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Local 4 Defenders Track Man With Detroit Ties

Al-Marabh Moved Around Detroit, Canada

POSTED: Friday, October 12, 2001
UPDATED: 1:04 pm EDT October 13, 2001

In the past week, dozens of suspects in the terrorist investigation have been taking lie detector tests. Local 4 has learned that one man with ties to Detroit, Nabil Al-Marabh, has failed his.

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Canadian officials have also recently seized bank accounts, Local 4 reported. And now, this week, FBI agents once again visited the southwest Detroit home where he once lived.

Local 4 Defenders tracked a timeline of Al-Marabh, which they find shows a trail of deceit, violence and ties to the man accused of the attacks, Osama bin Laden:

October, 2000: Al-Marabh sets up shop in Detroit in an upper flat on Norman Street.

Aug. 27, 2000: He pays $1,700 to enroll at A&K Truck Driving School in Dearborn, where he tells the instructor he wants to learn how to drive trucks because he's tired of driving a cab. (Al-Marabh had a taxi driver's license in Boston).

Aug. 31, 2000: Four days later, he is at the secretary of state's office in Livonia, where he gets a commercial driver's license.

Sept. 11, 2000: One year prior to attacks on New York and Washington, Al-Marabh goes to the secretary of state's office in Dearborn where he adds the endorsement to carry hazardous materials. He also changes his address to 4210 Wyoming St., Dearborn, which is the address of A&K Truck Driving School.

Nov. 29, 2000: Al-Marabh is at yet another secretary of state's office, this time in Detroit, where he changes his address to Norman Street.

Aug. 7, 2001: Seven months go by and Al-Marabh is again switching his address: this time to 1820 Wyoming, an apartment building he never moves into.

During this time, Local 4 has learned that Al-Marabh was secretly passing in and out of Canada.

June 27, 2001: Al-Marabh is arrested by United States officials at the Canadian border. He is caught trying to enter America, hiding in the back of a trailer, carrying false papers.

He's turned over to Canadian authorities, where it is learned that Al-Marabh is wanted for a stabbing in Boston 14 months earlier.

While in Boston, he meets Raheed Hajizi, a convicted terrorist who tells U.S. authorities that Al-Marabh is an associate of bin Laden.

July 10, 2001: Despite these revelations, the Canadian courts release Al-Marabh back onto the streets of Canada.

"We do not detain individuals on whispers or innuendo. We need to have that evidence," said Elinor Caplan, Canada's minister of immigration.

Al Marabh's uncle, Ahmam Shehab, posted bond for his nephew of $7,500 in Canadian currency.

He gives Al-Marabh a job at his copy store and puts him up at his Toronto apartment. Then, Al-Marabh disappears.

"So if he is released tomorrow and he is declared innocent tomorrow I won't be surprised, but he will still be wanted by me because I lost big money for the bail," Shehab said.

For seven weeks, Al-Marabh's whereabouts are unknown. It's the same time the plot against American is finalized and executed, according to Local 4 Defenders.

Sept. 11, 2001: Four planes are hijacked and crash; thousands of Americans die.

Sept. 17, 2001: Six days after the attack, Al-Marabh resurfaces in Three Oaks, Mich., where he gets another driver's license.

Sept. 19, 2001: Two days later, he's arrested in Justice, Ill, where he is working as a clerk in a party store. Just prior to the arrest, he tells his boss that the FBI is after him.

"I asked for what, he says for something you don't want to know about," said Walid Beitouni, the store owner.

The FBI had launched a manhunt for Al-Marabh following a raid on a southwest Detroit home. Al-Marabh was not at the house, but agents found Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan and Farouk Ali-Haimoud. They later learned that Al-Marabh had moved last year, although his name was still on the mailbox.

Al-Marabh was taken into custody near Chicago and is now in federal custody in New York.

Authorities have executed search warrants at Al-Marabh's Toronto apartment and the copy shop, and were back at the Norman Street home where three men were found with fake visas, immigration forms and Social Security and immigration identification cards.

So far, they have not produced any evidence in court that would link Al-Marabh to the terrorist attacks.

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