Lost in the news coverage devoted to the bridge collapse two weeks ago was another local story with far reaching implications. A Minneapolis man (by way of a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan) gets convicted in Federal court:
A federal jury on Friday convicted Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi of possessing fraudulent immigration documents, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Elzahabi, 44, was arrested three years ago as part of a terrorism investigation and has admitted ties to Al-Qaida. But he was prosecuted on immigration charges as prosecutors alleged he used fraud to stay in the United States.
Prosecutors alleged that Elzahabi's 1984 marriage to an exotic dancer in Houston was a business deal to obtain a green card, with Elzahabi paying her to be his wife so he could become a legal permanent resident.
Three perfunctory paragraphs cribbed from the AP is all the Star Tribune deemed necessary for this story. If you were to accept the facts reported here as comprehensive, maybe that's all it deserves. Just an immigration case, a byproduct of an unproductive investigation into terrorism. Probably a case of discrimination anyway. Of all the millions of undocumented workers in this country, why did they target this poor guy? Because he was an Arab! (Sorry, I had a brief flashback to my Star Tribune trained mindset).
On NARN a few months ago, we interviewed terrorism expert Steven Emerson. As a part of our discussion regarding his book Jihad Incorporated, A Guide To Militant Islam in the US, I asked him to comment on the various Minneapolis connections he identified. (This played out as me throwing Arabic names at him and asking him to remember their significance, an exercise Emerson referred to as Jihadi Jeopardy.) Elzahabi was one of the main suspects in this drama. Excerpt from Jihad Incorporated:
Mohammad Kamal Elzahabi is a Lebanese national who entered the United States in 1984 on a student visa. He paid a woman in Houston, Texas to marry him and help him obtain legal permanent resident alien status. Elzahabi divorced her in 1988, after he obtained a green card.
This incident is what he was ultimately convicted of and may lead to his deportation. The facts of his marriage was a point of dispute by Elzahabi's legal counsel. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail:
Defence lawyer Paul Engh gave an impassioned defence of his client, characterizing Mr. Elzahabi as a chivalrous Muslim who had paid a dowry for his bride. "His intentions were pure. Without a doubt, his intentions were pure," the lawyer said.
It's nice to see Elzahabi had his lawyer convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. Unfortunately, it looks like the jury needed some actual evidence, which the prosecution brought, according to Fox News:
[Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk] said Elzahabi came to the United States in May 1984 on a student visa, with plans to learn English as a second language at the University of Houston. He was introduced to Kathy Ann Glant, a waitress and dancer at the Pink Pussy Cat club, and he promised to pay her $5,000 to marry him. In August, just months after he came to the U.S., Elzahabi and Glant were married. Folk said the couple never lived together, never exchanged rings or went on a honeymoon. Their contact was minimal, consisting mostly of phone calls Glant made to Elzahabi to collect money, or time spent filling out immigration paperwork. Folk said Glant went to Elzahabi's apartment once, when he thought immigration officials were coming to investigate. They had a sexual encounter on that day, Folk said, and Glant got paid for it.
Folk said that during interviews with the FBI in 2004, Elzahabi was recorded as saying the marriage was strictly business. "He couldn't even remember her name," Folk told the jury.
Chivalrous Muslim comes to America to learn English by attending college (?), meets a stripper, falls in love, marries her, then pays her for sex, but doesn't bother to learn her name. It's the classic American love story.
As romantic as this may be, the real story is what happened in the 20 years between his wedding day and his setting up shop in Minneapolis. His evolution into a jihadist began innocently enough:
[Court documents] say he decided to go to Afghanistan after attending a Islamic conference held in the Midwest in 1988.
No word on where that was held or what was said. But I must assume everything was wholesome enough. We just had one of those religious conferences last fall in Minneapolis, attended by none other than the distinguished Representative of the 5th district, and nobody made much of a fuss. I mean, beyond those 6 imams alleged to be re-enacting scenes from United 93 and now suing our local government for discrimination because people objected.
Maybe those Islamic conferences back in the 80s were slightly more action oriented, since it drove Elzahabi into a new career, according to Emerson:
In 1988, he fought in Afghanistan and met with key jihadi figures Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Raec Hijazi, and Bassam Kanj. He again traveled to Afghanistan in 1991 and remained there for approximately four years. During this time, he was a sniper in combat and served as an instructor in small arms and sniper skills for other jihadists attending the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan. Elzahabi admitted that while he was in Afghanistan, he personally knew al Qaeda training camp aficionado Abu Zubaydah and knew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Elzahabi returned to New York City in April 1994 where he ran an axle-repair business. He used this business to help ship to Pakistan portable field radios, which US troops later found in Afghanistan.
From 1997 to 1998 Elzahabi lived in Boston. He worked as a cabdriver and associated with Raed Hijazi, whom he aided in obtaining a Massachusetts driver's license in 1997. Hijazi was later convicted in Jordan for masterminding the failed millennium bombing plot that had targeted American and Israeli tourists in that country. While in Boston, he lived with Bassam Kenj, who helped Hijazi lease a taxi that officials believe was used to fund the Jordan plan.
Elzahabi also traveled to Lebanon, where he provided small arms training to a group of fighters that Bassam Kenj had formed to overthrow the government of Lebanon. Elzahabi stated that he served as a sniper, fighting under the command of Ibn al-Khattab in Chechnya from late 1999 to 2000.
Chechnya, where, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Elzahabi engaged in some behavior the Russian authorities are still interested in:
Yesterday's immigration-fraud verdict in a U.S. federal court may smooth the way for the suspect's eventual deportation to Russia -- a country where, according to court records, he said he once fatally shot a bulldozer driver while fighting with Chechen rebels.
But, after all of this, I'm sure Elzahabi was happy to hear, you can go home again. And thanks to that marriage with the exotic dancer, that was the good old USA. According to the Star Tribune (via their online archivists, Power Line):
Elzahabi said he reentered the United States in mid-August 2001 and came to Minneapolis. He had been living in a house near the University of Minnesota that is also home to a mosque.
Once he got here, he started to pursue a new career. According to Emerson, in his section about egregious errors made by the US before 9/11 took place:
Before the 9/11 attacks, the FBI identified Mohammad Kamal Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist. Despite this, in early 2002, Elzahabi received a commercial driver's license to operate a school bus and transport hazardous materials. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Division of Driver Vehicle and Licensing, the FBI "ran his name through a database and cleared him."
He just didn't receive those licenses, he used them. If your kids were in the Minneapolis public school system in the early part of this decade, you just might have had gruff but lovable Mohammad transporting them to school. According to the trade magazine School Transportation News:
Elzahabi spent four months as a First Student school bus driver in late 2001, transporting students for the Minneapolis Public Schools. The company fired him in January of 2002 after he failed to report to work, said Jeff Pearson, region vice president with First Student, Inc.
After fighting in Chechnya from late 1999 through 2000, the FBI said, Elzahabi re-entered the United States and settled in the Minneapolis area. Pearson said Elzahabi applied with First Student on Sept. 11, 2001, the same day terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. At the time, Elzahabi held a valid Massachusetts driver's license and school bus CDL, including hazmat clearance. Pearson said, a check of Minnesota DPS records confirms, that Elzahabi received his Minnesota CDL certification prior to his hire date. As a result, Pearson said First Student does not have on file the name of the school where Elzahabi became certified.
First Student terminated Elzahabi in early January of 2002, after he failed to report back to work for "a number of days" following the winter break, Pearson said, adding that, up until then, First Student documented no problems in his employee file.
Now THAT'S a story. I dare say one that may be of interest to even readers outside of the circulation of School Transportation News.
The Star Tribune has been sleepy to comatose on these stories. They don't seem to meet their standards for what they feel the people of Minnesota need to know about their community. But its not too late. In the interest of helping out our hometown monopoly earn that Pulitzer they've been denied for nearly two decades, here are some questions that need answering:
1) Where was that Midwest Islamic conference in 1988 that radicalized Elzahabi? What was said and by whom? Any of those rabble rousers still working the recruitment circuit in the USA?
2) What were the connections that lead Elzahabi from jihad in Chechnya directly to Minneapolis? Why is a local mosque harboring a jihadist? What's going on at that mosque these days?
3) Why is a guy with a background in terrorism suddenly interested in getting licenses to drive school buses and transport hazardous materials in Minneapolis? How do parents of Minneapolis school children feel about their government's oversight of who they hire?
I can't guarantee a Pulitzer would result from this story. But let's just say occasionally devoting resources to a story of high interest to the readers, one that shows the local paper is actually on their side on issues such as this, wouldn't increase the rate of their circulation dropping any further.
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