Two in Virginia detained

Pair accused of helping hijackers get false IDs; '86 suspect sent to U.S.

10/02/2001

By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Two Virginia residents accused of helping four suicide hijackers fraudulently obtain identification documents six weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks were ordered held without bail Monday.

And in a sign that the United States has a long reach – and a long memory – when it comes to terrorist groups, the Justice Department announced that a man sought in the 1986 hijacking of a Pan Am jet has been returned to the United States to stand trial.

"We're a patient nation," President Bush said during a tour of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "We're a nation who has got a long-term view; a nation that's come to realize that in order to make freedom prevail, the evil-doers will be forced to run and will eventually be brought to justice."

U.S. authorities took Zayd Hassan Al Safarini into custody Friday in Pakistan, where he had spent the last 14 years in prison for the 1986 hijacking. Two Americans were among the 22 people killed aboard Pan Am Flight 73, a New York-bound plane hijacked in Karachi, Pakistan.

The Bush administration said Mr. Safarini, who has been linked to the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, is not believed to have ties to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network are believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11 plot.

Government officials nevertheless described Mr. Safarini's removal to the United States as a positive development in the relationship with Pakistan, whose long border with Afghanistan and past support for the Taliban regime make it key to any military or diplomatic solution.

"He's here, and that says a lot," Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said.

In the fraudulent-documents case, the FBI accused Luis Martinez Flores and Kenys Galicia with helping some of the 19 hijackers obtain Virginia identification in early August.

Mr. Martinez Flores, a 28-year old native of El Salvador, was charged Friday with falsely certifying that Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar lived at a Falls Church, Va., address he once had. Mr. Hanjour and Mr. Almihdhar are suspected of being among the five hijackers who crashed a plane into the Pentagon.

The affidavit unsealed Monday said Mr. Martinez Flores, who has lived here illegally since 1994, admitted providing the false certifications, for which he received $100.

The FBI accused Ms. Galicia, a notary, of assisting numerous people in obtaining false Virginia documents. The affidavit said she admitted signing residency certification forms for two other suspected hijackers, Abdulaziz Alomari and Ahmed Saleh Alghamdi, who were aboard the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers.

The investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, which increasingly has shifted overseas, continued to pick up steam Monday as additional arrests were made in Europe and the Middle East.

To date, about 150 "terrorists and their supporters" have been detained in 25 countries, Mr. Bush said. Arrests in the United States top 500, with 145 people being held on immigration violations.

Anti-terrorism judges in France questioned a key suspect at the center of a plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Paris. And Bosnian authorities detained two people found with box cutters near Sarajevo's airport.In Jordan, authorities arrested about a half-dozen suspected Muslim militants in a second sweep since the terror attacks.

In Paris, authorities began questioning Djamel Beghal, a French-Algerian who was extradited Sunday from the United Arab Emirates, about an uncovered plot to attack U.S. interests in Europe. French police have linked him to the bin Laden network.

British authorities extradited Kamel Daoudi, 27, on Saturday. He had fled to Britain as French police moved in on seven other people Sept. 21 based on information that Mr. Beghal provided to police in Dubai, where he was arrested in July and confessed to his role, authorities said.

Still in British custody is Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian pilot who prosecutors said is the first overseas suspect directly linked to the terrorist strikes. They said he served as a flight instructor for some of the hijackers.

Over the weekend, senior officials said they had learned that three of the suicide hijackers had each wired $5,000 two days before the attacks to a Saudi Arabian man in the United Arab Emirates.

The money – from Mohamed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi and Waleed al Shehri – apparently was left over from the money they received to finance the attacks. The unidentified Saudi man, who landed in the UAE in June from neighboring Qatar, left for Pakistan with the $15,000 on Sept. 11, the officials said.

The United States and European nations also continued their move to clamp down on assets linked to terrorist networks and the Taliban. Mr. Bush said the United States had frozen $6 million in accounts linked to terrorist activity.

Britain froze $90 million in assets linked to the Taliban. The French bank Credit Lyonnais froze an undisclosed amount of money belonging to Al Shamal Islamic Bank, a Sudanese institution linked to Mr. bin Laden.

The Associated Press and Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this report.