Hani Hanjour's Old Roommate Was Aiming To Fly Jets
by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose"
O'Brien
The New Zealand
Government concluded, that Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was "a
threat to national security." Ravindra Singh, an Indian Air Force
veteran and the chief flying officer of the Manawalu Aero Club, had
been initially suspicious, but after interacting -- and flying --
with Ali, concluded that he was not radical, and instead was
completely harmless. But under Section 72 of the NZ Immigration
Act, Ali had no appeal, and he was escorted onto a plane, and then
to Saudi Arabia, by New Zealand agents.
Ali's four months in New Zealand led to his arrest May 29th at
his home in Palmerston North. His logbook was seized from the Aero
Club as evidence. The story didn't even break in the Kiwi papers
until this weekend.
Ironically, when he showed up a Manawatu in March, he told Singh
his goal was to fly in Saudi Arabia or for the United Arab
Emirates, and carried a Yemeni passport. Singh realized that Ali
was in the USA during 9/11, and was initially suspicious of the
small Arab pilot. But the casually-dressed Ali quickly won the
retired officer over. "I asked him some very direct questions about
his US flying experience, and found he was quite intelligent, and a
moderate person. He was not at all fundamentalist -- he was against
those people," Singh told the New Zealand Weekend Herald.
Ali said he could complete his training at home in Saudi Arabia,
if only he could pass the International English Language Testing
System (IELTS) exam. Of course, there is no better way to learn any
language than immersion, but he'd interrupted his instrument
training in the USA, because people were so suspicious. According
to Singh, Ali said that, "since then [9/11] everyone had treated
him suspiciously. I'm 99 per cent sure he was genuine."
He didn't wear the dress or hew to the strict dietary laws of
fundamentalist Muslims, helping to allay suspicion. And he wasn't a
bad pilot. "I found his standard to be very good," Singh said. Ali
trained in a Cessna 152 at the club.
The government position is that Ali's moderation was an act, and
that he is actually the man identified in the 9-11 Commission
Report as "Rayed Abdullah" and in some US news accounts as "Rayed
Mohammed Abdullah."
According to the report,
Abdullah/Ali was the roommate and training partner of Hani Hanjour
(right), the pilot in the group of hijackers that took American
Airlines Flight 77, murdered crewmembers, and flew the plane into
the Pentagon.
The 9-11 report says that Abdullah/Ali worked as a computer
programmer, but in summer 2001 resumed a previously interrupted
flight training program.
Far from the moderate guise displayed to Captain Singh at the
flying club, in Phoenix Abdullah was noted for fundamentalism, and
existed at the nexus of a number of al-Qaeda linked flight
students, notable among them Hanjour. A footnote in the 9-11
commission report says: "Rayed Abdullah, who lived and trained with
Hanjour, was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Center in Phoenix and
reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque." (p. 521) Another
footnote in the report notes that "Another Hanjour associate,
Faisal al Salmi, took flight training with Rayed Abdullah but
wanted to keep his training secret.... When polygraphed on whether
he had taken flight training at the behest of an organization, al
Salmi's negative response was deemed deceptive."
The 9-11 report says Abdullah/Ali attended the same Phoenix
flight school, Arizona Aviation, as Hanjour. Hanjour earned a
commercial pilot's license, but Abdullah only a Private (in 1998).
The two continued to associate and perhaps to fly together, joining
a flight simulator club at Sawyer Aviation together with two other
Arab students on June 23, 2001 (although the Commission notes that
payment is only recorded for three of them, not for Hanjour). After
September 11, Abdullah/Ali was questioned extensively by the FBI,
which found that his statements and the other members' of his small
circle of Islamist flight-student friends didn't always square.
Before moving to Phoenix, Ali lived for a time in Florida and
apparently pursued flight training there.
A search of FAA records indicates that Abdullah/Ali still has a
Private license on file under the name Rayed Mohammed Abdullah. The
last medical noted was in May, 2001, and it lists a 2001-era
mailing address -- in Mecca. But the existence of the record
doesn't indicate that there's a valid license. The record is marked
in red with the legend, "FOR INFORMATION ON THIS AIRMAN'S
CERTIFICATE YOU MUST CONTACT THE AIRMEN CERTIFICATION BRANCH...."
That label most commonly is seen in the case of a suspended or
revoked license, or in cases where an airman is under criminal
investigation. The Airmen Certification Branch is closed for the
weekend.
According to the 9-11
Commission Report, the al-Qaeda recruits that were ordered to learn
to fly were not initially told why. On September 11, 2001, each
cell had one or more trained pilots, and three or four untrained
young men who essentially provided "muscle" for the hijackings.
Ali apparently attracted the attention of New Zealand's security
authorities when he was found on arrival in late 2005 to have used
a simple variation of his name in applying for entry permission.
Their interest increased in March when he moved from Auckland to
Palmerston North and began flying more. In the end, authorities
cited Ali's activities in the US and New Zealand, and his
association with 9-11 figure Hanjour, as sufficient reasons to
deport him.
"We're satisfied he is the right man," Immigration Minister
David Cunliffe told the Herald. Cunliffe had no information about
what was in store for Ali on arrival in Saudi Arabia, where the
expelled man said his father has a textile business.
The South Pacific archipelagic nation has used Article 72 only
once before, to eject a Soviet spy in 1991.
Who is the real Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali? The clean-shaven
flight student that Captain Sing is "99 percent sure" is OK? The
partner of Hani Hanjour, a perpetrator of one of the most infamous
deeds in history? A wannabe jetliner captain, or clandestine
jihadi?
Perhaps the authorities had much more information. Perhaps they
didn't, but decided it was better not to take the chance. The one
man who truly knows the answer is back in Saudi Arabia.