Ahmed Mohammad Ajaj (also
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or ...
Ahmad; born 1966) is a Palestinian citizen who is convicted of participating in the
1993 World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...
. He is currently serving an 84-year
sentence at
USP Coleman
The United States Penitentiary, Coleman I and II (USP Coleman I and II) are high-security United States federal prisons for male inmates in Florida. It is part of the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex (FCC Coleman) and is operated by the Federa ...
for taking part in the bombing.
Early life
Ajaj was born in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and
immigrated
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
to
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
.
Training for terrorist attacks
On April 24, 1992, abandoning his first asylum claim, Ajaj flew from New York to
Peshawar
Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, using the alias Ibraham Salameh, from there to
Camp Khalden on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Lacking necessary credentials, Ajaj was sent to
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
to obtain a letter of recommendation.
May 16, 1992, he flew to Saudi Arabia via
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
where he procured a letter of introduction requesting the leader of Camp Khalden provide the bearer with training in the use of weapons and explosives. Ajaj returned to Pakistan via UAE, arriving June 14, 1992, and began the bomb building course.
Return to U.S.
August 31, 1992, using services of a Pakistani travel agent, Ahmad Ajaj and
Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef ( ur, , translit=''Ramzī Ahmad Yūsuf''; born 20 May 1967 or 27 April 1968) is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines ...
boarded
Pakistan International Airlines
Pakistan International Airlines ( ur, ; abbreviated PIA, ur, ) is an international airline that serves as the national flag carrier of Pakistan under the administrative control of the Secretary to the Government of Pakistan for Aviation. It ...
flight 703 in Peshawar and flew to
Karachi, Pakistan
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...
, then on to
Kennedy Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Ne ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, flying first class during both legs of the trip, believing they would receive less scrutiny.
Ajaj and Yousef together had five passports and numerous documents supporting their aliases: a Saudi passport showing signs of alteration, an
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
i passport bought from a Pakistani official, a photo-substituted Swedish passport, a photo-substituted British passport, a Jordanian passport, identification cards, bank records, education records, and medical records, and carried WAMY published manuals. (911 Commission)
On September 1, 1992, at Kennedy airport Ajaj was sent to secondary immigration inspection, where he claimed he was a member of the Swedish press, travelling as ''Khurram Khan'' with International Student Identification card and a falsified Swedish passport. It is unknown whether Ajaj was meant to cause a scene as a distraction to let Yousef slip through, or legitimately lost his temper, but he shouted to the inspector: "My mother was Swedish! If you don't believe me check your computer." The passport was legitimate, belonging to a Swedish citizen who had attended a training camp in Pakistan and surrendered his identity cards to those who ran the camp, but Ajaj had used simple
school paste
School paste is paste used in schools for art and crafts.
Generally it is a non-toxic starch-based paste such as wheatpaste also called flour and water paste, although PVA glues are also often used.
Well-known brands include:
Australia
* Per ...
to plaster his own photograph over the legitimate owner.
[Katz, Samuel M. "Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the manhunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists", 2002]
In Ajaj's luggage
INS INS or Ins or ''variant'', may refer to:
Places
* Ins, Switzerland, a municipality
* Creech Air Force Base (IATA airport code INS)
* Indonesia, ITF and UNDP code INS
Biology
*'' Ins'', a New World genus of bee flies
* INS, the gene for the insul ...
inspector Mark Cozine and Robert Malafronte found a Saudi passport, altered
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
ian passport, with supporting documents for both; a plane ticket and British passport in the name of Mohammed Azan, bomb-making manuals, videos and other materials on assemble weapons and explosives assembly, letters referencing his attendance at terrorist training camps; anti-American and anti-Israeli materials, instructions on document forgery, and two rubber stamp devices to alter the seal on passports issued from
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
. One of the manuals, written in 1982, seven years before the group was founded, was entitled ''al-Qaeda'' (“The Base” or “The Foundation”) and was more widely reported after the group came to prominence.
[Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002] An INS supervisor informed the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
Terrorist Task Force which declined to get involved but requested copies of the file. The
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...
was notified but was "not interested."
Yousef was also sent to secondary immigration inspection for lacking a passport or a visa that would allow him to enter U.S. He presented an Iraqi passport he said he bought from a Pakistani official for $100 or more (up to $2700 in one report), adding that the passport was fraudulent. Yousef claimed he was fleeing
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
and needed asylum, that he had been recently beaten by Iraqi soldiers in
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
because they thought he was a member of a Kuwaiti guerilla organization. INS inspector Martha Morales also found in his possession a boarding pass in the name of Mohammed Azan, and an identity card, from Al-Bunyan Islamic Center in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, with Yousef's photo and the name Khurram Khan, under which Ajaj had traveled into the U.S. Yousef had signed the back of the card as Ramzi Ahmed Yousef.
Yousef had checks from
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...
of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and an address book listing what Morales later called "unusual places
n America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
for someone to visit whom had just come from halfway around the world." Fingerprinted and photographed, his passport was confiscated. Morales said Yousef spoke excellent English with a British accent, admitted his real name Ramzi Yousef and said he was born in UAE in 1967, and was a citizen of Pakistan. Her Supervisor overruled Morales's recommendation to detain Yousef on grounds the INS detention center was full - even though Yousef had committed acts of immigration fraud (travelling under three different identities and lying to an INS official), and also given inspectors evidence linking him to Ahmad Ajaj. With intermingled documents and both men in secondary inspection, still Yousef was not linked to Ajaj. He made a claim for political asylum and was released in the United States pending a hearing.
Ajaj's terrorist kit, counterfeit entry stamp, and outburst were all decoys intended to deflect INS attention away from Yousef and facilitate Yousef's processing - a premeditated plan intended to exploit routine activities of busy INS inspectors. After more than 8 hours of questioning, at 5:00 a.m. September 2, 1992, INS handed Ajaj to
Wackenhut Correctional Corporation for incarceration in a converted warehouse in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
.
Ajaj's passport revealed his June 15, 1992 Pakistani entry stamp was counterfeit. Ajaj told authorities he had a political asylum claim from a prior entry in February 1992, and was detained pending a hearing. Ajaj later pleaded guilty to use of an altered passport and served six months in prison. Yousef never appeared for his hearing.
Participation from prison
Incarcerated from September 2, 1992, Ajaj remained in contact with Yousef and other co-conspirators and continued to be involved in the
World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a Terrorism, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the List of tenants in 1 ...
plot. Ajaj never contacted Yousef directly. Calls were patched through "Big 5 Hamburgers" in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, rendering law enforcement detection more difficult. The calls were not translated until long after the WTC bombing.
Beginning on December 4, 1992 (and later on December 29, 1992), Yousef placed a series of calls to Ajaj's lawyer in New York and to Ajaj's friend in Texas. Later that same day, a call from Ajaj was transferred to Yousef, permitting the two to speak directly. In the conversation, Ajaj immediately brought up the terrorist kit informing Yousef that the Court had ordered the government to return Ajaj's belongings. When Yousef asked if he could take possession of Ajaj's things, Ajaj readily agreed at first, but then said that it was not a good idea for Yousef personally to obtain the materials from the government because it might jeopardize Yousef's "business", which, Ajaj said, would be "a pity!"
Ajaj was released from prison March 1, 1993 – three days after the WTC bombing. He was rearrested in connection with the attack March 9, 1993, and his asylum request was denied on April 24, 1993. In jail at the time of the WTC bombing, Ajaj was convicted of having played a role "in the early stages of the conspiracy" and convicted of nine counts, sentenced to 240 years, fined $250,000, and ordered to pay 250 million dollars in restitution.
Ajaj did not give up on his political asylum claim. He petitioned for a new attorney and an exclusion hearing – held to determine whether someone is admissible in the U.S. – in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, where he had filed his original political asylum claim. Ajaj's request was denied April 24, 1993, on grounds that a passport holder from a visa waiver country who uses a fraudulent passport (Ajaj had used a bogus Swedish passport) is not entitled to such a hearing. Not satisfied with that outcome, Ajaj asked to file a new political asylum claim and was given ten days by an immigration judge to do so. Thus, Ajaj was able to file a political asylum claim after his arrest for involvement in the WTC bombing.
A 2011
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
report claimed he was imprisoned in a highly restrictive
Communication Management Unit
A communications management unit (CMU) is a type of self-contained group within a facility in the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication (telephone, mail, visitation) of inmat ...
.
[
As of 2020, Ajaj is at USP Coleman I with BOP number 40637-053. In 2021, one of Ajaj's convictions was overturned, reducing his sentence by 30 years.]
Lung cancer
In the late 1990s Ajaj was diagnosed with lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...
moved him to a medical facility, where he had surgery to remove the cancerous lung and received radiation treatment. He has filed scores of grievances and several lawsuits against the U.S. prison system, alleging everything from interference with his mail to denial of access to lawyers, and violations of his Eighth Amendment rights.
Ajaj was the only remaining plaintiff in a lawsuit by federal prisoners alleging harm from secondhand smoke seeping through the air filtration system at SuperMax.
References
[DATA & GRAPHICS: Population Of The Communications Management Units]
Margot Williams and Alyson Hurt, NPR, 3-3-11, retrieved 2011 03 04 from npr.org
External links
*Steven Emerson
Steven Emerson (born June 6, 1954) is an American journalist, author, and pundit on national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism. Some have called Emerson an Islamophobe, who has recently been accused of spying on two different American ...
, Jonathon Levin
Terrorism Financing: Origination, Organization, and Prevention: Saudi Arabia, Terrorist Financing and the War on Terror
''Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is the chief oversight committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland s ...
'', July 31, 2003
Summary of ''For the Record'' radio program on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
* Mark S. Hamm
Crimes Committed by Terrorist Groups: Theory, Research and Prevention
''Criminology Department Indiana State University
Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...
'', June 1, 2005
Profile: Ahmad Ajaj
-Center for Cooperative Research
* Robert I. Friedman, ''Mossad Linked To WTC Bomb Suspect'', Village Voice, 3 August 1993
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ajaj, Ahmed
1966 births
People imprisoned on charges of terrorism
Inmates of ADX Florence
Living people
20th-century criminals
Palestinian mass murderers