Terrorism Link Probed in Woman’s Fatal Car Crash in Tennessee

A mysterious car crash outside Memphis is fueling questions about possible terrorist links involving five Middle Easterners charged with buying fake driver’s licenses in Tennessee.

Katherine Smith, a Tennessee driver’s license examiner charged with furnishing the fake licenses, had been due to appear in court Monday in a detention hearing for her five alleged co-conspirators.

But early Sunday morning, Smith was found dead in a rural area outside Memphis after her car apparently ran off the highway, struck a traffic light pole and burst into flames.

“The timing is odd,” George Bolds, spokesman for the FBI in Memphis, said in an interview.

“There was definitely an intense fire inside the car,” he said. “She was burned beyond recognition, and we had to use dental records to identify her. For accidents like this--hitting a light pole--that’s not normally something that leads to a big fire and burns up the driver.”

The gas tank did not explode and the car appeared only slightly dented from the impact, officials said. Bolds said investigators are trying to determine the cause of the crash and are looking for accelerants that might have caused the quick spread of the fire.

While the crash could have been an accident, he added that “if there were individuals involved with her [in the driver’s license scheme] who were concerned about their participation being known as a result of her prosecution, they might have a motive to do her harm.”

Authorities said Monday in Memphis federal court that they believed there may be “connections” between the five remaining defendants and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Defense attorneys charged in court that the only reason prosecutors raised the terrorism issue is because the defendants are from the Middle East. And authorities conceded they do not have evidence “at this time” that any of the five defendants, all of whom remain in custody, is a terrorist.

But the FBI remains interested in possible terrorism links. Investigators say one of the defendants, 31-year-old Khaled Odtllah, drove from New York City to Memphis on Sept. 11, while a second defendant, 24-year-old Sakhera Hammad, had in his wallet a visitor’s pass from the World Trade Center dated Sept. 5. Several of the defendants apparently lived in the New York area and were in the United States illegally, authorities said.

Hammad told authorities that he had the World Trade Center pass because he was working with a plumbing crew in the building, Bolds said. “That could be true, but it’s one of those things you need to check out,” he said.