·... . ,.

• MEMORANDUM

Event: Interview of Doug Perdue

Date: November 5, 2003

FOR THE RECORD

Special Access Issues: None

Prepared by: Dieter Snell

Team Number: lA

Location: FBI Baltimore Field Office

Participants - Commission: Dieter Snell, Hyon Kim

FBI Representative: Bob Sinton

Supervisory Special Agent Doug Perdue arrived at the Baltimore office in January 2001,
following a stint as RFU chief at headquarters, and was assigned to head up the counterterrorism
squad. By April, however, the office had no more money to pay informants, Nonetheless, Perdue
was able to develop some familiarity with mosques in the area by September 2001 .

~ 0Il ::illlltember !Q 21l0~, perdue. received an EC from Detroit disclosing the sup-posed
• move od ~o Gaithersburg. This information pr.oved erroneous, ~~1... ..
actually/moved to Dallas before later arriving in College Park. Perdue already wasfamiliar with
lrrom Perdue's prior position in Dallas, where] Iwas known to,the SDNY
-D"'aveKelley) as an associate of Wadih El-~~ge. An interview 9
I.(-A-U"'S'!""A-:' 4 Iconducted in
the presence of his attorney. Stanley Cohen), was ,conducted at DOJ; PerdUe did not participate in
the' ~~vi~ w I

9/11 Classified Information

I
, ,

I In addi.ti6~' to)~il:':fI:~~e(who attended the same mosqy.~.as'--'n T~_xas),1 I

! lis closely associated.with Essam AI-Ridi, whom he h,~lped'purchase~'for UBL. Although
! j informationfrom.aDallas informant to the ~ffec~Jhat-1 Ihaa'foreknowledge of the 9/11
i ! attacks ~pa~~eif'high-Jevel DOJ ~,~~.t~~s~:th~J9.formahfeventually recanted and no evidence tying
f / ,I ,~o the attack~_~~~:§:t~~~:~~:en'devdoped. (Perdue believes that the Dallas informant
,::::::::::::::,:,,",.,"" ::: ,

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~9/11 Personal Privacy \9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive

\":~' . .. ""!!,€A:i't

J \
\'"likely was caught up in the post-9/11 atmosphere when he/she made the original statements
."".~~oncemin~

.....
,\. Said Rageah has been observed visitin~1 : .
-.
9/11 Personal Privacy

M \. Prior to 9/11 9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive was not

considered to be extremist, n or a out September 12~2001, Perdue received a call from
headquarters regarding information obtained from NCr~ and a Navy guy who said he had a bag
belonging to the hijackers. The following day, information surfaced from a former active duty
airman, then enrolled in the ROTC ro ram at the Univ,ersit of Mar Ian al 0 .
ehi d hiiackers,
9/11 Classified Information

I~htediatelY after 9/11, a special agent and an ~nalyst were assigned to each-of the 5
hijackers ofF~ight 77, as well as to Atta and Jarrah. After 1 Y2 years of investigation, Penttbom
found no connection between Rageah and 9/11, and the eriminal case against him was declined
and closed. \, .

Rageah'has, however, turned out to be connected to GRF in a fundraising capacity.

Despite a concerted effort to help Patrick Fitzgerald (US Attorney in Chicago) develop a criminal
case on this front, '~o charges could be brought. The case was closed after Rageah returned to
• Canada to start a new job in January 2003. \

Rageah andl lboth believe in the destruction of Israel; both of them also
subscribe to the "international jihad movement." \

W~n~k~w~iliehij~~~k~e~n~·~w~o~u~~~h~a~v~e~~~
------- ..
~~~~~~~~
materials, Perdue pointed out tha 9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive
the motels occupied by the hijackers during the summer of 2009/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive
He believes that the hijackers in all
~~~~-~~~--~~rt~o-n~ili-e~~-w-ay~~~D~u~II-~-A~i~~o~
A~p~DuUsS~MmwouW

After 9111, representatives of the Dar Us Salaam refused to meet or speak with the FBI.
The Johnnycake Mosque, led by Muhammed Al-Sheikh, is also considered to be quite radical.

The Khalid Ali case arose during the Bureau's intensive canvassing of all businesses and
residences along the Route 1 corridor. An employee at a car rental establishment claimed to
remember seeing Ali praying with Hani Hanjour. Based on the rest of the information developed
on Ali, Perdue believes this identification likely was mistaken.

The other incident of note concerning Ali involved his bizarre disposal of the remote car
• door opener for a car he had rented, an incident that occurred in the parking lot of a Denny's

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S"ECR~'f

restaurant. Once it was established that the item in question was only a remote opener (and not
• part of an lED), the Bureau decided to follow Ali for a week before arresting him on the stolen car
warrant issued in connection with one of his rentals.

A consent search performed at the time of Ali's arrest yielded an address book containing
virtually ever conceivable Islamic NOO which Perdue believes Ali ke t as otential sources of
charit .
9/11 Personal Privacy
Al though the
suspect in
~~~yl!""o"'b~t-a'P"m-e"'d-a-m-a~te-r"'l"'ia-:l-w-l"'t-ne-s-s-w-arr-a-nt~fi~o-r-A~l:"':"i,~h:-e-p-r-o-m-p-t~ly-w-a-s-ru----:""le-d~ou-t~a-s"a
the
9/11 attacks. Immediately following his arrest, Ali was represented by AshrafNubani, whose
telephone number Ali already had in his possession.

·----IL 9_I_l_l_L_aw_E_nf_o_r_ce_m_en_t_se_n_sl_·t_i_ve ---~

At the conclusion of the interview, Perdue emphasized the need to maintain adequate
levels of funding to combat terrorism. An Arabist himself who used to work as a translator
e now has roximatel 9/11 Classified Information

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