Walid Beitouni’s convenience store, 7 Days Liquor, sits in a strip mall that also contains a small travel agency, a bridal shop, a dry cleaners, and a Polish-Lithuanian restaurant. The nondescript neighborhood around 87th and Oak Park in south suburban Burbank is dominated by shopping centers with huge parking lots, houses with flags in the windows, and a few two-story apartment buildings. You can see jets heading into Midway just a few miles north.
Beitouni, a Palestinian immigrant in his mid-30s, is a bit gruff but amiable. Born and raised in Jerusalem, he came to Chicago in 1992, not only to flee the political unrest in Israel and join his father and other relatives who were already here, but also to further a budding career as a middleweight boxer. Back in Israel he had won a few fights but found few opportunities–“no future, no money, nothing.” Upon arriving in Chicago, he helped his brother, who owned a liquor store at 69th and Damen. Working in the liquor store gave Beitouni little time to train, so his career in the ring stalled following a few Golden Gloves amateur bouts.
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On the day the man showed up to install the cameras, he brought an assistant whom he introduced as a nephew, al Marabh. When the store opened in August, al Marabh became a regular customer, coming in every day to purchase Parrot-Ice, a slush-machine beverage. Beitouni developed a nodding acquaintance with al Marabh, who also struck up conversations with one of his employees.
Another day in the store, al Marabh said he wanted to become a truck driver and asked Beitouni what was required. Beitouni explained that he needed a clean motor vehicle record and some experience with trucks. He sent al Marabh to a company he once worked for in Summit called Container Express, Inc. “He went there to give his application, but I guess his MVR wasn’t there.”
Beitouni’s view of al Marabh fits the impression of many others who crossed his path. Even al Marabh’s attorney in Boston described his client as “an odd duck.”
Beitouni remembers that al Marabh commented on the attacks that same evening. “He said, ‘It couldn’t be a Muslim who did that, because Muslims don’t do that.’” He says al Marabh said it without anger.
Beitouni says he found it hard to believe that such an unassuming character could be involved in an international terrorist conspiracy. “This guy, I don’t believe he’s something like they say in the news. We can’t tell, because he’s still under investigation or whatever. But I mean, we got a saying in Arabic: ‘Always be careful of quiet people.’ When the FBI took him I said, ‘Man, maybe you’re mistaken, because this guy is so fucking dumb.’ But you never think, you know? When that problem happens in New York, you don’t know it’s gonna happen in your fucking place!”
