Family adds to mystery of pilot's deportation

Rayed Ali's relatives have not been allowed to see him.

Fresh information from the family of Saudi student pilot Rayed Ali has deepened the mystery behind his deportation on national security grounds.

Ali married and had begun raising a family in the United States in the two years leading up to September 11, his US-based brother has told the Weekend Herald.

His children, now 5 and 4, are being raised by their mother in Arizona.

The family went to Saudi Arabia about a year after September 11 because Ali, who had a private pilot's licence, was unable to get work or fly in the US.

When the family returned to the US in 2004, Ali was refused re-entry.

The New Zealand Government deported Ali a month ago on the basis of his direct association with terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks, the nature of his activities in the US before then and the nature of his activities in New Zealand.

It is only the second time the Government has used the Immigration Act's national security provision, which has no right of appeal.

The Government cited evidence in the US Congress 9/11 Commission Report that Ali lived and trained with hijacker Hani Hanjour, who flew Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Ali's brother, Abdul Mohammed, says Ali flatted with Hanjour for only a month when he first arrived in the US in November 1997.

Although they saw each other in Phoenix, Ali spent most of his free time with other friends until marrying. He struggled for money, at one point shifting to Michigan to work, in contrast to Hanjour, who was well-off.

Hanjour was out of the US from April 1999 to early 2001.

Ali is being held in Jeddah, his brother says. But since a visit two weeks ago, his relatives in Saudi Arabia have been barred from seeing him.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe has, meanwhile, shed little more light on the Government's reasons for deporting Ali in replying to written parliamentary questions by Green MP Keith Locke.

The answers confirm that mere suspicion was enough to invoke the national security clause.

Mr Cunliffe said the national security grounds involved "New Zealand's appropriate participation in the global response to combating terrorism and in particular denying suspected members or associates of terrorist organisations safe haven and limiting the ability of terrorist organisations to build capacity to carry out terrorist attacks".

Mr Cunliffe has previously said Ali's activities in New Zealand posed no terrorism threat.

Mr Locke said the responses failed to allay fears that the Government violated due process in deporting Ali.

"The Government can act on the basis of suspicion without giving the person the ability to contest that decision.

"There was no reason to deport him fast and without giving him the right to rebut the suspicions."


TWO VIEWS: RAYED ALI IN THE USA

What the 9/11 report says:

* Lived and trained with Flight 77 hijacker Hani Hanjour.
* Attended language school with Hanjour and mutual friend Bandar al Hazmi.
* Used flight simulator, possibly with Hanjour, three months before attacks.
* A leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Phoenix, where he reportedly gave extremist speeches.
* Investigated by FBI as early as May 2001, interviewed extensively after September 11.
* FBI remains suspicious of Ali and Hazmi and their association with Hanjour.

What family and friends say:

* Flatted with Hanjour for one semester on arrival in US in November 1997.
* Moved in with American family in Arizona; continued seeing Hazmi and Hanjour as friends.
* Moved to Michigan to work; returned to Arizona late-1998.
* Flatted with friends (not Hazmi or Hanjour) until marrying in early 1999.
* Did not make speeches at mosque but sometimes led prayer.
* Volunteered information to FBI after September 11.