'The Terrorist Within' tells story of Ressam — and much more

In a sense, The Seattle Times series "The Terrorist Within" begins and ends with Sept. 11.

"After 9-11, we asked ourselves, 'What can we bring to this story that our readers can't get anywhere else?' " said Assistant Managing Editor David Boardman, who directed the series. "One of the answers was to look at the case of Ahmed Ressam, to see what in his story would help answer the questions that were emerging."

Who are these people? Why do they hate us? How do they operate? How could this happen?

Ressam was "our terrorist." Arrested in Port Angeles with a trunk filled with explosives, he was an al-Qaida operative with plans to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999. He was alive, unlike the 19 terrorists who attacked on Sept. 11 of last year, and he was cooperating with authorities.

Boardman assembled an investigative team to learn everything possible about how Ressam became a terrorist and what happened once he did. Working together were James Neff, Times investigative editor, and reporters Hal Bernton, Mike Carter and David Heath.

They came back with the compelling story of a disaffected young man from Algeria. He wasn't an ideologue, but he had a reservoir of anger at what was happening within his country. Vulnerable to powerfully manipulative people, he was swept up in Islamic terrorism.

It's also the story of how U.S. and Canadian authorities didn't take seriously at all the terrorist threat to North America. "And as we've seen in the past few weeks, even in the wake of Ressam, they didn't take it seriously enough," said Boardman.

As you read the series, you will be stunned that Ressam, sort of a petty criminal who made one mistake after another, could come so close to carrying out his plot. In the end, as Ressam's saga connects to the Sept. 11 attacks, you may be surprised at how different that day might have been.

It is a complex story with much that has never been reported before. Boardman and Neff decided the best way to tell it is in serial-narrative form, with chapters daily in The Times today through July 7. The Times has never presented a story in quite this way, so I asked Boardman why he chose this approach.

"Our readers have seen many terror-related hard-news stories since Sept. 11," he said. "This story offers something much different. It has lots of new information, but its greatest impact lies in its richness and texture.

"It's a story of international history and personal history. It's about law enforcement, international travel and family relations. It's about religion and politics. And it's about human nature."

"The Terrorist Within" unfolds like a good novel. The chapters are short, and the information is accessible. You would never imagine the amount of work and the wealth of reporting behind the series, but you should know some of it.

Bernton, who speaks fluent French, went to France, Algeria and Corsica to interview Ressam's family and friends, as well as U.S. Embassy officials. He also interviewed counterterrorism experts, including French anti-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

Heath and Carter traveled to Montreal — where Ressam first became part of a terrorist cell — to Vancouver, B.C., and to New York. In addition to interviewing Canadian law-enforcement and immigration officials, they talked with Ressam's associates and clerics at the Montreal mosque where he worshipped.

Other interviews for the series included:

• Current and former FBI agents and supervisors.

• Ressam's attorneys, both criminal and immigration.

• Attorneys for his co-conspirators.

• U.S. federal prosecutors.

• Current and former counterterrorism experts from the White House, State Department, CIA and Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

• Experts on Islamic fundamentalism, including clerics at mosques in three countries.

• Experts on Algeria.

• Algerian immigrants in Paris and Roubaix, France.

Documents examined included:

• Ressam's trial transcript and his testimony in another trial.

• French court documents.

• Canadian and U.S. court documents, some of which were unsealed as a result of legal actions by The Times.

• FBI documents, including some that remain classified.

Ressam himself would not consent to an interview, but the Times reporters had access to much of what he has said to others since his arrest.

Though this series reads like a novel, everything in it has been substantiated. In keeping with our standards, no direct quotes are reconstructed, and all descriptions of situations are based on interviews and records. To the best of our ability, "The Terrorist Within" is the true story of Ahmed Ressam.

Telling it can't change what is past. Knowing it may help us prepare for an uncertain future.

Inside the Times appears on Sundays. If you have a comment on news coverage, write to Michael R. Fancher, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111, call 206-464-3310 or send e-mail to mfancher@seattletimes.com.

More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.