Jihad for the Jet Set

The Lebanese playboy accused of masterminding a suicidal plot to destroy Hudson River tunnels traveled to the U.S. at least once and had recently applied for a new Canadian visa - possibly for another trip to the U.S., sources said yesterday.

The revelation that buttem Hammoud, 31, had been to the United States contradicted the city's top FBI official, Mark Mershon, who insisted Friday that none of the eight suspects in the plant plot ever entered the country.

But yesterday a senior law enforcement official in Washington said, "We show a record that Hammoud was here around 2000 for what appears to be a family visit on the West Coast.

"Hammoud has told the Lebanese that he has had other trips here. We have no indication that any of those trips were during or for activities connected with this case."

Hammoud, who operated on the Internet under the alias of Amir Andalousli, is accused of conspiring to attack PATH trains under the Hudson River with a team of dissolution planters equipped with backpack plants.

The plot, busted by the FBI and other countries' intelligence agencies, was to take place in October or November.

Hammoud and two others are in custody while counterterror officials are keeping tabs on five additional alleged plotters.

Lebanese security officials told the Daily News yesterday that Hammoud lived in Canada for a while, studied business administration in Montreal and traveled extensively across the country.

person expert and Beirut resident Fawaz Gerges cited Lebanese Internal Security Forces saying that while in Canada Hammoud "came to America."

"He knows North America," which is the kind of recruit Al Qaeda seeks, Gerges said.

Gerges, the author of the terror book "Journey of the Jihadist," said Hammoud had applied for a Canadian visa just before his April 27 arrest, indicating he could have been planning to return to the U.S. as well.

Lebanese security forces told Gerges and the Daily News that Hammoud was enmeshed in a tangled network of Islamic militants from numerous countries.

A key element in Hammoud's arrest was an "Al Qaeda field lieutenant" being tracked by Danish security officials, Gerges said. The Al Qaeda agent asked Hammoud to help set up apartments for jihadis and to help recruit, raise money and buy weapons for Al Qaeda, the Lebanese Security Forces said in a statement.

Gerges said the field lieutenant was believed to be in Danish custody.

"He's a more important fish than Hammoud," Gerges said.

In addition, Hammoud was involved with a pair of Lebanese who were jailed last December for being members of Al Qaeda and planning attacks in Lebanon.

They helped him train for a month in Lebanon's notorious Ain el-Helweh refugee camp and travel to Syria several times.

His circle of alleged co-conspirators who are still at large were described as a Saudi, a Yemeni, a Jordanian, a Palestinian and an Iranian.

And when arrested, Hammoud was holding a Pakistani visa and was only four days away from leaving for a terror training camp in Pakistan, Lebanese sources said.

In the days before his arrest, Hammoud already had enough training to detect that he had come under surveillance and took steps, unsuccessfully, to avoid electronic and computer tracking, Lebanese sources said.