by Brooke A. Masters, The Washington Post
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Shortly after prayers at his Falls Church, Va., mosque last spring, computer technician Eyad Alrababah struck up a conversation with two strangers and invited them to his apartment for tea.
Alrababah found one of the men dour and unapproachable, but he took a liking to the other, whom he knew as Nawaf Atabi, and he helped steer the pair to an apartment in Northern Virginia. Then, in May, the Jordanian immigrant says, he spent a few days with his new acquaintances, driving with them from Virginia to Connecticut and spending time with them there and in New Jersey.
Four months later, he caught another glimpse of them. The FBI had released photographs of the 19 suspected Sept. 11 hijackers. His erstwhile companions had been aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. “I felt my hair standing up. I said (expletive) and called my boss and said, ‘I have to go to the FBI,’ ” he said in the Alexandria, Va., jail.
One was friendly, one was not
Alrababah’s descriptions of his contacts with Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Alhazmi, confirmed by law-enforcement sources and court documents, mark the first public evidence that the hijackers spent time in Northern Virginia months before they hijacked a Boeing 767 from Dulles International Airport. Alrababah, one of the few U.S. residents to have substantial contact with the hijackers, is among the first to discuss what he saw.
His story sheds new light on relationships among the terrorists. Most significantly, it appears to bolster Osama bin Laden’s claim in a videotape that some hijackers were unaware of their group’s ultimate plan until the end.
While Alhazmi appeared to be outgoing and friendly, Alrababah said, Hanjour — the Virginia group’s pilot and leader — was close-mouthed, often interrupting to prevent his companion from answering questions. “I really believe Nawaf didn’t know what was going on. He was really, really nice. ... Nawaf was always asking Hani why” when Hanjour tried to shut him up, Alrababah said. “If the FBI says Hani is evil, I would believe it, but I have a hard time believing Nawaf was a hijacker.”
A cautionary tale
Alrababah, 29, said his experiences since Sept. 11 also should serve as a cautionary tale. Since he came forward, Alrababah has spent seven months in federal custody — almost entirely in solitary — first as a material witness and then charged and convicted in an unrelated case. Now, a man who is engaged to a U.S.-born citizen and who once hoped to make his life in the U.S. is facing deportation when he leaves prison.
“It’s pretty much been a nightmare,” said his fiancée, 32, who asked not to be named because she fears negative publicity could hurt her career as a professional figure skater. “He lost his business. He lost friends. It’s really disrupted our lives completely.”
There is no public evidence tying Alrababah to terrorism beyond his limited contact with the hijackers, and he passed an FBI polygraph last fall, said his lawyer, Frank Salvato. But federal sources cautioned that they are still investigating Alrababah. The U.S. attorney’s office declined comment.
According to court documents, Alrababah also spent time in the Washington, D.C., area helping Arabic-speaking immigrants exploit a now-closed loophole that allowed applicants to obtain Virginia driver’s licenses without proof of residency. He pleaded guilty last month in U.S. District Court to helping a New Jersey man falsely complete the license forms.
In August, seven hijackers exploited the same loophole to secure identification documents. Alrababah was not present and was not charged with helping them.
Hijackers didn’t pray
Alrababah spoke freely about his meetings with the hijackers. Despite their alleged religious and political motives, Hanjour and Alhazmi never seemed to pray, he said. They avoided discussing their U.S. travels and their politics and never gave him an inkling of what was planned.
When the three men met in March 2001, Alrababah, who had studied computer engineering in Egypt, was new to Northern Virginia.
Like many Muslim newcomers and visitors to the area, Alrababah made his way to Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center for prayers. The mosque holds five services daily, sometimes drawing 800 to 1,000 worshippers at a time.
After the service, he said, he found Hanjour and Alhazmi, but he does not remember seeing them at prayer. “Even in the mosque, I never saw them praying. ... Maybe bin Laden said they should be hiding the praying,” he said.
Alrababah and his roommate took Hanjour and Alhazmi to their home for tea. The conversation was stilted, largely due to Hanjour, who shushed Alhazmi and frequently moved to get up and leave. The two hijackers told Alrababah they were on vacation. They also said they were looking for an apartment to rent, but Hanjour acted oddly when Alrababah offered to call a landlord.
“He wanted the number, but he didn’t want me to speak to the guy. It was rude,” Alrababah said. “I had a very bad feeling about Hani. I didn’t accept him. He kept telling Nawaf things in a whisper.”
An uncomfortable road trip
Alrababah soon moved back to Connecticut. But his roommate called three times saying Alhazmi and Hanjour were looking for him.
In May, Alrababah returned to Virginia to face identification-fraud charges in state court and agreed to drive back up to Connecticut with Hanjour, Alhazmi and two other men — probably hijackers Majed Moqed and Salem Alhazmi.
“It was somebody asking you for a favor, and you don’t lose anything by saying yes,” he said.
Alrababah spent the night at Alhazmi and Hanjour’s, and they set off the next morning in Alrababah’s Honda Civic and the blue Toyota that Nawaf Alhazmi would leave behind at Dulles.
Hanjour, who always wore a cap crammed down over his head, rode with Alrababah, making for an uncomfortable, largely silent, seven-hour journey. They ended up in Alrababah’s new hometown of Bridgeport, where he guided the four men to a motel and to a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey that cooks with meat that is acceptable for Muslims.
“After that, they disappeared,” Alrababah said. “It was one day, but it destroyed my whole life.”
Allegations of mistreatment
After he went to the FBI in Bridgeport, Alrababah said, federal investigators kept him locked up for months. Like several other material witnesses, Alrababah alleges guards in New York slammed his head against the walls. Far worse, he said, were the psychological effects of being kept alone under bright lights, and being awakened frequently by guards.
When Alrababah arrived in Alexandria in November, “he was so emaciated. He was delusional. He couldn’t remember which things were true and which were made up,” said his fiancée, who was engaged to Alrababah in July.
She said she still hopes to get married, although she believes they will have to live abroad. “It’s hard for me to understand that Eyad will have to leave this country ... ,” she said. “He closed a loophole in their investigation, and they turned their back on him.”
Fed up, Alrababah pleaded guilty to the fraud charge. Salvato estimated that Alrababah will be sentenced to time served or a few more months in jail.
“I can’t say it is wrong that I went to the FBI,” Alrababah said. “I did it for my religion because we are against the killing I am very sure ... that the truth will come out and the FBI will thank me.”