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Terrorists entered the U.S. with ease
By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG Sheik Omar Abdul RahmanA blind cleric from Egypt, he was accused of issuing a fatwa, or Islamic edict, to assassinate Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. He was acquitted in 1984. Five years later, he was arrested and acquitted again on charges he incited a riot in Egypt. He was finally convicted in absentia on the riot charge. In 1987, the State Department put Abdul Rahman on a lookout list of those who could be barred from obtaining a visa to enter the United States. But government personnel in Khartoum, Sudan, issued a visa three years later without checking the list. Abdul Rahman arrived in New York in July 1990, then went abroad and returned. He left the United States again and -- even though his visa had been canceled in November 1990 -- was allowed in a third time. "This is not somebody who hid his light under a bushel," Sherman Funk, then inspector general of the State Department, told a House subcommittee at the time. "He was very easily recognized. No matter how big the line (at Kennedy airport) . . . when somebody is blind, has a cane, Arab headdress, and has somebody helping him, it's -- it still sticks out." In March 1993, Abdul Rahman was ordered deported, but he was still in the country four months later when he was accused of plotting to blow up several New York City landmarks. Now 63, he is serving a life sentence. Ayman al-ZawahiriWidely regarded as Osama bin Laden's top deputy, the 50-year-old Egyptian physician was arrested -- but never convicted -- in the conspiracy to kill Sadat. Instead, he served three years in prison on a weapons charge. According to court testimony, he got into the United States at least once in the 1990s on a phony name and fake travel documents. He reportedly raised funds for terrorist operations in mosques in California and elsewhere, then slipped out of the country without a trace. Al-Zawahiri has carried French and Swiss passports under the name Amin Othman, and a Dutch passport in the name of Sami Mahmoud. In 1998, he was indicted along with 17 others in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and wounded more than 5,000 others. Last month the FBI named him as one of the world's "most wanted" terrorists. He is now believed to be in hiding with bin Laden. Mir Aimal KansiA Pakistani militant who took part in anti-American demonstrations there, he got a business visa in Karachi and entered the United States in 1990. He said he would stay for a year. But instead of leaving, he applied for political asylum, claiming he was persecuted in Pakistan for supporting a separatist cause. While his asylum claim was pending, the INS granted him a work permit. He got a driver's license and a $700-a-week job as a courier, then purchased an AK-47 assault rifle, using documents that the United States gave him with his official work permit. On Jan. 25, 1993, Kansi opened fire outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., killing two CIA agents and wounding several others. Prosecutors said he was out to avenge the bombing of Iraq and what he thought was American meddling in Muslim countries. After a $2-million reward offer and a 4 1/2-year manhunt, federal agents caught up with Kansi in Pakistan. He is serving a life sentence. Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Al MihdharThey obtained visitors' visas in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and when they arrived in America -- Alhazmi in Los Angeles and Al Mihdhar in New York -- they gave their local addresses as the Sheraton and the Marriott. In August 2001, they were placed on a terrorist watch list after the CIA received information linking Al Mihdhar to bin Laden. When INS investigators checked, they realized the two men were already in the country. The FBI says it looked but couldn't find them at the hotels listed on their entry papers. It isn't clear how hard the agents searched. A Nawaf M. Alhazmi was listed in the San Diego phone book, and a Nawaq Alhamzi got a Florida's driver's license in June. Both men bought one-way tickets on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. Mohamed AttaThe reputed ringleader of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks repeatedly sidestepped American authorities, starting in 1999, when he reported his Egyptian passport stolen. That removed evidence that he had visited countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan, which would have set off alarm bells for U.S. visa processors. Atta was issued both a new passport and a business visa. Three months after he arrived in June 2000, he applied for a change in his visa status so he could take pilot lessons. Atta, 33, made a brief trip abroad. When he returned in January 2001, he told the INS inspector at Miami International Airport that he was taking flying lessons. Since he didn't have the right visa, the inspector made him see a second inspector. They eventually let him in because he had already applied for a student pilot visa. In April, Atta flew from Florida to Prague to meet with a reputed member of Iraqi intelligence. Back in Broward County, he was arrested for driving without a license. He got a license in May, but he skipped his court date and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. In July, a Delray Beach police officer stopped Atta for speeding, gave him a warning and let him go, unaware of the arrest warrant. The INS approved Atta's visa change to pilot-in-training, and according to Swiss media, he visited Zurich to purchase cardboard cutters and pocket knives. Investigators believe he piloted American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. -- Times researchers Kitty Bennett and Caryn Baird contributed to this report, which was supplemented by Times wires.
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