A Jordanian man yanked from his obscure life as a flower vendor in East Baltimore with the disclosure during the summer that he lived briefly with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers admitted yesterday that he bought his way into the United States with a fraudulent visa.
Rasmi Al-Shannaq, 28, who had lived most recently with family members in the 600 block of S. Lehigh St., pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining a fake visa from the U.S. Embassy in Qatar. He was sentenced to time served and is expected to be deported to Jordan shortly.
For Al-Shannaq, yesterday's brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore put a quiet end to a case that began with intense public scrutiny after he was identified in early July as a former roommate of the hijackers who helped carry out the deadliest terror attacks in U.S. history.
Al-Shannaq's attorney, who maintained that his client's contact with the two hijackers was pure circumstance, said yesterday that Al-Shannaq's only crime "was that he wanted to be an American too much."
"Because of the misguided speculation surrounding this case when it first arose, Rasmi and his family have already suffered a great deal," said federal public defender James Wyda, who represented Al-Shannaq.
Federal authorities said Al-Shannaq was one of 71 people who bought their way into the United States by obtaining fraudulent visas in an illegal scheme tied to U.S. embassy workers in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar.
Al-Shannaq admitted yesterday paying $10,000 in October 2000 for a visa from the embassy in Qatar after unsuccessful attempts to get a visa in his home country of Jordan.
Once inside the United States, Al-Shannaq lived briefly in a Northern Virginia apartment with Sept. 11 hijackers Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Alhazmi, who were on board the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon.
Wyda has said that Al-Shannaq lived with the two men at the suggestion of an uncle who had done renovation work for the apartment building's landlord.
Early last year, he moved to Baltimore, staying with his father and stepmother and helping the family sell flowers on the streets before working briefly as a pizza delivery driver.
Al-Shannaq was arrested on the visa fraud charge in late June and has remained in federal custody since. In court yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey E. Eisenberg said Al-Shannaq had cooperated fully with government investigators and said the government would not seek additional jail time.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia also agreed not to prosecute Al-Shannaq on possible false-statement charges for reportedly telling FBI agents in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks that he did not know any of the hijackers.
U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis called Al-Shannaq's case an important lesson for the community to not judge the circumstances of an arrest too quickly.
Davis gave another warning to Al-Shannaq: "I know it will be painful for you to be so far away from your family, but I caution you, in the future, to only use lawful means to have time with your family."