Suspected Terrorist Linked to Hijackers

Man held for two weeks in Niagara before being released was seen in Toronto with U.S. attack suspects, witnesses say

by Ross Marowits
The Standard (St. Catharines)
September 28, 2001

TORONTO - Nabil Almarabh, the suspected terrorist who spent two weeks jailed at the Niagara Detention Centre, has been seen, witnesses claim, associating in Toronto with suspected hijackers who commandeered airplanes during the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Some residents in a Toronto neighbourhood where Almarabh lived with his uncle say they believe they've seen in the last year some of the suspected terrorists associating with Almarabh, who is now being questioned by the FBI.

Several people, speaking up for the first time, said the suspects had been in the area in the months leading up to the attacks.

"I know that face. I've seen him in the building," said a tenant in the apartment building where Almarabh stayed. Almarabh, 34, was arrested last week near Chicago in connection with the investigation into the terrorist attacks in the U.S. that have left almost 7,000 dead and missing.

U.S. authorities won't say precisely how they think Almarabh may be connected to the attacks, though some reports suggest he may have links with the prime suspect behind them, Muslim extremist Osama bin Laden.

Almarabh applied twice for refugee status in Canada and was in Toronto as recently as last summer, boarding with an uncle, but was last seen in July.

The sightings in Toronto of some of the hijackers, if confirmed, suggest that what could have been a minor Canadian connection to the attacks has the potential of becoming a major one.

The RCMP confirmed Thursday they've received tips from Toronto residents who claim to have seen in the city some of the 19 named hijackers, whose pictures were publicized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Those reports are being checked out, said spokesman Howard Adams.

He would not confirm that the Mounties have expanded their investigation into the possibility that a terrorist cell connected to the attacks conducted its business in and around the neighbourhood.

But the tenant, who asked to be known only as Michelle, said she's positive she had seen suspected hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi. She said she recognized him from a newspaper photo.

Michelle said she once saw the bearded man in her building, though she can't recall exactly when.

It's the same west-end building on Jameson Avenue that Almarabh is believed to have stayed in with his uncle, who has lived there for 18 years and who denounced terrorism at an open house in a mosque last Sunday.

The uncle, Ahmed Shehab, a Muslim cleric who says he is also the principal of an Islamic school on the outskirts of Toronto, is not a suspect.

However, a teacher at the school was arrested just over a month ago and accused of links to terrorism, CBC-TV's The National reported Thursday.

Court documents filed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service claim the teacher, Mahmoud Jaballah, is a member of the Egyptian Islamic terrorist organization Al Jihad, an organization "closely linked" to bin Laden's group, al-Qaida, the network reported.

The CSIS documents said Jaballah has supported, and "will engage in terrorism." Almarabh illegally re-entered Canada last year despite being deported as a failed refugee claimant in 1995.

In June, he allegedly tried to sneak into the U.S. in a tractor-trailer, carrying a fraudulent Canadian passport and citizenship card. He was arrested and turned over to Canadian authorities and held at the Thorold detention centre for two weeks for an immigration hearing.

Following that hearing, he was released to his uncle, on $7,500 bail supplied by the uncle. He failed to appear in court in St. Catharines on the charges relating to the passport Sept. 13 -- two days after the terrorist attacks.

For several hours Wednesday evening, Michelle watched RCMP and local police cart away plastic bags containing passports, computer discs and a computer from a fifth-floor apartment. A police dog was used in the search of the two-bedroom unit.

"They took a lot of stuff out of here," said Donna Dunphy, who manages the building.

"I couldn't believe what I saw in front of my building," she said of the massive police presence.

Police also executed search warrants at a copy shop in the city's downtown, which the CBC reported is owned by the uncle, and two residences in Mississauga.

The late-night raid so frightened tenants that many have called Dunphy to express their unease and discuss their own sightings.

"These tenants can't live like this," said an emotional Dunphy. "They're calling me from work."

She said tenants had frequently complained about noise coming from the apartment in the middle of the night sounding like a washing machine. She now suspects it was a photocopier.

She said seven tenants have told her they believe they also spotted some of the suspected terrorists.

The purported sightings weren't confined to the apartment building.

Workers at a pharmacy around the corner from the 108-unit complex said they immediately recognized Mohamed Atta, believed to be the ring-leader of the attack and a cousin of Al-Shehhi, when they saw newspaper photographs of the named hijackers. They couldn't pinpoint the date in which they made the sighting.

Susan Stancheson and Bill Felice said at first they thought they might be mistaken, but that they began to think otherwise when news reports suggesting a possible Toronto connection surfaced.

"I got chills going through my body," said Stancheson recently.

Felice conceded, however, that with so many people of Middle Eastern nationality passing through the store, he can't be completely sure.

None of these residents say they have been interviewed by police. But Dunphy said Thursday that she was called by RCMP seeking an interview.

She wonders why police took nearly a week to search the properties.

Meanwhile, Almarabh is in custody on immigration charges in New York City, facing questions before a grand jury.

Sources indicate he's being regarded as a material witness in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

A New York newspaper reported that Almarabh had met in the 1990s with Ahmed Alghamdi and Satam al-Suqami -- two of the men suspected of hijacking planes that hit the trade centre.

The report said Almarabh was also tied to terrorists who unsuccessfully planned to blow up a posh hotel in Jordan around the time of the millennium celebrations.

Copyright 2001 St. Catharines Standard Group Inc.

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