This just in from the London Times:

A BRITON who trained as a pilot at the same American flight school as two of the September 11 hijackers has been arrested after an international terror alert issued by the FBI.

Senior security sources yesterday said Zayead Christopher Hajaig, 35, a white Briton born in Nigeria, had been arrested by detectives from Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism branch SO13 in Britain last Friday. He is being held pending an extradition request by the Americans.

“This is a current operation,” a senior British official said. “He is wanted for questioning by the Feds and he was picked up by the British police. He’s not running loose.” Hajaig was not considered a threat to Britain, but the Americans were taking the case seriously, the official said.

A “special alert bulletin” sent to airports and flight schools by the Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force said Hajaig had taken flying lessons at Gwinnett County Airport near Atlanta in 2002 — where Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, two of the hijackers who crashed aircraft into the World Trade Center in New York, had learnt to fly.

Despite being an illegal alien, the FAA issued Hajaig an official pilot’s license in April 2002 and he had obtained single-engine and multi-engine ratings. FAA now says the license was revoked in November 2002 because he had not been examined by an aviation physician.

More:

[Hajaig] apparently raised suspicions when he tried to have his pilot rating upgraded, despite not being properly qualified. The warning said that he became “aggressive and attempted to have the flight school accelerate his training”.

This is very reminiscent of al Qaeda suspect/flight student Zacarias Moussaoui’s belligerent behavior. The Atlanta flight school that reported its suspicions about Hajaig deserves credit, but there are plenty of disturbing questions:

Why isn’t the FAA checking the immigration status of pilot license applicants, for heaven’s sake? Why are flight schools still enrolling illegal aliens? If the Atlanta school knew his illegal immigration status, why didn’t they report that to DHS promptly? If they didn’t know he was an illegal alien, why not? Why isn’t it standard procedure to find out? Why aren’t ALL flight schools participating in the Social Security Number Verification program online? And how many more people have to die in flaming hijacked planes before these questions are answered?

***
Related:

Check the Immigration Blog for the latest news and analysis on the Minuteman Project and the impact of the immigration debate on the British elections.

comments (0)   trackbacks (4)