Deported Muslim Said to Have Had Al Qaeda Ties

A Muslim cleric who raised suspicions a year ago by asking questions about security at the Winter Olympics here and was deported for an immigration violation may have been a member of Al Qaeda, a federal prosecutor said.

State Department officials told U.S. Atty. Paul Warner they knew something about the cleric, Ghulam Rasool Chisthi, that they couldn’t disclose at the time, Warner said.

Warner said Friday that he only recently learned from the State Department that the information they had, from Italian authorities, linked Chisthi to an alleged Al Qaeda plot to bomb St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. It was apparently called off as Osama bin Laden made even deadlier plans for Sept. 11, Warner said.

Warner said he didn’t know why the agency declined to tell him about the suspected Al Qaeda link earlier.

The State Department had no comment Saturday.

Chisthi, 59, from Pakistan, has denied any involvement with Al Qaeda.

“By the grace of God ... I am not a terrorist,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune in a jailhouse interview a week after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“I have nothing to do with Osama bin Laden.”

Chisthi was arrested and deported after visiting the University of Utah for a religious conference for five days in May and June last year, staying at what was to become the Olympic Village for athletes.

While there, he asked questions about security, living arrangements for athletes and the planned appearance by President Bush at the Games’ opening, Warner said.

Chisthi was convicted of lying on his visa by failing to disclose rape convictions in England. He was jailed eight months, then deported.

“We didn’t have any evidence that he was planning an attack” at the Winter Games, Warner said. “But I didn’t want to find out the hard way.”