Plot Thickens in Saudi National Case

Where is Abdul Rahman Alharbi?

Plot Thickens in Saudi National Case

By Arnold Ahlert (Bio and Archives)  Friday, April 26, 2013  Comments | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us 1

Radio talk show host Glenn Beck is continuing to investigate Abdul Rahman Alharbi, the Saudi national initially identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing atrocity.

And while many on the left are ridiculing Beck’s efforts, it is difficult to dismiss the possibility that some kind of deception is being perpetrated by the Obama administration. As the rest of the media remain silent, Beck continues to release almost daily a slew of troubling revelations backed by solid evidence.

On Monday night, the radio host made no bones about where he stands. “You want to know why we have terror over and over in our streets?” Beck asked. “Saudi Arabia. It is time someone on network television says it.” He also took the media to task. “We let everyone have all of the other information because we care more about the truth, more about you getting the news,” he said. “There is not ever going to be a member of CAIR crossing this threshold to have a private meeting with me to tell me exactly what would be in my best interest. I’m not taking the meeting. We move differently here. We are an American network, owned by an American. I am sick and tired of being told there is nothing left to see, move along,” Beck elaborated, noting that since he owns the Blaze network, he is beholden to no outside interests, or foreign (read Saudi) money.

On Tuesday, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano added fuel to Beck’s fire. Napolitano, who refused to answerany questions about Alharbi immediately following the terror attack, engaged in this somewhat Orwellian exchange with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). “With regard to the Saudi student, was he on a watchlist, and if so, how did he obtain a studentvisa?” Grassley asked. Napolitano firmly responded, “He was not on a watch list.  What happened is—this student was, really when you back it out, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was never a subject. He was never even really a person of interest. Because he was being interviewed, he was at that point put on a watch list, and then when it was quickly determined he had nothing to do with the bombing, the watch listing status was removed.”

Beck kept up the pressure on Tuesday as well. He said that “more attention should be paid” to Alharbi, based on information he claims was given to him by government officials “at the highest levels,” some of whom have been “threatened with twenty years in prison…to get this information to you.” Beck dropped another bombshell on his show that night. He told his audience the DHS has “no idea” where Alharbi is currently located. He further noted that Alharbi’s student visa “only permits him to be attending school in Findlay, Ohio, but he never enrolled.”

This latter revelation is troubling. As the Boston Herald reported on April 18, “FBI and ATF agents, along with Boston cops, swarmed the 22-year-old man’s Ocean Avenueapartment Monday night, grilling his roommate for hours and removing several items in evidence bags.” Thus, some obvious questions arise. Why was a man who was supposed to be enrolled at a college in Ohio, living in an apartment in Boston? What has happened to the bags of evidence removed from his apartment? Furthermore, as Beck reasonably concluded, how can Napolitano possibly assert that Alharbi was never even a person of interest, given these two revelations?

Fox News’s Todd Starnes added to the controversy. He reported that Alharbi “had been flagged on a terror watch list and was granted a student visa without being properly vetted.” Starnes went further. “A source close to the investigation revealed that Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi had been deemed inadmissible under the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which declares ineligible for a visa—any alien who is engaged in or is likely to engage after entry—in terrorist activity.”

Yesterday, Beck put far more credence behind the reality that Napolitano is utterly disingenuous and Starnes is onto something. After beginning with a brief review of the timeline during which Alharbi went from a “person of interest, to witness, to victim, to nobody,” the radio host presented information obtained by what The Blaze website described as a source who “directly read the original event file, and multiple government sources with knowledge of the case and files (who) contributed their knowledge.”

In short, Beck had allegedly obtained a copy of the original event file.

It was filled with bombshell after bombshell. It revealed that Alharbi was “armed and dangerous,” admitted to the country under “special advisory option usually reserved for visiting politicians, VIPs, or journalists,” and that he was granted his status “without a full vetting.” Moreover, despite officials explaining that Alharbi’s once pending deportation was due to an expired visa, the event file reveals his visa is good until 2016. It further reveals that he was admitted to the country in Boston, even as it says he is a student at the University of Findlay, in Findlay, Ohio.

Beck went further still. “When a file is created in the system, the author(s) are notified via email when it is accessed and given the email address of the person accessing, so there is a record within the government data system of who was there,” he noted. “It was amended to remove the deportation reference, then someone later went in and tried to destroy both the original event file and an amended versions. We won’t say who at this time, but copies have already been made,” he warned.

Beck explained to his audience that an event file is part of the Patriot Act, and that the designation 212 3B given to “a Saudi in the hospital” means that “you were a terrorist, you we’re engaged in terrorism, or you are about to be engaged in terrorism.” Beck further notes that once someone is designated in such a manner, “it is extraordinarily difficult to put it in, and you do not put it in, and then take it off.” According to Beck, only officials at the State Department or the National Counterterrorism Center are capable of revoking the designation.

The cover of the event file contained equally important information, including that fact that Alharbi was “an exact match” to “No Fly subject TPN#1037506192,” and that “derogatory information” reviewed and approved by two high level agents, Chief Watch Commander Maimbourg and Watch Commander Mayfield, “was found to be sufficient to request a Visa revocation.”

Then came the most damming revelation of all. “Subject has One (1) prior event #1648067.” “That means this guy doesn’t have one event,” Beck explained. “When they opened this at the hospital they found, he’s already in the system. He’s already a 212 3B. He has another terrorist event under his belt.”

In closing, Beck excoriated the mainstream media. “This is what’s happening in our country. We have a media that is so out of control, that they will destroy anyone who stands up and says, ‘Americans are in danger. By both parties, by all people involved. It is not an American that is doing this, it is an American that is protecting the country that is shipping terror into our country.”

He also addressed the public. “I want you to know you should have great hope. You should have great pride. There are people who are risking everything to bring you this information. They are stunned and angry at how many journalists will not report this story. There are other journalists that have actually filed reports, and the corner offices…have spiked them with no reason given.”

“I will tell you that CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and this administration play for keeps. Anybody who reports on this information is in danger…”

Beck’s revelations will undoubtedly be taken seriously by some, and completely dismissed by others, mostly in the mainstream media and progressive circles. But there is one question Beck asks for which every concerned American should demand an answer from this administration:

Where is Abdul Rahman Alharbi?