An Egyptian national, Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk, aroused strong suspicion at Kennedy International Airport in New York, a week after the September 11 attacks, when he arrived with a fake pilot's uniform and a forged flight-school certificate, according to AP.
Defense attorney Michael Schneider said Kishk, who held a legitimate U.S. visa, really meant no harm at all. He described the pilot's document as "the crudest kind of fake". He added that the young man, aged 21, was only trying to impress a girlfriend. However, prosecutors said he lied to FBI agents by claiming he was in the country to attend business school when he really intended to take flying lessons.
Prosecutors have admitted they have no clear-cut evidence that Kishk was part of a potential "second wave" of terror attacks following the attacks on New York and Washington, but conveyed that his behavior and actions resembled those of a suicide hijacker.
Kishk "always had a dream to be a pilot," Schneider added. "When he got arrested, he told the FBI that."
Kishk was stopped on September 19 by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents during a luggage search, after arriving from Spain on a flight that originated in Cairo, Egypt.
The agents found a certificate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Flordia, where the FBI believed one of the September 11 hijackers had trained, according to authorities.
They also discovered false Federal Aviation Administration documents, including one in which the word federal was misspelled "federral"...
"The discovery of the pilot's uniform and fake documents suggested that Kishk might have been hoping to wrongfully gain access to the cockpit of the jetliner," prosecutor Dwight Holton stated clearly.
If convicted of charges he lied to a terrorist task force detective, Kishk could get five years in jail.
Last week it was reported that Abdullah Higazy, a young Egyptian who was staying in a hotel next to the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks was found to have a special radio that could communicate to pilots in the air.
Higazy was arrested shortly after the attacks, and on Friday U.S. Federal prosecutors charged that he had lied to FBI investigators about having the radio. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas, saying it appeared to be "a very strong case of false statements," held Higazy, aged 30, without bail in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New York. (Albawaba.com)
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