Customs Finds Blast Material, Arrests Man

The FBI is investigating a man arrested after crossing into the United States from Canada this week with more than 100 pounds of potentially powerful explosives and timing devices, a government source said Friday.

The man carried Canadian identification papers with two different names and tried to outrun the agents Tuesday after they found garbage bags full of white powder and jars of suspicious liquid in his rented car, U.S. Customs Service agents said.

They caught up with him near a ferry landing at Port Angeles, Wash., about 60 miles from Seattle. He had just crossed from Victoria, British Columbia.

A lab analysis determined that the seized materials included urea and nitroglycerine, said the government source, who spoke to Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Urea and nitrogen-rich fertilizers, which can be used to make nitroglycerine, have been used in past bombings, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The FBI has taken over the case, said the source, who was in Washington.

The timing of the man’s arrival--shortly before the millennial New Year’s Eve--”is very interesting,” said Jesse Chester, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “It raises a lot of questions in a lot of our minds as far as motive.”

The man was identified as Benni Antonio Noris, 28, said Lawrence Tubbs, a spokesman at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, outside Seattle.

But the Seattle Times quoted a federal source as saying his name is Ahmed Ressam and said authorities believe he is of Iranian or Algerian descent.

Federal officials suspect he may be part of a larger organization and others may have already entered the country, the newspaper said.

The man refused to answer authorities’ questions. A hearing in federal court was scheduled for Friday afternoon.

“This could be a big-time story,” Rodney Tureaud, agent in charge of the Customs Service in Seattle, told the Seattle Times.

The man was carrying two Canadian driver’s licenses, each in a different name, and a Canadian passport. One of the addresses was in Montreal, and the man speaks French. A translator was called in.

Cathy McMurrin, manager of the Best Western Loyal Inn in downtown Seattle, said someone using the name Benni Norin called Best Western’s national reservations center Tuesday and made a reservation for that evening. The motel is a few blocks from the Seattle Center, where the city has scheduled its huge New Year’s Eve celebration.

Norin never showed, McMurrin said, and never attempted to make another reservation. The FBI has seized records from the hotel, she said.