Somali immigrant tied to hijackers by D.C. map worked at Reagan Airport, and as burns guard

Human Events, Oct 15, 2001 by Carney, Timothy P

Amid a cashier's check made out to a flight school in Phoenix, four drawings of the cockpit of a Boeing 757, and a box cutter, FBI agents searching the car of suspected suicide hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi on September 12 found a map of Washington, D.C. It bore a hand-written note with the name "Mohumed" and a Northern Virginia phone number.

Just that note would be enough to make "Mohumed," that is, Mohamed Abdi, a figure in the investigation of the September I I attack, but adding to the intrigue is Abdi's work history.

A former foodservice worker at Reagan National Airport, Abdi had also worked as a Washington-area security guard until the FBI took him into custody September 23.

At the time he was detained, Abdi was carrying in his pocket a newspaper clipping about an attempted terrorist attack in 1999.

He is currently being held without bail in Alexandria, Va., pending indictment on check-forging charges. The federal judge who ordered his detention said in court that he considers Abdi to be a material witness to the hijackings and a risk of flight.

Court testimony, documents and conversations with his neighbors and friends sketch the story of Abdi's immigration to America and his eight-year residence in Washington, D.C., and neighboring suburbs.

According to Ahmed Mahamed, a fellow Somali immigrant who befriended Abdi, Abdi fled Somalia in 1993, at a time when the Clinton Administration was trying to track down and arrest that nation's leading warlord, Mohamed Aidid. Abdi came to the United States, according to Mahamed, as a refugee. Like many Somali men, he left his wife and daughter behind, took a job in the D.C. area and worked to save the money he would need to bring his family here.

Soon after coming to the states on an 1-94 refugee visa, says Mahamed, Abdi moved to Mt. Pleasant Rd. in Northwest D.C. Refugees, Mahamed observed, are not subject to the same scrutiny as other immigrants, because they often come in droves.

Abdi soon went to work for Caterair, an airline caterer at National Airport. Airport caterers, like baggage handlers, have frequent access to planes and other secure areas of airports. FBI agent Kevin Ashby testified that Abdi had earlier worked for a Somali airline.

After fleeing Somalia himself-in 1994, Mahamed met Abdi here in the United States. The two lived in the same apartment building on Mt. Pleasant Rd. for three years, and even briefly shared the same apartment. Mahamed, who currently works at the 7-Eleven across the street from the building, says that when he met Abdi, Abdi was working for Burns Security, a nationwide firm that provides security guards for office buildings.

Tape-Recorded Phone Message A tape-recorded phone message at the Burns employment office in Washington, D.C., says that the company requires its employees to have a clean background, a high school diploma or its equivalent, and either resident alien status or a worker visa. Though Burns did not respond to a written inquiry from HUMAN EvENTs, testimony in Abdi's detention hearing confirmed that he did, in fact, work for the company. He was assigned to guard the headquarters of Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored mortgage company located in Northern Virginia, near Dulles International Airport.

At the detention hearing, the federal court could not establish whether Abdi was a U.S. citizen,-or even what his exact immigration status was (see page 3).

Ahmed Mahamed, who said the FBI never questioned him, said he thought Abdi had obtained citizenship, but wasn't sure. FBI Special Agent Kevin Ashby testified September 26 that he believed Abdi had been naturalized in November 2000, but the judge in the case said that court documents indicated the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) "has no record of his becoming a naturalized citizen."

The INS refused to tell HumAN EVENTS Abdi's citizenship status, citing "privacy issues."

In 1996, Abdi, who was earning about $22,000 per year at Burns, brought his wife and daughter to the United States, and according to Mahamed, moved out of the District of Columbia to the Area Valley apartments in Arlington County, Va., where he could get more space for less money.

In 1999, though, developers announced they were going to tear down Abdi's apartment building and put up more expensive housing. To get permission to do this, the developers cut a deal with the county government. In return for the right to demolish some of the lowest-rent housing in the county, they would help the displaced tenants pay the higher rent they would face elsewhere.

One mechanism for doing this was the Arna Valley Tenant Assistance Fund, paid for jointly by the developers and county taxpayers. It gave displaced low-income tenants rent subsidies for their apartments.

Abdi moved to the Auburn Village. condominium in Alexandria, Va., in a neighborhood very close to Reagan National Airport. His rent was $750 a month, payable to William,E. Barr of Arlington. Every month, the county would send Abdi a $220 rent subsidy check that both he and Barr had to sign before it could be cashed. Under the subsidy plan, Abdi was supposed to hand the check over to Barr after he had endorsed it, so Barr could apply it to Abdi's rent.