Abdelghani Meskini

An Algerian, Abdel Ghani was arrested in Brooklyn, New York in 1999, after his phone number was found on Ahmed Ressam who had crossed the border from Canada carrying explosives to further the Millennium Plot.[1] He was an illegal immigrant in the U.S., a con man who Mokhtar Haouari said was involved in bank fraud.[2][3][4][5]

The phone number, in the area code, was traced to 944 Newkirk Avenue which housed an Afghan restaurant, laundromat and grocery store, as well as a number of residential apartments.

Ghani, who had been waiting at a Best Western to meet with Ressam, allegedly left a "sloppily executed" trail of evidence suggesting he had helped Ressam smuggle the explosives, including a plane ticket he tore in half and threw in a trashbin, as well as fraudulent credit card receipts under his alias Eduardo Rocha. His telephone was subsequently wiretapped by the authorities.[6]

His apartment was stormed by the Joint Terrorist Task Force, two weeks after Ressam's arrest, on December 24.[6] Ghani, Najmeddine Houaichi and two other men were initially arrested, while Houaichi was charged with immigration violations, the other two men were released shortly afterwards.[6]

References

  1. ^ Library of Congress, Federal Research Division. "Asian Criminal and Terrorist Activity in Canada", July 2003
  2. ^ U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (February 2, 2010). "U.S. v. Ressam". http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/US_v_Ressam_9thcircuitappeals0210.pdf. Retrieved February 27, 2010. 
  3. ^ "Ressam Testimony in Mokhtar Haouari Trial". Southern District of New York. July 2001. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/inside/testimony.html. Retrieved February 27, 2010. 
  4. ^ "The Terrorist Within, Chapter 11: The Ticking Bomb; Terrorist-training-camp graduate Ahmed Ressam turns to untrained friends for help in his plan to bomb the L.A. airport.". The Seattle Times. July 1, 2002. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020701&slug=11ressam01. Retrieved 2 March 2010. 
  5. ^ National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (2004). The 9/11 Commission report: final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-06041-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=fNqdmUnqTJUC&pg=PA501&dq=Hannachi+ressam&client=firefox-a&cd=1#v=onepage&q=ressam&f=false. Retrieved February 28, 2010. 
  6. ^ a b c New York Times, Brooklyn man is charged with aiding in bomb plot, December 31, 1999