On September 1, 1992, World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef (aka Abdul Basit) and co-conspirator Mohammed Ajaj were stopped by customs at JFK airport in New York. While Ajaj was detained for using a forged passport, Yousef “carried what appeared to be a valid Iraqi passport in the name of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. But the passport contained no entry visa for the United States…he told the customs agent he was fleeing political persecution in Iraq. …He was given a choice of being deported or arrested. He chose arrest and was immediately freed on his own recognizance, walked out of the airport and took a taxi to Brooklyn. Thus began the career of Ramzi Yousef, master terrorist.”
– Terry McDermott, Perfect Soldiers, Pages 131-132