A man arrested in Cedar Rapids shortly after the nine-eleven attacks for helping forge visas will testify before a U.S. Senate committee today on the simplicity of making or buying fake documents like passports and I.D. cards. Youssef Hmimssa is a key witness against four men considered “sleeper cell” terrorists, according to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. Hmimssa is a native of Morocco and will likely spend a few years in a federal prison before he’s deported. Grassley chairs the Senate Finance Committee before which Hmimssa will testify. Grassley says they have a report from the independent General Accounting Office that will be the focal point of the hearing. Hmimssa was arrested by federal agents less than three weeks after September 11, 2001, on charges related to terrorism, but later pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with forging visas. Now that Hmimssa is helping the federal government, he may see some of those charges reduced, but Grassley hedged away from calling him a hero. Grassley calls Hmimssa “helpful” in prosecuting terrorists and a “smart operator” who is “very authoritative on making fake documents but he committed crimes himself and he’ll pay for those crimes.” President Bush is calling on Congress to approve an additional 87-BILLION dollars to wage the war on terror. Grassley says, “Once you go to war, you only go to war to win.”Grassley says if President Franklin Roosevelt would’ve had the attitude after the Pearl Harbor attack that some Democrats have now with concerns about money spent and the length of time troops are committed, “Hitler would’ve been in New York City.”
