Terrorist
Ticketed Last Year
By Nolan Clay and
Randy Ellis
Five months before hijacking the plane that crashed
into the Pentagon, terrorist Nawaf al-Hazmi
was ticketed along Interstate 40 in Far Western Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper C.L. Parkins pulled
al-Hazmi over for speeding and for
not wearing a seat belt.
|
Those
tickets became clues for the FBI as agents since Sept. 11
have tried to piece together the movements of the 19 terrorists
across the country. "I wish I had known more, but that's
hindsight," Parkins told. "I'm just glad I did stop
him and did the paper trail on him. That way it could help
the FBI or other agencies further their investigation."
Al-Hazmi's presence in the state was significant enough to
be included, without detail, in the indictment against Zacarias
Moussaoui, who is accused of being a conspirator in the Sept.
11 attack. Moussaoui was enrolled in flight school in Norman
at the time al-Hazmi was ticketed. The Oklahoman learned of
the traffic tickets after making an Open Records Act request
to the state Department of Public Safety.
The FBI already has questioned Parkins, who knows he could
be a witness in Moussaoui's trial.
Al-Hazmi was driving east along the interstate, about 50 miles
after crossing into Oklahoma, when he was caught by radar
going 85 mph. The speed limit was 70.
It was 6:06 p.m. April 1. Parkins would be with al-Hazmi 12
minutes.
He said the driver was short and spoke English well, but he
can't recall anything that was said.
"I just barely remember even having him in my car,"
Parkins said. "You stop so many people that if ... you
don't arrest them or anything ... you don't remember too much
after a couple months. "The best I remember, I asked
him to come back to my car and he sat there, and I visited
with him a little bit," Parkins said. "I wrote him
a ticket for speeding and the seat belt. We did our normal
checks, check to see if the vehicle's stolen, check to see
if he's wanted, if his driver's license status is valid, try
and see if there's anything we need to look further into."
The driver was alone and wasn't nervous, Parkins also recalled.
Al-Hazmi wasn't under suspicion then. He had a valid California
driver's license and an address in San Diego.
Parkins, a trooper of seven years who loves his job, couldn't
have done anything else. "I understand that, but it's
difficult sometimes to think back and go: 'What if you had
known something else?'" he said. "We wish something
could have been done prior to this happening, but we didn't
see anything to go any further with the contact ... on this
man to find out any more."
Al-Hazmi mailed his tickets and $138 in money orders as payment
to the Washita County court clerk later in April. Court Clerk
Tena Arganbright said FBI agents picked up the tickets in
October.
Grand jurors do not explain why al-Hazmi, 25, was in Oklahoma
in the indictment over the terrorist attack.
"I think the inference they were trying to draw was he
was in Oklahoma; Moussaoui was in Oklahoma at the same time,"
said Bob Ricks, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety.
Moussaoui, 33, is accused in the indictment of conspiring
with Osama bin Laden and with the 19 terrorists who hijacked
four commercial airliners Sept. 11.
"Moussaoui is charged with undergoing the same training,
receiving the same funding and pledging the same commitment
to kill Americans as the hijackers," U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft said in December. More than 3,000 people were
killed when the planes were crashed into the World Trade Center
in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington and the countryside
of Pennsylvania. Moussaoui, a French citizen, was at Airman
Flight School in Norman from Feb. 26 to May 29, but dropped
out without getting his pilot's license. He was detained in
August, at first on immigration violations, after raising
an instructor's suspicions at a flight school in Minnesota.
His trial is set for October.
Al-Hazmi came to the United States on Jan. 15, 2000, from
Bangkok, Thailand, and lived for months in San Diego. The
FBI describes him as a possible Saudi citizen.
Last March, he bought videos for a Boeing 747 flight deck.
Moussaoui later bought videos for a Boeing 747 flight deck.
Al-Hazmi stayed in a motel in Maryland with other hijackers
and worked out at a gym in September, days before the attack.
He and four others hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 after
it left Dulles International Airport on Sept. 11 and crashed
it into the Pentagon. His blue Toyota was found at the airport.
Al-Hazmi was apparently driving that car when the trooper
stopped him in Oklahoma. Al-Hazmi died in the attack. In a
video, bin Laden praises al- Hazmi by name afterward, according
to some translations.
|
Senior
Moments
Doctors know Alzheimer’s can shorten a patient’s
life. But now Canadian researchers report that
when someone is found to have Alzheimer’s or
another form of dementia, the median survival may
be only about three years, one-half to two-thirds
less than previously thought.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
E-Mail
This Article To Your Friend
|
Your
Comments
|
Articles
Of Previous Issues
|
Previous
Article ----Next Article
|
|
|
|
