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9/11 ringleader Atta raised enough red flags at customs, still got in

Jan 26, 2004 3:31 pm By Robert Spencer

Muhammad Atta shouldn’t have gotten into the United States at all. This from AP:

A border agent said Monday that the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks raised enough red flags at customs “” including having the wrong student visa “” that he should been prevented from entering the United States.

Customs agent Jose E. Melendez-Perez, testifying at a public hearing on border and aviation security, said lead hijacker Mohamed Atta’s age and impeccable clothes also appeared to contradict his story about being a student.

“I would have recommended refusal,” Melendez-Perez said.

Atta’s improper entry is one of a series of errors by government officials prior to Sept. 11 that could have prevented the attacks, an independent commission investigating the terrorist attacks said Monday in releasing new details about the attack.

Some of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were allowed into the country despite carrying fraudulent visas and being questioned by customs agents, the commission said.

For example, hijacker Saeed al Ghamdi was referred to immigration inspection officials in June 2001 after he provided no address on his customs form and only had a one-way plane ticket and about $500. But al Ghamdi was able to persuade the inspector that he was a tourist.

“Our government did not fully exploit al-Qaida’s travel vulnerabilities,” the commission said at the start of a two-day public hearing on border and aviation security.

Investigators say at least two and as many as eight of the hijackers had fraudulent visas. They also found that at least six of the hijackers violated immigration laws by overstaying their visas or failing to attend the English language school for which their visas were issued.

The commission said part of the problem was a lack of coordination among immigration officials and a focus on keeping out illegal immigrants rather than keeping out potential terrorists.

Melendez-Perez, who spoke at Monday’s hearing, stopped a man identified by federal officials only as al-Qahtani at Florida’s Orlando International Airport in late August 2001. The agent said he became suspicious when al-Qahtani provided only vague answers about what he was doing in the United States.

U.S. officials then put al-Qahtani on a plane back to Saudi Arabia. He wound up in Afghanistan, where he was captured by U.S. forces. He now is being held with other captives at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“This is an example of how a well-trained and alert INS inspector performed admirably in refusing admission to the United States of an individual who should not have gained entry,” said Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic commission member and former Watergate prosecutor.

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