Herald staff and news services
An Everett man is among two men federal authorities are questioning about why they obtained commercial Pennsylvania driver’s licenses if they have never driven a truck before or since.
Haider Tamimi of Everett and Hussain Sudani of Seattle were ordered held without bail at a federal court hearing in Seattle on Thursday.
Another Everett man, Ali Al Gazawi, and Mustafa Al-Aboody of Seattle were released pending a hearing next Wednesday. Prosecutors said the men are legitimately employed truck drivers and need not be in custody.
The four, all natives of Iraq, are among 18 Middle Eastern men arrested across the country on charges of fraudulently obtaining commercial Pennsylvania driver’s licenses. Two other men sought on the same charges remain at large. Most of the licenses included endorsements allowing the men to transport hazardous materials.
The four were arrested Wednesday as part of the FBI’s investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., but authorities say there is no evidence linking the men to the attacks. Investigators said they were looking at people who have obtained such licenses under suspicious circumstances.
Keeping Tamimi, 28, and Sudani, 33, in custody would give the FBI time to investigate them, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hamilton said. He said Tamimi spent $1,000 obtaining the Pennsylvania license.
"Why would a person fly to Pennsylvania and spend $1,000 on a license when he has never driven a truck before or since?" Hamilton asked.
Tamimi’s lawyer, Barry Flegenheimer, said his client aspired to be a truck driver, but was never able to achieve that goal. Flegenheimer said Tamimi’s father and uncle were killed by the Iraqi army as the family fled for Saudi Arabia near the end of the Gulf War. Tamimi spent three years in a refugee camp on the Iraq-Saudi border before coming to the United States, friends said.
"He’s proud to be in the U.S.," Flegenheimer told the court.
About 40 friends and relatives of the men attended Thursday’s hearing at U.S. District Court. Several wept when they saw them in the courtroom.
"They’re all good people," said Sarah Bond of Everett, who said she knows all four men. "They have a lot of friends, a lot of family. They’re not here to terrorize anybody."
Sudani and Al-Aboody are U.S. citizens. Tamimi and Al Gazawi are legal U.S. residents.
The four were expected to be taken to Pittsburgh to be arraigned following hearings in Seattle next week.
Charging papers filed in federal court in Pittsburgh say the men obtained the Pennsylvania licenses by going through a middleman who paid kickbacks to a licensing examiner.
Sudani and Tamimi were denied Washington state commercial driver’s licenses in March 2000, based on information from Pennsylvania.
Al-Aboody, 29, was issued a Washington commercial license with a hazardous materials endorsement in October 2000, said Brad Benfield, a spokesman for the state Department of Licensing.
Al Gazawi, 29, was issued a Washington state identification card in September 1997; he presented a Nebraska identification to receive it, Benfield said. He then left Washington for Michigan, where he obtained a Michigan driver’s license and commercial license.
Al Gazawi then obtained a Pennsylvania commercial license and returned to Washington in April 2000, when he applied for and received a personal driver’s license and a commercial license with a hazardous materials endorsement, Benfield said.
Al Gazawi also received a tanker-material endorsement that allows transport of large quantities of gasoline and other fuels.
As a precaution, a state of alert remained in effect Thursday amid concern that terrorists might be planning an attack using one or more of the tens of thousands of 18-wheelers that haul hazardous materials on the nation’s roads each day.
Authorities across the nation on Thursday pulled over thousands of trucks carrying hazardous cargo for inspections and ordered companies to review security. In Everett, large trucks lined up at the southbound I-5 truck scale near 112th Street.
The nationwide security dragnet involves more than 50,000 trucking companies carrying everything from gasoline and fertilizer to corrosive chemicals.
Some companies are requiring two drivers on trucks hauling the most dangerous materials, limiting or banning stops en route, and telling drivers not to leave their trucks unattended, an industry official said.
A gasoline tanker carries as much fuel as one of the jets that were flown into the World Trade Center.
Herald Writer Kate Reardon contributed to this story.
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