Hani Hanjour's Old Roommate Was Aiming To Fly Jets

by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

The New Zealand Government concluded, that Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was "a threat to national security." Ravindra Singh, an Indian Air Force veteran and the chief flying officer of the Manawalu Aero Club, had been initially suspicious, but after interacting -- and flying -- with Ali, concluded that he was not radical, and instead was completely harmless. But under Section 72 of the NZ Immigration Act, Ali had no appeal, and he was escorted onto a plane, and then to Saudi Arabia, by New Zealand agents.

Ali's four months in New Zealand led to his arrest May 29th at his home in Palmerston North. His logbook was seized from the Aero Club as evidence. The story didn't even break in the Kiwi papers until this weekend.

Ironically, when he showed up a Manawatu in March, he told Singh his goal was to fly in Saudi Arabia or for the United Arab Emirates, and carried a Yemeni passport. Singh realized that Ali was in the USA during 9/11, and was initially suspicious of the small Arab pilot. But the casually-dressed Ali quickly won the retired officer over. "I asked him some very direct questions about his US flying experience, and found he was quite intelligent, and a moderate person. He was not at all fundamentalist -- he was against those people," Singh told the New Zealand Weekend Herald.

Ali said he could complete his training at home in Saudi Arabia, if only he could pass the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam. Of course, there is no better way to learn any language than immersion, but he'd interrupted his instrument training in the USA, because people were so suspicious. According to Singh, Ali said that, "since then [9/11] everyone had treated him suspiciously. I'm 99 per cent sure he was genuine."

He didn't wear the dress or hew to the strict dietary laws of fundamentalist Muslims, helping to allay suspicion. And he wasn't a bad pilot. "I found his standard to be very good," Singh said. Ali trained in a Cessna 152 at the club.

The government position is that Ali's moderation was an act, and that he is actually the man identified in the 9-11 Commission Report as "Rayed Abdullah" and in some US news accounts as "Rayed Mohammed Abdullah."

According to the report, Abdullah/Ali was the roommate and training partner of Hani Hanjour (right), the pilot in the group of hijackers that took American Airlines Flight 77, murdered crewmembers, and flew the plane into the Pentagon.

The 9-11 report says that Abdullah/Ali worked as a computer programmer, but in summer 2001 resumed a previously interrupted flight training program.

Far from the moderate guise displayed to Captain Singh at the flying club, in Phoenix Abdullah was noted for fundamentalism, and existed at the nexus of a number of al-Qaeda linked flight students, notable among them Hanjour. A footnote in the 9-11 commission report says: "Rayed Abdullah, who lived and trained with Hanjour, was a leader at the Islamic Cultural Center in Phoenix and reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque." (p. 521) Another footnote in the report notes that "Another Hanjour associate, Faisal al Salmi, took flight training with Rayed Abdullah but wanted to keep his training secret.... When polygraphed on whether he had taken flight training at the behest of an organization, al Salmi's negative response was deemed deceptive."

The 9-11 report says Abdullah/Ali attended the same Phoenix flight school, Arizona Aviation, as Hanjour. Hanjour earned a commercial pilot's license, but Abdullah only a Private (in 1998). The two continued to associate and perhaps to fly together, joining a flight simulator club at Sawyer Aviation together with two other Arab students on June 23, 2001 (although the Commission notes that payment is only recorded for three of them, not for Hanjour). After September 11, Abdullah/Ali was questioned extensively by the FBI, which found that his statements and the other members' of his small circle of Islamist flight-student friends didn't always square.

Before moving to Phoenix, Ali lived for a time in Florida and apparently pursued flight training there.

A search of FAA records indicates that Abdullah/Ali still has a Private license on file under the name Rayed Mohammed Abdullah. The last medical noted was in May, 2001, and it lists a 2001-era mailing address -- in Mecca. But the existence of the record doesn't indicate that there's a valid license. The record is marked in red with the legend, "FOR INFORMATION ON THIS AIRMAN'S CERTIFICATE YOU MUST CONTACT THE AIRMEN CERTIFICATION BRANCH...." That label most commonly is seen in the case of a suspended or revoked license, or in cases where an airman is under criminal investigation. The Airmen Certification Branch is closed for the weekend.

According to the 9-11 Commission Report, the al-Qaeda recruits that were ordered to learn to fly were not initially told why. On September 11, 2001, each cell had one or more trained pilots, and three or four untrained young men who essentially provided "muscle" for the hijackings.

Ali apparently attracted the attention of New Zealand's security authorities when he was found on arrival in late 2005 to have used a simple variation of his name in applying for entry permission. Their interest increased in March when he moved from Auckland to Palmerston North and began flying more. In the end, authorities cited Ali's activities in the US and New Zealand, and his association with 9-11 figure Hanjour, as sufficient reasons to deport him.

"We're satisfied he is the right man," Immigration Minister David Cunliffe told the Herald. Cunliffe had no information about what was in store for Ali on arrival in Saudi Arabia, where the expelled man said his father has a textile business.

The South Pacific archipelagic nation has used Article 72 only once before, to eject a Soviet spy in 1991.

Who is the real Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali? The clean-shaven flight student that Captain Sing is "99 percent sure" is OK? The partner of Hani Hanjour, a perpetrator of one of the most infamous deeds in history? A wannabe jetliner captain, or clandestine jihadi?

Perhaps the authorities had much more information. Perhaps they didn't, but decided it was better not to take the chance. The one man who truly knows the answer is back in Saudi Arabia.

FMI: www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html, www.9-11commission.gov/