"He said he hadn't completed the forms because he didn't speak English," says Melendez. "So we called in an interpreter. The man's bearing struck me as someone with a military background. He was impeccably dressed, all in black, and his attitude belonged to someone who wasn't used to being stopped or questioned. He was arrogant."

CBP Officer Jose E. Melendez-Perez at the Orlando International Airport.

Officer Melendez sensed immediately that something wasn't right, a "hunch" based on years of interviewing experience. But he knew that a hunch wasn't enough to support a decision to deny the passenger entry to the United States. Melendez needed to make a strong empirical case that al-Qahtani might be a dangerous character.

"As soon as my supervisor assigned the case to me, I looked at the passenger's paperwork," says Melendez. "There was no return ticket to London, a transit point for this passenger, or to Dubai, his departure city. He had no hotel reservation. When I asked him how long he intended to stay in Orlando, he told me six days. When I asked him if someone was at the airport to meet him, first, he answered yes-but when I asked him for that person's name, he changed his story. He said a friend from Saudi Arabia would be flying in to meet him in three or four days. None of it made sense."

Melendez points out that a great number of travelers arriving in Orlando are coming to visit Disney World. "We see families with carefully planned itineraries," he says. Even the officer's previous experience with Saudi visitors-a number of them travel through Orlando-just didn't "jive" with the performance he was witnessing now. This man was focused, intense, even cold. Melendez remembers that "something about him just gave me the chills. It was a very strong sensation-I'll never forget it."

Unwilling to let al-Qahtani walk, the officer took his hunch and the evidence to Supervisory Officer Edwin Bosch. Al-Qahtani, he told Bosch, had no return ticket, no credit cards, and was carrying just $2800 in cash. You didn't have to be a math wizard to know the man in black didn't have enough money to pay for six days of meals and hotel rooms, plus a one-way ticket-priced at $2200-back to Dubai. When Melendez questioned the passenger about a return ticket, the situation became even more confused.

Al-Qahtani told him that he had no definite return destination. He was waiting for that information to arrive via a mysterious "friend," the same friend al-Qahtani had first said was waiting to meet him at the Orlando International Airport, and later said would be arriving in three or four days. Melendez says he thought the passenger might be a hit man at that point-criminal gangs frequently send assassins out on missions without telling them where they're expected to go after they finish the job. It's a way of protecting the people at the top, should the hit man be caught or fail in his attempt.

The interview became increasingly strained. Al-Qahtani was aggressive, jabbing his finger at the officers and becoming more belligerent as the process went on. By this time, Melendez and Bosch were convinced al-Qahtani was up to no good, but they were determined to go the extra mile to prove it. "Under Immigration Law 235," says Melindez, an officer has the right to ask a passenger to answer questions as part of a sworn declaration. Al-Qahtani agreed to the sworn declaration, but when we didn't even get past the first question-he refused to answer it." Port Director Juan Hernandez told Melendez and Bosch it was all they needed. "At that point," says Melendez, "we had him."

The officers called representatives from Virgin Airlines, the carrier that had transported al-Qahtani from Gatwick Airport in London to Orlando, Fla., and requested the airline issue a return ticket to the Saudi national on the spot. A few hours later, al-Qahtani had departed Orlando International Airport and was on his way back across the Atlantic. He wound up in Afghanistan, where he was later captured by U.S. forces. Al-Qahtani is now being held with other captives at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

After the September 11 attacks, federal authorities discovered that Mohamed Atta, the key figure in the hijackings, was at the Orlando International Airport making an international phone call at the same time that Officer Jose Melendez was questioning al-Qahtani in Secondary.

On January 26, 2004, a bipartisan 9/11 Commission cited Officer Melendez's response to the "suspicious indicators" accompanying al-Qahtani's request for entry into the United States. as one of the success stories that emerged from 9/11. For U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the thousands of CBP officers now standing in the same place that Officer Melendez stood on August 4, 2001, the story is not only a cautionary tale, but also a critical lesson about initiative, diligence, and the ability of a single, go-the-distance officer to make a decision that might have amounted to a life-saving difference.

On February 24, 2004, Commissioner Robert C. Bonner will present CBP Officer Jose Melendez-Perez a monetary award for his outstanding actions in denying entry of a suspected terrorist into the United States.