It definitely should be interesting to see this play out.
Probably should have thrown him out a panel van to the VA State Troopers on the Beltway -- he'd still be cooling his heels in a Pen down here.
Luckily there are a few good customs agents out there that protect the flock:
Ahmed Ressam
Ahmed Ressam (
Arabic: احمد رسام; also
Benni Noris or the
Millennium Bomber; born May 9, 1967) is an Algerian
al-Qaeda member who lived for a time in
Montreal,
Quebec, Canada.
[1][3][4][6][8] He received extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan.
He was convicted in 2001 of planning to bomb the
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on
New Year's Eve 1999, as part of the foiled
2000 millennium attack plots.
[9][10] He was initially sentenced to 22 years in prison, after cooperating with the government in testifying about al-Qaeda and associated terrorist networks. In February 2010, an appellate court held his sentence to be too lenient, and ordered that it be extended.
[11] In October 2012, he was re-sentenced to 37 years' imprisonment.
[12] He is serving time at
ADX Florence in Colorado, US.
Ressam rented a dark green 1999
Chrysler 300M luxury sedan, and on the evening of December 13, Ressam and Dahoumane hid the explosives and all the related components in the
wheel well in the car's trunk.
[1][7][24] On December 14, they left Vancouver, traveling to
Victoria, British Columbia. Believing that he would draw less scrutiny alone, Ressam sent Dahoumane back to Vancouver by bus.
[1][10][16][22]
Ressam took the
M/V Coho car ferry from Victoria to
Port Angeles, Washington.
[9][10] He successfully passed through U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service checks in Victoria, and boarded the last ferry of the day for the 90-minute crossing to the U.S.
[7][17][25]
After the ferry docked in
Port Angeles at 6 pm, Ressam intended to be the last car to leave the ferry.
[1][17][23] Although there had not been any intelligence reports suggesting threats,
U.S. Customs inspector Diana Dean decided to have a secondary Customs search conducted of Ressam's car, saying later that Ressam was acting "
hinky" and asked him to get out of the car.
[1][10][26][27]
At first, Ressam was not cooperative.
[1] Dean requested that he fill out a
Customs declaration form, which he did, identifying as a
Canadian citizen named Benni Noris.
[9] He had a passport,
Quebec driver license, and credit cards all in the Noris name, as well as another Quebec driver license with the same date of birth, but in the name "Mario Roig".
[1] Royal Canadian Mounted Police later advised that the Mario Roig driver license was a fake, and did not exist on their records.
[1]
This timer, built around a
Casio f91w, the model bought by Ahmed Ressam, was captured in Afghanistan in the early 2000s.
Another Customs inspector searched the car and found in the spare tire well:
As one of the Customs inspectors escorted Ressam from the car, he broke free and fled.
[1] Inspectors chased him for five to six blocks and caught him as he tried to force his way into a car stopped at a traffic light. They took him into custody.
[1][24]
He was arrested by the
U.S. Border Patrol on charges of misrepresentation on entry and failure to be inspected, booked into the Clallam County Jail in
Clallam County, Washington, and investigated by the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
[1] Customs officials searching him and the car also found the phone numbers of
Abu Doha and Meskini.
[5][28][29][30] His fingerprints were analyzed by the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who determined that he was "Ahmed Ressam", rather than "Benni Antoine Noris".
[1]
An explosives expert concluded that the materials in his car could have produced a blast 40x greater than that of a devastating
car bomb.
[1][10] It was ultimately determined that he had intended to detonate the explosives at the
Los Angeles International Airport.
[9]
en.wikipedia.org