Stolen identities playing part in probe

Abdulaziz Alomari -- identified as a suicide hijacker on the first plane that smashed into the World Trade Center last week -- is “alive and well in Saudi Arabia,” a Saudi Embassy official told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday.

The FBI has identified 19 hijackers involved in last week’s attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that killed more than 6,000 people.

But the Saudi Embassy on Wednesday reported that an investigation by its Ministry of Interior shows that Alomari’s identity was, in fact, stolen. Alomari is a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines and was training at a Florida flight school earlier this year, the embassy source said. A man who called himself Alomari attended Flight Safety International school in Vero Beach, Fla.

The Saudis also are investigating whether the terrorists’ plans included stealing the identifications of five other hijackers listed as being aboard the doomed flights.

That raises the chilling possibility that U.S. investigators don’t know -- and may never know -- the identities of the real terrorists.

A Justice Department official Wednesday would not say whether U.S. investigators had interviewed Alomari in Saudi Arabia. She confirmed, however, that the Justice Department is investigating the possible use of stolen identities by hijackers -- a possibility that investigators have acknowledged all along.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal met Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss cooperation in fighting terrorism. State department officials would not say whether they discussed the identity issue.

Saudi officials said they have had ongoing problems with criminals faking Saudi passports, partly because of that country’s open relations with the United States. The embassy source said, however, that the hijackers could have falsified other forms of identification because passports are not required for domestic flights in the United States.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires domestic air travelers to show two pieces of identification, one with a photo and at least one issued by a government, according to spokesman Paul Turk.

Identity theft has become an increasing problem in the United States because of the flow of electronic information and because of computer technology that makes identification easier to forge.

U.S. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said knowing the real identities of the hijackers is less important than getting to the bottom of the conspiracy they are part of.

According to the Saudi Embassy official, Alomari called his country’s embassy in Washington to say he was alive. Embassy officials then referred him to the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia.

“They checked him out and he presented himself ... and was interviewed by U.S. officials,” the source said. “My understanding is he was cleared.”

The Saudi government also is checking into five other hijackers who might have stolen the identities of Saudi citizens. Only a DNA test will settle the alias issue with absolute certainty for Alomari and the others, according to the embassy.

At least one person on a separate list of about 200 people that U.S. investigators are seeking also had his identity stolen, according to the embassy. The Ministry of Interior confirmed that man, who had been sought in Florida for information related to the attack, also called Saudi officials and said he had returned to his home country and was not involved in the attacks.

They did not have an exact spelling of the man’s name available Wednesday, but it is thought to be Amer Kamfar.

Saudi officials have determined his identity was stolen. The embassy official said Kamfar returned to Saudi Arabia on Aug. 31. U.S. authorities wanted to interview a man thought to be Kamfar after reports that he had been seen with a gun in South Florida after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Our concern is ... figuring out how their identities were stolen,” the embassy official said.

The Saudi press has quoted Mutaab bin Abdullah, a military affairs official in Saudi Arabia, as saying some of the people whose identities were stolen in this case had had their passports stolen in the past.

Five other suicide terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attack also may have been using stolen identities, the embassy source said. However, he pointed out that the Saudi government’s investigation still has not proved that to be the case.

Those men have been identified as Salem Alhamzi, Mohald Alshehri, Saeed Alghamdi and brothers Waleed and Wail Alshehri, whose father, Ahmed, is a Saudi diplomat who was transferred from Washington to Delhi in 1997.

The embassy official said the real Alomari left the U.S. on Sept. 3 after going to flight school in Florida. Local investigations have turned up few clues about Alomari, other than links to a residence in Hollywood, and attendance at a flight school in Vero Beach.

Waleed Alshehri is listed in records at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach as Waleed A. Al-Shehri. One professor has said that the 1997 graduate had been a good student who was mild-mannered and friendly.

University of Florida Professor Aida A Bamia, who specializes in Arabic languages and literature, said some of the difficulty in investigating the hijackers may be because of different naming traditions in the Arab world.

While the United States is accustomed to using two names, a first name and last name, it is common for Arabs or Arab Americans to have three or four names.

She also noted that some of the spelling of Arabic names may vary depending on the skill of the translator and that different spellings may be radically different names.

Saudi citizens have been warned in the past that they are targets of passport theft, according to the embassy.

Ludmilla Lelis of the Orlando Sentinel staff contributed to this story.