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MEMORANDUM
FOR THE RECORD
Event: Interview of Doug Perdue Date: November 5, 2003 Special Access Issues: None Prepared
by: Dieter Snell
Team Number:
lA
Location: FBI Baltimore Field Office Participants - Commission: Dieter Snell, Hyon Kim FBI Representative:
Bob Sinton
Supervisory Special Agent Doug Perdue arrived at the Baltimore office in January 2001, following a stint as RFU chief at headquarters, and was assigned to head up the counterterrorism squad. By April, however, the office had no more money to pay informants, Nonetheless, Perdue was able to develop some familiarity with mosques in the area by September 2001 . ~ 0Il ::illlltember !Q 21l0~, perdue. received an EC from Detroit disclosing the sup-posed move ~o Gaithersburg. This information pr.oved erroneous, actually/moved to Dallas before later arriving in College Park. Perdue already wasfamiliar with lrrom Perdue's prior position in Dallas, where] Iwas known to,the SDNY I.(-A-U"'S'!""A-:' -D"'aveKelley) as an associate of Wadih El-~~ge. An interview 9 Iconducted in the presence of his attorney. Stanley Cohen), was ,conducted at DOJ; PerdUe did not participate in the' ~~vi~ w I
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9/11 Classified Information
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In addi.ti6~' to)~il:':fI:~~e(who attended the same mosqy.~.as'--'n
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lis closely associated.with Essam AI-Ridi, whom he h,~lped'purchase~'for UBL. Although j informationfrom.aDallas informant to the ~ffec~Jhat-1 Ihaa'foreknowledge of the 9/11
! attacks ~pa~~eif'high-Jevel DOJ ~,~~.t~~s~:th~J9.formahfeventually recanted and no evidence tying f / ,I ,~o the attack~_~~~:§:t~~~:~~:en'devdoped. (Perdue believes that the Dallas informant i
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\'"likely was caught up in the post-9/11 atmosphere when he/she made the original statements ."".~~oncemin~ ..... ,\.
Said Rageah has been observed visitin~1
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Prior to 9/11
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considered to be extremist,
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n or a out September 12~2001, Perdue headquarters regarding information obtained from NCr~ and a Navy belonging to the hijackers. The following day, information surfaced airman, then enrolled in the ROTC ro ram at the Univ,ersit of Mar ehi d hiiackers, 9/11 Classified
was not received a call from guy who said he had a bag from a former active duty Ian al 0 .
Information
I~htediatelY after 9/11, a special agent and an ~nalyst were assigned to each-of the 5 hijackers ofF~ight 77, as well as to Atta and Jarrah. After 1 Y2 years of investigation, Penttbom found no connection between Rageah and 9/11, and the eriminal case against him was declined
and closed.
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Rageah'has, however, turned out to be connected to GRF in a fundraising capacity. Despite a concerted effort to help Patrick Fitzgerald (US Attorney in Chicago) develop a criminal case on this front, '~o charges could be brought. The case was closed after Rageah returned to Canada to start a new job in January 2003. \
Rageah andl subscribe to the "international
lboth believe in the destruction of Israel; both of them also jihad movement."
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W~n~k~w~iliehij~~~k~e~n~·~w~o~u~~~h~a~v~e~~~ ~~~~~~~~ materials, Perdue pointed out tha 9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive the motels occupied by the hijackers during the summer of 2009/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive He believes that the hijackers in all
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After 9111, representatives of the Dar Us Salaam refused to meet or speak with the FBI. The Johnnycake Mosque, led by Muhammed Al-Sheikh, is also considered to be quite radical. The Khalid Ali case arose during the Bureau's intensive canvassing of all businesses and residences along the Route 1 corridor. An employee at a car rental establishment claimed to remember seeing Ali praying with Hani Hanjour. Based on the rest of the information developed on Ali, Perdue believes this identification likely was mistaken. The other incident of note concerning Ali involved his bizarre disposal of the remote car
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door opener for a car he had rented, an incident that occurred in the parking lot of a Denny's
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S"ECR~'f restaurant. Once it was established that the item in question was only a remote opener (and not part of an lED), the Bureau decided to follow Ali for a week before arresting him on the stolen car warrant issued in connection with one of his rentals.
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A consent search performed at the time of Ali's arrest yielded an address book containing virtually ever conceivable Islamic NOO which Perdue believes Ali ke t as otential sources of charit . 9/11
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Al though the ~~~yl!""o"'b~t-a'P"m-e"'d-a-m-a~te-r"'l"'ia-:l-w-l"'t-ne-s-s-w-arr-a-nt~fi~o-r-A~l:"':"i,~h:-e-p-r-o-m-p-t~ly-w-a-s-ru----:""le-d~ou-t~a-s"a suspect the 9/11 attacks. Immediately following his arrest, Ali was represented by AshrafNubani, whose telephone number Ali already had in his possession.
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At the conclusion of the interview, Perdue emphasized the need to maintain adequate levels of funding to combat terrorism. An Arabist himself who used to work as a translator e now has roximatel 9/11 Classified Information
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