License Suspect Had WTC Repair Pass, But Port
Authority Did its Own Work
by Bartholomew Sullivan
GoMemphis
February 16, 2002
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_989113,00.htmlA
photo ID pass for Sept. 5 found on one of the men charged
with fraudulently obtaining a Tennessee driver's license
from a Memphis woman gave him access to the six
underground levels of the One World Center building.
But which tenant hired Sakher 'Rocky' Hammad, 24, to work
on its sprinklers is lost, said Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey spokesman Alan Hicks on Friday.
Hammad told federal authorities that he was working on
the sprinklers six days before the twin towers were
brought down by terrorists, court testimony revealed this
week.
But Hicks said the Port Authority, which owned the
building, did its own sprinkler work, and that any other
work involving sprinklers would have been arranged by an
individual tenant.
"We don't know (which one) because all our records
were destroyed in the World Trade Center, as were some of
the people who know that," Hicks said.
Small details about the five Middle Eastern men arrested
Feb. 5 with Tennessee driver's license examiner Katherine
Smith are slowly surfacing. Smith died Sunday in a fiery
car crash, a day before she was to appear in court. It
appears that Khaled Odtllah of Cordova shared the same
2840 Morning Lake Drive address at different times over
the past year with Rocky Hammad, according to an online
people finder database.
Odtllah and Hammad also spent time in the Bay Ridge
section of Brooklyn in 2000 and lived about 22 blocks
apart near New York Harbor.
Calls to the telephone number for Magic Plumbing and
Heating Inc. on 93rd Street in Brooklyn were answered
Thursday and Friday by a recording that said
"Rocky's" voice-mail box was full. Hammad had
the firm's business card, according to a government
exhibit introduced at this week's detention hearing.
Hammad also had a New York City Police Benevolent
Association card, a plastic Detectives Endowment
Association Inc. for the Police Department of the City of
New York card, two video rental cards, an ATM card and a
First Consumers National Bank MasterCard.
Hammad's cousin, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, also obtained
a Tennessee driver's license last year. He's in the
country illegally after overstaying a visa.
Venezuela-born Mohammed Fares, 19, allegedly told
authorities that he needed a Tennessee driver's license
to drive for Big Boss, an export-import clothing store in
New York's garment district. Big Boss Enterprises
bookkeeper Hussein Nasser said by phone Friday that he
had received several recent inquiries about Fares, but
that he'd never worked there. [CYA? Or did he apply for a
job there?]
So far almost nothing is known of Mostafa Said
Abou-Shahin, 26, a self-employed Egyptian carpenter
living in the United State illegally.
All five men are being held without bail at the pretrial
facility of the Federal Correctional Institution in
Memphis.
Copyright 2002
From 911Encyclopedia:
The original story on Denko Mechanical began with the
arrestment of Sakher "Rocky" Hammad in 2001,
who was carrying a WTC pass for Sept 5th 2001. He told
police that he had been working on the sprinkler system.
He showed them his business card: Magic Plumbing and
Heating. Hammad was later involved in a trial on drivers
license fraud, which was interrupted with the bizarre
death of witness Katherine Smith (->). The following
results are based on an independent investigation by Du
member Rebecky: "Rocky was released on $250,000
bail. The nature of the work was not specified. The Port
Authority of New York claimed no knowledge of hiring a
Denko Mechanical and said Denko must have been hired by a
tenant. Denko Mechanical Ltd's address and phone is the
residential Manhattan apartment and phone of Mr. Sergei
Davidenko. Mr. Davidenko obtained a business license in
Feb, 2000. Denko is not listed in any yellow pages or in
any type of NY contractor list. Denko simply could not be
the sprinkler system contractor for the WTC. Not only
would the Port Authority have had records, but companies
that install and maintain sprinkler systems for large
buildings are heavily regulated major operations with
civil engineers, inspectors, warehouses full of delicate
equipment and highly trained specialty crews. A Feb 8,
2000, business entity license issued for a Denko
Mechanical Ltd, 232 E 26th St. in Manhattan (ph
212-481-8226) which, on reverse trace, is the Manhattan
residence and phone of Mr. Sergei Davidenko; it's an
apartment building. As noted above, the letter verifying
Hammad's WTC employment was signed by a Sergei Denko. In
addition to the WTC 9/5 pass, found in Mr. Hammad's
wallet at the time of arrest: two video rental cards, a
credit card, a membership card for the New York City
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, a card for Detectives
Endowment Association of New York with a commemoration
for 9/11 victims on it, and a charter membership card to
Team Ford Racing. In a February 2002 interview, a rep of
the Port Authority, Alan Hicks stated that the PA took
care of its own sprinkler system and had no records of
Mr. Hammad hired to work on it. The letter exonerating
Mr. Hammad's employment was from a company Denko
Mechanical signed by its owner Sergei Denko -- does not
exist in NY except as a 2 y.o. business license
registered to a Mr. Sergei Davidenko of 232 E 26th St.,
Manhattan. Another residential apartment (again using
Skipease reverse trace). A co-defendant in the Memphis
trial was Hammad's cousin, also in the WTC on 9/5, Mr.
Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad. Other defendants were the
Memphis ringleader Khaled Odtllah of Jerusalem,
immigrated to the US in 1989, and Mr. Mostafa Said
Abou-Shahi and Mr. Mohammed Fares, and a juvenile
obtaining a 20 y.o. false ID, Mr. Omar Khayata. NOTE:
Denko Mechanical was one of a few sponsors for a trade
show at "opportunity knocks" Source:
http://www.northwest.ca/Opportunity Knocks 2001.htm
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/DenkoMechanical.shtml
A few days after the crash on the Twin Towers, ex-FBI
agent Barry Mawn classified Satam Al Suqamis passport in
the rubble in front of the collapsed building 7 on Vesey Street.
A few of the buildings' tenants: CIA, DOD, OEM and INS
However it was never said, what kind of ID Mawn
classified.
A laminated, American one or maybe even a paper ID from
Europe?
But back to the story in Arlington:
Due to valawyersweekly, "an employee completed an
identity affidavit form for each man", Alomari and
Alghamdi.
"Al Omari and Al Ghamdi returned to the DMV and used
the documents to get ID cards."
But instead of arresting this employee, the FBI
concentrated on Villalobos only.
Why?
Then it was said, there was a witness, who was not
identified, but in one article her gender is identified:
female.
She said that the "forms had been signed in advance
by the attorney and that the attorney did nothing but
talk to the men in a foreign language for a few
minutes," according to the complaint.
The other witness -- Villalobos -- stated that the
attorney signed the forms after they had been been
completed then talked to the men in "their
language."
The unidentified witness in the FBI papers said she
received $80 for taking Al Omari and Al Ghamdi to the
lawyer's office. She stated that she had "provided
this service to approximately 100 people during the past
four months and (received) approximately $100 per
individual."
At least one attorney at that time already prosecuted.
Someone named Michael E. Ford of Reston pleaded guilty
Aug. 22 (?) in Alexandria federal court "to the
unlawful production of identity documents".
In a Sept. 27 order, the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary
Board summarily suspended Ford's law license.
On Dec 4th, Herbert Villalobos, 35, pleaded guilty to
helping two Sept. 11 hijackers illegally obtain Virginia
identification cards
http://www.timesunion.com/news/september11/timeline/dec2_8.htm
Herbert Villalobos is free again.
But another "helping hand" is still in prison
until 2004.
On February 1st Victor M. Lopez-Flores "pleaded
guilty to falsely certifying that hijackers Abdul Aziz
Alomari and Ahmed Alghamdi were Virginia residents"
and received a 27-month prison sentence from U.S.
District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.
http://www.phonebusters.com/Eng/Charges_Arrests/February_1_2002_1a.html
His attorney, Alan Yamamoto, said the document fraud
alone would have resulted in about a 12-month sentence
under sentencing guidelines.
The judge blamed the Virginia Department of Motor
Vehicles for allowing people to obtain IDs without proof
of residency or identity
Villalobos' attorney, Patrick Anderson (also vice
president of Hopkins House Association Board of Trustees
and president of the Alexandria Symphony, http://www2.ccps.virginia.edu/sorensen/sipl_alum_1999.html),
said on court, that his client was kept in isolation for
almost the entire time he was detained
Interestingly, the same attorney is also involved in
another Sep11th-case:
Judge Brinkema appointed Alexandria lawyer Alan Yamamoto
as a standby lawyer to assist Moussaoui.
http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/448731p-3591776c.html
ALEXANDRIA, VA. (June 27, 2002)
But there is also confusion about the number of the
helping hands- and even their names!
In another article it was said, that Villalobos was one
of four people charged,
but only Lopez-Flores was mentioned.
http://www.airdisaster.com/news/1201/05/news3.shtml
If no.3 was Michael E. Ford , then who was No.4?
One affidavit alleged that Villalobos and a second man -
his identity not revealed because he is a confidential
witness. He was obviously No.4, but "was not
charged".
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news01/092501_news_charged.shtml
One artist was rendering the first trial on Sep26th,
2001.
Here you can see the persons who had been involved in the
case:
Villalobos' attorney Michael Liberman (from DiMuro,
Ginsberg & Lieberman, Virginia) , Herbert Villalobos,
FBI Agent Brian Weidner, U.S. Magistrate Curtis Sewell
and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Morton
http://web.knoxnews.com/web/kns/news/breaking/wtc/1354.html
The indictment about Villalobos case is at:
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usvillalobos120401plea.pdf
But once again, no mention of any other accomplices.
And there is also no mention about other hijackers.
Only Abdul Aziz Alomari and Ahmed Alghamdi are mentioned
in this indictment, who obtained the ID cards "by
fraud". It is said, they needed Form DL6 as an
identity affidavit.
DL51 is a residency identification which is needed for
the DMV.
It is said, that on August 2nd, Alomari and Alghamdi
approached several Hispanic man incl. Villalobos in a
parking lot next to the DMV and asked them to assist with
the IDs.
On that same day, Villalobos accompanied both to an
attorney where they received fraudulent DL6 and DL51
"from an attorney who worked in the office".
While neither the name of the attorney nor the 4th
charged person (witness) was mentioned,
11 days after Lopez-Flores plead guilty, on February 11th
2002 this "witness" obviously was invited again
for the trial.
Now for the first name the name of the witness was
revealed:
Her name was Katherine Smith, another Department of Motor
Vehicles employee.
But now the story became a bizarre twist.
Instead of "charged in a scheme with five men"
(ABC now mentions 5 men!),
she was suddenly killed "in a fiery car crash the
day before her first court appearance,
a crash the prosecutor called "most unusual and
suspicious"
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20020212_991.html
"Smith, 49, was killed after the 1992 Acura
Legend she was driving ran off the road early Sunday and
struck a utility pole on U.S. 72 just north of the
Mississippi state line, Highway Patrol Lt. Col. Mark
Fagan said.
Her car "was immediately engulfed in flames"
but authorities don't know whether the fire started
before or after the crash, he said. The body was so badly
burned it took authorities until Tuesday to verify
Smith's identity. The cause of death remains under
investigation.
FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash said authorities were trying to
determine what caused the car to burn. The gas tank did
not explode and the car was only slightly dented from the
crash, she said.
"Smith was one of six (!!) people charged last week
by federal officials with conspiracy to get Tennessee
driver's licenses under false pretences..."
So obviously Smith was involved in two cases:
The false hijacker IDs and filing IDs for middle eastern
residents:
Khaled Odtllah, 31; Sakhera Hammad, 24; Mohammed Fares,
Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad
Odtllah came to this country from Jerusalem 13 years ago
and has lived in Shelby County for 2 years, his lawyer
said.
The trial of these suspects was just finished some weeks
ago.
As the Guardian reported, Prosecutor Tim Discenza, said
the men seeking false identification filed out state
driver's license forms saying they were residents of
Tennessee.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1841426,00.html
Sakhera Hammad, from Jordan, is now a U.S. citizen
living in New York City, said his father, Peter Hansen,
who attended the hearing. FBI agent Nash said Abou-Shahin
told authorities he was from Egypt and is a carpenter.
Fares has a Venezuelan passport and speaks Arabic,
DiScenza said. The nationality of Abdelmuhsen Mahmid
Hammad was not given.
Hammad is still free on bond, but will be sentenced this
month, in August 2002.
Defense lawyers have said the men traveled to Memphis
from New York because they heard it was easy to get
driver's licenses in Tennessee, where Social Security
numbers are not required.
But the story even involved yet another strange twist:
When Sakhera Hammad was arrested, investigators found a
visitor's pass for the World Trade Center, dated Sept. 5,
2001, in his wallet. He told authorities he was a plumber
who worked on the center's sprinkler system.
FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash told this story U.S. Magistrate
Judge J. Daniel Breen.
Nash also testified that investigators found evidence of
some kind of accelerant in the burned-out interior of
Smith's car.
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_985827,00.html
Later "..Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators
found no evidence that driver's license examiner
Katherine Smith tried to stop her car or take any evasive
action Feb. 10 as her car veered off U.S 72."
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_1016243,00.html
"Her death was not the result of the crash
itself," said THP Capt. Jimmy Erwin.
"Her death was by other means."
The car was traveling about 21 mph when it hit the
utility pole, not fast enough to kill Smith from the
impact.
Rodney L. Wood, of Corinth, wrote that he and two others
tried to free Smith from the driver's seat but were
driven away by the smoke and heat.
"The driver did not ever respond, moan or
move," wrote Wood, who works for the Corinth Police
Department.
Smith was officially "accused of taking payoffs for
helping them get driver's licenses without proper
documentation"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=License
Scam
In another coincidence, Smith was also examined at the
same institute which examined Don C Wiley, a famous
Microbiologist, who also died under strange circumstances
last year.
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html
And the story became even more strange:
On March 14, a bomb and two smaller explosive devices
were found at the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center,
which houses the morgue and Medical Examiner's Office
that conducted Wiley's autopsy. Dr. O.C, Smith, the
medical examiner, told Memphis' Commercial Appeal,
"We have done several high-profile cases from Dr.
Wiley to Katherine Smith"
And the story around Sakhera Hammad, who worked for this
Sprinkler System in the WTC on Sep 5th, also continued:
When arrested, one of the men, Sakher "Rocky"
Hammad, as already said, was carrying a WTC pass for Sept
5. He told police that he had been working on the
sprinkler system. He showed them his business card: Magic
Plumbing and Heating
In a Memphis court on 3/28, Rocky's father, a NY City
engineer, Mr. Peter Hansen (immigrated 15 years ago from
Jordan), presented the court with a letter from Denko
Mechanical, Ltd, signed by a Mr. Sergei Denko, stating
that Rocky and Rocky's cousin had been doing work for his
company in the basement and garage of the WTC on Sept 5
and 6. Rocky was released on $250,000 bail. The nature of
the work was not specified.
The Port Authority of New York claimed no knowledge of
hiring a Denko Mechanical and said Denko must have been
hired by a tenant.
(Note: Port Authority Chairman Lewis M. Eisenberg,
ex-partner of Goldman Sachs & Co, is a good friend of
former Twin Towers owner Larry Silverstein, who signed
this lease 4 weeks before the attack. Eisenberg recently
was elected Finance Chairman of the Republican National
Committee)
Denko Mechanical Ltd's address and phone is the
residential Manhattan apartment and phone of Mr. Sergei
Davidenko.
But Denko is not listed in any yellow pages or in any
type of NY contractor list.
It is also still unknown, what Mr. Hammad and his cousin
were ostensibly doing in the basement and garage of the
WTC on 9/5 and 9/6.
The track ends finally here:
Denko is mentioned in a database of
376 BERTRAND ST. WINNIPEG (Real Dennis + Wayne McCarthy)
Denko Mechanical was also one of a few sponsors for a
trade show at "opportunity knocks"
Source:
http://www.northwest.ca/Opportunity
Knocks 2001.htm
A NY Times article mentioning Hammad's letter from
Sergei Denko, president of Denko Mechanical:
http://college4.nytimes.com/guests/articles/2002/02/18/903268.xml
That same article mentions the Bay Ridge area of
Brooklyn where "Rocky" Hammad lived, and his
friends at the Sunrise Farms delicatessen with a quote
("he was a hard working boy") from its manager,
Elie Eid.
There is also a Canadian based Denko company, but with no
connection to the WTC.
Another Feb 8, 2000, business entity license issued for a
Denko Mechanical Ltd, 232 E 26th St. in Manhattan (ph
212-481-8226) which, on reverse trace, is the Manhattan
residence and phone of Mr. Sergei Davidenko; it's an
apartment building. As noted above, the letter verifying
Hammad's WTC employment was signed by a Sergei Denko.
In addition to the WTC 9/5 pass, also found in Mr.
Hammad's wallet at the time of arrest: two video rental
cards, a credit card, a membership card for the New York
City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, a card for
Detectives Endowment Association of New York with a
commemoration for 9/11 victims on it, and a charter
membership card to Team Ford Racing.
"...The NYC Patrolmen's Benevolent Assoc and
Detectives Endowment Assoc of NY are both police unions
-- Hammad was carrying cards for both, which would be
union membership cards."
The company he claimed to be working for at the WTC,
Denko Mechanical, is NOT a licensed fire protection
contractor in New York and therefore, by NYC law, could
NOT touch any pipe or plumbing fixture connected to the
building's sprinkler system:
NYC administrative code 27-126.
Only the building's licensed fire suppression (or
protection) contractor can touch anything, any pipe, any
valve, connected to the sprinkler system.
This brings us to new Questions:
Who is Sergei Davidenko? Why did he cover for Hammad?
If not the sprinkler system, why was Hammad in the WTC on
9/5 and why did he claim to be working on the sprinkler
system?
In a February interview, a rep of the Port Authority (at
that time it could have been Alan Hicks)
stated that the PA took care of its own sprinkler system
and had no records of Mr. Hammad hired to work on it.
Mr. Hicks went on to state that Mr. Hammad must have been
hired by a tenant -- interesting statement -- it clears
the PA of accusing Mr. Hammad directly, but is really a
ludicrous statement -- tenants do not hire shade-tree
residential handymen to work on the HVAC, the elevators,
or the sprinkler and standpipe systems -- in the case of
the sprinkler systems, it is absolutely illegal according
to NYC administrative codes for a general plumber to make
any repair on any pipe connected to the fire protection
system.
When arrested, Mr. Hammad's residential address, and the
address for his Magic Heating and Plumbing residential
handyman service was: 275 93rd St, Brooklyn -- an
apartment building whose other tenants include (per
reverse trace done at skipease.com):
Bassam Alshaer, Chouki Atman, Hesham Elegezeny, Ismail
Hanafy, Kholoud Hussein, Khalili Ibrahim, Anas and Fatema
Watfa, Dave White.
The letter exonerating Mr. Hammad's employment was from a
company Denko Mechanical signed by its owner Sergei Denko
-- does not exist in NY except as a 2 y.o. business
license registered to a Mr. Sergei Davidenko of 232 E
26th St., Manhattan. Another residential apartment (again
using Skipease reverse trace).
Hammad's Dad, who presented the letter that bailed him
out, is Jordanian immigrant and reportedly senior
engineer with the City of NY, Mr. Peter Hansen of 3187
Hylan Blvd on Staten Island. Reportedly Hammad has closer
ties with his mother, still in Gaza/Jordan, than with his
dad, but it's impossible to find her name.
A second address listed in skiptracing for Magic Heating
and Plumbing is 1776 Bay Ridge Ave, Brooklyn -- phone:
718-833-8282. This address is also registered to Dynasty
Bus and Tours, Inc, and to a Bai Sheng Chen, Ahen Xiong
Chen and Mouna Chour.
At the time of arrest, Mr. Hammad was also carrying a
charter membership card for Team Ford Racing .
Hammad frequented a Lebanese deli in Brooklyn, also owed
by a Mr. Elie
Elie later gave reporters a character reference on Mr.
Hammad.
Because Hammad is a US citizen now, the Memphis judge
would not allow his continued detention nor any mention
of the 9/11 coincidences at the Memphis drivers license
fraud trial. The other defendants, not US citizens,
remain in detention.
A co-defendant in the Memphis trial was Hammad's cousin,
also in the WTC on 9/5, Mr. Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad.
Other defendants were the Memphis ringleader Khaled
Odtllah of Jerusalem, immigrated to the US in 1989, and
Mr. Mostafa Said Abou-Shahi and Mr. Mohammed Fares, and a
juvenile obtaining a 20 y.o. false ID, Mr. Omar Khayata.
As Guardian reported, on June 28th, Khaled Odtllah was
released hours after being sentenced by U.S. District
Judge Bernice Donald.
But his three co-defendants - Mohammed Fares, 19,
Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, 31, and Mostafa Said
Abou-Shahin, 25 - remained in custody to face deportation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1841426,00.html
But Odtllah was the one, who took the forms to
Katherine Smith.
Why is he free?
One of the defendants, un-named in news reports (check
www.gomemphis.com for archives), drove from NY to Memphis
on 9/11.
If the Tennessee, New York and Arlington-stories are
connected, remains a mystery, because the only
"witness", Katherine Smith, is dead and others
are not asked yet.
more at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4822&
forum=DCForumID43
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