05:01 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 10, 2006

By Dave Fehling / 11 News

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How close to home are terrorists?

11 News looked into that question when one expert said there's a very good chance an al-Qaida cell could be operating right now in Houston.

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The Port of Houston is a perfect target for terrorists.

This could be important information for a city that has long been considered a potential target.

A video, supposedly of terrorists training in the Middle East, has a Houston connection, and one man knows what it is.

"Houston, probably next to New York City has had more active al-Qaida, logistical safe haven, whatever you want to call it, support," said Fred Burton.

Could al-Qaida, the Middle Eastern terrorist movement, be in Houston?

"There's every reason to believe they are here today," Burton said.

How would this man know? Fred Burton is a former State Department agent who helped track down Ahmed Ajaj. He is now a security consultant.

Ajaj was tied to al-Qaida's first attempt to bring down the World Trade Center, a truck bomb in the basement.

Before that 1993 bombing,  Ajaj was living  in Houston. He came in 1991, a Palestinian wanting to immigrate.

Imran Mirza is a Houston attorney who initially helped Ajaj apply for asylum.

When asked how he seemed, "Very timid," said Mirza, "Very afraid, easily startled."

And as it turned out, also unpredictable.

"Initially, I had no indication what was going on. The client just vanished," said Mirza.

Vanished but then, Ajaj turned up at an airport in New York, trying to return to the United States on a forged passport.

In his bags were videos on bomb making and suicide attacks.

Traveling with him was another Middle Easterner later connected to al-Qaida, Ramzi Yousef.

"He had a lot of contacts in Houston. It is believed he actually visited and stayed in Houston and to this day, we don't know where. Now, I was involved with his capture. And I can tell you that was one of the facts that was not adequately followed-up on," said Burton.

Was it a crucial opportunity missed?

An opportunity to determine why al-Qaida terrorists may have been visiting Houston, or in Ajaj's case, living here for months?

"I don't know exactly why he was in Houston," said Steven Gentry, the FBI's highest-ranking agent in the Houston counter-terrorism unit.

"The point's not lost on me or anyone that Ahmed Ajaj came through Houston," said Gentry.

But was he part of an al-Qaida cell in Houston?

"I don't know in and of itself, taking a look at that, that al-Qaida was establishing an operational base here in Texas or in Houston," said Gentry.

Ajaj and later, Yousef were both convicted for the first World Trade Center bombing.

"While much remains unknown about the two men's ties to Houston, one thing may be clear, al-Qaida might consider the city itself a good target.

There's great symbolism here that might resonate with radical Muslims in the Middle East.

Not only does the Bush family live here in Houston is the center of the world's petrochemical industry and al-Qaida has recently been attacking oil facilities overseas.

"You know, somebody wanted to harm our country, the Port of Houston is where they'd come," said Congressman Gene Green (D) Houston.

The Port and the Ship Channel, where there are dozens of refineries making a big share of the nation's chemicals and gasoline.

What if a huge tanker were sunk to block the channel?

It gives the port Chairman nightmares.

"It would be a startling thing to happen not only Texas but to this region and this country. It could really cripple the economy of this country," said Jim Edmonds, with the Port of Houston.

But is enough being done to prevent an attack?

Congressman Gene Green said officials with Homeland Security had been refusing to spend money here.

"I was disappointed," he said.

"We were finally so frustrated in 2005 we brought the person who made the grant awards from Homeland Security to the Port of Houston. He'd never been here," said Congressman Green.

Now, federal funding has surged. Last year alone, $15 million was given to the port. A state-of-the-art command center was just one security upgrade.

But some critics say while this might make us feel better, it won't necessarily prevent suicidal terrorists, which brings us back to Ahmed Ajaj.

In 1991, "We weren't aware of him," said Gentry.

But now, is FBI intelligence better to detect plots in the making?

It could come down to contacts in Houston's Muslim community, the second largest in the country.

It's a community someone like Ajaj may have found easy to melt into, un-noticed.

But consider that after 9/11, agents questioned a number of Muslim men here, men with no known ties to terrorists.

It left a bad feeling among some.

"They were on a fishing expedtion," said Mirza

"And you're making it less likley they'll cooperate."

Not true, said the FBI.

"I think the relationships are unparralled," said the FBI's Gentry.

Whatever the case, Ajaj and Yousef are two terrorists who'll likely not be returning to Houston.

They are both serving life sentences at a federal prison, in Colorado.

Even before tonight's report, we had gotten a lot of calls about it.

Members of Houston's Islamic community wanted to make some points.

They said they would be the first to report anyone they considered radical and threatening and that no such person would ever be given safe haven here.