outside the office building so they could be pointed out to the examiner. That way the examiner would know what the bogus applicant looked like, the affidavit said. Most of the people in the group obtained the Pennsylvania licenses by falsely claiming they had been certified as commercial drivers in other states, the affidavit said. Nine of the people falsely claimed certi! fication in Michigan. The rest said they had been certified initially in states including Washington, Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, Tennessee and Texas. In fact, none of them had been certified as commercial drivers, the affidavit said. And some even had suspended driver's licenses. The examiner, who was not named in the affidavit, allegedly helped the group obtain the licenses and certifications without required tests. Eighteen of them also were provided hazardous-materials certifications without taking tests. One person paid at least $350 to get a license, the affidavit said. Court documents indicated the Pennsylvania department began investigating the fraud scheme in March 2000, a month after Washington state authorities called to inquire about three men who were trying to use their Pennsylvania licenses to get commercial licenses in Washington. Gina Balaya, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, said she had no information on the status of the other 15 people! who allegedly obtained fraudulent licenses. Alatabi appeared in Detroit's federal court wearing a red-white-and-blue ribbon, like the ones being worn by many people mourning the terrorist attacks. Alatabi began working for Sky Chefs on July 5, said Bill Slay, a spokesman for the company. The kitchen he worked in is at a facility off the airport grounds, Slay said, and he did not have security access to the airport. Alatabi and Al Mazaal do not have Michigan driver's licenses, Secretary of State spokeswoman Liz Boyd said late Wednesday. Al-Obaidi, Al-Aboudy and Alandon have Michigan licenses to drive trailer trucks, Boyd said. Al-Aboudy and Alandon also have endorsements to haul hazardous materials. Alandon has additional state endorsements to drive tanker trunks containing liquids and to drive rigs with two trailers. Alatabi's federal defender, Leroy Soles, urged U.S. District Court Magistrate Virginia Morgan to release his client. "He's a (U.S.) citizen and we should afford ! him some justice. I feel this is not right," Soles said. But the three who appeared in court were ordered held in custody pending today's hearings. Alatabi was quiet and cooperative when he was arrested at his home just before noon, according to neighbors in the quiet street of tidy houses in east Dearborn. Alatabi's family gathered Wednesday night at the home he shares with his parents and pregnant wife. Although they were advised by his attorney not to speak about the case, his sister-in-law Cindy Alatabi said, "It needs to be known he's done nothing wrong. He was taken advantage of while trying to get a job." Al-Obaidi was arrested around 11:30 a.m. in an apartment above the Quality Market at Michigan and St. James, said the store's manager, Mohmad Chehab. Chehab said FBI agents asked him for an apartment key, then went upstairs and knocked on the door. Al-Obaidi, who had been sleeping, opened it, Chehab said. "Hussain, this is the FBI, hands up," Cheha! b recalls one of the agents saying. The agents were in the tiny one-bedroom apartment until noon. They led Al-Obaidi out of the building in handcuffs and took with them several items including identification documents found in pants pockets, an address book, an Ameritech phone bill, a Samsung cell phone and several photos and other documents. Chehab, who has known Al-Obaidi since he became a tenant in the building nearly a year ago, said he can't believe that he could have anything to do with terrorism. "The guy is cool," he said. Michigan already figured strongly in the trucking angle of the federal investigation. Almarabh had obtained five Michigan driver's licenses in 13 months. Last fall he attended the A & K Truck Driving School in Dearborn, got his trucking license, then went on to get a hazardous-cargo certificate on Sept. 11, 2000 -- exactly a year before the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Two of the three men arrested Sept. 17 at Almarabh's former! southwest Detroit address -- Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Karim Koubriti, 23 -- also went to truck-driving school. They attended the U.S. Truck Driver Training School in Detroit for four weeks this summer. Hannan did not pass the course. Koubriti managed to earn his commercial driving license, but did not get a hazardous-cargo certification, according to the Michigan Secretary of State's Office.Contact JIM SCHAEFER at 313-223-4542 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Staff writers Cecil Angel and Alexa Capeloto contributed to this report.
"Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be persistent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your conscience.".....Leonard Peltier
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