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FOREIGN TERRORISTS IN AMERICA: FIVE YEARS AFTER THE WORLD TRADE CENTER

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1998

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY, TERRORISM,

AND GOVERNMENT INFORMATION,
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,

Washington, DC.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:07 a.m., in room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jon Kyl (chairman

of the subcommittee) presiding.

Also present: Senators Grassley and Feinstein.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JON KYL, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA

Senator KYL. This hearing on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information will come to order. Welcome, Senator Feinstein.

This morning we have three panels of witnesses. Let me tell you who the panels are, and then I will make a brief opening statement, turn to Senator Feinstein, and then we will immediately turn to our first panel.

That first panel is: J. Gilmore Childers, Esq., of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, New York City; Henry J. DePippo, Esq., of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle, in Rochester, NY; and Patrick J. Colgan, Jr., PBL Associates, Wyckoff, NJ-all of whom had key roles in the World Trade Center case.

The second panel is Dale L. Watson, section chief for International Terrorism Operations of the FBI here in Washington; Walter D. Cadman, counterterrorism coordinator of the Office of Field Operations of the INS here in Washington; and Richard Rohde, Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of Investigations of the U.S. Secret Service here in Washington.

The third panel consists of Benjamin Jacobson of the Peregrine Group in Miami; Omar Ashmawy in Washington, DC; and Steven Emerson, the Investigative Project here in Washington, DC.

On February 26, 1993, almost exactly 5 years ago, the World Trade Center in New York was bombed. Thousands were injured, six people lost their lives, and Americans discovered that they were not immune to imported acts of terror. Five years and four prosecutions later, as today's hearing will show, there is much we have learned-and some things we still don't know-about that horrible act and about terrorist operations here in America.

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Among the things we have learned is that the perpetrators of the World Trade Center bombing were from varied ethnic backgrounds and apparently unaligned with any one terrorist group. Yet their joint conspiracy was forged by a shared radical ideology and hatred for the United States. And the language of hate continues to be used for recruitment today.

We also learned that the death toll in New York could have been much higher. Ramzi Yousef, the central figure behind the bombing, said he had meant to collapse one of the World Trade Center's towers on top of the other, hoping to kill 250,000 people inside and in the immediate area, but the explosion did not go according to plan. Another of the co-conspirators was an American-educated chemical engineer, employed at a respected U.S. corporation. Investigators found the ingredients for hydrogen cyanide-which, incidentally, was used in the Nazi death camps among the conspirator's stockpile, corroborating Yousef's version of the aborted plan to use poison gas.

As the DCI George Tenet recently testified to Congress, terrorists' interests in weapons of mass destruction is on the rise. This subcommittee will be looking at the prospects for chemical and biological terrorism-and our preparedness to deal with it-later this spring.

The World Trade Center conspirators and their affiliates also laid plans to commit other deadly attacks, both before and after the World Trade Center bombing, which were not carried out for reasons ranging from luck, to timing, to aggressive counterterrorist efforts by U.S. authorities. And in the course of their conspiracy, they violated immigration laws, used false identifications, committed financial crimes, recruited sympathizers, acquired weapons, and, at least in the World Trade Center case, obtained potentially lethal chemicals under false pretenses.

The purpose of our hearing today is to look back on this terrible act of 5 years ago and ask, what have we learned in its wake? Are terrorists still operating here? And if so, why? What are they doing and what are we doing to stop it? And, of course, do these activities pose a threat to the public safety of our citizens?

The World Trade Center bombing and related cases provide insights into how a terrorist operation in the United States is facilitated and how our free and open society can provide safe haven for terrorist conspirators. Since 1993, terrorist group support networks have proliferated, reaching not only into major U.S. cities but smaller towns and communities as well. Criminal enterprises fund their activities here and abroad. These enterprises defraud Americans of millions of dollars, which go to support terrorist operations and into the terrorists' own pockets.

This committee has already heard how foreign terrorist groups use front organizations to raise money here in the United States. In April 1996, Congress passed, with wide bipartisan support, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Among other things, the act directed the Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist groups for the primary purpose of seizing their assets and outlawing new contributions or payments to them. But when the list was finally published last fall, no assets were recaptured. The IRA, which is especially active in fundraising in the United States,

was omitted from the list for political purposes. And only recently have regulations been put into place to go after contributors. Clearly, we need to seek better means to help thwart fundraising and other foreign terrorist activities.

Foreign terrorists gain unlawful entry into the United States by using false and stolen documents and by employing sophisticated alien smuggling rings. U.S. academic institutions are also at risk of being used as a cover for terrorists, who use student campuses to solicit money, recruit members, and espouse violent ideologies. In this hearing, today, we will learn what law enforcement is doing about these activities, including the Student Tracking Pilot Program that was to go into effect in January. We will also hear firsthand testimony about how radical Muslims are distorting the teachings of Islam and attempting to drive a wedge between the vast majority of Muslims of good will and the people and Government of the United States.

Finally, our witnesses will confirm that there is a small but dangerous radical element pursuing their terrorist agenda here who pose a direct threat to Americans. And their activities seem to be growing. Some of these terrorists are affiliated with the same groups and state sponsors of terrorism that were involved in the World Trade Center conspiracy. Still others have their own agenda, quite distinct from the World Trade Center conspiracy.

The U.S. intelligence community and our law enforcement agencies have had many quiet victories in defeating terrorist actions here, which will never receive public recognition. And this subcommittee remains committed to supporting these efforts, to keep our citizens safe both at home and abroad.

I hope this hearing will provide some insights into the policies and tools that we need to deny terrorist fundraising and operations here in America.

Senator Feinstein.

STATEMENT OF HON. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, A U.S. SENATOR

FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Senator FEINSTEIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you very much for holding this hearing. Of course, you touched on the World Trade Center bombing, and I think we saw people from other nations involved there. And then, of course, we saw people from our own Nation involved in Oklahoma City, and those of us that have had the classified briefings understand that we have some reason to be concerned about the numbers of people in this country who are known or believed to be terrorists.

As you pointed out, in the 1994 crime bill we made a series of changes to strengthen our legal ability to confront terrorists. We extended the statute of limitations for terrorism offenses. We attacked foreign counterfeiting of U.S. currency, extended U.S. criminal jurisdiction to attacks against American citizens on foreign vessels, and so on. And then in the antiterrorism bill, there were a number of other provisions added: the addition of taggants to explosives, where it is safe and feasible, to aid law enforcement in solving bombing incidents, strengthening controls of and enforcement against biological agents or pathogens, and so on.

There are also a number of glaring loopholes in our immigration laws. As I serve on the Immigration Subcommittee, I just wanted to spend my time touching on some of them.

I have some reservation regarding the practice of issuing visas to terrorist-supporting countries and INS' inability to track those who come into the country either using a student visa or using fraudulent documents, as you pointed out, through the Visa Waiver Pilot Program.

The Richmond Times recently reported that the mastermind of Saddam Hussein's germ warfare arsenal, Rihab Taha, studied in England on a student visa. And England is one of the participating countries in the Visa Waiver Pilot Program, which means, if she could have gotten a fraudulent passport, she could have come and gone without a visa in the United States.

The article also says that Rihab Taha, also known as "Dr. Germ," that her professors at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, speculate that she may have been sent to the West specifically to gain knowledge on biological weaponry.

What is even more disturbing is that this is happening in our own backyard.

The Washington Post reported on October 31, 1991, that U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq discovered documents detailing an Iraqi Government strategy to send students to the United States and other countries to specifically study nuclear-related subjects to develop their own program. Samir Al-Araji was one of the students who received his doctorate in nuclear engineering from Michigan State University, and then returned to Iraq to head its nuclear weapons program.

The Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy found in September 1997 that many terrorist-supporting states are sending their students to the United States to get training in chemistry, physics, and engineering which could potentially contribute to their home country's missile and nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs.

Yet the State Department often does not do in-depth background checks on the students, and once they are in the United States, the INS has no ability to track the students to make certain they actually study the subjects they claim to study and to attend the schools they said they would attend.

Between 1991 and 1996, the State Department has issued about 9,700 student visas to students from terrorist-supporting states such as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Syria to attend undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States.

Additionally, a survey done by the Institute of International Education indicates that most students from terrorist-supporting countries major in the sciences, and the percentages: 71 percent from Iran; 65 percent, Iraq; 47 percent, Libya; 53 percent, Sudan; 68 percent, Syria.

The IEE survey also estimates that 4.6 percent of students from Iran and 10.5 percent of students from Iraq are funded by their government to study in the United States.

Currently, the State Department does not do any special background checks for students coming from Syria or Sudan. An inter

mediate background check is required for Iranian students and a more extensive check for Iraqi students.

The defendants of the World Trade Center bombing are also an example of those coming in through nonimmigrant or employmentbased visas or abusing our political asylum process and then committing crimes.

For instance, Nidal Ayyad, one of the defendants in this case, used his position as a chemical engineer for Allied Signal to obtain the chemicals used in the World Trade Center bombing.

There is Gazi Abu Mezer, who was arrested in a suspected terrorist plot to detonate bombs in Brooklyn last year. He came in illegally across the Canadian border to Washington State and attempted to seek asylum, but withdrew his application and agreed to leave the country. Once he was released on voluntary departure, he fled Washington to Brooklyn, NY, where he was arrested for plotting suicide-bomb attacks in Brooklyn.

After the World Trade Center bombing, Louis Freeh sent a memo to the Deputy Attorney General on September 26, 1994, and made the recommendation that the State Department needed to establish a uniform system of communication on visa denials and that the Visa Waiver Pilot Program could be used by terrorists using fraudulent documents and that asylum procedures and student visas can be abused by people trying to get into the country.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit the memo into the record. Senator KYL. It will be submitted.

Senator FEINSTEIN. The INS then formed a Task Force on Foreign Student Controls in 1995, in response to Freeh's memo, and found that INS had no ability to track the students in the United States, that INS had no idea if the students leave, drop out, transfer, interrupt their education, violate their status, or commit crimes.

Mr. Chairman, under the 1996 Immigration Act, Congress requires the INS to create a pilot project to track information on foreign students where they are, what they are studying, if they commit any crimes, and if they are studying the subjects they planned to study. The act requires INS to submit a report by 2001. The act also tightens up the asylum process by making it harder for aliens to claim asylum fraudulently, and section 110 of the Immigration Act requires an entry/exit system at all ports of entry by September 1998.

As you know, there is a move on this very committee to essentially remove that.

I know there are concerns over the implementation of international student tracking systems and the entry/exit system required by the 1996 law. And I realize it takes time to build the automation systems and the infrastructure necessary to make the requirements work. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of having the ability to track international students, particularly those from terrorist-supporting countries and having an entry/exit system ability so we know who is coming in and out of the country. I also believe we need to re-evaluate the Visa Waiver Pilot Program as is. In fact, without additional controls to screen out those traveling from terrorist-supporting states, the Visa Waiver Pilot

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