A former Detroit man who was once the subject of a national terrorism manhunt is missing in Syria. "He's been missing for many months and we're fearing the worst," Adem Carroll of the Islamic Circle of North America in New York City said Friday of Nabil Almarabh, 38, who was deported to Syria in January 2004 after U.S. authorities were unable to charge him with terrorist activities.Carroll said Almarabh's family members told him Almarabh was taken into custody around April 2004 by two Syrian intelligence agents after he reported for a military physical. Carroll got to know him while Almarabh was being held as a material witness in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Family members haven't seen Almarabh since then and are afraid of pressing authorities for an explanation about his whereabouts.
| Let's see, he's either doing his time in the Syrian army, in a small cell somewhere screaming in pain, taking a dirt nap someplace, or being fitted for a C-4 vest. Does that help? |
| Yeah, asking questions in Syria can lead to that. |
Almarabh, who moved to the United States from Kuwait in 1989 and drove a cab in Boston for a time, asked for U.S. asylum in 2003 on the grounds that he would be persecuted and tortured if returned to Syria. But an immigration judge ordered him deported. Carroll said he has contacted Amnesty International, which is expected to publicize Almarabh's disappearance.
| Yeah, that'll scare the Syrians |
Although Almarabh wasn't there, they found three North African immigrants who eventually were tried in Detroit in the nation's first terrorism trial to result from the federal probe of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. One of the three men and a fourth suspect were convicted of terrorism, but the U.S. attorney asked last year that the convictions be vacated because prosecutors withheld crucial evidence from them during the trial.
FBI agents eventually lost interest in Almarabh, who was born in Kuwait to Syrian parents. He spent more than two years in federal custody, at least eight months of which was for entering the United States without permission.
| Oh, so he's a Syrian who snuck in via Kuwait. I thought you said he was from Detroit? Never mind then, I don't care. |