Ressam, Ahmed (1967–)

Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian terrorist, was captured at the U.S.-Canadian border on New Year's Eve 1999. He was on his way to blow up Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), a plan that came to be known as the “Y2K plot,” or the “Millennium plot.” 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 its training camps.

[Page 514]Ressam, the eldest of seven children, grew up in a small, poor town west of Algeria called Bou Ismail. In 1984, while in Paris to receive treatment for an ulcer, Ressam read books that had been banned in his homeland about the onset of military dictatorships and ruined hopes for democracy in Algeria after it gained independence from France. On his return, according to his brother, he expressed bitterness against the Algerian government and began to take up militant Islamic causes. After failing to pass a college entrance exam, Ressam headed for France in 1992 in an attempt to find work. That year, civil war broke out in Algeria after its military government blocked an Islamic fundamentalist party that won the national elections.

After living illegally in France for two years, Ressam emigrated to Canada in 1994, using a false passport. When he was found out, Ressam asked for political asylum, claiming that he had been tortured in Algeria for his politics, and he was allowed to settle in Canada. He stayed in Montreal until 1988, 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 Mokhtar 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, 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 he 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 electronic devices. Ressam then 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, he was carrying hexamine fuel 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 then that he decided to target Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). He later testified that LAX was “sensitive politically and economically.”

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