Mohamad Elzahabi

Elzahabi entered the United States in 1984 on a student visa. In 1986, he was granted permanent resident status. ==Afghanistan==

In 1988, Elzahabi attended a religious conference in the Mid-Western United States, where he was persuaded to travel to Afghanistan to help repel the Soviet invasion. He was a sniper and trained others on the use of the Dragunov sniper rifle at the Khalden training camp. With the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, Elzahabi returned to the United States. When later asked by The Globe and Mail to explain what had happened amongst the Arab foreign fighters following the war, he replied, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". In 1991, Elzahabi returned to Afghanistan to continue the fight against the Najibullah government. He stayed in Afghanistan for 4 years until in 1995, he suffered an abdominal gunshot wound in Kabul, and was treated in a Peshawar hospital, where he was visited by Ahmed Khadr. ==Return to the United States==

He returned to the United States in 1995 to recuperate from his wound. He worked with his brother Abdelrahman at a New York City garage named Drive Axle Rebuilders, located at 47-33, 5th Street, from 1995-97. He moved from New York to Boston in 1997, and the following year was employed at the same cab company as al-Marabh and Kanj, from the training camp in Afghanistan. Although the four men each went their separate ways following the war, in 1998 they were all working as cab drivers in Boston, Massachusetts, the first three of them all working for the same company. When Hijazi, the fourth friend from Afghanistan, applied for a Massachusetts drivers license to begin driving a cab, he used Elzahabi's residential address: 15 Appleton Street, Everett, as his own. ==Lebanon and Chechnya==

Elzahabi left the United States in 1998, and later received a phone call from Abu Zubaydah, who wanted to know if he could support the Khalden camp. United States officials claim he was later given $300,000 by an unknown party who asked him to carry it into the embattled Russian region. Elzahabi moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he lived with family members. Refused citizenship, he returned to the United States in August 2001. ==Return to the United States==

Elzahabi became a truck driver in the United States. He applied for a Commercial driver's license on August 23, 2001 in Minnesota. Elzahabi received his insurance clearance to begin work as a hazardous freight hauler in April 2004. ==Legal trouble==

"Branded an al-Qaeda terrorist," The RCMP provided faxes seized from Abdullah Almalki's house during Project O Canada, detailing the sale of the walkie-talkies to Elzahabi's brother. The FBI later affirmed that it bugged and videotaped Elzahabi's cell. ==Deportation==

In 2007, he was convicted of possessing false immigration documents following 8 hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to time served and released to the Department of Justice for deportation proceedings. He was taken from prison in Elk River, Minnesota, to the Immigration Holding Centre in El Paso, Texas and was eventually deported from the United States the same year. ==See also==