MSNBC Concerns about Y2K bomb plot MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS SEATTLE, Dec. 17 In a case that has set off Y2K alarms, a 28-year-old man was charged Friday with trying to bring explosives from Canada into Washington state. Authorities said the man was carrying more than 100 pounds of explosive materials and sophisticated timing devices, and they fear that he was involved in a wider New Year’s terror plot. They told NBC News that they were desperately searching for potential accomplices. AT AN INITIAL COURT appearance in Seattle on Friday, Ahmed Ressam was charged with two counts of knowingly transporting explosives from Canada to the United States. He was also charged with having false identification papers and making false statements to U.S. Customs Service officials when he arrived in the country Tuesday. Ressam was arrested as he attempted to enter the United States at Port Angeles, Wash., after taking a car ferry from Victoria, British Columbia. Federal agents believe an associate of Ressam was able to walk off the ferry while Ressam was being arrested, and remains in the United States. When U.S. Customs agents took Ressam aside and asked him to open the trunk of his rented car, he fled on foot. He was taken into custody several hours later, about five blocks from the ferry terminal. BOMB-MAKING MATERIALS Authorities said they found two 22-ounce jars of nitroglycerine; 10 plastic bags containing 110 pounds of urea, a legal substance that can be used to make fertilizer or explosives; two plastic bags containing about 14 pounds of sulfate, used as a desiccant to absorb water and keep things dry; and four black boxes containing “very sophisticated timing devices” made of circuit boards and Casio digital watches, sources said. Defense attorneys wanted to have the material in the jars tested, but the judge ordered its disposal, citing safety concerns. Ressam was identified as an Algerian in court documents, but there were also reports that he was of Lebanese descent. He spoke in Arabic at Friday’s hearings, and the proceedings were translated for him. An arraignment and detention hearing was set for Wednesday. Court documents indicated that Ressam had reserved a room in downtown Seattle for Tuesday night and had a reservation for an American Airlines flight on Wednesday from Seattle to New York, with a stop in Chicago. He also had a ticket for a connecting British Airways flight to London, according to the charging papers. Federal authorities did not say during the court hearing what they thought Ressam planned to do with the materials or why he was coming to the United States. However, speaking on condition of anonymity, law enforcement officials told NBC News that the chemical ingredients were similar to those used in the 1995 attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City, the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, and an unsuccessful 1994 plot to blow up a number of U.S. jumbo jets. The use of a Casio watch as a bombing timer was pioneered by Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing and the plot against airliners. Yousef is a follower of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, the fugitive financier of terrorism. Prior to his arrest and conviction on terrorism charges, Yousef taught bomb-making skills to other terrorists in Pakistan, the Philippines and New York, according to federal authorities. He is now serving a life term plus 240 years in Colorado for the World Trade Center attack, which killed six people and wounded hundreds. Authorities said Ressam had reserved a room Tuesday at the Best Western Loyal Motor Inn, just blocks from Seattle’s landmark Space Needle. Motel clerk Brian Ross told MSNBC that FBI agents had questioned the staff and seized records relating to the reservation, made by a man who gave his name as Benni Noris. That matched a name on Ressam’s Canadian passport. The guaranteed reservation was never claimed. SPACE NEEDLE A TARGET? Law enforcement officials in Seattle were concerned that Ressam was involved in a plot to disrupt the city’s millennial New Year’s Eve bash at the Space Needle. “We were already doing planning on a big scale” for a potential terror attack, a senior official told NBC News, “but this has heightened our concerns. ... You don’t believe it is going to happen to you. The seriousness is reinforced.” Some investigators speculated that Ressam might have been acting as a courier for others, and Friday night they were combing through his trail of telephone records for clues to possible accomplices. FBI spokesman Pat Jones said Customs officials in Port Angeles became suspicious when they saw that Ressam was traveling from Vancouver, B.C., to Seattle via Victoria and Port Angeles — a scenic route that requires two ferry rides. Jones said that when an inspector asked Ressam about the roundabout itinerary, Ressam became nervous — setting the scene for the search of Ressam’s rented car, and Ressam’s attempt to flee. In addition to the Canadian passport in the name of Benni Noris, Ressam was carrying a Canadian driver’s license with another name, Mario Roig, sources told NBC. They said the license listed an address in Montreal. Andrei Poirier, a spokesman for the Montreal police department, told MSNBC that investigators there were contacted by U.S. authorities to determine if Ressam might be linked to an Algerian crime ring there. On Thursday, Montreal police announced that they had arrested 11 members of the city’s Algerian community who are members of the ring, which allegedly uses proceeds from its activities to fund terror attacks in various countries. MONTREAL LINK EXPLORED “We are looking to see if there is any link between those persons who have been arrested and that person trying to go through the border, but at this moment we are not able to determine if there is a link,” he said. U.S. authorities already are on alert for potential terrorism at millennial celebrations, both here and abroad. Already this month, authorities arrested alleged terrorists in California and in Florida for allegedly plotting to blow up public facilities in connection with the change of the millennium. Two men who were members of a militia organization were arrested Dec. 3 in Sacramento, accused of plotting to bomb a suburban propane-storage tank. They allegedly hoped to cause the imposition of martial law as a first step in inspiring a revolution against the U.S. government. They currently await trial. In Florida, another militia leader was arrested Dec. 8 and charged with plotting to steal explosives to blow up transmission towers and power lines. A federal grand jury indicted Donald Beauregard, 31, on six charges of conspiracy, providing support or resources to commit terrorist acts, and four weapons violations. MONTH-LONG STAY IN VANCOUVER Law enforcement sources quoted by Reuters said Ressam had apparently been staying in Vancouver for about a month. One official said the case was getting much attention in light of this week’s arrest in Jordan of 13 people believed to be planning to carry out New Year’s attacks in the kingdom. The suspects arrested in Jordan reportedly had links to bin Laden, whom the United States has accused of masterminding the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa last year. “That case is certainly in the backs of the minds of a lot of investigators,” the official said. “All this bin Laden/Y2K is scaring people.” Last weekend the United States warned its citizens traveling abroad through the start of the New Year and the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan to exercise caution, citing “credible information that terrorists are planning attacks.” MSNBC’s Mike Brunker, Barry Kliff and Dave Neiwert, NBC producer Robert Windrem and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.