9-11-2001 Amtrak Sunset Limiited

MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

TRAIN #1 SUNSET LIMITED: Amtrak Passenger train was stopped and searched by law enforcement in Alpine,Brewster County, Texas as part of a sweeping, nationwide security response immediately following the New York City World Trade Center 9/11 terrorist airplane attacks.

The search led to a major, highly publicized
investigation involving two passengers.

2 PASSENGERS ARRESTED:

Police and federal agents boarded the train in Alpine after receiving a tip regarding suspicious passengers. They arrested two Indian nationals, Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, who had boarded the train in St. Louis, Missouri after their original flight from Newark, New Jersey was grounded by the FAA.

SUSPICIOUS EVIDENCE FOUND:

A search of the men yielded box cutters (the same tools used by the 9/11 hijackers), hair dye, and approximately $5,600 in cash. Because they had also shaved their body hair-matching instructions found in the hijackers' manuals-the FBI initially intensely investigated them as potential members of a secondary terrorist cell.

OUTCOME:

After a thorough investigation by federal counterterrorism officials, the men were cleared of any connection to the 9/11 attacks. Their possessions and actions were determined to be coincidental; the box cutters were tools for their jobs, the hair dye was an over-the-counter grooming product, and they were simply trying to get back to Texas after being stranded by the national aviation ground-stop.