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| FBI Director Robert Mueller | |
September 17, 2001 Posted: 8:00 PM EDT (0000
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI Director Robert Mueller said there were "no warning signs" of last week's terrorist attacks and disputed reports suggesting that at least two of the suspected hijackers gained entry into the United States despite being on watch lists.
Speaking at a Monday news conference with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Mueller rejected suggestions that the agency had dropped the ball and that at least two suspected hijackers had managed to get in the country despite being on "watch lists."
Mueller said he knew of one incident in which a name had been passed on, but that "individual or individuals" was already in the United States.
"It is very difficult, quite often, to find somebody once they're in the country," he said. "There were no warning signs that I'm aware of that would indicate this type of operation in the country."
Mueller defended his agency as investigators continued to question a growing number of people in the international investigation into last week's terrorist attacks in the United States.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the massive international investigation on the attacks is not focused solely on Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist mastermind believed to be living in Afghanistan.
"We're going to follow the evidence trail. It's not just a single person," Rice said. "It's a large network. Clearly, the trail points in that direction, but we aren't saying that that's all. There may be others. We want to be sure what we're looking at."
The Bush administration has branded bin Laden as the "prime suspect" in last week's attacks, which killed thousands.
In other developments:
-- A federal grand jury has been impaneled in New York to investigate the attacks on the World Trade Center towers. The grand jury will meet at a courthouse in suburban White Plains since the Lower Manhattan justice complex is still closed as a result of the attack.
-- Law enforcement sources told CNN an apartment building in Delray Beach, Florida, was used by the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, and Flight 175, which hit the World Trade Center. It was also linked to Mohamed Atta, a suspected hijacker on board American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the towers. Investigators searched the apartment for a second time Sunday.
The FBI, according to the source, believes two or three of the men lived at the third floor apartment, while the others either used it as a mail drop or stayed there at various times.
-- Saying associates of last week's hijackers may still be at large in the United States, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Monday that federal agents would fly on commercial airlines, and repeated his plea for Congress to give law enforcement agencies expanded powers to tap phones, conduct searches and seize assets..
-- Salem Alhamzi and Khalid Al-Midhar, two of the alleged hijackers on the flight that slammed into the Pentagon, had been under U.S. surveillance before the attack, sources said. They also said there is evidence Al-Midhar was possibly connected to last October's attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
-- Law enforcement sources said five of the hijackers' names correlate with registration lists at U.S. military schools, but discrepancies with ages, spellings and other information makes it unclear if they are the same people.
Few details were available about four men being held as material witnesses by federal investigators.
Sources said one of the individuals, Zacarias Moussauoi, was arrested August 17 in Elk, River, Minnesota, by the INS on immigration charges and was detained by the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office. According to sources, Moussauoi was studying at Airman Flight school in Norman, Oklahoma. Another person linked to bin Laden studied at this same school.
Another man was originally detained last week at New York's John. F. Kennedy International Airport. He allegedly possessed a phony pilot's license.
A third man is believed to have been picked up in Texas. There were no details on the fourth individual.
Material witnesses are not necessarily considered suspects, but are believed to have information highly relevant to an investigation and may pose a risk of flight.
The four witnesses are part of the 49 people -- nearly double the number from last Friday -- who have been detained for questioning in the probe or because of questions about their immigration status, Mueller said.
Mueller also said "vigilante attacks and threats against Arab-Americans will not be tolerated." Forty hate crime investigations against individuals and institutions have started after reported attacks against Arab-American citizens and institutions, he said, and the FBI is reaching out to leaders of the Arab-American community in each FBI field office across the country.
The nation's top law enforcement agency also called on Americans who speak Arabic or Farsi to join it as part of the investigation into the terrorist hijacking of four commercial jets last week.
The 19 suspected hijackers identified by the Justice Department all have Middle Eastern backgrounds, and the hunt for accomplices has turned up individuals with similar backgrounds. And the Bush administration has branded Saudi exile Osama bin Laden as the "prime suspect."
"We have had a language shortage for a period of time. ... And we feel at this point in time we can use the additional manpower helping us with the language issue," Mueller said.
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| Federal agents will fly on commercial planes, Ashcroft said. | |
Ashcroft announced the new sky marshals as he pleaded with Congress to pass by week's end anti-terrorism laws that could assist the current investigation. The changes would expand wiretapping and increase prison penalties for those who aid terrorists.
"We need these tools to fight the terrorism threat which exists in the United States and we must meet that growing threat," Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft said law enforcement officers believe there is a continuing threat because "associates of the hijackers that have ties to terrorist organizations may be a continuing presence in the United States."
He directed the U.S. Marshals Service to assign more than 300 deputies to assist FBI field offices in the probe, which has received 7,700 phone calls and 47,000 tips on the Internet.
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| FBI investigators continue their search at the crash sight in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. | |
Some of about two dozen people who have been taken into INS custody for alleged immigration violations may have been involved in terrorist activities, authorities said.
Two of those detained are Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, who authorities believe may have been intent on hijacking another plane last week. The two had been on a flight Tuesday from Newark, New Jersey, to San Antonio, Texas, that was safely diverted to St. Louis. They then headed by train for San Antonio, but were detained in Dallas, sources said.
Sources said the two men had box cutters on them -- instruments used as weapons carried by the 19 hijackers on the four jets -- and had extensive knowledge of the terrorist network.
On Saturday, authorities raided an apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey, where Khan lived. Sources said others on a "watch list" established by the FBI may also have lived at that address. Sources said more than 100 names are on that list, which has names of people who may have ties to or knowledge of the suspected hijackers and the attacks.
Jersey City is home to the mosque of Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, who is in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Law enforcement sources said they are looking at whether Azmath and Khan can be connected to a doctor from San Antonio who is also in INS custody. Sources said the two may have tried contacting the doctor after their hijacking plans went awry.
Authorities are investigating whether the doctor, who has not been named, is related to two of the suspected hijackers -- Nawaq Alhamzi and Salem Alhamzi -- who were on board the American Airlines flight that slammed into the Pentagon.
-- CNN correspondents Kelli Arena, Susan Candiotti and Eileen O'Connor contributed to this report.
