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Inmate says he told FBI about danger to New York By Doris Bloodsworth | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted January 6, 2002 A jailed Seminole County man who had served time in a British prison with three suspected associates of Osama bin Laden claims the FBI ignored his warnings in August that terrorist attacks on New York City would occur "very soon." Walid Arkeh contends that, during a late-summer interview that federal officials acknowledge took place, FBI agents scoffed at his promise to exchange more details for freedom, asylum and protection. But since Sept. 11, the 35-year-old Jordanian national from Altamonte Springs has been grilled by federal agents and whisked to an undisclosed location by state corrections officials. His name and photo -- all traces of his presence in the system -- have been removed from the Department of Corrections Web site. It may never be known exactly what Arkeh told federal authorities on the afternoon of Aug. 21 or what they did to check out his story before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But at the very least, Arkeh's story demonstrates the complexities of the war against terrorism, where fantastic claims, demands for deals and informants facing criminal charges can muddy what is already a nearly impossible task. "I told them something big was going to happen in New York City," Arkeh said in a recent interview with the Orlando Sentinel. Arkeh said he learned of plots by terrorists led by bin Laden from the trio of fellow inmates while they served time together in a British prison from September 2000 to July 2001. "I told them there were these three men who were cronies of bin Laden's. I gave them some details but not everything. I thought they would be back in a few days," he said during a November interview. But the federal agents didn't return until Sept. 11 -- hours after the World Trade Center towers fell and the Pentagon was split open, killing close to 3,000 people in the worst terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil. The FBI won't provide details of conversations they had with Arkeh either before or after the tragedies, but agents deny he told them anything significant. "We do not put any credibility into what he said," explained Bill Hajesky, the FBI's Orlando supervisor of special agents. "And when we checked into his background, we found he wasn't credible." But the U.S. Attorney's Office has acted otherwise. Alerted to Arkeh's existence by questions from a Sentinel reporter in November, the office immediately sent investigators to interview Arkeh. Although federal officials are forbidden to discuss the details of terrorism investigations, some officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office spoke briefly about Arkeh because of heightened public concern about Sept. 11. "We are aware of who he [Arkeh] is, and he has been talked to," said Steve Cole, the Tampa-based spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. Cole and Tom Turner, the managing assistant U.S. Attorney in Orlando, said they think Arkeh's information about the September attacks in New York was neither fabricated nor a coincidence. They also said they could not say how they might use him in further terrorist investigations. "Whether he has any information or not, we don't want to comment on," Cole said. Extradited to United States Weeks before his August interview with two FBI agents and an immigration official, Arkeh had been extradited to the United States from a British prison, where he had been held for 10 months after fleeing convictions in Central Florida for dealing in stolen goods and slapping his child. Having lived in the United States for more than a decade, he skipped the country to avoid deportation. He thought he could lie low overseas for a while and then rejoin his mother and siblings in Altamonte Springs, Arkeh said. Caught instead in Manchester, England, and brought back July 20 for sentencing, he was barely settled into the Seminole County Jail before he solicited another inmate's help to contact authorities about what he called pending attacks in New York City. It's unclear exactly what Arkeh knew, a man whose previous record includes pleading no contest to making harassing phone calls and driving with a suspended license. What is indisputable is that he wanted to make a deal to get out of jail, avoid deportation and "get protection," perhaps in the form of a new identity. He turned to former bail bondsman Leroy Hardman, who had been booked into the jail Aug. 17 to serve 45 days on road-rage charges. Arkeh said he had noticed other inmates asking Hardman for advice, so he seemed like a smart fellow, a good bet. Although Arkeh hadn't told his family, an attorney -- anybody -- about terrorist plans to attack New York City, he decided to tell Hardman, he said, in hopesof getting the word to federal officials. What happened after that is known for sure only by Arkeh and a handful of law-enforcement officials, who aren't talking. But through interviews with Hardman, Arkeh and officials here and in the United Kingdom, and searches of jail logs, telephone records and other documentation, the Sentinel has pieced together a trail of events that has led state authorities to hide Arkeh, at least for now, from potential retribution. 3 Muslim inmates Arkeh told the Sentinel that last year he was befriended in London's Brixton Prison by three Muslim inmates, whom he identified as Khalid al-Fawwaz, Adel Abdel Bary and Ibrahim Eidarous. During religious ceremonies in the curtained-off mosque inside the prison, Arkeh noticed the men were revered by their fellow prisoners. But it was only after another inmate told him they were friends of bin Laden's and accused of involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings that he knew why. Federal prosecutors have indicted the three men as co-conspirators with bin Laden in the Aug. 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed more than 200 people and wounded another 4,600. A 157-page, 319-count indictment charges bin Laden and 21 others, including al-Fawwaz, Eidarous and Bary, with a conspiracy to kill and maim Americans. Prosecutors say the three men ran a storefront London operation that served as a cover for al-Qaeda operations and acted as a conduit for communications between bin Laden and his network. Arkeh said he developed a genuine affection for the Brixton inmates and said they took him under their wing. The Saudi-born al-Fawwaz, 37 -- who U.S. federal prosecutors say helped establish al-Qaeda cells in Africa and London -- even gave him a personal copy of the Quran, Arkeh said. "He was a great listener," Arkeh said. At the urging of al-Fawwaz and Egyptians Bary, 32, and Eidarous, 30, Arkeh asked to be moved into their area of the prison, where he found himself surrounded by other Muslim inmates. As he gained their confidence, Arkeh said, they told him, among other things, about al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, al-Fawwaz's friendship with bin Laden and upcoming attacks in New York City that would involve multiple targets. "I didn't want to be a terrorist," Arkeh said. "I wasn't working for them, but I became a part of them." Representatives for the three men's attorneys said that it is illegal under British law for them to comment publicly on their clients' cases. Also, inmates are forbidden to speak to the press, according to British and Brixton prison officials in response to several requests for interviews. Man with clout Arkeh's relationship with the trio ended when U.S. marshals extradited him from the London prison and returned him to Seminole County on July 20. Arkeh was soon drawn to Hardman, a fellow inmate who seemed to have clout, to know the system and to have a leadership role among inmates. He approached the former bail bondsman, first talking to him about his charges -- trying to pawn a stolen ring and slapping his 8-year-old daughter. His trust building, Arkeh then asked Hardman for help in getting the word of possible terrorist attacks to federal agents. He told Hardman, 53, he planned to trade the information for asylum and protection. Hardman said Arkeh told him his former fellow inmates had talked about the embassy bombings and called the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center "unfinished business," though he never indicated to Hardman that the World Trade Center was an upcoming target. Hardman said Arkeh explained they had told him that the terrorists had used enough explosives to do considerably more damage, but that a lack of oxygen minimized the blast, which killed six and injured more than 1,000. "I didn't know if this guy's story was crap or not," Hardman said, leaning forward for emphasis during a recent interview. "But I believed he believed it." On Aug. 19, Hardman called longtime friend and fellow bondsman Russell "Bruce" Moncrief, who was having dinner with some friends. After listening to Hardman talk in whispered tones about a terrorist plot, Moncrief, 52, said his first impulse was to laugh. "You're saying someone in jail has confided that he spent months in prison with people who are terrorists in England. And that during that time he became aware of a terrorist plot of major proportions in the very near future. It will be in New York with multiple targets," Moncrief told the Sentinel he repeated in front of dinner guests. Cell-phone records show that on Aug. 20, Moncrief called the Secret Service office in Orlando, then the FBI office, speaking to an Agent Lilly for about 12 minutes. "I was pretty unbelieving, but just in case there was something to it, I wanted to tell somebody at the FBI," Moncrief said. "I told him [the FBI agent] I knew my friend wouldn't go to these extremes unless he believed it was true." The following day, FBI agents Kevin Hogan and John Weyrauch arrived at the Seminole County Jail. Arkeh said he told them about the British prisoners and that a terrorist attack, "something big," was going to happen in New York City very soon. He promised more details if agents agreed to his terms: freedom, asylum and protection. He said the FBI agents didn't appear impressed, and one stood with his hand in his pocket impatiently asking, "Is that all you have? That's old news." When the agents told him they couldn't make any promises, he said, "But you're the feds. You can do anything." "I didn't ask for one penny," Arkeh told the Sentinel. "It really ticked me off." He said he assumed the agents would verify the information about al-Fawwaz and the other Brixton prisoners and that when they returned with a deal, he would tell more. But they didn't return until Sept. 11. Time was short While Arkeh waited, Hardman was moved to another area of the jail. The two inmates didn't see each other again until Sept. 9, when Hardman was passing out laundry and saw what he called "Arkeh's panic-stricken face." Hardman said Arkeh pointed to his wrist as if checking a watch and said, "We're running out of time. The FBI hasn't been back. We don't have a lot of time." Struck by the apparent sense of urgency, Hardman asked to see Lt. Mark Metz, a corrections officer and old acquaintance. Metz, however, wouldn't be back to work until Sept. 12. Moncrief, Florida's Bondsman for the Year for 2000 and past-president of the Tri-County Bonding Association, said he hadn't given the doomsday predictions much more thought until he listened in horror to the news on Sept. 11 while returning from a business trip to West Palm Beach. "I thought, 'Oh, my God. This could be the same thing that guy was talking about. And the FBI said it had no foreknowledge.' " It was just hours after the attacks when the FBI remade the Arkeh connections. Agent Kevin Farrington called Moncrief of Winter Springs on his cell phone and referred to the call from the month before. The agent told Moncrief he was heading to the Seminole County Jail, where he and fellow Agent Wendy Evans signed in about 2:30 p.m. Hardman said agents interviewed him, as well, on Sept. 11, and that he was upset. "You're coming a little late, aren't you? You should have been here three weeks ago," he recalled telling them. Asked whether he knew specifics about the attack, Hardman told the agents he did not know the date but said Arkeh had mentioned that the World Trade Center towers had "never been completely taken care of." Arkeh said he told Evans, referring to his previous talk with the FBI, "Miss, I was very serious. I mentioned the most-wanted man in the world, bin Laden, and his cronies, and you didn't do anything." He said she seemed sympathetic but that he was frightened by threats that he could be charged with co-conspiracy if he knew about the attacks. It was then, he said, that he told them more. "I discussed the Afghanistan training camps, the bombings, the people in England and the things that might happen in the future." They came back later asking whether he knew of any suspected terrorists living in the United States. He said he didn't. And the favors he sought for his cooperation went nowhere. "Here I was betraying myself, my family, these people that had helped me," Arkeh said. "All for these two FBI people." No way to check With federal agencies restricted about what they can say, and with the British prisoners and their legal counsel not giving interviews, many of Arkeh's assertions can't be corroborated. When pressed by the Sentinel about whether he knew about the Sept. 11 hijackings and targets ahead of time, Arkeh, a compact and muscular man, paused a long time and looked down at the ground. Then he raised his head and smiled: "No. If I did, that would make me a co-conspirator." As to what he might know about terrorists' money transfers or sleeper cells, Arkeh said, "I knew a little bit about everything." In a letter to the Sentinel dated Dec. 22, he stated, "There is more to the story that I want to tell" and said he had not been able to talk "in detail about everything because it is a very sensitive issue." Last week, though, a prison spokesman said that Arkeh did not want to say anything more without a lawyer present. Hardman and Moncrief say they remain frustrated. In a two-page e-mail to the FBI on Sept. 12, Moncrief wrote, "I don't really want to fix blame, but it's not as though no one ever had the opportunity to gain information in advance." As he recalled his phone calls to the bureau, tears spilled down Moncrief's face and onto the red-and-gray beard he had grown for his role in a church Christmas program. "There's 6,000 people," he said, referring to the number originally thought killed in the World Trade Center. "Did I do enough? I thought it might be a real threat, but I thought it might be a bombing, like, a restaurant. Nothing of that magnitude ever crossed my mind." Hardman also feels the weight of the events launching the United States into its war on terrorism. "It ticks me off to hear them [FBI] say they absolutely had no warning," he said. "The bottom line is that they were contacted weeks before and told this guy had hard information about the bombings in Africa, and about future things in New York, with multiple targets, and they didn't act on it." But Ed Bodigheimer, 56, former head of the FBI's Orlando office, said the bureau gets so many reports that they are hard to sort out. He said the FBI has been inundated with tips since Sept. 11 -- more than 250,000 nationally, most of them false leads or hoaxes. Even before the attacks, calls with alleged information about terrorism and other crimes came in by the dozens daily. "It's a time-consuming process in the best of circumstances," he said about the FBI's job of running down those tips. "You have to be careful," he said. "Some are vague; others come from people who have a personal vendetta." Since America launched a full-scale war against bin Laden, Arkeh has been sentenced to 30 months in state prison, with credit for the 385 days served in England and Seminole County. State corrections officials who checked Arkeh's story and were concerned about his security have transferred him to an unidentified prison. "Based on the information we received from the Sentinel and other information we obtained, we decided to put him in an undisclosed location," said Debbie Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. "Our people have contacts with other agencies and checked out the information to determine his security needs." Since Sept. 11, al-Fawwaz, Bary and Eidarous have been transferred for security reasons to Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in London, according to press reports. Within days of Arkeh's name being wiped clean from the Department of Corrections Web site, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his "responsible cooperators program." The Nov. 29 directive called on the FBI, Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S. attorneys to offer a visa that would allow immigrants to stay and work in the United States in exchange for reliable information about suspected terrorists. Federal officials cannot comment on whether Arkeh is eligible for the program. In the meantime, Arkeh's 62-year-old father has this advice for his son: "If he has any information against these people or al-Qaeda, he should give all the information to the government," Abdul Arkeh said. "This is our country. This is our home." Doris Bloodsworth can be reached at 407-420-5446 and [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
