Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Man charged with helping hijackers obtain IDs
By Karen Gullo
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities have charged the first person with aiding the terrorist hijackers, according to court documents released Monday. Airports and airlines were asked to redo background checks for all workers with access to sensitive areas.

Herbert Villalobos was charged in federal court in suburban Virginia with aiding one of the suspected hijackers to fraudulently obtain a Virginia identification card a month before the Sept. 11 attacks.

A second man who aided with the I.D.’s is cooperating and was not charged, prosecutors said. The court records disclosed as many as five of the hijackers got Virginia cards in the month before the attacks.

Meanwhile, the terrorism investigation proceeded on several fronts.

Attorney General John Ashcroft disclosed that 352 people have been arrested or detained in the investigation and an additional 392 people were being sought for questioning about the attacks in New York and Washington.

“We think they have information that could be helpful to the investigation,” the attorney general told lawmakers.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded farm crop dusters another day for fear they could be used in biological or chemical attacks — a ban that was being lifted at midnight — and also asked airports and airlines to take new precautions with their own workers.

The FAA ordered that workers’ identifications immediately be verified, followed by new checks of employment histories and possible criminal backgrounds.

The order affects tens of thousands of airport workers who have access to secure locations in airports, people such as baggage handlers, food service workers and mechanics.

“We are requiring revalidation of all airport I.D.’s to make sure that they are genuine, current and belong with the person they are with,” FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said.

In Florida, court records in Broward County showed one of the 19 hijack suspects was wanted on an arrest warrant at the time of the attacks.

A bench warrant was issued June 4 for Mohamed Atta for failing to appear in court on a charge of driving without a license. Atta’s Florida driver’s license was revoked on Aug. 23.

“There’s over 200,000 warrants in the system,” county sheriff’s spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said. “So naturally, you’re going to make sure you’re going out and getting those wanted for murder. This is not one that’s going to jump out at you.”

In Virginia, an FBI affidavit filed in federal court alleged that as many as five hijackers — Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhamzi, Majed Moqed, Ahmed Saleh Alghamdi and Abdulaziz Alomari — went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 2.

All five were at the office that day to “conduct transactions relating to Virginia identification cards,” the affidavit said.

The affidavit alleges that Villalobos and a second man — his identity not revealed because he is a confidential witness — signed identity papers for the hijackers.

The affidavit said Villalobos, using the alias Oscar Diaz, signed papers certifying that Alomari lived in Virginia. Alomari has been identified as a hijacker of a Boston flight that crashed into the World Trade Center.

The second man, a confidential witness, signed both a residency certification and an identity affidavit that was used by Alghamdi to obtain an identification card, the affidavit said.

Alghamdi has been identified as a hijacker of the second plane that struck the Trade Center.

The affidavit said the unidentified local man was standing in a parking lot near the motor vehicles office along with several other men, including Villalobos, when three men approached in a van and asked for help in getting Virginia identification cards.

Villalobos and his acquaintances then drove together to an attorney’s office nearby with the others following. The papers, which can be used as identification for getting driver’s licenses and state identification cards, require the signature of a notary public.
As for the crop dusters, Ashcroft told the House Judiciary Committee the FBI had gathered information raising fears the small farm planes could be used in a biological or chemical attack. “There is no clear indication of the time or place of these attacks,” he said.

Ashcroft said that Atta, one of the hijackers, had shown interest in crop dusters and that another person now in federal custody had downloaded computer information about the planes.

J.D. “Will” Lee, 62, general manager of South Florida Crop Care in Belle Glade, said Monday that groups of two or three Middle Eastern men came by almost every weekend for six or eight weeks before the terrorist attacks, including the weekend just before the assaults.

Lee said a co-worker, James Lester, positively identified one as Atta.