Details Emerge About Local Terrorist Aide

SAN DIEGO -- A man suspected of providing financial assistance to three San Diego-based terrorists was identified as a La Mesa gas station employee living here on an expired student visa, 10News reported.

Federal law enforcement sources told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the man arrested over the weekend for immigration violations is named Omer Bakarbashat and is believed to a Yemeni national.

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Authorities Investigate San Diego Connection

FBI agents tracked Bakarbashat through local bank records, according to 10News. He was arrested Sunday night somewhere in San Diego County and taken Wednesday to New York, where he is being held as a material witness.

10News traced Bakarbashat's name to a mailbox drop at a Mail Boxes Etc. store on Clairemont Drive, and to an apartment complex in La Mesa. Neighbors said that they knew him, but not well.

A federal official told the Union-Tribune earlier this week that a man served hijackers Nawaq Alhamzi, Hani Hanjoor and Khalid Al-Midhar as "an associate, friend and facilitator."

Alhamzi, Hanjoor and Al-Midhar have been identified by federal officials as hijackers aboard the American Airlines jet that crashed into the Pentagon.

The Union-Tribune Thursday quoted a law enforcement source as saying that Bakarbashat lived with the hijackers, "helped them learn English and pointed them in the right direction."

Bakarbashat, who also used the last name Salah or Saleh, worked at a Texaco gas station in La Mesa and attended a college in the area.

It was not immediately known where or when Bakarbashat lived with the three hijackers.

Authorities said that Alhamzi (pictured, left), 25, Al-Midhar (pictured, far left), 34, and Hanjoor, 29, lived for a time in Clairemont and Lemon Grove in the year leading up to last week's attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

While in San Diego County, the men apparently sought training as pilots and may have attended at least one community college.

The FBI is also investigating the offices of a La Mesa insurance company, where one of the hijackers bought car insurance, according to 10News.

Agents seized the files hoping to find fingerprints.

So far, federal agents nationwide have detained at least 75 people for questioning on immigration violations who are suspected of being involved in the attacks.

Foreign Students To Face More Scrutiny

Immigration experts and U.S. officials expect a new push for a government database of foreign students, in the wake of the terror strikes.

Authorities began compiling such a database in response to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

But the program languished amid political opposition.

That's expected to change now, especially in light of the fact that the FBI has said some suspects and material witnesses in last week's attacks entered the country on student visas, including San Diego suspect Omer Bakarbashat.

There are nearly 600,000 foreign students at colleges and universities in the United States. Most are from China, Japan and India.

The database program would require schools to report any change in a foreign student's status, such as enrollment, or a move to a new address.