Deported suspect fooled customs

Wellington: A man deported from New Zealand for allegedly living and training with one of the September 11 hijackers got past security checks to enter New Zealand by giving a different version of his name.

Rayed Mohammad Abdullah Ali entered New Zealand in February on a student visa, telling authorities he wanted to study English, but did not show up as a security risk in New Zealand's border protection system because he gave "Ali" as his surname.

He is repeatedly named as "Rayed Abdullah" in the US congressional inquiry into the attacks, which says he was friend and roommate of Saudi Arabian Hani Hanjour, one of the terrorists aboard the airliner flown into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said in an interview on the NewstalkZB radio network, "When a Mr Ali presents and he's not in your system as Mr Ali of course he slips in."

"This man presented a surname he was not known by in previous reporting through the 9/11 Commission," Clark told reporters later. "So that indicates a willingness to deceive."

She also said that enrolling in a pilot training course after citing his reason to enter New Zealand was to learn English was also deceitful. "When you have someone who clearly has been a close associate of a terrorist who took a plane into the Pentagon, it's clearly not useful to be providing them with pilot training in New Zealand," she said.

She denied he had been granted entry too easily, saying Rayed Abdullah had "not simply tacked on a word - he tacked on a surname."