Possible terrorist sighting checked

Friday, Oct. 12, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

FBI agents today were trying to determine whether one of the Bush administration's 22 most wanted terrorists was in Las Vegas this week.

Agents visited Binion's Horseshoe Thursday looking at videotapes of a poker player some recognized as Hasan Izz-Al-Din, who is on the most wanted list with Osama bin Laden that was released this week.

"We're treating it like any other lead we get," Las Vegas FBI spokesman Daron Borst said this morning. "We're following it up to its logical conclusion."

Horseshoe officials declined comment this morning.

Izz-Al-Din, according to the FBI, was indicted on criminal charges for his role in the June 14, 1985, hijacking of a commercial airliner that resulted in the slaying of an American citizen.

Born in Lebanon, he is about 38 years old and said to use the aliases Ahmed Garbaya and Samir Salwwan.

The man observed at the Horseshoe this week used an American name and was believed to have been living here for about two years.

One investigator close to the FBI's ongoing terrorist investigation, however, was skeptical that Izz-Al-Din would be in this country.

"I seriously doubt if any of the guys in the most wanted list are still in the United States," the investigator said. "They have sought refuge in countries that are a lot more friendlier to them than the United States."