28 November 2001. Thanks to BW.
Source: Purchased from the archives of the New York Times.
See related files: http://jya.com/alqfiles.htm
By BENJAMIN WEISER and JAMES RISEN
The agency tried him out, but the Egyptian flunked. He had made contact in
Germany with a branch of Hezbollah, the Middle Eastern terrorist group, and
told its members that he was working with the C.I.A., a betrayal the agency
quickly discovered.
Soon after, C.I.A. officials branded him untrustworthy and cut off further
dealings with him, suspecting that he wanted to help the terrorists spy on
Americans, United States officials said.
The agency discovered the next year that the former officer, Ali A. Mohamed,
was trying to enter the United States, and it put his name on a State Department
"watch list" intended to prevent terrorists and other security threats from
getting visas, an American official said.
When Mr. Mohamed evaded this precaution and persuaded an American Embassy
official to give him a visa, the C.I.A. issued a second warning to other
Federal agencies that a suspect character might be traveling to the United
States.
The warnings were not heeded. Mr. Mohamed emigrated to the United States
and in the next decade cultivated a range of useful relationships with the
American Government. He enlisted in the American Army and served with one
of its most elite units. Then, in the early 1990's, he became a cooperating
witness for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Today, he is imprisoned in a high-security cell in lower Manhattan, on suspicion
of conspiring with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile suspected of masterminding
a series of anti-American terrorist acts, including the August bombings of
two American embassies in East Africa. Prosecutors filed the charges against
him in secret, and law enforcement officials have declined to discuss the
specifics of the charges, even though its existence was disclosed last month.
Because of the secrecy in the case, it was not possible to learn whether
Mr. Mohamed has contested the charges or pleaded guilty. His lawyer, James
Roth, refused to comment.
The story of Mr. Mohamed's dealings with the United States, based on interviews
with associates, Government officials and former Army officers, suggests
that he was inexorably drawn to intrigue and the shadowy gambits of espionage.
Along the way, several officials said, the American authorities missed
opportunities to grasp the depth of his allegiance to the cause of Islamic
extremism.
United States officials said Mr. Mohamed forged ties with Mr. bin Laden as
early as 1991. He was adept at obtaining false documents for Mr. bin Laden's
organization, the officials said, and assisted with logistical tasks, like
Mr. bin Laden's 1991 move from Afghanistan to the Sudan.
The State Department granted him a visa to enter the United States in 1985,
only a year after the C.I.A. severed ties with him. State Department officials,
reached late in the day yesterday, were unable to confirm or deny the
circumstances surrounding Mr. Mohamed's entry into the United States.
While serving in the Army as a supply sergeant assigned to Special Forces,
his aggressive support for Islamic causes and open curiosity about intelligence
matters raised eyebrows among colleagues.
In the most notable of those incidents, Mr. Mohamed took a few weeks' leave
from the Army base at Fort Bragg, N. C., and told friends that he planned
to join the mujahedeen rebel forces in Afghanistan and "kill Russians."
After returning, he boasted of his combat exploits to colleagues at the Army's
Special Warfare School, prompting two of his supervisors to file reports
with Army officials at Fort Bragg and with Army intelligence.
An Army official, citing inaccessibility of the records, said last night
that he could not address how the service had investigated the reports or
whether it had taken any action against Mr. Mohamed. The official added that
because the matter had entered the court system, comment would be inappropriate.
American officials now believe that he did fight with the Afghan rebels.
A year later, shortly before he was honorably discharged from the Army, Mr.
Mohamed began traveling to the New York City area and training a circle of
Islamic militants in basic military techniques. Members of the group, which
was centered in Brooklyn, were later convicted of plotting a series of terrorist
attacks in New York, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
By the early 1990's, Mr. Mohamed was fully enmeshed in a dual life. He was
simultaneously collaborating with Mr. bin Laden's organization and talking
regularly with Federal agents about the Saudi exile and other issues, officials
said.
His story, American officials say, is a modern espionage parable in which
Mr. Mohamed was trying to manipulate American investigators even as they
were using him to gain a window into the activities of Mr. bin Laden.
Mr. Mohamed's arrest surprised some, but not all those who have known him
in the United States.
"He told me on several occasions that he would never betray the United States,
as far as breaking United States law or trying to undermine the Government,"
said Lieut. Col. Steven L. Neely, former director of Middle East studies
at the Army's Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg. "He was in many, many
ways as loyal a soldier as you'd find coming off the farm in the Carolinas
or out of New York City."
Another United States official familiar with his career disagreed, saying
his loyalty to America was always less important than his devotion to Islamic
fundamentalism. "You could sit and have lunch with him, and he'd be as nice
as pie. But if the call came in to blow you up, there is no question in my
mind that Ali would blow you up."
Mr. Mohamed was born in Egypt in 1952, and quickly gravitated toward a military
career. After graduating from high school in 1970, he enrolled in a Cairo
military academy and then joined Egypt's Army.
About 10 years later, he made his first visit to the United States when he
was sent to Fort Bragg for training by American soldiers. United States
intelligence officers often use such programs to spot possible recruits,
but Administration officials say the C.I.A. did not approach Mr. Mohamed.
American officials say his duties with the Egyptian Army included recruitment
of informants for his country's intelligence service.
His later years in the military coincided with a time of great turmoil in
his native land.
The 1981 assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat by Islamic radicals in
the Egyptian military was followed by brutal crackdowns on local extremists
and their followers. Among the targets were Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the
blind cleric who eventually emigrated to Brooklyn, where he was convicted
of conspiring to blow up the United Nations and other New York landmarks.
Mr. Mohamed later confided to friends in the United States Army that he was
deeply upset by the Egyptian Government's hard-line stand, and that he felt
aligned with the Islamic radicals who carried out the assassination of Mr.
Sadat.
One of his superiors, Lieut. Col. Robert C. Anderson, recalled a disagreement
he had with Mr. Mohamed about the legacy of Mr. Sadat, an American ally who
was killed after signing an historic peace agreement with Israel.
"I said to him, 'Anwar Sadat was a true patriot, and he gave his life,' "
Colonel Anderson recalled. "And he said, 'Anwar Sadat was a traitor and had
to go.' "
The Egyptian Army, Mr. Mohamed would later tell his American friends, was
hostile to devout Muslims. In March of 1984, having attained the rank of
major, he left the army, according to what he told the American military.
According to Government officials, it was in roughly this period that Mr.
Mohamed made his first overture to Egypt-based officers of the C.I.A.
The offer was tentatively accepted by the agency, which was gearing up for
a global war against terrorists. The bombings of the American Embassy and
Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 put pressure on the agency to recruit
more agents in the Middle East.
Those demands were stepped up in March 1984, when terrorists linked to the
Iranian-backed Hezbollah kidnapped William F. Buckley, the C.I.A. station
chief in Beirut.
After the C.I.A. agreed to work with him, Mr. Mohamed made contact with a
group of Hezbollah adherents in Germany, according to American officials.
Within weeks, the agency learned that Mr. Mohamed had taken that opportunity
to reveal to the terrorists that he was working for the C.I.A.
It is not known whether Mr. Mohamed set out to be a double agent on his own,
or whether he was at this point acting under the influence or instructions
of an Islamic group. The C.I.A., however, decided to have nothing more to
do with him.
United States officials now say Mr. Mohamed knew he had been cut off by the
agency, which never gave him a reason. After he came to the United States,
he told friends that he had worked with the C.I.A. in Germany and hoped to
do so again.
In American Army
After leaving the Egyptian Army, Mr. Mohamed went to work briefly for EgyptAir
as a security adviser. Then, for reasons that remain somewhat unclear, he
decided to emigrate to the United States. Explaining the decision later at
Fort Bragg, he told other soldiers that he had come to this country for its
religious freedom.
In 1985, the C.I.A. learned that he was trying to obtain a visa, and it put
his name on the State Department list of people who should be kept out of
the country. American officials overseas have extensive authority to reject
visa applications, particularly if security concerns are raised.
Mr. Mohamed got his visa, and when the C.I.A. found out, it sent a second
warning to Federal agencies about the possible security threat, American
officials said.
Mr. Mohamed arrived in New York on Sept. 6, 1985, and eventually settled
in California.
A year later, he enlisted in the American Army, and was assigned to the Special
Operations Command at Fort Bragg, where the Army trains its Special Forces.
The base is also home to the elite anti-terrorist commando unit known as
the Delta Force.
Although Mr. Mohamed was not a member of the Special Forces, the powerfully
built Egyptian worked as a company supply sergeant, trained as a paratrooper,
and received high grades for his abilities.
"You have separated yourself from your peers, and I have taken notice," Capt.
Brian R. Layer wrote in a December 1987 commendation letter praising Mr.
Mohamed's performance on a physical readiness test.
Fellow soldiers recall Mr. Mohamed as a rigorous and dedicated soldier who
seemed eager to learn and who joked about having gone from being a major
in the Egyptian Army to a "lowly sergeant" at Fort Bragg.
Fluent in Hebrew, French and English, as well as Arabic, he would assist
other soldiers in translations, friends there said. He went for long runs
and listened to the Koran on his Walkman.
There were signs that Mr. Mohamed was no ordinary immigrant soldier.
In 1988, he told his colleagues of his plans to take several weeks of leave
and fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet forces. It was an audacious proposal
for an active-duty Army soldier.
American intelligence agencies were in the midst of a multibillion-dollar
program to aid the Afghan rebels, and the C.I.A. had taken considerable pains
to conceal the American role. The capture or death of an American serviceman
in Afghanistan would have been a major international embarrassment to the
United States.
Mr. Mohamed's superior, Colonel Anderson, said he told him not to make the
trip. But Mr. Mohamed replied that he planned to circumvent the Army's
restrictions by flying to Paris on his American passport and then using other
documents to travel from the Middle East to Afghanistan.
Colonel Anderson said he and another officer had written a detailed intelligence
report to their military superiors, but heard nothing.
About a month later, Mr. Mohamed returned, bringing with him what he said
was war booty. Colonel Anderson said he had shown him two belts purportedly
taken from Soviet special forces soldiers he had killed in an ambush.
Although American officials are convinced that Mr. Mohamed fought with the
rebels, there is no specific evidence that he killed Russian soldiers. Such
belts were widely available in local bazaars.
Colonel Anderson and his colleague were deeply troubled by his statements,
and they wrote another intelligence report that provided further details
about what Mr. Mohamed had told them about his time in Afghanistan.
The other officer said he had no doubt Mr. Mohamed had fought with the rebels.
"He had probably lost 20, 25 pounds," the officer said, "which indicated
to me that he had done something fairly strenuous."
The officer, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition
of anonymity, citing the allegations of terrorism in the case and other security
concerns.
Mr. Mohamed made no secret of his trip, and even boasted of his dealings
with Afghan rebel leaders. He thanked another officer, Capt. Michael W. Asimos,
for providing him with some unclassified maps of Afghanistan before he left.
"I remember Ali coming back at some point in 1988," Captain Asimos recalled,
"and telling me how much Ahmad Shah Massoud was pleased that I took him some
maps." Mr. Massoud led one of the mujahedeen groups fighting the Soviets
in Afghanistan.
It is not known whether Mr. Mohamed had a relationship with any terrorist
organization while in the Army. In retrospect, some of his colleagues say,
he had an unusual interest in classified matters.
Captain Asimos ran a classified war game at Fort Bragg in 1988 that involved
military and intelligence officers from all over the country. He said he
had told participants to be careful of what they said in front of Mr. Mohamed,
who they said did not hold a security clearance.
"I can specifically remember Ali coming down and saying I want to be involved
in this, I want to help, I have a great deal of knowledge here," Captain
Asimos recalled.
Toward the end of his service in the Army, Mr. Mohamed asked to be introduced
to the C.I.A.'s representative at Fort Bragg, a former Army officer said.
The Army officer, unaware that Mr. Mohamed already had a history with the
agency, recalls telling the C.I.A. official that Mr. Mohamed "has this burning
desire to be utilized as an intelligence operative, and you're the logical
guy to look at him."
The meeting lasted about an hour, the Army officer recalled. Afterward, he
said, the C.I.A. official joked that Mr. Mohamed might already be a "spook,"
using the slang term for a foreign espionage agent.
"I just kind of laughed," the officer said. "How ridiculous that this guy
could possibly be a spook matriculating in this sort of bastion of special
operations activity."
With Militants
In 1989, officers at Fort Bragg cast Mr. Mohamed as the star of a series
of training videotapes intended to give soldiers a taste of how Islamic radicals
view the world.
On one tape, he says of Israel, "From the Islamic perspective, nobody can
recognize Israel has the right to live, because Israel stole an Islamic
territory."
"We do not accept no peace," he adds. "No international conference. Nothing.
No compromise."
That same year, Mr. Mohamed apparently began working more closely with Islamic
extremists in the United States.
He disappeared from Fort Bragg on weekends, traveled to the New York area
and offered military training to several militants associated with a refugee
center in Brooklyn. He often stayed with El Sayyid A. Nosair, the Egyptian
immigrant convicted of killing Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish
Defense League, in 1990.
Prosecutors now assert that the refugee center was the principal base in
the United States for Mr. bin Laden's group, Al Qaeda.
Mr. Mohamed met the local Muslims at an apartment in Jersey City, and taught
them survival techniques, map reading and how to recognize tanks and other
Soviet weapons, according to testimony by one of his students at Mr. Nosair's
1995 Federal trial.
Mr. Mohamed left the Army in November 1989, obtained his United States
citizenship, and spent the next few years shuttling between New York, California,
Afghanistan and the Middle East.
It is not known when he first met Mr. bin Laden. According to American officials,
however, at some point in 1991 the Saudi exile asked him to help with a crucial
task: moving his base of operations from Afghanistan to the Sudan.
American officials said this was a complex operation, involving the transfer
through several countries of Mr. bin Laden and at least two dozen of his
associates. At the same time, Mr. Mohamed frequented mosques in the United
States, and American officials now suspect that he was recruiting operatives
for Mr. bin Laden.
For Bin Laden
In the fall of 1992, Mr. Mohamed returned to fight in Afghanistan, training
rebel commanders in military tactics, United States officials said.
At the same time, the officials said, a series of bizarre incidents brought
him to the attention of the F.B.I. In 1992, Mr. Mohamed was detained by the
authorities at the Rome airport whose suspicions were piqued by his luggage,
which had false compartments.
He assured interrogators that he was on their side in the war on terrorism,
and claimed he was involved in security for the Summer Olympics in Spain,
officials said.
The next year, he was stopped by the border authorities in Canada, while
traveling in the company of a suspected associate of Mr. bin Laden's who
was trying to enter the United States using false documents.
Soon after, Mr. Mohamed was questioned by the F.B.I., which had learned of
his ties to Mr. bin Laden. Apparently in an attempt to fend off the
investigators, Mr. Mohamed offered information about a ring in California
that was selling counterfeit documents to smugglers of illegal aliens.
Thus began a complicated dance. In the next few years, United States officials
say, Mr. Mohamed provided some information about his movements and about
Mr. bin Laden, who was becoming a focus of a New York-based inquiry touched
off by the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and other plots.
The Government tracked his movements and phone calls, officials said, as
they assembled evidence that suggested that Mr. bin Laden was a far more
important figure in international terrorism than had previously been understood.
Shortly after bombs exploded outside the American Embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania last August, killing more than 200 people and wounding more than
1,000, Federal prosecutors in Manhattan subpoenaed Mr. Mohamed to testify
before a grand jury.
He flew to New York in September, made his appearance, and was arrested.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
In Egyptian Army
Strong Sympathy For Sadat's Killers
Taking a Leave With the Afghans
Shuttling From U.S. And the Mideast
Complicated Dance With the F.B.I.