Saudi Surrenders in FBI Manhunt

A young Saudi Arabian man whom the FBI has accused of being “associated” with the Sept. 11 hijackers has surrendered to authorities overseas after learning that he was the subject of an international counter-terrorism dragnet, his father was quoted as saying Saturday.

Saud A.S. Rasheed, 21, showed up at his family’s home in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and then turned himself in to officials at the Interior Ministry there, the elder man told local journalists.

Rasheed said he wanted to clear himself of any connection to the terrorism attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to his father, Abdulaziz Saud Rasheed.

“We have no idea who this guy is,” one senior FBI official said. “But we sure want to find out.”

In interviews with the newspapers Al Yaum and the Arab News, the father denied that his son had any links to terrorism and said he had never visited the U.S. or any European country.

In Washington, officials at the Justice Department and the FBI said they were aware of the news reports but had not yet been able to determine conclusively whether Rasheed was in custody. If he is, federal agents and counter-terrorism prosecutors will move swiftly to either question him themselves or monitor interviews with him conducted by the Saudi authorities, an FBI official said.

In the past, Saudi authorities have permitted U.S. officials to monitor interrogations of terrorism suspects but not to participate directly in questioning.

The FBI issued a “be on the lookout” bulletin Tuesday seeking Rasheed’s immediate arrest after evidence was recovered that authorities said linked him to the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks.

At least one photograph of Rasheed’s passport was found on a CD-ROM that also contained photographs of at least four of the hijackers, according to FBI officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The importance of the CD-ROM was not discovered until Aug. 15, when investigators at the Justice Department came across it while processing a mountain of evidence obtained during the war on terrorism overseas.

The FBI bulletin, which was also sent to Interpol, the international police agency, said Rasheed was suspected of being “associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.”

“Law enforcement agencies are requested to stop and detain [Rasheed] and to contact their local FBI office,” the bulletin said. “He is considered armed and dangerous.”

The FBI also placed a photograph of Rasheed on its Internet site and circulated the photo to other agencies around the world. The bureau said Rasheed’s whereabouts were unknown.

For nearly a week, FBI agents have been working with their counterparts in other countries to determine who Rasheed is and why his photograph was included on the computer disc along with those of some of the hijackers.

One FBI official said there were no other photographs on the disc, fueling authorities’ suspicions about the smiling young man wearing a kaffiyeh in the photo.

As of late Friday, a search of all U.S. intelligence and law enforcement databases had turned up no trace of Rasheed, and initial queries directed at authorities overseas had also drawn a blank, the FBI official said.

“There may be a harmless explanation as to why his photo and theirs are together, but it doesn’t look good,” the official said.

Rasheed has not been charged with or indicted for any crime, but U.S. authorities said they remained highly suspicious. The passport was issued in Riyadh in May 2000, according to U.S. officials, who said they were investigating the possibility that the document might have been forged.

Officials at the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not return calls seeking comment Saturday.

In the Arabic newspapers, Rasheed’s father insisted that his son was blameless.

“Everyone knows that ... the information published [by the FBI] is baseless,” he told the newspapers, according to the Associated Press. “I asked him to come back fearing he might be arrested.”

The father reportedly promised to work with Saudi authorities to establish the innocence of his son. He said Rasheed had spent a year in Afghanistan to “take part in charity activities” and had returned home “four months after the September attacks.”

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Times wire services contributed to this report.