Ashcroft's prevaricating to get dragnet

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ashcroft erred on Michigan terror links
Justice officials admit no evidence ties three Detroit men to attacks

By Gordon Trowbridge and David Shepardson / The Detroit News

Nov. 2, 2001

What Atty. Gen. Ashcroft said

   "Three Michigan men suspected of having knowledge of the Sept. 11th attacks, ... were arrested on charges of possessing false documents. In addition to a day planner containing notations in Arabic and what appeared to be a diagram of an airport flight line, agents found false immigration forms, a fraudulent U.S. visa and a false alien identification card in the apartment of the three men."




Key players

   People with Metro Detroit ties detained by federal authorities since Sept. 11:
   * Nabil al-Marabh, a former Boston cab driver who has spent time there, in Detroit and Canada. He was identified by a terror suspect on trial in Jordan as an operative of Osama bin Laden's terror network.
   * Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Karim Koubriti, 23, two North African immigrants. They were seized Sept. 18 in an apartment on Norman Street in Detroit, along with false immigration papers and a notebook containing references to U.S. leaders and bases. They are being held on false-document charges.
   * Youssef Hmimssa, an Algerian immigrant with a multitude of aliases. His photo was on some of the false documents found at Norman Street. He's also held on document charges, and he had been charged in Chicago with credit card fraud.
   * Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, the third man arrested in the Norman Street raid. Authorities dropped charges and released him Oct. 10.



 No information has emerged linking Metro Detroit to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Justice Department officials said Thursday, a day after Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft suggested three Michigan men might have known about the hijackings in advance.
   A Justice Department official in Washington admitted Wednesday's statement from the attorney general might not have been clear.
   Local Justice officials have repeatedly maintained there are no apparent links between the worst terrorist attacks in history and any of the immigrants with Detroit ties arrested since Sept. 11.
   Ashcroft's statement came in a news conference in Washington to announce a new effort to jail and deport those with suspected terrorist links. As an example, he cited the arrest of three Michigan men "suspected of having knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks."
   A lawyer for one of the Detroit men arrested in the wake of the attacks denounced Ashcroft's statement as an effort to justify the government dragnet that has swept up more than 1,000 detainees since Sept. 11.
   "It was a very irresponsible statement. He said the three guys arrested at the apartment had suspected knowledge of the terrorist attacks. That is completely untrue," said Frank Ernst, an attorney for Farouk ali-Haimoud.
   Though Ashcroft did not name the men, he described a situation identical to a Sept. 18 raid on a Detroit apartment where three men were arrested, two of whom are now held on immigration charges.
   The Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the statement referred to fears immediately after the arrests that the men might be connected to the hijackings.
   Ashcroft's remarks come amid growing criticism that the administration is confusing the public and creating unnecessary alarm by providing inaccurate or incomplete information.
   Law enforcement officials have said they are curious about possible connections between the Detroit men and terror groups, but they have consistently maintained, in public and private, that there was no evidence of links between the men -- or anyone else in Detroit -- and the hijackings.
   Ashcroft's statement seemed to change all that. At least two newspapers reported the statement as the first government confirmation that it held people suspected of aiding the hijackers or knowing about their plot.
   And it left federal authorities here in Detroit in a bind: contradict their own assurances that no local links had emerged, or contradict their own boss.
   "We're not adding anything else, but right now we are not contradicting the attorney general's statement," said Maria Llompart, a special agent in the FBI's Detroit field office.
   Several officials would not comment or did not return calls, including interim U.S. Attorney Alan Gershel; Robert Cares, the head of the anti-terrorism task force in Detroit; and Richard Convertino, head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Detroit, who is handling the local prosecutions.

The probe in Metro Detroit
   This area has been a focus of the investigation almost from the start.
   Federal agents arrested three men Sept. 18 at a Norman Street apartment in southwest Detroit. Agents, searching for another man whom they suspect of ties to Osama bin Laden, instead found three North African immigrants: Farouk ali-Haimoud, 21, Ahmed Hannan, 33, and Karim Koubriti, 23.
   According to court documents filed the next day, agents also found an assortment of fake identification documents, and a day planner with Arabic notes that apparently referred to a U.S. air base in Turkey and a U.S. official's visit there, and an airport in Jordan.
   Suspicion immediately centered on whether the men were involved in a plot to attack Defense Secretary William Cohen, who had cancelled a scheduled trip to the NATO base in Incirlik, Turkey, last year after intelligence officials warned of a threat against him.
   Ali-Haimoud has since been released and all charges against him dropped. Hannan and Koubriti are scheduled to go on trial in January on charges of carrying false immigration documents.
   A government lawyer said at a hearing last month that the two men may have connections to terrorist groups. But nothing has emerged linking them to the attacks that left nearly 5,000 people dead at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a crash site in Pennsylvania.

New charges possible
   Ali-Haimoud spent three weeks in custody before being released after the government dismissed charges against him. The government hasn't ruled out recharging him.
   "To again cast suspicion on my client is outrageous. They've hurt this kid enough," said Ernst, his attorney. "It's kind of like child abuse charges. If you are suspected of terrorism, you might as well be guilty."
   Ernst said he thought the statement was made to justify the incarceration of more than 1,000 people in the probe. Ashcroft's statements came as he rolled out a task force whose job will be to aggressively arrest, detain, prosecute or deport immigrants suspected of terrorist ties.
   "My guess is he's trying to justify the new policies," Ernst said.
   U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen's gag order forbids those involved in the false-documents case from commenting about it, and Rosen warned lawyers involved against connecting Hannan and Koubriti to terrorism. It wasn't clear if Ashcroft's statement could be considered a violation of that order; Rosen did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
   No such gag orders have been issued related to the case of Nabil al-Marabh, a former Boston cab driver who federal agents were looking for when they raided the Norman Street apartment.
   Al-Marabh has been held in New York City as a material witness in the Sept. 11 probe and is believed by intelligence officials to have connections to bin Laden's al-Qaida terror organization. Among the clues: the confession of a terror suspect in Jordan, who reportedly told Jordanian officials that al-Marabh is an al-Qaida operative.
   Al-Marabh apparently spent a few months at the Norman Street address, after stints in Boston and Canada and before moving to suburban Chicago, where he was arrested. Canadian newspapers have reported several possible connections between Al-Marabh and al-Qaida, but so far nothing has emerged that would link Al-Marabh to those arrested at Norman Street, or to any terrorist activity during his time in Detroit.


Detroit News Staff write Lisa Zagaroli contributed to this report. You can reach Gordon Trowbridge at (313) 222-2735 or gtrowbridge@xxxxxxxxxxxx