Student linked to 9/11 terrorists

CHICAGO — FBI agents have linked a graduate student to the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon, based on a search of telephone records, according to court papers.

Ali Salem Kahlah Al-Marri was arrested Jan. 28 and is being held in New York on a federal charge of unlawful possession of more than 15 credit cards, which were found in his home in West Peoria, Ill., during a Dec. 11 search.

When questioned, Al-Marri, 36, denied any knowledge of terrorism, the newly unsealed court documents say. He has not been charged with any role in the Sept. 11 attacks and his lawyer, Richard Jasper Jr., questioned the alleged link to the terrorists.

The basis for the suspicions of investigators is spelled out in an affidavit accompanying an application for a search warrant for Al-Marri's home. Agents were seeking evidence of several crimes, including "material support for terrorism."

The document filed in federal court in Peoria, first obtained by the (Peoria) Journal Star, details how suspected Sept. 11 hijackers used a telephone number in the United Arab Emirates before the attacks.

It also says Al-Marri, using calling cards, attempted to call the same number three times after Sept. 11 — on Sept. 23, Oct. 24 and Nov. 4.

According to court documents, Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta sent a Federal Express package from the United States to the UAE on Sept. 4 and gave the phone number as a contact point for the recipient.

According to the affidavit, the number was also used a day earlier by an unidentified person for a transfer of money to Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment against Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker now in custody in Virginia.

Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, declined comment on the case. At a hearing Wednesday in federal court on the credit-card charge, Al-Marri was denied bond.

Jasper, the defense attorney, said the affidavit alleged only that his client attempted to make calls.

"Attempted — I don't know what that means, do you?" he said. "It's the thinnest of inferences, actually. If you read the affidavit carefully, there's no direct or indirect evidence he made the calls."

Attorney General John Ashcroft said anti-terrorism investigators will seek voluntary interviews with about 3,000 more foreign visitors.