Vance
12-12-2003, 09:11 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/12/al.qaeda.witness/index.html
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A naturalized Canadian citizen of Somali origin has been detained in the United States on a material witness warrant in connection with the federal investigation of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to U.S. and Canadian officials.
Mohammed Warsame, 30, was taken into custody earlier this week, said Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, Ontario.
U.S. government sources have told CNN that Warsame is suspected of attending an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
Warsame's detention was first reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which said Warsame is suspected of knowing alleged terrorism conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who attended al Qaeda's infamous Khalden camp in 1998 and swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden.
One source said Warsame has provided some information about Moussaoui, whose suspicious behavior at a Minneapolis area flight school led to his arrest a month before the September 11 attacks.
U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, of the District of Minnesota, said he can't comment on the case while details remain under court seal.
Doiron said that Canadian officials met with Warsame in jail Friday but would not disclose why he was being detained.
"We don't have access to the evidence gathered. It's a court case," Dorion said.
Doiron said he understood that federal authorities in the United States were considering transferring Warsame as early as next Tuesday to the Southern District of New York, where a grand jury investigating the September 11 attacks indicted Moussaoui.
The U.S. Attorney's office in New York would not comment on its role in the case.
Dorion said the Canadian government, informed in a one-page form letter faxed to its Minneapolis consulate on Tuesday, was satisfied that Warsame was being afforded his rights.
"We know what needs to be known," he said. "And he has access to an attorney."
The federal public defender in Minneapolis appointed to represent Warsame, Dan Scott, did not return phone calls.
Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said that Warsame was arrested at his home Monday and that his wife, Farun Farah, received a collect phone call from him Monday night.
"We think the FBI terrorism task force arrested him," Jamal said.
Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Marshals would comment.
Warsame works as a computer science tutor at Minneapolis Community Technical College, according to Jamal, who said the last time Farah saw her husband was when he dropped her off at her daycare job Monday morning.
"She's in a state of shock," Jamal said. "She thinks he's innocent."
The couple married in 2000 and has a 5-year-old daughter, Jamal said.
As for Moussaoui, Jamal said Warsame's wife "never heard of him and never saw them together."
Hmm
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A naturalized Canadian citizen of Somali origin has been detained in the United States on a material witness warrant in connection with the federal investigation of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to U.S. and Canadian officials.
Mohammed Warsame, 30, was taken into custody earlier this week, said Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, Ontario.
U.S. government sources have told CNN that Warsame is suspected of attending an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
Warsame's detention was first reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which said Warsame is suspected of knowing alleged terrorism conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who attended al Qaeda's infamous Khalden camp in 1998 and swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden.
One source said Warsame has provided some information about Moussaoui, whose suspicious behavior at a Minneapolis area flight school led to his arrest a month before the September 11 attacks.
U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, of the District of Minnesota, said he can't comment on the case while details remain under court seal.
Doiron said that Canadian officials met with Warsame in jail Friday but would not disclose why he was being detained.
"We don't have access to the evidence gathered. It's a court case," Dorion said.
Doiron said he understood that federal authorities in the United States were considering transferring Warsame as early as next Tuesday to the Southern District of New York, where a grand jury investigating the September 11 attacks indicted Moussaoui.
The U.S. Attorney's office in New York would not comment on its role in the case.
Dorion said the Canadian government, informed in a one-page form letter faxed to its Minneapolis consulate on Tuesday, was satisfied that Warsame was being afforded his rights.
"We know what needs to be known," he said. "And he has access to an attorney."
The federal public defender in Minneapolis appointed to represent Warsame, Dan Scott, did not return phone calls.
Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said that Warsame was arrested at his home Monday and that his wife, Farun Farah, received a collect phone call from him Monday night.
"We think the FBI terrorism task force arrested him," Jamal said.
Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Marshals would comment.
Warsame works as a computer science tutor at Minneapolis Community Technical College, according to Jamal, who said the last time Farah saw her husband was when he dropped her off at her daycare job Monday morning.
"She's in a state of shock," Jamal said. "She thinks he's innocent."
The couple married in 2000 and has a 5-year-old daughter, Jamal said.
As for Moussaoui, Jamal said Warsame's wife "never heard of him and never saw them together."
Hmm