911review.org Homepage Mysterious Tennessee Death May Be Linked to Terrorist Cover-up By J.J. Johnson - Sierra Times.com: 02.15.02 It's shocking that this story has barely gotten national attention, but it should as soon as folks can forget Enron and Campaign Finance Reform. In the current war against terrorism, it's beginning to look more and more like Katherine Smith, a former Tennessee DMV employee was killed to cover up something - possible Arab terrorists active on U.S. Soil. It goes back to last Thursday, when 5 illegal immigrants were nailed buying drivers licenses in Memphis from Katherine Smith.. They were from New York City, and all reportedly of Arab descent. Authorities say these drivers licenses were purchased for $1000.00 each. They were taken to jail and held there without bail. Smith on the other hand, was released on her own recognizance. No jail, no bail, nothing for her except "come back Monday". Problem is: She never got to court. She died one day prior. Last Sunday Morning, at about 12:15 AM, Smith's car was found against a utility pole on Hwy 72, totally engulfed in flames. Looked like an accident at the beginning. Then the Feds came in. During a probable cause hearing Wednesday, Federal and state investigators found gasoline on the clothes Katherine Smith was wearing when she died Sunday in a car crash on a stretch of U.S. 72 in Fayette County, FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash told U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Daniel Breen. According to the FBI, some kind of flammable accelerant (probably gasoline) started the fire, which burned Smith beyond recognition. Of the 5 in custody, none have been released. But of the three who had a hearing, Judge Breen found there was probable cause to charge Mohammed Fares, Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad. He also denied them bond. But mysteriously, the primary witness in the case - is toast. In a rush to standardize drivers licenses among the states, critics have pointed to Tennessee as an example of a national overhaul, or national I.D. cards. Having a flawed I.D. system helps when there is a American allegedly willing to take 30 pieces of silver, or $1000 each. She apparently paid an even greater price. "Was this death a result of an accident?" federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza asked Nash, who was the only witness to testify during Wednesday's two-hour hearing. "No, it was not," Nash replied.
The conclusion is arson. Six unnamed witnesses - all related to each other - saw Smith's 1992 Acura Legend veer off U.S. 72 around 12:45 a.m. Sunday. They said the interior of the car was on fire as the car drove across a ditch and hit a utility pole. The trunk and gas tank were barely touched, but the interior fire was so intense that her arms and legs were burned off. There is nothing to tie the Arab suspects to any terrorist activity (yet), but the matter is raising eyebrows, even though all the suspects were in custody at the time of the incident. However, DiScenza has said there are "connections" linking two of the accused to the World Trade Center in the days before it was destroyed in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Those connections include a visitor's pass to the WTC dated September 5 that belonged to Sakhera Hammad. More details as they develop http://www.sierratimes.com/02/02/15/arjj021502.htm February 10, 2002: Driver s License Examiner Dies in Suspicious Circumstances Katherine Smith is killed one day before her scheduled appearance in court on charges she helped five Islamic men get illegal drivers licenses. According to witnesses, she veered into a utility pole when a fire erupted in her car. She was burned beyond recognition. The FBI later determines that gasoline was poured on her clothing before she died in the fire and find that arson was the cause of death. [Associated Press, 2/15/2002] A suicide note was found, but prosecutors say they are looking for murder suspects. One of the five men, Sakhera Hammad, was found with a pass in his wallet giving access to the restricted areas of the WTC, dated September 5, 2001. Hammad claims he was a plumber and worked on the WTC s sprinkler system that day, but the company with exclusive rights to all WTC plumbing work has never heard of him. Smith was being investigated by the FBI; the five later plead guilty to charges of fraud. [Go Memphis, 2/12/2002; Associated Press, 2/13/2002; Reuters, 2/15/2002; Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 2/21/2002] One of the five, Khaled Odtllah, drove from New York City to Memphis on 9/11. Tennessee is one of only four US states that doesn t require a Social Security card to get a driver s license. A prosecutor accuses each of the five men of attempting to acquire a completely false and untraceable identity. [Associated Press, 2/12/2002; Associated Press, 2/15/2002] One month later, the coroner who examines her body is targeted by a bomb, which is defused. Then in June the coroner is attacked, bound with barbed wire, and left with a bomb tied to his body, but he
survives. [Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 3/14/2002] F.B.I. Says Arson Killed Woman Accused in License Scheme By REUTERS MEMPHIS, Feb. 14 A deliberately set fire caused the death of a driver's license examiner who had been accused of illegally selling licenses to five Middle Eastern men who were being investigated for possible ties to terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has said. Gasoline was poured on the clothing of the examiner, Katherine Smith, before she burned to death on Sunday in an automobile accident, J. Suzanne Nash, an F.B.I. agent, said on Wednesday. Ms. Smith died one day before she was to have appeared in court with her five co-defendants after being arrested last week on charges of conspiracy to obtain driver's licenses illegally. In a federal court hearing here on Wednesday, Ms. Nash said an accelerant had been found in Ms. Smith's car, adding that her death was "not an accident." Investigators have said the gasoline tank of the automobile did not explode. Ms. Nash also said witnesses had reported that the interior of Ms. Smith's car was on fire before the vehicle struck a utility pole, causing just minor damage to the car. Ms. Nash told the court on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into whether the five men who were arrested had ties to terrorist groups, citing connections to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The five men, one of whom said he was a plumber at the trade center and had a visitor's pass to the towers dated September 5, are being held without bond. A lawyer for one of the defendants has denied that they had any connection to terrorism and said they were seeking documentation to work in the United States.http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/15/national/15LICE.html?ex=1185249600&en=18d1f3ff9d2d2a77& ei=5070 4 Admit Fraud amid Questions on Death of License Examiner The Memphis Commercial Appeal 21 May 2002
by Lawrence Buser URL: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ After four men with ties to the Middle East pleaded guilty Monday in a Tennessee driver's license fraud case, new questions arose about a central figure in the case - a state driver's license examiner who died in a mysterious, fiery car wreck just days after her arrest. The case drew national attention earlier this year because of the still-unsolved death of Katherine Smith and the revelation one of the defendants, a naturalized plumber from Jordan living in New York, had been in the World Trade Center days before the twin towers were destroyed by hijacked airliners.in a hearing Monday morning before U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald, federal prosecutors said, however, had the cases gone to trial, there would have been no evidence presented that the defendants were involved in terrorist activities or in Smith's Feb. 10 death on U.S. 72 in Fayette County. Federal and state authorities said Monday that the wreck remains under investigation but the fire in the car was set and the crash did not cause Smith's death. Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Jimmy Erwin said Monday that he is waiting on autopsy test results from the Medical Examiner's Office before the cause of death is officially determined. He said neither suicide nor homicide has been ruled out. Smith, a state employee for 27 years, had been charged with conspiring to provide driver's licenses fraudulently as part of a scheme involving the other defendants. A handwritten letter by Smith dated Feb. 5 - the day of her arrest - was included in pretrial discovery material the government provided to defense attorneys. After the hearing, defense attorney Jeffrey Jones showed the letter to several reporters. Asked if the letter appeared to be a suicide note, Jones said, "That's certainly one interpretation." Written on green flowered stationery headed "Gardening Angel," the note read: "I Katherine Smith tried to help Kal. He didn't give me any money. He was I thought my friend. I was trying to help him. Now I've lost everything and am called a liar when I was telling the truth. I can't live without any honor. I live a lonely life true enough but I didn't lie to the FBI. Forgive me John. Forgive me Vernola. I can't live this way. I love you both and wish and pray for the best. Love Mama." The names in the letter, apparently discovered during the FBI's investigation, refer to alleged conspiracy ringleader Khaled Odtllah, who is known as "Kal," and Smith's son and daughter, John Barton IV and Vernola Buchanan. Pleading guilty to the one-count conspiracy indictment Monday were Odtllah, 31, a Cordova resident from Jerusalem; Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, 26, a carpenter from Egypt; Sakher A. Hammad, 24, a New York plumber from Jordan and the lone defendant who is an American citizen, and his cousin Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, 32, also a plumber living in New York.
A fifth defendant, Mohammed A. Fares, pleaded guilty earlier this month. Fares has a Venezuelan passport, but his family is from Lebanon. Each faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and a minimum of immediate probation when sentenced in June and August by Donald. Those who are not citizens also face the possibility of deportation and remain in federal custody. A minor teenager arrested in the case was handled in Juvenile Court. Federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza said Odtllah, who had been living here for two years, provided Tennessee driver's licenses to illegal immigrants for about $1,000 each. The Hammads of New York found clients and drove them to Memphis where Smith would issue them driver's licenses without requiring proper documentation, he said. He said Tennessee was vulnerable to such a scheme because the state does not require immigrants to provide a Social Security number. The Hammads in February drove Fares and Abou-Shahin and the juvenile to Memphis from New York to get four licenses. They met with Odtllah here and were arrested as they attempted to obtain licenses at the Summer Avenue testing station. FBI agents and the highway patrol had set up surveillance after receiving a tip from the New York FBI office. During their separate guilty pleas Monday, at least two of the defendants asked their attorneys to emphasize that they are not being accused of terrorist activity. DiScenza then made a statement to that effect. Jones, who represents Sakher Hammad, said the World Trade Center visitor's pass found in his client's wallet was needed because he had worked on the center's sprinkler system plumbing. He said Hammad also had a card that indicated he had donated money to the victims of the September 11 attack. "My guy's a fairly conservative guy," Jones said. The guilty pleas were straightforward and routine for the most part as Donald asked each man, some requiring Arabic interpreters, if he was pleading voluntarily and understood the implications. She also asked each defendant why he was pleading guilty, drawing tearful responses from Odtllah who said, "I made mistake. I didn't know I was breaking the law. I didn't mean to break the law." Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad also wept when asked about his residency in New York, where he had been living with his wife and three U.S.-born children. "I'm just concerned about my wife," he said through an interpreter. Because of its importance to the events of September 11, 2001, this article has been archived by the 911 Reading Room FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of criminal justice, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
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