Al Qaeda in Minneapolis: The mission
Last weekend we posted Saturday's Minneapolis Star Tribune story on al Qaeda's man in Minneapolis. On Sunday we also noted the Boston Globe's related story on al Qaeda's man in Boston.
Today the Star Tribune follows up with "Minneapolis terror suspect licensed to haul hazardous freight." The information reported by the Star Tribune appears to be derived primarily from a government affidavit filed in connection with Elzahabi's indictment. Greg Gordon and David Chanen report:
The FBI identified Mohamad Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and more than 2½ years before his arrest last week, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.The Star Tribune adds a mordant bit of understatement:Yet officials of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said they had no clue that Elzahabi was suspected of having Al-Qaida connections when he applied for, and in early 2002 received, a commercial driver's license to drive a school bus and to haul hazardous materials.
Before the Minneapolis man got final approval for the commercial license, the FBI ran Elzahabi's name through a database and cleared him on Jan. 18, 2002, said Pat McCormack, interim director of the department's Division of Driver and Vehicle Licensing.
Since Sept. 11, the FBI and U.S. Transportation Department have focused on tightening restrictions and procedures to prevent terrorism suspects from gaining licenses to haul hazardous materials.
But, McCormack said, Elzahabi's driver's license was still valid for toxic materials Tuesday. Elzahabi applied for a federal operating license for his business, but not to carry hazardous materials. McCormack said Elzahabi's school bus driver's license was cancelled in February but did not say why...
The FBI identified Mohamad Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and more than 2½ years before his arrest last week, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
Yet officials of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said they had no clue that Elzahabi was suspected of having Al-Qaida connections when he applied for, and in early 2002 received, a commercial driver's license to drive a school bus and to haul hazardous materials.
Before the Minneapolis man got final approval for the commercial license, the FBI ran Elzahabi's name through a database and cleared him on Jan. 18, 2002, said Pat McCormack, interim director of the department's Division of Driver and Vehicle Licensing.
Since Sept. 11, the FBI and U.S. Transportation Department have focused on tightening restrictions and procedures to prevent terrorism suspects from gaining licenses to haul hazardous materials.
But, McCormack said, Elzahabi's driver's license was still valid for toxic materials Tuesday. Elzahabi applied for a federal operating license for his business, but not to carry hazardous materials. McCormack said Elzahabi's school bus driver's license was cancelled in February but did not say why.
Elzahabi's pursuit of a commercial driver's license that could be used for hazardous materials is one of a number of curiosities about the case, the latest in a stunning string of terrorism arrests in Minnesota.An additional curiosity about the case, from my perspective, is the lack of national attention to this important story.
HINDROCKET adds: Is there any connection between a hazardous materials license and a school bus driver's license? I don't know why there would be, so I assume he did whatever was necessary to obtain both. Which is scarier, a terrorist driving a load of chemicals or a busload of school children? I'd say the latter.
Also, I don't understand the claim that the FBI identified Elzahabi as a potential terrorist "well before the Sept. 11 attacks." Earlier published reports say that he re-entered the United States (after trying to overthrow the government of Lebanon and fighting in Chechnya) in August 2001. If both reports are correct, Elzahabi was allowed into the country even though 1) he was supposed to have been deported in 1988, 2) any account of his whereabouts since he had last been in the U.S. (when he was treated for a gunshot wound he received in Afghanistan) would have been colorful, to say the least, and 3) he was a suspected terrorist.
