Youssef Hmimssa

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Youssef Hmimssa is a citizen of Morocco, who was convicted in a Detroit court of fraud and who was a key witness in the case against the Detroit Sleeper Cell.^[1]

Hmimssa left Morocco in 1990, when he was 18. He spent the next four years in Europe, using false identity papers under the name Patrick Vuillame.

In 1994 he arrived in the USA. Hmimssa claims that other than living under a false identity he wasn't breaking any laws. He drove a cab, in Chicago, while he took computer classes. In 1999 he received a Microsoft certified assistant engineer certificate.

Hmimssa says he was cheated of two months pay at his last computer job. He said the firm purposely hired illegal immigrants, knowing it could cheat them of their pay, without repercussions. He claimed this drove him to a life of crime.

Hmimssa returned to driving cab, and acquired a clandestine credit card reader, and stole the information necessary to duplicate hundreds of credit cards from his cab fares.

In 2001 he moved to Detroit, where he met the men he testified against in the sleeper cell case. Richard Convertino characterized the defendants as "Takfiris" -- Jihadists so radical they would refrain from praying, and drink alcohol, so they could pass as westernised, secular Muslims, in order to plan clandestine terrorist attacks.^[2]

But the case unraveled on Hmimssa's testimony.^[3]

[edit] Alleged Role in the aftermath of 9/11

Immediately after 9/11, news organizations across America portrayed Youssef Hmimssa as "The Most Wanted Man in the United States" and the key to a Terrorist Sleeper cell in Detroit^{[citation needed]}.

The main problem with this news was that Youssef Hmimssa was already incarcerated in Milan, Michigan before and during the 9-11 attacks. When his face flashed across American televisions just after the 9/11 attacks, security guards at Milan, Michigan, were alerted to his whereabouts^{[citation needed]}. When prisoners were intimidated into silence^{[citation needed]} concerning Mr. Hmimssa, a call was then made to Barbera Ann Wood, a former U.S. Customs officer and mother of one of the inmates. She was asked to notify the F.B.I. directly because the B.O.P. and Federal officers at Milan were uncooperative in bringing this information forward. The day after the F.B.I. was notified of his location, news went out that Mr. Hmimssa was located, apprehended, and transferred directly to Milan, Michigan^{[citation needed]}.

Federal B.O.P. records show that Mr. Hmimssa was reported at Milan even though Public Information concerning this alleged criminal portrays a different set of circumstances^{[citation needed]}.