Va. man charged with helping 2 hijackers get false papers

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- A Virginia man has been charged with helping obtain false identification documents for two men accused of crashing a jetliner into the Pentagon Sept. 11, according to a criminal compliant unsealed Monday.

Luis Martinez-Flores, 28, of Falls Church, was charged Friday with falsely certifying that Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar lived at his Falls Church address. The certifications were on state registration forms needed by the two to obtain a Virginia ID card.

Martinez-Flores, the second person charged in Virginia with assisting the hijackers with false documents, was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., later Monday. Alexandria and Falls Churches are suburbs of Washington.

Authorities also disclosed the arrest of Kenys Galicia on Monday. She was accused by the FBI of assisting numerous people obtain false Virginia documents. The FBI said she admitted on Sept. 19 that she signed residency certification forms for two of the suspected hijackers, Abdulaziz Alomari and Ahmed Saleh Alghamdi.

Authorities say Alomari was one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Alghamdi was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which hit the south tower.

Martinez-Flores' name first appeared Sept. 19 on a list of hijack suspects the FBI sent to banks looking for financial transactions. He was listed along with the 19 men believed to have hijacked four jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside.

Salvadoran national police director Mauricio Sandoval said last week that Martinez-Flores had helped the terrorists obtain false identification cards. Sandoval said Martinez-Flores may have moved around with the terrorists in New York, Boston or Florida.

In the affidavit unsealed Monday, the FBI said Martinez-Flores was at a convenience store in northern Virginia Aug. 1 looking for day labor work when Almihdhar and Hanjour drove up in a van looking for someone to sign Virginia Department of Motor Vehicle forms for them.

Martinez-Flores, a Salvadoran immigrant, was taken into custody by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Sept. 15. Officials said he has been living unlawfully in the United States since 1994, but since his detention, he has continued to speak voluntarily with the FBI.

Authorities last week arrested Herbert Villalobos on charges of helping Alomari obtain a false Virginia ID card on Aug. 2 by certifying that he was a Virginia resident. Villalobos was ordered held without bond after a detention hearing Sept. 26.