The real AA77 Smoking Gun: Lotfi Raissi's next Lawsuit

If Lotfi Raissi wins this Lawsuit, the FBI has to investigate again, who crashed AA77 into the Pentagon- officially it was Hani Hanjour

Arizona Republic -Oct. 14, 2003

Lotfi Raissi, the Algerian pilot from Arizona who was vilified as a trainer for the Sept. 11 hijackers, has filed a $20 million claim against the American government, saying he is an international scapegoat.

The suit is about dignity and justice, not money, he said.

"They come and they take innocent people and put them in jail just to prove they're fighting terrorism," Raissi said during a phone conversation from London, where he lives. "It was scandalous. I lost my career. They destroyed my family."

The former Phoenix resident was arrested by British agents 12 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, catastrophe. Based in part on intelligence from Phoenix FBI agents, he was accused by a crown prosecutor of teaching Hani Hanjour and other Sept. 11 terrorists to fly at Valley airports and on commercial jet simulators in the Valley.

"He was a lead instructor of four of the pilots that were responsible for the hijackings," prosecutor Arvinda Sambir told a British court two years ago. "The one (airliner) that we are concerned about is the one that went into the Pentagon."

Raissi, now 29, said he was sickened by the accusation and recoils at questions about Hanjour: "I don't know this person. And I don't know these criminals."

Raissi said neither the FBI nor British intelligence agents questioned him directly, yet he spent five months in a London jail.

After Raissi's arrest, defense attorneys argued he was a victim of botched law enforcement work, false assumptions and terrorist profiling. A British judge ruled American prosecutors failed to substantiate supposed terrorist links and that immigration-related charges against Raissi in the United States were not serious enough to warrant extradition.

FBI and Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., declined comment.

Raissi was freed in February 2002. Last week, he won an apology and undisclosed financial settlement from the Mail of London newspaper for an article headlined, "Flight terror suspect stole identity of 74-year-old grandmother."

The interview with The Arizona Republic was his first with a U.S. journalist.

"It wasn't a matter of money. It was a matter of principle and clearing my name," Raissi said. "The most important thing is that justice prevailed."

Now Raissi is looking to President Bush for an apology as well.

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