El Paso Times
The man who allegedly tried to run down an El Paso police officer on Thursday reportedly infiltrated terror cells for the FBI and had claimed on a national television interview that the 9/11 terror attacks could have been prevented.
Elie Assaad, 38, was arrested near the University of Texas at El Paso after his SUV rolled over and police had fired at him during an early morning chase.
A woman who identified herself as his wife, Grecia Jill, confirmed that Assaad had worked for the FBI in Miami and now owns a talent agency in El Paso.
An FBI spokesman in El Paso did not comment.
But in a 2009 interview on ABC News, Assaad told how he infiltrated terror cells and said the FBI missed the opportunity to foil the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
Assaad, a Catholic native of Lebanon who pretended to be an Islamic extremist, told ABC News that he began working as an undercover informant in FBI stings in the U.S. and overseas in 1996.
Assaad claimed that he met 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta at a small mosque in the Miami area but that his FBI handlers were more interested in stings on wannabe terrorists than following those who turned out to be in al-Qaida...[Full Article]