Hijackers' Friend Objects to 9/11 Report

Yemeni Man Asserts He Didn't Know of Plot

Mohdar Abdullah knows what the Sept. 11 commission says about him. That he was "perfectly suited to assist the hijackers in pursuing their mission." That he "expressed hatred for the U.S. government."

Perhaps most damning, the panel's best-selling report alleges that Abdullah may have bragged to inmates that he knew about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in advance and that he told the FBI, "The U.S. brought this on themselves."

Abdullah, now 25 and back in his homeland of Yemen after his deportation from the United States in May, called the report "propaganda" and said he is the victim of U.S. investigators looking for someone to blame. He said he had no inkling in the summer of 2001 that two friends, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, were about to take part in the deadliest terrorist assault on U.S. soil.

"If I could have done anything to prevent this heinous attack from happening, I would have done it," Abdullah said in a telephone interview with The Washington Post arranged by his attorney last week. "I was going to school, I was working, I was building my own future over there. I considered it my own land, and that's how I behaved towards it. . . . I was quite happy living in America until this happened."

The comments stand in stark contrast to the 567-page commission report, which portrays Abdullah as perhaps the most suspicious acquaintance to befriend two of the hijackers during their time in Southern California. While the commission largely absolves other hijacker associates of wrongdoing, it casts Abdullah as a central figure in the hijackers' San Diego stay and strongly suggests that he may have been an al Qaeda operative placed there to help the plot.

"Abdullah . . . is fluent in both Arabic and English, and was perfectly suited to assist the hijackers in pursuing their mission," according to the report. It adds later that "Abdullah has emerged as a key associate of" Alhazmi and Almihdhar in San Diego.

Abdullah's story highlights one of the enduring debates of the Sept. 11 attacks: how the terrorists managed to train for the assaults, conduct surveillance and accomplish their mission -- all, apparently, without assistance in the plot from anyone in the United States. The FBI, after an exhaustive check of possible accomplices, including Abdullah, supports that scenario. Others, including the commission and a House-Senate inquiry panel, have challenged the FBI's conclusion.

Abdullah said he offered his hijacker friends no assistance with the plot and does not know anyone who did.

Abdullah, whose English is sprinkled with American colloquialisms after six years of living in the United States, said he "was very surprised" the commission "even brought me up."

"I was in custody for nearly three years and no one came up to me and said, 'Hey, we think you were involved,' " he said. "This has got me very upset. It is very unfair, and it's ruining my life."

Abdullah's San Diego attorney, Randall B. Hamud, said his client remains a virtual captive in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where he is under constant surveillance by the government.

Abdullah was arrested as a material witness in late September 2001. He spent 32 months in U.S. jails and prisons as the FBI and the Justice Department investigated his ties to Almihdhar, Alhazmi and a network of immigrant friends, all of whom congregated around the Rabat mosque in a suburb of San Diego.

Commission investigators complained that they were never able to interview Abdullah before he was deported. Abdullah refused to cooperate, and the Justice Department declined to grant him immunity from prosecution to compel his cooperation. The panel also is critical of the government's decision to allow Abdullah's deportation, arguing that unanswered questions about his case require further examination.

Abdullah's first alleged contact with Alhazmi and Almihdhar came in February 2000. According to the commission, he may have driven them from Los Angeles to San Diego. Abdullah denies it. The two would-be hijackers sought out another person they had met recently in Los Angeles, Omar Bayoumi, at the Islamic Center of San Diego.