Palestinian Sues Over Fbi Probe

A Palestinian seeking political asylum says his case has been damaged by an FBI investigation into his links to a man convicted in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

The FBI has acknowledged investigating Kahled El-Himri, 32, a sandwich-shop employee who lives in Lynnwood, but denies the probe would keep him from getting a fair hearing in his bid for asylum.

El-Himri filed a lawsuit against the FBI in U.S. District Court last week.

The lawsuit is based partly on data the government says would be better as an “outline for a Tom Clancy suspense novel than … as a credible basis” for El-Himri’s fear of providing the agency with information.

The documents gave no indication that El Himri, a Palenstinian rights activist before he emigrated, had any involvement in the bombing though his wife’s niece, Reem Ghabboun, is married to Nidal Ayyad, one of four men convicted in the case.

Six people died and more than 1,000 were injured when a bomb hidden in a van exploded in the basement of the Manhattan tower on Feb. 26, 1993.

El-Himri applied for asylum after he was stopped at the U.S. border at Blaine with an expired visitor’s visa a few weeks after the bombing.

He said cars and men began following him everywhere later that year, when world leaders converged on Seattle for a Pacific Rim trade conference.

The FBI “tapped his phone, opened his mail, talked to his apartment manager, went to his place of employment, had him tailed,” according to Elias Shamieh, a San Francisco lawyer specializing in Palestinian applications for political asylum.

The FBI visited El-Himri at work last April and offered to help him avoid deportation if he provided them with information on international terrorism, according to an affidavit filed in court.

Special agent Donald Boyd said El-Himri was receptive to the idea, but Shamieh said El-Himri refused to take the FBI up on any of its offers.