The North Jersey man who admitted he sold fake identification cards to two Sept. 11 hijackers has been out of jail since March. The month before, Passaic County prosecutors agreed to a plea deal and five years’ probation for the man, Mohamed el-Atriss, even though they had testified in closed hearings that he might have links to terrorists. But today, those insinuations, which had kept Mr. Atriss in jail for nearly six months, were revisited as the judge released the transcripts of four secret bail hearings, including testimony and suggestions about his possible links to terrorists. That testimony included claims that Mr. Atriss, a 46-year-old native of Egypt, may have had contact with two more hijackers, in addition to the two he admitted selling fake ID’s. In the first of the hearings, on Nov. 19, the testimony was compelling enough to prompt Judge Marilyn C. Clark to raise Mr. Atriss’s bail to $500,000 from $250,000. Once Judge Clark released the transcripts today, federal authorities and Mr. Atriss himself quickly dismissed the importance of the evidence. Full Story
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