had been found inside a car abandoned by Nawaf Al-Hazmi, one of the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77.[3] Agents had matched this number to a phone at a residence where Awadallah had briefly lived nearly two years earlier.[4] On the morning of September 21, 2001, Awadallah was again brought to the FBI office, where he was given a polygraph test, questioned, and eventually arrested as a material witness.[5] Over the following weeks, between September 21 and October 10, Awadallah was held in solitary confinement, and treated as a high security federal prisoner.[6]
On October 10, Awadallah was brought before a grand jury as a material witness. During the course of his grand jury testimony, the prosecutors repeatedly asked Awadallah about his knowledge of Al-Hazmi.[7] Awadallah answered that hehad met Al-Hazmi while working at a gas station in San Diego in the Spring of 2000, and had last seen him in December 2000, and described a number of innocuous encounters with Al-Hazmi. The prosecutors also asked Awadallah about Khalid Al-Midhar, another of the hijackers whom Awadallah had seen in Al-Hazmi's company. Awadallah described Al-Midhar's appearance, but said that he did not know the man's name. The Government then showed Awadallah a photocopy of his college exam booklet, in which Al-Midhar's name was written. Awadallah claimed that the handwriting was not his.
Awadallah appeared before the grand jury a second time on October 15.[8] At that time, he testified that he was able to recall that the man with Al-Hazmi had been introduced to him as "Khalid." Awadallah