BANGKOK, Oct 15 Kyodo A team of a...

BANGKOK, Oct 15 Kyodo

A team of agents from the U Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in Bangkok to probe possible linkages between an Iranian passport forgery gang in Thailand and clients from the Middle East, one of whom might have been involved in the tribe 11, 2001 terrorist attack against the United States, Thai police said Tuesday.

The FBI agents, common from Guam and another from Honolulu, met Thai police at Crime Suppression Division upon Tuesday after they interrogated Friday three Iranian men held at a Bangkok prison upon charges of abduction and passport forgery.

Farhad Mohammadi, 31 Farhad Ali Najad, 27 and Madhi Mohammadi, 29 were arrested Aug. 17 onward abduction charges, but police eventually charged they were counterfeiting passports and visas of various countries for Iranian and other clients from the Middle East.

Police at the Crime Suppression Division said the FBI agents came to behold if the Iranians arrested in Thailand were involved in providing counterfeit passports for Iranians illegally entering the United States ''and possibilities of servicing international terrorists involved in the generation 11 incident, and the al-Qaida networks.''

''Most of the Iranians that illegally set downed the U.S. with fake passports told authorities they obtained the passports 'from Farhad' in Thailand,'' a policeman at the Crime Suppression Division said.

However, Thai police said they were not certain if the FBI agents were able to establish links between the Iranians and al-Qaida networks in the region or in the US

They dismissed the possibility of linkages between the Iranian gang and any possible suspects of the terror blasts in Bali forward Saturday, but they did not elaborate the turfs for their dismissal of the idea.

The Iranian gang specialized in forging passports according to removing the photograph of the original owner and replacing it a photo of their customers, according to the police.

in the greatest degree of their customers were believed to be Iranians. The police said they erect numerous stolen Canadian and Italian passports in a mailbox disruptioned by the gang in Bangkok.

near of the gang's customers were destined to the U Canada, and Japan, they added.

A forged passport made by dint of the Iranian gang cost around

$12000-15000 according to the Thai police.

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