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Below are the text of the officail press on the trials of the men whose apartments were raided. Since they were workers trying to work for a living, the FBI has all sorts of suspicions.
Sat Sept 22, Washington Post:"Officials said the FBI was also checking why several men detained in the Midwest had recently obtained or sought licenses to drive trucks.
"It's raised some eyebrows," one federal investigator said. "It's something we're looking into, and it's certainly got people thinking, 'What's the reason for this?' "
Nabil Almarabh, 34, who was arrested Wednesday in Chicago on a probation violation charge, last year secured a chauffeur's license in Michigan that would allow him to haul hazardous materials.
While searching for Almarabh -- who has been under investigation for alleged financial dealings with associates of Osama bin Laden, the presumed mastermind of the terrorist assaults -- FBI agents searched his former Detroit apartment and arrested three men for possession of false documents.
In detaining Ahmed Hannan, Karim Koubriti and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, authorities also found a day planner that contained notes in Arabic about a U.S. air base in Turkey and a Jordanian airport. Two of the three, Hannan and Koubriti, had recently taken a truck-driving course."
Yesterday, a federal magistrate in Detroit ordered all three held without bond.
Sat. Sept.22 Detroir Free Press: "IN CUSTODY IN DETROIT: Shadowy new name emerges in probe
Jilali may be responsible for fake IDs; 3 Detroit suspects stay jailed September 22, 2001
BY JACK KRESNAK AND JIM SCHAEFER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
A mysterious new name in the nationwide terrorism investigation emerged Friday in federal court in Detroit, where three suspects learned they won't be freed from jail for now.
And new insights arose from Canada and Detroit about Nabil Almarabh, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden. Almarabh's Michigan driver's license led agents to the three suspects being held here by the U.S. Marshals Service.
In arguing to keep the three behind bars, Richard Convertino, assistant U.S. attorney, disclosed at a detention hearing in U.S. District Court that someone named only as "Jilali" may be the person responsible for some suspicious documents that were found at a southwest Detroit home. Agents found 28 passport photos, false IDs, sketches of an airport, and notations in Arabic about a U.S. base in Turkey.
Jilali is the source two of the suspects -- Ahmed Hannan and Karim Koubriti -- gave for at least some of the suspicious documents, Convertino said. No further details were given about Jilali. The items were seized Monday night at a raid on a rental flat on Detroit's southwest side. Agents were looking for Almarabh -- whose name appears on the FBI's list of people wanted for questioning about last week's attacks.
Hannan, 33, Koubriti, 23, and Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, will continue to be held at least until a preliminary examination next Friday on charges of possession of fraudulent documents and conspiracy to possess or manufacture the documents.
Lawyers representing the men argued unsuccessfully that the charges are minor and the men should be released on bond. Their clients, they said, are being unfairly detained because of a climate of fear. Hannan and Koubriti are native Moroccans; Ali-Haimoud is Algerian.
Almarabh remained in custody Friday in Chicago where he was being questioned by the FBI after his arrest Wednesday night at a convenience store where he recently had taken a job. Federal officials have released no information about what Almarabh's connection may be -- if any -- to last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But a source close to the federal probe has told the Free Press that Almarabh is a close associate of bin Laden, their chief suspect in the attacks.
Almarabh, Hannan and Koubriti all had recently undergone training to drive big-rig trucks, fueling questions among public officials about whether trucks could be used as weapons. Almarabh had also obtained certification to haul hazardous cargo, including explosives.
According to Canadian immigration records obtained by the Free Press, Almarabh was caught June 27 moving between the two countries while hiding in the back of a tractor-trailer rig.
Almarabh, 34, tried to enter the United States through the Queen's Lewiston Bridge at Niagara Falls when U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services officers discovered him in the truck on the U.S. side of the border. They returned him to Canadian officials who found a fraudulent Canadian passport, a fake Canadian citizenship card and fraudulent social insurance number in Almarabh's possession.
When asked by Canadian Immigration Officer John Glengarry what country he was a citizen of, Almarabh said, "I'm stateless," according to a transcript of a June 29 immigration hearing.
He later told Canadian authorities that he was born in Kuwait to parents who were from Syria. Published reports have said Almarabh's mother was Palestinian and his father was a Syrian running a business in Kuwait.
Almarabh told Canadian authorities that he would not leave their country. When an officer suggested he may have to be deported to Sudan, Almarabh became upset and said, "I won't leave." It is unclear from the transcript why he might be deported to Sudan.
Almarabh told the officer to "put me back in a cell so I can die," according to the transcript.
Almarabh, the records show, initially entered Canada in 1994 claiming to be a refugee. But officials determined he didn't qualify for that status. He did not leave Canada until June 20, 1995, however, according to the transcripts. He later said he returned to Canada in January, 2001.
Almarabh's Vietnamese-born wife, Huyn T. Van, told the New York Times that her husband entered the U.S. from Canada in late 1996 or early 1997. His Canadian driver's license was issued in March, 1994, according to records obtained by the Free Press.
Almarabh's wife said he told her he was Iraqi and that his mother and two brothers live in Kuwait. She said Almarabh was questioned by the FBI in Boston in August.
When they arrested Almarabh this summer, Canadian officials knew that Almarabh had been convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon -- a knife -- in Massachusetts in December, the transcript shows, but officials apparently did not know he was wanted for violating his probation for that offense.
A court official ordered Almarabh held pending a second hearing.
At a second hearing in July, a Canadian immigration official argued that authorities ought to continue holding Almarabh because he "has demonstrated quite amply in both countries that he has no respect for the immigration laws of either Canada or the United States and is more than willing to circumvent these to serve his own purposes."
The immigration court official noted that Almarabh's false passport was in his name, had his picture on it and "was tailor-made for you."
"You were apparently involved in a smuggling operation in order to get back here," the court official told Almarabh. In the end, however, the court set a $7,500 bond, which was posted for Almarabh by an Islamic cleric from Toronto who said he was Almarabh's uncle.
U.S. investigators are interested in Almarabh's training last summer as a truck driver. On Friday they questioned the manager of the A & K Driving School in Dearborn, where he completed training in big rigs last year. Almarabh then went on to get a hazardous cargo certificate.
On Thursday, FBI agents went to another school, U.S. Truck Driver Training School in Detroit, where Hannan and Koubriti were trained this summer.
Hatem Aly said Almarabh signed up for the Dearborn school's least-expensive training class on Aug. 27, 2000, and paid the $1,700 tuition by a personal check. As part of their investigation, FBI agents are seeking sources of funding for terrorist groups.
Almarabh attended the school between Sept. 8, 2000, and Oct. 12, 2000.
Almarabh was a good student, Aly said, and received his certificate to drive a heavy tractor-trailer rig. At the end of training, he did not ask for job placement, which the school provides, Aly said. Almarabh told Aly he planned to return to Boston for a while, then would move back to Detroit.
Almarabh's name was on the southwest Detroit flat's mailbox when agents raided it Monday night. Instead of him, they found Hannan, Ali-Haimoud, Koubriti and a cache of suspicious documents, at lease some of which purportedly belonged to "Jilali."
In court Friday, Convertino said a statement from Ali-Haimoud indicated that Jilali lived with Hannan and Koubriti at a previous residence in Dearborn, but they kicked him out when they discovered his false documents. They moved to the Detroit flat several weeks ago, but told agents they kept the documents in case he returned for them.
Hannan and Koubriti worked until July for LSG Sky Chefs, which provides in-flight meals for airlines at Detroit Metro Airport.
After Friday's detention hearing in court, Ali-Hamoud's attorney, Kevin Ernst, tried to distance his client from Hannan and Koubriti.
"It is a grave injustice for him to spend another minute in jail," Ernst said. "They have no case against him."
Ernst said Ali-Haimoud "has never heard of" and "had nothing to do with" Almarabh.
To the dismay of defense attorneys, the government offered no testimony regarding the criminal charges against Hannan, Koubriti, and Ali-Haimoud.
James Thomas, the court-appointed attorney for Hannan, appealed to the judge to order the government to turn over statements from the defendants and other investigative documents, but U.S. District Court Magistrate Paul Komives refused.
"How do I represent a person effectively in a case?" Thomas asked. He said the charges were minor and normally would merit bond. "People are in a defense mode and, may I say, quick to judge."
Contact JIM SCHAEFER at 313-223-4542 or [email protected]. Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or [email protected].
Staff writer David Zeman contributed to this report.
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In Custody in Detroit: Sept. 22 Detroit Free Press Article
Journal 16