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9/ 11 ..~aw Enforcement Pri vacy

EventiInterview of FBI specialAgentl .....__ .....Type of eventiInterview

\ . \ . \\ \\\ \\ ',Dates: November 18>2~03\. \ \\ S,pecial Access Issues: Access Limited to Dieter Snell, Raj De (source disclosure)\ \ \\,p;~pared by: Raj De .\ \ \eam,Number: IA\ , \ L '\ c a t iO ,\ : FBI, San Diego Field Office -,\, 'pa*:ticlp~~ts - Non-Commission: FBI Supervisory Special Agent Rick Kelly\ \ ,Pard.~ ipant~, - Commission: DieterSnell, Raj De

Ihas been in the FBI San Diego Field Office fo;'8y~ars. He spent 3 ofthose 8 years in.the EI Centro RA office. Prior to September 11, 200I'j Forked ond~g jnvestigati()~s. Since 9/11, he has been assigned to an IT squad .

, \ After 9/11'] l-vorked on the team assigned to investigate Hashim al-Attas.\. The Attas investigation initially arose under Penttbom. Attas came to the attention of the

cause he signed over the lease to his apartment in San Diego to Khalid al-Midhar.\ could not recall exactly how this apartment had come to the attention of the FBI,ut upon further questioning he remembered that the initial lead had to do with GeorgeHarbi the manager of the apartment.

r---lecalled that Attas signed over the; I IOllse the apartment to Midhar onFebru~OOO. Attas told a work associate! khat he had to do somethingthat day at lunch. He and Dicked up Midhar and Nawafal-Hazmi and took them tomeet Harb. When they arrived to meet Harb, one of the two hijackers went inside whilethe other remained outside.1 INas the emergency contact on the new lease. Attas wasnot happy about having to take Hazmi and lvftdhar to the apartment. In an interview withthe FBI, his girlfriend said that Ari:as may have been doing a favor for an associate of hisnamed Khalid LNU. ' ,

Attas had connections in Islamic community. According to his girlfriend, hedid not like Omar al-Bayoumi because he :suspected that he might be a Saudi intelligenceofficer. Bayoumi came to Attas' apartme,nt on occasion under the guise of seeking help

his computer, but Attas believed he was stopping by to check on him .

V seeke.Personal Privacy

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-- .' ~ 0 . ' . " ' ! SELKE I. , . , . , . .. , ' . : . ' . ' . , : , . ,. . , : . ,., : . : , ' , . : : : : " " : . : . ~.: : . , , . : ,.: , :.' : : " : " " " ' ", , ~ ~ ; : j ~ : : ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~ : ~ : n ! ~ ~ ~ 5 i : ~ : = ! a ~~:~~at~Frapartment. One time, the girlfriend was let into that apartment by the manager and took

thefan and VCR. The hijackers subsequently came to her apartment to complain. As a\\............""::-... result-they called Attas in Saudi Arabia to have him divide the items left in the apartment\ \ " - : < : : \ among fhem, When they later moved out of the apartment, the hijackers packed up some\\ \:':\:gfthe iteni1>,~hatAtlas left for them to use,\ \. \. \.. \. \.:..... The girlfriend has positively identified Hazmi as one of the two individuals who\ " \ " "'"" '"'l.i~ in the apartment,

Atlas had co~tact with Bayoumi every couple of weeks, but not very frequently,.......\ ~~~ unaware of an y increase in the phone contacts between Bayoumi and Attas in\ \. VeTari~~ry/early February 2000 .

~id not know :hQ,Khalid LNU was, and he was unaware whether the FBI\. \ever'~ete~,~~d who he was. "'" '\\ \\ \~s not familiar with ~he"incident in which Harb, the apartment manager,\ received a page ..from Bayoumi's phonenumber in early February 2000 and spoke with\I-lazmi when he 'retumed the call. \,'; \\ Accordingtcr:::Jthere is no eVid:~~ to suggest that Atlas is an extremist. Hebelieved that somebody must have played on the{~ttas should be a good Muslimand allow Hazmi andMidhar to use his apartment:L...J.Iid not think there is anythingne'~arl,,~usabout Attas.\,~ttas seemed to like America.

~ \ " I !was not sure, but he believed that it had been determined that the Hashimal-Attas who was scheduled to take a cross-country flight on September 11, 2001 was notthe same individual who signed over the lease to his apartment to Hazmi and Midhar, Hewas sure that this was th e case.

btate~ that a lea~"o/as sent to Riyadh to interview Atlas but he did not thinkhe was ever interviewed. \""",.

Turning to Iyad Khreiwesh:Jl.ecalled that he came onto the radar as a resultof his association with Osama Mus~ owner of the Texaco gas station in San Diegowhere Hazmi briefly worked in the spring of2000. Mustafa is an American by birth andserved in the Marine Co s. He has Palestinian relatives and is uite active in his su ortof the Palestinian cause.

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Sf!t:IU:'f

\,\. '. \. :-:.:..\~..Whenasked about reportingthatKhreiwesh had been warning-employees at the\\\Te~~~~as statioii.ill,~ugust 2001 that theFB.I~o~hl W.11l1l~ille them soon;rI"." ... bel.lev~:t~~t..~hrelwesh::~ay have been referring t c ! an IN S ag~o......hadhadeontact.with Khiej:wes~om Khreiwesh constantly referred to as an FBI

.......geni:....WJi~.j)r~ss~d, howev~r;L..Jfurther stated that the reporting to which he wasreferring concerned statements by Khreiwesh and thus could not have been thesa~e as a n < rejjii~~~&:~ha~.conceme(fSta.~~ments made in August 2001 .\\. According ;~f::::>:':::ithe.Texaco s~~i~i'iY.(1iSa social gathering place for Middle

Eastern males. tIe believedthereis no doubt that .Khr . as tied to extremist groups:. ". through. his associates at i li~.TeXaco:._ ..At the very leas-t' tated, Khreiwesh knows\, \. who referred Hazmi to him:' .... "':-. s waitin a r val I headquarters in order to\ \..~nterview\~hreiwesh ...... ......_ ....._ ..... ..\ \ Wi~&respect to reportin~'n:g1;iJinf'~ alltged meeting on the morning of\Sptember 1 (}~.20 01 at the T~xaco gas st~~i~n oted that ~e i ~ not willing to put a~ot.of stock such an unconfirmed report at his time, Such reporting IS hard borate,

!was rl9t totally conf ident in the sourceof the info rm ation . - hew~s young at the tjrne and didn 't.really know Khrelwesh, Althoug e cou n t quitepu~ his finger o~it' or some-reason was not -.sure -.~hether.t.oibelieve the re;rting. Thi.s reporting been provided sometime after 2002!i _ Ihadfi~s~.approached ~ connectio? ~vestig~~ori'~f th~ pent~b~m mill~falwitnesses who worked at the gas statlon.LJubsequen~ly WIt as asource on another matter. -. -.

\, !stated that no p~'otOSwere shown tor-lto ~~~.J]i~alempt to identifythe two unknown individuals at 't~e alleged Septe~ meet~ng:'1 'J~id not thinkthat the FB I had a~leads at to who those two individuals might have beeri:1 ~asamenable to havin ook at photographs provided! by the Commission in order toattempt to identify t e two unknown Individuals at the Septem ber 1 ..0meeting .

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