Later, after being ordered arrested and deported, he went underground and obtained a Canadian passport in a false name using only a Roman Catholic baptism certificate, a procedure said to be common in Quebec. When arrested in Seattle, Mr. Ressam was carrying a Canadian passport in the assumed name of Benni Antoine Noris. Few of these groups, he said, belonged to a coherent terrorist network, although many maintained loose links with each other. Most of the leaders fought, or at least were trained, in Afghanistan. Most see the United States, with its secular political tradition, its military and economic power, and its backing for Israel, as the prime target for terrorist attacks.
Many radicals use false passports, and work from the similar terror-training manuals.
American authorities have identified Mr. Bin Laden as the mastermind of the August 1998 bomb attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which more than 220 people were killed. One Western official said there were reports that Mr. Ressam had met with several people in Canada tied to Mr. Bin Laden. It was unclear what significance, if any, these contacts had. His French passport bore the name Tahar Medjadi, but he readily admitted to the authorities that the document and his birth certificate were fake. He asked for refugee status and asylum.