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MEMO~NDUM

FOR THE RECORD

Event: Interview of FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jim George Type of event: Interview Dates: January 6, 2004 Special Access Issues: None Prepared by: Raj De Team Number: 1A

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Loeation: FBI, Phoenix Field Office

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Participants

- Non-Commission: FBI, Assistant General Counsel Randy Blair

Participants

- Commission: Dieter Snell, Hyon Kim, Raj De

Supervisory Special Agent Jim George arrived in the Phoenix Field Office in 1994. At the time, one squad had both CT and CI. In early 1995, two squads were formed, (i) CIIIT and (ii) domestic terrorism/civil rights. In January 2000, domestic and international terrorism were put on the same squad, and CI was put on a second squad with civil rights. According to George, the pre-9f11 analytic capabilities for CT were "abysmal." In late 200 lie arly 2002, he took over both the CT and the CI squads. In May 2002, somebody else took over the Clsquad. In December 2002, CT was split into two squads - George took the al Qaeda squad and Ken Williams took the Hamas, Hezballah squad.

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George recalled the in March 2000, Williams had some source information regarding recruitment of jihadis for Chechnya. At that time, he interviewed both Zakarya Soubra and Ghassan al-Sharbi. Only in May-June 2001 did Williams begin to put together the Phoenix EC. George noted that the Phoenix Field Office had looked at some Saudis in the area pre-9fll in connection with the Khobar and OP-SANG investigations. Also in 1999, a source mentioned thai

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I George mentioned that the Saudi government built the Islamic Cultural Center in Tempe. He also noted that ARAMCO sponsored 75% of the Saudi students in the area. George also mentioned that two other Saudis who came on Phoenix's radar pre9f11 were Shalawi and Qudhaieen. Shalawi was a student at Arizona State University

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and Qudhaieen was a student at University of Arizona. Both studied linguistics. George mentioned that there was pre-9111 intelligence indicating that Shalawi was affiliated with al Qaeda and had visited the training camps in Afghanistan. George noted that the source ,-S·E€R£+-

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George noted that Shalawi, Sharbi, Rayed Abdullah, and Hamed Hamdan Sulami formed a core group. It is unclear how extensive Rani Hanjour's contacts were with this group. We know that Hanjour was seen at gatherings with these individuals, such as a dinner hosted by Sulami and a smaller gathering at Shalawi's apartment afterwards. It is still unclear how Hanjour was recruited into al Qaeda. Source reporting indicated that Soubra radicalized Sharbi. Soubra has described in detail how one would go about traveling for jihad. George noted that between Hanjour and Nawaf al-Hazmi, Hazmi was more often described as the leader. Two other individuals of note are Bandar al-Hazmi and Abdullah Suliman .

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