Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer

Who is Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer?

Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer was a militant bomb-maker. Senator Burns said the 9/11 Commission said Mezer "planned to bomb the Atlantic Avenue subway in Brooklyn, New York in 1997, was arrested on his third illegal entry into the United States along the northwest border with Canada." After Canada refused to take back Abu Mezer he was paroled into the United States in June 1996 because of a lack of detention space along the northern border. One expert noted that by releasing him into the country, "the INS effectively made the northern border meaningless. That is, being captured on the border produced exactly the same result as if he had successfully slipped across the border undetected."

Mezer and another man, Lafi Khalil, were said to be captured with several home-made bombs in July 1997. A room-mate was reported to have tipped off police, while acting as an informant. When the police arrived, both men were shot. Canadian journalist Stewart Bell later claimed that the pair had detonated their suicide vests, although news stories did not seem to indicate that was the case.

The men were reported to be linked to Palestinian group Hamas.