MILNET Brief   The Millenium Bomber, 3/19/2001 (Updated 01/16/07)

Rarely has America seen the effects of terrorism on her shores. However, in the last few decades, the incidence rate has climbed dramatically as have been the visibility of targets -- mostly mass killings versus the small numbers one might associate with gunfire or even car bombs. America’s attention to international terrorism brought home has been catalyzed by the events at several locations in the U.S., specifically the World Trade Center bombing in New York and a commercial skyscraper in downtown San Francisco.

Domestic terrorism has also elevated its ugly face into our nation’s sensibilities. The 1960s saw a spate of anti-war and ethnic terrorist acts, from the Symbolese Liberation Front, the kidnappers of heiress Patricia Hearst, to the Black Panthers and Weatherman. And while these activists set the standards for domestic terrorism in that era, new domestic terrorists are at work today. From anti-abortion activists who somehow believe it is okay to kill by bombing or maiming clinics, patients, doctors, or visitors, to animal’s rights activists who believe it is a fine argument used when they kill people in order to free or make visible what they believe are inhuman treatment of animals. And finally, we can’t discuss, even briefly, the acts of domestic terrorism without citing the mislead militarist radicals who try to celebrate the anniversary of the Waco, Texas deaths of the Koresh followers in April of every year since. The bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh is the most recognizable event, however there have been plenty of others, if not so dramatic. Now, during that time of year, Diplomatic Security Service, the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and others concerned with the security for politicians, government officials and yes even U.S. serviceman abroad and at home get a little nervous.

So it is against this background that we introduce the results of our research. First we begin with a short story, somewhat dramatized and also fictionalized in order to bring the issue before you in a way that we hope will bring you to understand the depth of conviction, and the frightening simplicity of this act of international terrorism in our country.

The leader had spoken to them in hushed tones over the telephone. For security reasons, these, their final instructions, could not be given in person, not this close to the movement of people and equipment, least people and their cargo be linked to the leader. His soft spoken voice contrasted to what he was saying in clear and unyielding language. “You must go now. Go where the people of Satan will see themselves die. Make their temples to technology burn and make them pay for their infidel acts in our homeland -- take the battle to them, my children. Can you do this for me, now?”

Both Ahmed and Dahoumane answered on their separate lines, pledging themselves to the greater Jihad that the leader had set them on six months ago. Now the time was here to make the last journey, to move the weapons to their target areas and set them off. Ahmed himself would kill the Seattle Space Needle, bring it to the ground. A tip would make sure the American Press would have a camera there to record the blessed event, and perhaps kill some fool bomb disposal crew too. All the better. No one would be able to save The Needle and no one would could save the Satan’s children as the gawked at the view from the many vista points in this American Tourist Trap. And a trap it would certainly become. Alah had decreed it through the leader, and Ahmed was now innocent and cleansed awaiting only his own passage to join the great one in the hereafter. It was fitting that, he, a member of a cell of the GIA, the Armed Islamic Group, would bring this chronicle of Islamic battle to America from their headquarters in Algeria.

Ahmed had joined the group more recently but it had come to fame during the civil wars in Algeria in 1993 and soon spread to France, the Satan of Europe. Ahmed knew that they had been responsible for 20 killings in France, an attempt to show the world of the evil of the French-Algerian struggle. Now the master Satan, America would feel the wrath of Allah. Ahmed had heard that the Algerian Islamic League had provided the leader with the funds, and he in turn had provided the funds to back to the GIA as was fitting. His training with the Leader’s battle school in the Afghanistan, where most believe the leader keeps his home now that the Satan’s spawn have made him an outlaw in his native Saudi Arabia.

Ahmed knew also that his counterpart on the East Coast, Abdel Ghani Meskini, a 31 year old Algerian would be moving now as well. He would be traveling with yet another fighter for the cause, the pair targeting East Coast celebrations of the year 2000 in New York and Washington, D.C.

Together they would force the world to see the Satan’s peoples punished for their impudence in support of the North African murders and support of countries like France. The Islamic Jihad, the war against non-believers demanded this justice and certainly the Algerian cause joined the others like Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and others in their fight against the Imperialistic American Satan. It was fine time that they paid for their insolence.

Ahmed wasn't sure how many other cells were also moving now, since security demanded that each cell would be isolated from each other, however he was pretty confident that others were also called on to carry on the Jihad--there had been many training for this attempt in the camps.

Thus we speculate how it must have been in that moment when 32 year old Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian terrorist began the final steps of his attack on the people and buildings of the United States. Captured on Tuesday, December 14, 1999 while crossing the U.S. - Canada border, his automobile trunk full of explosives, later investigation turned up even more sinister facts than the explosives. He is reported to have been involved in a plot to destroy if possible, severely damage if not, several target structures along the Western seaboard of the U.S..

Prosecuters are building their case that Ressam, along with several others in custody or wanted for conspiracy with Ressam, were working to disrupt the 2000 Millennium celebration by bombing buildings and facilities on both coasts at the orders of Usama/Osama Bin Liden.

First on the list to be attackes was the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. Later he would have attacked airports in the greater Los Angeles area.

Co-conspirators were captured in Montreal, Canada, and Brooklyn New York, with similar targets along the Eastern seaboard. Indicted in this case are Ahmed Ressam, a woman named Lucia Garafalo, Abdel Ghani Meskini (a 31 year old Algerian), Bouabide Chamchi another Algerian national captured in the car with Lucia Garafalo at the Canada-Vermont border, as well as at least one other person still at large, Abdel Majid Dahoumane who shared a room with Ahmed two weeks prior to Ahmed’s entry into the U.S.

The case has created stunning revelations as to the ease of terrorist's entry into the U.S. It is reported that the U.S. Border guards were using profiles to identify possible illegal entries into the U.S. through Port Angles, Washington. Linked through a scrap of paper with information leading to the co-conspirators on the East Coast, the U.S. government quickly followed up and arrested Lucia and Bouabide in a car in Montreal, and Meskini in New York. Meskini is a Nigerian born émigré to Algeria and is cooperating with authorities and has agreed to testify against the others in the conspiracy.

The seriousness of the government’s interest in the case was marked by the cancellation of the New York’s Millennium celebration in fears that the terrorists had had ample opportunity to place their explosives and none of them had been found. The amount of explosives carried by Ahmed were indicative of major destruction capability, especially if the East Coast branch of the conspiracy had also managed to smuggle in their own explosives...a fear brought on by the fact that Meskini was already well situated in place in New York upon his arrest. The additional fact that no explosives were found either with Meskini or in the vehicle with Garafolo or Chamchi led authorities to believe the explosives were already planted or that there were other accomplices at bay. For instance, it was quickly established that Abdel Majid Dahoumane shared the room in Vancouver with Ahmed Ressam. Could he also be trolling the West coast with his own cache of explosives, or perhaps did he turn left at Port Angeles, Washington and head East to join with others there?

Clearly, at the time, officials were pretty scared as to the possibilities of what they HADN’T found our who they didn’t know about or where they were going. The list of Millennium celebrations that could be targets for such terrorists was staggering and this was perhaps one of the scariest moments for anti-terrorist forces of the U.S.

The theory that most frightened them had to be possible links of these individuals to infamous Saudi multi-millionaire Usama/Osama (sometimes spelled Usama) Bin Laden, an Afghan war veteran thought to be behind numerous acts of terrorism in the U.S. including the more recent external attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Sallaam, Tanzania in August of 1998.

In events following the arrests, the case has begun to heat up. By February of 2000, Garafalo pled guilty to two counts of violating U.S. immigration law, allowing government officials to continue to hold her for additional counts. Meskini, offering to testify against his co-conspirators, may be the link to unraveling the conspiracy, and could very well mean better than 100 year prison sentences for all involved.

On Tuesday, December 14, 1999, Ressam was arrested during a routine vehicle inspection after driving off the ferry at its arrival at Port Angeles, Washington. The ferry had arrived from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Ressam was held after U.S. customs officials, trained in looking for hiding places in vehicles were alerted by something in Ressam's behavior and a fit perhaps also a fit to terrorist profiles used by all customs officials. The inspectors found what they thought was nitro-glycerin and other bomb making materials in the trunk of the car. The materials included some 150 pounds of bomb making goods including timing devices, in what experts say are quantities and types to make some very large explosions, certainly able to take down a mid-sized metropolitan building -- similar in strength but different in types than that used to destroy U.S. Federal building in Oklahoma City. What the inspectors thought might be nitro-glycerin was reported to be contained in two 22 ounce bottles and the other materials included about 100 pounds or more of urea and detonating devices. Later, testing chilled even the hardened investigators as the material in the bottles turned out to be RDX, an even more powerful explosive material used in the manufacturer of a particularly nasty plastic explosive called SEMTEX.

Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers honored the four U.S. Customs Service inspectors on December 19 for their discovery of the materials. “These men and woman are true heroes” the Seattle Post Intelligence quoted the Secretary at the Ronald Reagan building in Seattle. Cited for heroism were Diana M. Dean the officer who first began the series of events leading to the arrest, Senior Inspector Mike Johnson, Inspector Carmon D. Clem and Inspector Mike Chapmen.

An interesting note to this drama is the fact that Ressam was arrested and held for several weeks for theft of computer laptops and cell phones last year in Montreal. The M.O. for that particular crime were break-ins to cars in the financial and technological areas of the city where police say such “finds” are easier for would-be thieves. This led government officials recently to look at links to such crimes and the equipment’s uses for terrorist activities. Monteral police say that Mourad Gherabli, 40, may be the ring leader of a group of displaced Algerians preying on the affluent of Monteral stealing the goods to finance Islamic terrorist groups around the world.

Perhaps it was this connection and the suspects reaction as Customs Officer Diana M. Dean asked the driver to step out of the vehicle. According to the Washington Post article ¹ Dean was quoted as saying “Everything happened real fast after that...". The suspect Ressam fled on foot leading to a six block chase until finally he was subdued in an intersection. The chase was was triggered when inspectors found a false lid in the trunk of the vehicle, and suspicious packages which in turn led to a pat-down search of the suspect.

As a result of the arrest, the U.S. Customs Commissioner has added some 300 employees to relatively remote border crossing stations, however, it is up to Congress to vote in more funds to permanently pay for increased border security. The Washington Post article also states that there are some 7,000 inspectors in 301 ports of entry, and these few handle about 460 million travelers each year.

On December 17, 1999, a ticket agent reportedly sold an airline ticket to Abdelmajed Dahoumane, the sought after co-resident of Ressam’s in his Vancouver hotel room. The ticket was sold in Bellingham, Washington, about 20 miles south of a later (see December 29 below) arrest at the Blaine, Washington border crossing.

On Sunday, December 19, 1999, U.S. officials arrested 35 year old Lucia Garafalo and 20 year old Bouabide Chamchi as they were crossing into Vermont from British Columbia. The two were arrested after explosive sniffing dogs hit on traces of explosives in the cars. Clearly the vehicle had been used at one time to transport explosives and the two were arrested and held pending other charges which may come from the Ressam/Meskini investigation. The arrest came after two previous attempts to cross by Garafalo; the first on December 6 when she crossed with a Pakistani man she identified as a Canadian; and the second on December 15 as she attempted to cross with an Algerian born man. In this attempt, a false French passport was found in the possession of Chamchi, and combined with the explosives traces led to their arrest. Clearly Garafalo seemed to be ferrying aliens into the U.S. across the Canadian border.

On December 28, 1999, U.S. officials said there had been a total of seven arrests at the Blaine, Washington crossing and that they were a case of smuggling of Jordanian nationals into the U.S. The arrests included three men, two woman and two children.

Then on December 29, 1999, four more Algerians were arrested at the Blaine, Washington - Canadian border, bringing the total to eight illegals attempting crossings in the final days of 1999, all with Algerian links. In this case, those arrested had already crossed and had been in the U.S. illegally, fleeing the U.S. into Canada when they were arrested. The report from the R.C.M.P. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) said the four included three men and a woman. The men had traveled from Pennsylvania in a rental car and were met by a woman who parked on the Canadian side and joined them before the attempted crossing into Canada. U.S. border patrol has remained quiet about the arrests, perhaps in light of the ongoing case and publicity which might threaten further arrests as well as those already under surveillance.

On December 31, 1999, Abdel Ghani, a 31 year old Algerian was arrested in Brooklyn as an accomplice to Ressam. Initially charged with the minor offense of being an illegal alien, the government began working to find more crucial terrorist linkages to base charges. Invesigations center around his alleged money raising efforts to provide aid to the Ressam GIA cell in buying weapons and equipment.

The anti-terrorist forces in the U.S. held there breath expecting the worst, but fortunately, the big terrorist event they feared did not occur. Did they have all the key players thereby derailing the attack?

On January 2, 1999, Abdelwahib Hamdouche was arrested at JFK airport in New York as he prepared to leave on a KLM flight to Paris.

On January 3, 1999, Abdel Hakim Tizegha was arrested after sneaking into the U.S. but was not directly connected to the bomb smuggling case of Ressam. Tizegha, also an Algerian, was charged in federal court in Seattle and faces expulsion.

One of the first steps investigators performed was a check into the French Algerian connection. The terrorist group led by Algerian war veteran Fateh Kamel was implicated in 1996 bankd and security vehicle attacks which left bystanders and their attackers dead. That investigation led to finding of a cache of high-powered weapons. According to a Contra Costa Times article, an earlier link was established with Said Atmani, an Algerian with a Bosnian passport who also roomed with Ressam in Monteral. Atmani is a known cohort of Kamel, and raises the question of a link from Kamel to Ressam.

The Contra Costa Times article also attempts to establish a link between the terrorist Ressam and a 1980s training camp for anti-Soviet factions fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The article also implicates lax Canadian officials for providing Ressam with false identity papers based upon his false French passport when he arrived in 1994 (for which he was arrested and deported and then later obtained a Canadian passport using a false name from a Roman Catholic birth certificate).

Further investigation also shocked investigators. The two vials of nitro-glycerin turned out to be cyclotrimethylene trinitramine or RDX, one of the most powerful explosives in the world. At the same time, what was thought to be detonators were not, and a second search of the Ressam vehicle did not turn up any. RDX is dangerous on its own, however, when mixed with PETN, it forms the plastic explosive SEMTEX. RDX can also be combined with fertilizers such as urea or ammonium nitrate to create even larger explosives. SEMTEX is a common military explosive that has found its way into terrorists hands for decades, and is the explosive thought to have brought down Pan Am flight 101 over Lockerbie.

Sometime in the week of January 11, 2001, Canadian authorities secretly moved on Mokhtar Haouari in Canada, accusing him of being the central figure in the Ressam cell. Haouari was charged in Manhattan District Court, New York, on January 19th in the conspiracy.

On January 13, 2000, investigators reported phone records on Garafalo’s phone linked her irrefutably to Ressam and his roommate Dhani, finally pulling together the strings of the conspiracy. Prosecutors, based on the evidence, won a no bail decision for Garafalo.

On January 19, 2000, Ressam and Dahoumane were both indicted along with Mokhtar Haouari. The indictment included some nine counts and includes conspiring to destroy or damage structures, conveyances, or other real or personal property within the United States. Key to the case was testimony given by Meskini.

On January 25, 2000, Mohambedou Ould Slahi was detained in Senegal for questioning about his brother-in-law, a known operative of the Usama/Osama Bin Laden organization. By the 27th investigators were saying they finally had the link between Usama/Osama Bin Laden and the Algerian Bomb Mule, Ressam. After he was released in Senegal, he was re-arrested in Mauritania, West Africa on Friday, January 29, 2000.

Also on January 29, 2000, a Morrocan man, Youssef Karroum was held as a material witness in the investigation of the Algerinan bomb threat. Karroum was taken at the border crossing. He was later released on February 3, 2000.

On February 16, 2000, Lucia Garafalo was released on charges of participation in the Algerian bombing conspiracy after pleading guilty to two immigration charges of running illegal Agerian nationals across the U.S. - Canadian border. Prosecutors were careful to point out that Garafalo was not being released due to her aiding the government by testifying about the conspiracy, rather that there was simply not enough evidence to tie her with the conspiracy or alleged plans for violent acts. However she still faces some six to twelve months for the felony conviction (transporting an alien into the United States and conspiring to transport aliens) when she is sentenced. On May 19, 2000, Garafalo was released when her sentence was set to time served for attempting to smuggle immigrants into the United States. She had served nearly six months for her crimes.

On March 3, 2000, the trial of Ahmed Ressam was moved to Los Angeles by U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenoour citing news coverage of Ahmed Ressam and the bomb plot had received far too much prejudicial effect making it very difficult to seat an impartial jury in Seattle. The trail was scheduled to begin on July 10 in Los Angeles, however, on May 23, 2000, defense attorneys asked for and were granted a delay until February to prepare for the trail. On September 12, 2000, the same U.S. District Judge granted yet another delay until March of 2001 citing scheduling conflicts in Los Angeles. On October 27, 2000, the trail was once again scheduled to be delayed however the delay was cancelled and the trail started on March 19, 2001.

On April 13, 2000, U.S. Prosecutors in seeking to extradite Mokhtar Haouari from Monteral, released portions of transcripts of wiretap tapes of that outline dealings between Haourari, Resssam and Meskini. This includes talks of a holy war and show that the conspiracy was a well organized group network preparing to wage a holy war on the United States, according to a article in the Seattle Post-Intelligence ²

On June 3, 2000, Adbel Hakim Tizegha was sentenced to three years supervised release and a five month prison sentence was commuted to time served. On June 4, 2000 it was announced that Tizegha would be handed over to immigration authorities for probable deportation.

On August 15, 2000, Mokhtar Haouari was arraigned in Manhattan New York’s Federal District Court on charges he helped a group trying to smuggle explosives into the U.S., after having been extradited from Monteral, Canada.

On October 27, 2000, in a rare cross-nation boundary, live video deposition, witnesses in Monteral, Canada faced the accused man who allegedly attempted to smuggle bomb making materials into the U.S. across the U.S. - Canadian border. The contents of the deposition were kept confidential until the trail and was monitored closely by a U.S. Judge.

On December 7, 2000, Algerian sources released news that Abdelmajid Dahoumane, the 33 year old Algerian wanted in connection with the Algerian bomb case was quietly arrested in Algeria less than two months before the announcement.

In February of 2001, U.S. Prosecutors attempting to move the trial back to Seattle, released a map taken from Ressam's belongings which had three airports circled; Los Angeles International, Long Beach Airport, and Ontario Airport. Clearly the Los Angeles area was just as much a target as Seattle. Another possible explanation would be that these were airports where the terrorists could arrange to meet someone with tickets for them to fly either directly out of the U.S. or perhaps to another city like Chicago, where they could then fly onto Frankfurt.

Throughout February and March of 2001, European officials were rounding up associates of the GIA leaders as well as members of Usama/Osama Bin Liden's Al-Qaida groups. In the U.K. a top Lieutenant of Bin Liden was arrested as well as a key player in the GIA. In Germany, four terrorists were captured before they could hit a target -- thought to be a French tourist area that they had been studying in person and on video tapes.

With the trail coming up in March, the Europeans were scrambling to make sure they had a handle on terrorist related to the two groups so that repercussions from the trial don't become events in-of-themselves.

On December 18, the White House released a news brief stating that the President wished to calm fears that the holidays would not be disrupted and that the President was closely following the investigation of alleged terrorist bomb making supplies had been seized at the U.S. - Canadian border.

Sandy Berger was trotted out to several talk shows to put a good face on the investigation and the confidence of the administration.

The Secretary of the Treasury honored the four Customs officials for their watchfulness and called them heroes in an awards ceremony.

The Justice Department released a statement that all of its available resources were being committed to "running down" all leads in the effort to find any remaining terrorists related to those captured at two different locations along the U.S. Canadian border.

As New Years came closer and more Algerians as well as eight Jordanians were captured illegally crossing or returning to Canada after already touring around the U.S., the White House again relased a "calming" press statement despite cancellations of a number of large Millennium events directly contributed to security concerns, including the first target publicized, the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.

On December 31, 1999 FBI Director Louis Freeh met with three Canadians responsible for border activities and counter-terrorism, including the Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Director of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Responsible for patrolling the borders of Canada, and the man directly responsible for security and patrol of the Canadian border.

Throughout January, following the rather suspenseful, but uneventful holidays, Seattle and Vermont papers followed up on the terrorist captures with reports of the return to status quo along the Canadian border, each time eliciting brief remarks from the Clinton administration, including a special meeting called by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to "discuss strategy" in the terrorist cases as well as future terrorist cases.

On January 28, 2000, a former top official, David Harris, of Canada’s version of the CIA, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, stated that “Fifty international terrorist organizations are represented on our soil. Some of our laws, are, frankly, terrorist-friendly.” ³ The article from the Scripps Howard News Service also says security consultant, Gary Stubblefield agrees, and points to Ressam’s attempt to attack a number of major buildings in the U.S. as evidence of how the Canadian border presents such a fearsome problem, “We have only 300 border control agents to protect a 4,000-mile (northern) border with 90 crossings. Many smaller points of entry are not staffed at night...We create no record of who enters the U.S. or determine if they subsequently depart.”

On February 8, 2000, U.S. Congress began hearings as to the reorganization and restructuring of the border patrol force tasked with patrolling the U.S. - Canadian border.

On April 4, 2000, U.S. State Department released news of a U.S. sponsored $5 million bounty for Abdelmajid Dahoumane, the co-conspirator in the Algerian Bomb conspiracy.

On April 7, 2000, Canada anted up with a new plan to make it more difficult for criminals to enter Canada according to a Washington Post news story. ⁴

On April 18, 2000, Representative Jim Kolbe told an audience at an award’s ceremony that the U.S. Customs Officers responsible for capturing Ahmed Ressam had foiled a potential disaster that would have rivaled the bombing of the U.S. Federal Building, and that only through cooperation between local and federal agencies could this have taken place.

On April 30, 2000, the U.S. State Department listed Pakistan and Afghanistan as states that are actively supporting International terrorism. The accusation is expected to be followed by their listing on the State Departments official list of “terrorist states” which places economical, trade, and travel sanctions on the two countries. In this report, the U.S. DoD says the threat is from loose networks of terrorists who find save havens in countries such as and specifically as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

On May 18, 2000, President Clinton cited Jordan as the foreign government which has aided the U.S. in uncovering the details of the Algerian bomb threat after the routine and unexpected arrest of an illegal alien, Ahmed Ressam, as he attempted to cross the U.S. - Canadian border carrying bomb materials in the trunk of a vehicle. During the speech , Clinton announced a $300 million expansion of the nation’s counter-terrorism efforts which will include tighter surveillance along the U.S. - Canadian border. This is on top of the current $9 billion spent on counter-terrorism.

On June 10, 2000, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, along with her Canadian counterpart announced a new international law enforcement team to fight smuggling and illegal immigration along the eastern end of the U.S.-Canadian border.

On July 7, 2000, the Seattle Post-Intelligence reported that U.S. Border Patrol aircraft being used to patrol the U.S. - Canadian border were being moved to Arizona to patrol the southern border. Several days later, the U.S. Congress asked the INS to report on their reasoning, looking to provide oversight on this move in light of only months ago U.S. Attorney Janet Reno’s announcement of bolstering U.S. - Canadian border security.

On August 8, 2000, The Seattle Post-Intelligence reported that would ad 25 agents to help in the Washington state U.S. Border Patrol, however, other efforts have centered around shifting resources back and forth between the Southern and Northern borders. [MILNET: Sounds like a shell game to me!]

On September 11, 2000, the FBI announced it would house a new FBI Anti-Terrorism Team Task Force which will draw upon a variety of law enforcement agencies to investigate crimes. The report indicates that the FBI unit could be used to fight white supremacist violence or moving quickly to counter terrorist bomb plots like that discovered, albeit accidentally in December of 1999.

On December 12, 2000, the Seattle Post-Intelligence published a report indicating the Canadian immigration of criminals problem had certainly not been solved despite U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno’s promise to do so. The newspaper ⁵ In the article the author (Colin Nickerson of the Boston Globe) point out that Lai Changxing, a notorious Mainland Chinese smuggler threatened by police closing in on his operation, fled to Canadian simply by buying a fake passprot and an airline ticket and purchasing a plush $1.3 million home in British Columbia. And then he was back in business. The author also points to a likely hiding hole for notorious 1995 fleeing mobster James “Whitey” Bulger from Boston. More than just the fact that the fake passport wasn’t discovered, but the fact that Lai spent 15 months doing the same old thing but in Canada before they finally arrested him. But as extradition proceedings grind slowly, it is clear Lai is not destined to go home to a firing squad for sometime.

On December 26, 2000, former counter-terrorism chief for the CIA blasted the U.S. government for its failure to prevent terrorists from crossing the border. In a Seattle Post-Intelligence Article, Vincent Cannistraro is quoted as saying “Despite efforts by Canadian and U.S. Governments, there are no known barriers to prevent terrorists from crossing the border.” Cannistraro is also quoted as saying the arrest of the alleged terrorist Ahmed Ressam in December of 1999 was “pure luck”. ⁶

In an article in the Canadian website for newspaper National Post, the former head of the Canadian National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), the equivalent to the U.S. FBI when it comes to anti-terrorism, is quoted as saying, "To Islamic terrorists... Canada is "just a big jihad aircraft carrier at their service for launching strikes against the...U.S. mainland."  ⁷

The GIA or Armed Islamic Group is reputed to be a pretty nasty group. An Islamic fundamentalist organization, one of their primary targets of terrorism in the past and today are Islamic women who have shirked the ancient custom of wearing a veil in public, having murdered many in the streets in an area covering Afghanistan in the north and deep into Northern Africa to the south. The group is also known for massacring a village and calling it an “Act of God’ as well as loaded an Air France airliner with dynamite to “spread flaming wreckage on Paris” as cited in a Seattle Post Intelligence article ⁸

By Christmas time, 1999, the Press was alive with warnings to not open questionable packages, especially those from Frankfurt, Germany based upon tips that Algerian terrorists planned to retaliate for the arrests of Ressam and Garafalo. This worldwide international terrorism link is further indicated by a Washington Post article which describes the tracing of phone records and automobile used by Garafalo to an Algerian national ⁹ The article explains the cell phone Garafalo was carrrying was registered to a member of the Algerian Islamic League, a known Algerian terrorist group. It was also quickly established that the car Garafalo was using is co-registered to the same man.

The second group, the Algerian Islamic League, is said to have been founded by Mourad Dhina, an arms dealer residing in Switzerland. Prosecutors in the Garafalo case say the Dhina connection is important since Dhina is reported to be actively involved in the shipment of arms to terrorist organizations.

According to the U.S. prosecutors in the case, the links between Garafalo and Ressam are indicative of international terrorists. Garafalo’s husband, Yamin Rachek, was expelled from Canada after presenting a false passport on entry. Rachek was arrested in London in 1996 for using an altered Greek passport and has an outstanding arrest warrant for theft in Germany. In 1997, Garafalo allegedly contacted Said Atmani (who appears later in the drama as a roommate of Ressam) to get help in getting an airline ticket to go to Germany as well as hire a lawyer to help her husband. In the prosecutor’s filing, the foreign government source indicates that Atmani is a known documents forger for the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Later, U.S. Prosecutors admitted that although Garafalo’s contacts were for the purpose of smuggling aliens across the border (and to which she pleaded guilty to two counts), she had no knowlege of the actual terrorist activities. This points out how the criminal element aids and abets terrorism without really knowing it.

The third group of interest in the drama is Usama/Osama Bin Liden's Al-Qaida, a group suspected of engineering and participating in the attacks on the two U.S. embassies in North Africa, where some 240 people were killed. The group is also thought to have training grounds deep in Afghanistan, where Liden is reported to live freely and without fear of arrest or extradition. In February of 1998, Bin Liden issued a statement while posing under a banner proclaiming "The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against The Jews and Crusaders", saying that it was the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens, civilian or military, and their allies everywhere. The group has also claimed to have shot down U.S. helicopters an killed U.S. servicemen in Somalia in 1993, as well has claimed to have conducted three bombings targeted against U.S. troops in Aden, Yemen, in December, 1992.

The Trial

In Germany, the anti-terrorist forces picked up four cell members who had been studying video tapes of a French tourist trap, presumably preparing for an attack. The police recovered automatic weapons and a vast array of bomb making equipment.

In France, the courts began buzzing as one of the most famous European anti-terrorists, a magistrate, testified as to the GIA connection to Usama/Osama Bin Liden and promptly got himself added to the U.S. trail witness list. The resultant hurried deposition in a U.S. Court provided further testimony linking the Usama/Osama Bin Liden group with the GIA.

Then in a move that surprised no one, Mezzini pleaded guilty to the conspiracy after having been a major contributor to the roundup of many of the conspirators in the U.S. and abroad. With the capture of Dahumana, the majority of the conspirators are now in the hands on one extraditing friendly country or another, so it appears the plotters will be tried.

The ending of this drama appears to be closing soon, however, it is still quite frightening to think what might have happened if super agent Diana Dane had not got that law officers twinge over an innocent looking traveler intending to enter the U.S. at Port Angeles, Washington. Instead of this upcoming trial being about "would-be" terrorists plans and conspiracy that failed, we might be also remembering tragic loss of life in Seattle as well as the Los Angeles area and the Manhattan district of New York.

As the trail began and the charges were read, it was reported that Ressam had a slight smirk on his fact as if he was rejecting the charge's validity. He is charged with conspiracy to terrorism, an offense which opens him to the full weight of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penatly Act of 1996 A summary is long reading but very instructive.

On March 15, the Prosecutors presented their case against Ressam, beginning with a paper trail presented by a long list of witnesses. The trail began with bomb making materials and led to the motel room where witnesses testified to odd smells and extra sensitivity to privacy. The room is thought to be the location where bomb materials were assembled and built into better than 100 pounds of explosives.

The bomb making materials were bought in a store on August, 31, 1999, and included voltage regulators, circuit boards, capacitors and other components and soldering equipment used to build timing devices.

The testimony was taken in Canada and recorded on videotape in front of magistrate there. The video-taped testimony is fairly unique but allowed by the judge in the case.

On March 20, the Prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Gonzalez identified Mustafi Labsi, as a fourth member of a terrorist cell in which the accussed is alleged to be a key member. Labsi is a well known Islamic radical. In a European trial, Labsi is named as a conspirator in another terrorist case.

Also included in the prosecutor's presentation of the terrorist cell, Mokhtar Haouari, also a known violent Algerian activist who was indiceted along with Abdelghani Meskini in New York. A fifth accomplice, Abdelmajid Dahoumane, was also indicted for helping Ressam assemble some 100 pounds or more of explosive material in Canada before Ressam attempted to transport the material across the U.S. Canadian border.

By March 23, the prosecutors had called over 80 witnesses to testify about all manner of evidence including clothing items which contained burn holes from the residues of explosive agents.

The defense claims that Ressam is a simple dupe of the true terrorists and was left "holding the bag" as he attempted to cross the border transporting the explosives. They also propose that Ressam is known for being a "mule".

Prosecuters also said Ressam travelled under his alias Benni Novis to training camps in Afghanistan, linking him to Usama/Osama Bin Laden who ran the camps.

On March 28, the judge allowed the defense to introduce evidence that a European court had introduced evidence that Ressam "was only a courier".

The evidence came from classified documents received through cooperation with a foreign government.

In contrast, Canadian surveillance tapes that implicated Ressam deeply in the conspiracy were, for some reason, destroyed by Canadian officials and the judge disallowed testimony from an agent who created the tapes because the goverment insisted upon not revealing her identity. The Judge resisted the concept of the agent giving testimony from behind a screen and with an electronic voice changer, as well as questioned non-existent tapes as somehow being evidence.

In activity outside the court, Abdelmajid Dahoumane was arrested in Algeria. With no extradition treaty with Algeria, authorities are concerned they will not be able to bring Dahoumane to justice in the U.S.

On April 6, 2001, Ahmed Ressam was convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorism against the U.S. for his part in transporting bomb materials in a vehicle crossing the U.S. border. He was also convicted of placing an explosive near a ferry terminal, using false identification documents, smuggling, transporting explosives, and carrying an explosive while committing a felony. Ressam was also tried in abstenia in Paris, France and convicted as part of an Islamic conspiracy trial and sentenced to five years in jail.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 28 in Seattle. The total time behind bars could minimum of 55 years or a maximum of 130 years for the U.S. charges.

Update: 

On January 16, 2007, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (San Francisco) reversed the sentence on count 9 of the original indictment against Ressam, and in turn vacated the entire sentence, instructing the lower court (U.S. District Court in Seattle, Wa.) to resentence the convicted terrorist taking into count the vacated sentence for count 9.  The court in Seattle may choose to reduce, keep the same, or add on to the original sentence.

End Notes

¹Customs Capture Ends with Honor; Inspectors Receive Award for Seizure of Explosives, Arrest at Border, Stephen Barr, Washington Post, 12/21/1999

²Algerian Suspects Organized, Feds Say Wiretaps Include Talk of ‘Holy War’, Seattle Post-Intelligence, April 13, 2000.

³Northward Terror, Scripps Howard News Service, 1/28/2000

⁴Canada Unveils Plans to Shut ‘Back Door’ to Criminal Immigrants, 4/7/2000, Washington Post.

⁵Criminals Taking Advantage of Canadian ‘Welcome Wagon’ Lax Enforcement, Judicial Indifference Beckon to Smugglers, Gangsters, Terrorists, Seattle Post-Intelligence, 12/12/2000

⁶Anti-Terrorist Program Criticized as In-Coherent, Victor Ostrowidzki, Seattle Post-Intelligence, December 26, 2000

⁷Ressam's wake-up call to Ottawa, National Post, April 10, 2001

⁸Behind Ressam May Lurk An Extreme Terrorist Group Suspect Linked to Algeria, Afghanistan, Seattle Post-Intelligence, 12/23/1999.

⁹U.S. Links Canadian Woman to Militants; Authorities Trace Her Phone, Car to Algerian National, Lorraine Adams, Washington Post, December 24, 1999.