Ressam, Ahmed (1967–)

Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian terrorist, was captured at the U.S.-Canadian border, on his way to carry out a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on New Year's Eve 1999. Since his capture, Ressam, hoping to reduce his prison sentence, has provided key testimony against others in the Y2K plot, as well as Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, Al Qaeda, and his training camps.

Ressam grew up in Algeria, developing militant Islamic sentiments after a trip to France in the early 1990s. Immigrating to Canada in 1994 with a false passport, Ressam, when found out, asked for political asylum, claiming that he had been tortured in Algeria for his politics. He was allowed to settle in Canada. He stayed in Montreal until 1998, living off welfare payments and petty theft, while residing in an apartment later identified as the headquarters of a cell of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), an Algerian terrorist organization.

During this time, Ressam, along with his friend Mohktar Haouari, also made money trafficking in false identification documents. Ressam would later become Benni Antoine Norris, complete with a Canadian passport, Montreal driver's license, an insurance card, several bankcards, and a Costco membership card.

In March 1998, Ressam traveled to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he was approved by Abu Zubaydah, a top bin Laden associate, to attend bin Laden's terrorist training camps, known colloquially as “Jihad University.” Over the next several months, at Khalden Camp, Ressam was instructed in using explosives, handguns, machine guns, and small rocket launchers, all provided by the ruling Taliban. He was taught how to disrupt government infrastructure through sabotage and was schooled in ways to work unnoticed. In another camp, in Deronta, Afghanistan, he was taught how to use cyanide and other poisons, and how to construct bombs from small electronics. There, Ressam became part of a European-based Algerian terrorist cell with five other men, who all agreed to travel to Canada, where they would rob banks to fund their ultimate plot—a terrorist attack on the United States.

When Ressam left Afghanistan in February 1999, carrying hexamine tablets, a chemical booster for explosions, glycol, and $12,000, the details of the attack were still to be determined. His flight stopped briefly in Los Angeles before arriving in Vancouver, and it was [Page 312]then that he decided to target LAX. LAX, he later testified, was “sensitive politically and economically.”

After two members of his cell were stopped at immigration in Great Britain, Ressam went on alone. Beginning in August 1999, he began to carry out the plot. Over the next several months, he found others to help him and gathered the bomb-making materials that would later be found hidden in the truck of his rental car as he tried to enter the United States from Victoria, Canada.

Ressam was arrested on December 14, 1999, after trying to flee U.S. Customs agents at Port Angeles, Washington. On April 6, 2001, he was convicted on nine counts, including conspiracy to commit an international terrorist act, smuggling explosives, and lying to customs officials. According to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Ressam was the first convicted under the Terrorism Transcending National Boundaries statute.

Ressam then agreed to testify against others involved in the plot, including Haouari, who was convicted in January 2002. Ressam's sentencing, originally scheduled for February 2002, has been postponed until at least 2003 so that he may testify against individuals apprehended in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, including Zacarias Moussaoui, the accused 20th hijacker, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda, and Abu Doha (aka Amar Makhlulif), accused of organizing the travel for several terrorists.

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