Saturday, December 29, 2001
FBI Probe of Al Qaeda Implies Wide Presence
FBI Probe of Al Qaeda Implies Wide Presence
Agency Investigating 150 U.S. Groups, Individuals
By Dan Eggen and Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 30, 2001; Page A01
The FBI is conducting more than 150 separate investigations into groups and individuals in the United States with possible ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, according to senior U.S. officials.
The domestic targets include dozens of people who are under electronic surveillance through national security warrants, and others who are being watched by undercover agents attempting to learn more about their activities and associates, officials said.
Until now, law enforcement authorities had not disclosed the number of active al Qaeda investigations in the United States. The large number of cases suggests the FBI's efforts against the terrorist network have gone well beyond the widely publicized dragnet that has ensnared hundreds of people in the United States and overseas.
U.S. counterterrorism investigators are unsure exactly how many al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers are in the United States, although in the days after Sept. 11 they identified four or five active cells that they put under intensive surveillance. Many of the active investigations involve people with marginal or unclear ties to al Qaeda, and are unlikely to result in criminal charges, officials said.
But the sheer number of active FBI investigations suggests the al Qaeda presence is far broader than previously known, several terrorism experts and law enforcement officials said.
"It is a good indicator of the depth of al Qaeda presence here," said Robert Blitzer, a former FBI counterterrorism official. "Hopefully working these cases will lead to many more, and you'll have a better sense of the infrastructure at work here. . . . The idea is to figure out what these individuals or groups are doing, what they might be planning and to try to penetrate the group and get closer to them."
The presence of al Qaeda members in the United States is of grave concern to senior Bush administration officials, who have issued several alerts since Sept. 11 warning of the possibility of another attack. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III have repeatedly said they view preventing another terror attack as their main priority, rather than securing criminal convictions.
The two men meet regularly with President Bush, who has told both that preventing another attack must be their foremost concern. The president routinely asks the FBI director the status of the important al Qaeda investigations and wants to ensure they are getting top priority, according to a senior official.
That concern has helped fuel the massive domestic and foreign dragnet aimed in large measure at disrupting the operations of al Qaeda.
Although more than 1,200 people have been detained in the United States, only a handful are believed to have ties to al Qaeda. Only one man -- accused hijacking conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui -- has been charged so far in connection with the Sept. 11 plot.
In addition to the domestic detentions, the CIA has passed information to foreign intelligence services, which have had more than 500 suspected terrorists arrested or detained abroad.
The domestic dragnet has prompted criticism from civil libertarians, as well as concern from some former law enforcement officials and terrorism experts that the Justice Department is not effectively pursuing al Qaeda. But sources said the government is expanding its battle against terrorism with new tools and is focused on a variety of new leads.
For instance, an initiative to interview more than 5,200 young male visitors who entered the United States within the past two years has resulted in an increase in the number of ongoing domestic investigations related to bin Laden, according to law enforcement officials.
Another factor has been the recent anti-terrorism bill approved by Congress, which has given federal prosecutors and FBI agents an expanded ability to open criminal investigations based on information gathered for intelligence purposes. FBI and Justice officials said the law prompted an almost immediate surge in criminal terrorism investigations, especially those related to al Qaeda and bin Laden.
"We have gotten a great deal of new information that has led to new cases since 9-11," one official said. "The numbers have increased substantially."
The officials declined to offer details of the roughly 150 open investigations, or to name their targets. Some of the cases revolve around suspects already in U.S. custody, such as Moussaoui, but most involve individuals who have been questioned and released or who have never been detained, officials said. They are hoping both to build possible criminal cases and monitor the development of possible terrorist plots.
"It runs the spectrum from one end to another," said one senior U.S. law enforcement official. "We don't want to suggest that they are all al Qaeda terrorists running around loose. Some are very serious, but some are just suspected links or suspicious conduct. . . . The goal is to be on top of any possible plans."
Some of the investigations predate the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI officials said. A special team in the command center of FBI headquarters in Washington, including representatives of the CIA and other agencies, has been coordinating the hunt for associates of "UBL" -- for Usama bin Laden -- following the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.
FBI officials said they have gained a deeper understanding of al Qaeda's operations and strategies by expanding the number of criminal investigations underway.
But some outside experts are skeptical, arguing that large numbers of criminal cases and detained immigrants provide little insight into whether the FBI and other agencies are effectively coping with terrorist threats.
Vincent Cannistraro, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA, said U.S. officials still cannot say with certainty whether al Qaeda operatives are prevalent here, or whether they are centered overseas.
"Out of all the people in custody, they've got one definite al Qaeda and are suspicious of a couple others, and they've got a lot of people under surveillance that they aren't sure about," Cannistraro said. "Insofar as an al Qaeda presence in the United States, they've made very little headway in uncovering it or peeling back the layers and penetrating it. . . . They don't know what they don't know."
Agency Investigating 150 U.S. Groups, Individuals
By Dan Eggen and Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 30, 2001; Page A01
The FBI is conducting more than 150 separate investigations into groups and individuals in the United States with possible ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, according to senior U.S. officials.
The domestic targets include dozens of people who are under electronic surveillance through national security warrants, and others who are being watched by undercover agents attempting to learn more about their activities and associates, officials said.
Until now, law enforcement authorities had not disclosed the number of active al Qaeda investigations in the United States. The large number of cases suggests the FBI's efforts against the terrorist network have gone well beyond the widely publicized dragnet that has ensnared hundreds of people in the United States and overseas.
U.S. counterterrorism investigators are unsure exactly how many al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers are in the United States, although in the days after Sept. 11 they identified four or five active cells that they put under intensive surveillance. Many of the active investigations involve people with marginal or unclear ties to al Qaeda, and are unlikely to result in criminal charges, officials said.
But the sheer number of active FBI investigations suggests the al Qaeda presence is far broader than previously known, several terrorism experts and law enforcement officials said.
"It is a good indicator of the depth of al Qaeda presence here," said Robert Blitzer, a former FBI counterterrorism official. "Hopefully working these cases will lead to many more, and you'll have a better sense of the infrastructure at work here. . . . The idea is to figure out what these individuals or groups are doing, what they might be planning and to try to penetrate the group and get closer to them."
The presence of al Qaeda members in the United States is of grave concern to senior Bush administration officials, who have issued several alerts since Sept. 11 warning of the possibility of another attack. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III have repeatedly said they view preventing another terror attack as their main priority, rather than securing criminal convictions.
The two men meet regularly with President Bush, who has told both that preventing another attack must be their foremost concern. The president routinely asks the FBI director the status of the important al Qaeda investigations and wants to ensure they are getting top priority, according to a senior official.
That concern has helped fuel the massive domestic and foreign dragnet aimed in large measure at disrupting the operations of al Qaeda.
Although more than 1,200 people have been detained in the United States, only a handful are believed to have ties to al Qaeda. Only one man -- accused hijacking conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui -- has been charged so far in connection with the Sept. 11 plot.
In addition to the domestic detentions, the CIA has passed information to foreign intelligence services, which have had more than 500 suspected terrorists arrested or detained abroad.
The domestic dragnet has prompted criticism from civil libertarians, as well as concern from some former law enforcement officials and terrorism experts that the Justice Department is not effectively pursuing al Qaeda. But sources said the government is expanding its battle against terrorism with new tools and is focused on a variety of new leads.
For instance, an initiative to interview more than 5,200 young male visitors who entered the United States within the past two years has resulted in an increase in the number of ongoing domestic investigations related to bin Laden, according to law enforcement officials.
Another factor has been the recent anti-terrorism bill approved by Congress, which has given federal prosecutors and FBI agents an expanded ability to open criminal investigations based on information gathered for intelligence purposes. FBI and Justice officials said the law prompted an almost immediate surge in criminal terrorism investigations, especially those related to al Qaeda and bin Laden.
"We have gotten a great deal of new information that has led to new cases since 9-11," one official said. "The numbers have increased substantially."
The officials declined to offer details of the roughly 150 open investigations, or to name their targets. Some of the cases revolve around suspects already in U.S. custody, such as Moussaoui, but most involve individuals who have been questioned and released or who have never been detained, officials said. They are hoping both to build possible criminal cases and monitor the development of possible terrorist plots.
"It runs the spectrum from one end to another," said one senior U.S. law enforcement official. "We don't want to suggest that they are all al Qaeda terrorists running around loose. Some are very serious, but some are just suspected links or suspicious conduct. . . . The goal is to be on top of any possible plans."
Some of the investigations predate the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI officials said. A special team in the command center of FBI headquarters in Washington, including representatives of the CIA and other agencies, has been coordinating the hunt for associates of "UBL" -- for Usama bin Laden -- following the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.
FBI officials said they have gained a deeper understanding of al Qaeda's operations and strategies by expanding the number of criminal investigations underway.
But some outside experts are skeptical, arguing that large numbers of criminal cases and detained immigrants provide little insight into whether the FBI and other agencies are effectively coping with terrorist threats.
Vincent Cannistraro, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA, said U.S. officials still cannot say with certainty whether al Qaeda operatives are prevalent here, or whether they are centered overseas.
"Out of all the people in custody, they've got one definite al Qaeda and are suspicious of a couple others, and they've got a lot of people under surveillance that they aren't sure about," Cannistraro said. "Insofar as an al Qaeda presence in the United States, they've made very little headway in uncovering it or peeling back the layers and penetrating it. . . . They don't know what they don't know."
Saturday, December 22, 2001
MYSTERY: FBI Declines to Release Hijack Flight Cockpit Tape
No more information available at this time.
Friday, December 21, 2001
Flight instructor warned FBI in August
Eagan flight trainer wouldn't let unease about Moussaoui rest
Greg Gordon, Star Tribune
December 21, 2001
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When a Twin Cities flight instructor phoned the FBI last August to alert the agency that a terrorist might be taking lessons to fly a jumbo jet, he did it in a dramatic way:
"Do you realize how serious this is?" the instructor asked an FBI agent. "This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon!"
The aviation student he was talking about was Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested the following day and last week was charged in a federal indictment with conspiring with Osama bin Laden and others to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
New details of how Moussaoui raised suspicions at the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan -- and the company's eerily prescient tip -- are emerging from the briefings the school recently gave to congressional offices.
The still-unidentified flight instructor became wary of Moussaoui immediately, according to Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar and others with direct knowledge of the briefings.
Moussaoui first raised eyebrows when, during a simple introductory exchange, he said he was from France, but then didn't seem to understand when the instructor spoke French to him.
Moussaoui then became belligerent and evasive about his background, Oberstar and other sources said. In addition, he seemed inept in basic flying procedures, while seeking expensive training on an advanced commercial jet simulator.
Besides alerting the FBI about Moussaoui, the school's Phoenix office called the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) early this year about another student -- Hani Hanjour, who was believed to be the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. The school had raised questions about Hanjour's limited ability to speak English, the universal language of aviation.
An FAA representative sat in on a class to observe Hanjour, who was from Saudi Arabia, and discussed with school officials finding an Arabic-speaking person to help him with his English, said Oberstar and others with direct knowledge of the school's briefings.
Oberstar and Minnesota Rep. Martin Sabo, who also was briefed by the school, praised Pan Am for its efforts to safeguard the skies and for passing federal authorities clues to possible terrorist activities before Sept. 11.
They said that, with the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the FBI and the FAA could have responded more vigorously.
"From what I've heard, the school was clearly more alert than federal officials," Sabo said.
Oberstar said "alarm bells" should have gone off at the FAA when Pan Am reported Hanjour's limited English skills -- as least as far as his pilot's training went. He also said he had no major complaints about the FBI's Minneapolis office. But he added that the office's response to the Eagan flight instructor's calls was so "bureaucratic" that a less-determined tipster might have stopped calling.
Sabo, who is the senior Democrat on a House appropriations transportation subcommittee, declined to discuss specifics of his briefing from Pan Am. But he said he would give the school "an A-plus for ... seeing a problem, reporting it and continuing to pursue it."
Oberstar, the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Pan Am "acted in the public interest" with both Moussaoui and Hanjour.
Pan Am Vice President Marilyn Ladner said, "We are pleased that our tip to the FBI turned out to be helpful. We'd prefer not to comment any further on the ongoing investigation."
A Pan Am representative first contacted Sabo's office a couple of weeks after the attacks. The firm sought help in prodding the Red Cross to provide grief counseling for shocked employees at its Eagan facility, where Moussaoui had sought training.
The employees had "a terrible case of the what-ifs," wondering what they could have done differently to avoid the disaster, said a source familiar with those conversations. Sabo's office got the Red Cross to dispatch counselors.
About three weeks ago, Pan Am representatives briefed Sabo, Oberstar and Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., individually on the encounters with Moussaoui and Hanjour. The representatives appealed for better federal guidelines on when to report suspicious activities so they don't have to worry about discrimination suits.
Oberstar went further. In recently enacted airline security legislation, he included a provision that bars flight schools from teaching any foreigner how to fly a commercial passenger plane without approval of the U.S. attorney general.
$19,000 course
Pan Am's flight instructor didn't worry about repercussions when he phoned the FBI about Moussaoui, 33.
He had come to Pan Am five months after entering the country with at least $35,000 in cash, according to his indictment. He had promptly enrolled in a flying course at the Airman Flight School in Norman, Okla., but quit after three months without qualifying for a private pilot's license.
In July, the indictment says, Moussaoui made credit card payments toward Pan Am's $19,000 course in piloting a Boeing 747. Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 3, it says, he received a $14,000 wire transfer from the same figure in Germany alleged to have sent money to the hijackers. Arriving at the Eagan school on Aug. 10, Moussaoui gave a school official $6,300 in cash.
Oberstar said the flight instructor, a retired military pilot, grew suspicious after he began speaking French to Moussaoui. Oberstar said Moussaoui seemed not to understand, said he wasn't fluent in French, didn't live in France long and added: "I'm from the Middle East."
The instructor found it odd that Moussaoui said he was from the Middle East, rather than identifying a country, Oberstar said. When the instructor inquired further, Moussaoui grew belligerent, several sources said.
It was not clear whether Moussaoui, who was born in France and attended French schools as a youth, did not understand French or merely chose not to speak it.
Over the next three days, Moussaoui seemed to his instructor to be uncoordinated and showed little ability to follow the lessons, several sources said. The instructor "tried to tell him he was wasting his money," one source said, but Moussaoui persisted.
A person familiar with the briefings said Pan Am denies the most widely reported remark attributed to Moussaoui: that he wanted only to learn to operate the aircraft in flight, and did not need takeoff or landing instructions.
After his arrest, Pan Am learned that Moussaoui had flown 57 hours in a Cessna 152 in Oklahoma but never soloed, an accomplishment usually achieved after 20 hours.
In the meantime, Oberstar said, the instructor voiced his suspicions about Moussaoui to colleagues, one of whom offered the number of an FBI friend who could advise whether the information should be reported. When the instructor phoned, the FBI agent strongly urged him to pursue the matter but gave him the wrong agent to call, the sources said. The instructor made three more calls before reaching the right agent on Aug. 15, the sources said. Moussaoui was arrested the next day and held on an immigration violation.
The FBI then checked Moussaoui's name with foreign intelligence agencies, and was warned by the French intelligence service that he may have terrorist connections. But the Minneapolis agents were unable to persuade FBI lawyers in Washington, D.C., to seek a warrant to search his possessions under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires evidence that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist group.
Frustrated local FBI agents visited the school a couple of times before Sept. 11, trying to obtain enough evidence for a warrant, a source said.
Asked about this account, Paul McCabe, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Minneapolis office, said he could not comment on a pending investigation. FBI Director Robert Mueller said last week that he was comfortable that bureau lawyers made the right decision at the time on the warrant request.
Oberstar, however, expressed dismay that FBI headquarters did not approve seeking search warrants sooner. He called the Minnesota flight instructor "a hero" who "kept pursuing it until what he saw as a dangerous situation was addressed."
When FBI agents in Minneapolis finally obtained a warrant after the Sept. 11 attacks, they found voluminous information on crop-dusting planes on Moussaoui's computer hard drive, similar to material gathered by the hijackers' ringleader, Mohamed Atta, the indictment said.
Hanjour's English
While Moussaoui behaved oddly, Pan Am representatives never suspected that Hanjour, whom they found to be amiable, was a terrorist, the sources said. By the time he enrolled at Pan Am's school in Phoenix last January, Hanjour had attended English language school, bounced around several western flight schools for a few years and obtained a commercial pilot's license.
Beginning in April 1996, Hanjour studied English for more than four months at Holy Names College in Oakland, Calif., and reached level five of the school's 12 levels of English proficiency, said school spokesman Mike Palm. That was sufficient to "survive very well in the English language," Palm said.
When Hanjour enrolled in January at Pan Am's Phoenix facility, Oberstar said, his instructor made a more critical assessment of his English.
The FAA began clamping down on U.S. flight schools in recent years to ensure that no one who cannot speak conversational English receives a flight certificate.
Oberstar and others said the Pan Am instructor questioned how Hanjour got a flight certificate with his English, felt it was inadequate to complete the firm's course and phoned the FAA. Oberstar said the instructor asked: "What do we do about this? We don't think we should continue a person in flight training whose English is so inadequate."
Pan Am officials were dissatisfied by the FAA inspector's response: suggesting he might know of an Arabic-speaking person who could assist him with his English, Oberstar and others said. That approach apparently didn't work. Hanjour "flunked out" in March, a company executive told legislators.
Oberstar said the FAA representative had no reason to believe that Hanjour was a terrorist. But, recalling that he held a subcommittee hearing a few years ago into a New York plane crash caused by the pilot's failure to understand instructions in English from air traffic controllers, he said Hanjour's language problem should have sounded "alarm bells" with the FAA.
Jerry Snyder, an FAA spokesman in Los Angeles, said he could not comment because the matter is under investigation.
Pan Am also came in contact with a third Sept. 11 figure: Atta. The company's Miami office recently discovered it had received an inquiry from Atta early last year, one source said. The school sent him information, but he chose instead to attend a flight school in Venice, Fla., the source said.
Greg Gordon, Star Tribune
December 21, 2001
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When a Twin Cities flight instructor phoned the FBI last August to alert the agency that a terrorist might be taking lessons to fly a jumbo jet, he did it in a dramatic way:
"Do you realize how serious this is?" the instructor asked an FBI agent. "This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon!"
The aviation student he was talking about was Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested the following day and last week was charged in a federal indictment with conspiring with Osama bin Laden and others to carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.
New details of how Moussaoui raised suspicions at the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan -- and the company's eerily prescient tip -- are emerging from the briefings the school recently gave to congressional offices.
The still-unidentified flight instructor became wary of Moussaoui immediately, according to Minnesota Rep. Jim Oberstar and others with direct knowledge of the briefings.
Moussaoui first raised eyebrows when, during a simple introductory exchange, he said he was from France, but then didn't seem to understand when the instructor spoke French to him.
Moussaoui then became belligerent and evasive about his background, Oberstar and other sources said. In addition, he seemed inept in basic flying procedures, while seeking expensive training on an advanced commercial jet simulator.
Besides alerting the FBI about Moussaoui, the school's Phoenix office called the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) early this year about another student -- Hani Hanjour, who was believed to be the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. The school had raised questions about Hanjour's limited ability to speak English, the universal language of aviation.
An FAA representative sat in on a class to observe Hanjour, who was from Saudi Arabia, and discussed with school officials finding an Arabic-speaking person to help him with his English, said Oberstar and others with direct knowledge of the school's briefings.
Oberstar and Minnesota Rep. Martin Sabo, who also was briefed by the school, praised Pan Am for its efforts to safeguard the skies and for passing federal authorities clues to possible terrorist activities before Sept. 11.
They said that, with the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the FBI and the FAA could have responded more vigorously.
"From what I've heard, the school was clearly more alert than federal officials," Sabo said.
Oberstar said "alarm bells" should have gone off at the FAA when Pan Am reported Hanjour's limited English skills -- as least as far as his pilot's training went. He also said he had no major complaints about the FBI's Minneapolis office. But he added that the office's response to the Eagan flight instructor's calls was so "bureaucratic" that a less-determined tipster might have stopped calling.
Sabo, who is the senior Democrat on a House appropriations transportation subcommittee, declined to discuss specifics of his briefing from Pan Am. But he said he would give the school "an A-plus for ... seeing a problem, reporting it and continuing to pursue it."
Oberstar, the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Pan Am "acted in the public interest" with both Moussaoui and Hanjour.
Pan Am Vice President Marilyn Ladner said, "We are pleased that our tip to the FBI turned out to be helpful. We'd prefer not to comment any further on the ongoing investigation."
A Pan Am representative first contacted Sabo's office a couple of weeks after the attacks. The firm sought help in prodding the Red Cross to provide grief counseling for shocked employees at its Eagan facility, where Moussaoui had sought training.
The employees had "a terrible case of the what-ifs," wondering what they could have done differently to avoid the disaster, said a source familiar with those conversations. Sabo's office got the Red Cross to dispatch counselors.
About three weeks ago, Pan Am representatives briefed Sabo, Oberstar and Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., individually on the encounters with Moussaoui and Hanjour. The representatives appealed for better federal guidelines on when to report suspicious activities so they don't have to worry about discrimination suits.
Oberstar went further. In recently enacted airline security legislation, he included a provision that bars flight schools from teaching any foreigner how to fly a commercial passenger plane without approval of the U.S. attorney general.
$19,000 course
Pan Am's flight instructor didn't worry about repercussions when he phoned the FBI about Moussaoui, 33.
He had come to Pan Am five months after entering the country with at least $35,000 in cash, according to his indictment. He had promptly enrolled in a flying course at the Airman Flight School in Norman, Okla., but quit after three months without qualifying for a private pilot's license.
In July, the indictment says, Moussaoui made credit card payments toward Pan Am's $19,000 course in piloting a Boeing 747. Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 3, it says, he received a $14,000 wire transfer from the same figure in Germany alleged to have sent money to the hijackers. Arriving at the Eagan school on Aug. 10, Moussaoui gave a school official $6,300 in cash.
Oberstar said the flight instructor, a retired military pilot, grew suspicious after he began speaking French to Moussaoui. Oberstar said Moussaoui seemed not to understand, said he wasn't fluent in French, didn't live in France long and added: "I'm from the Middle East."
The instructor found it odd that Moussaoui said he was from the Middle East, rather than identifying a country, Oberstar said. When the instructor inquired further, Moussaoui grew belligerent, several sources said.
It was not clear whether Moussaoui, who was born in France and attended French schools as a youth, did not understand French or merely chose not to speak it.
Over the next three days, Moussaoui seemed to his instructor to be uncoordinated and showed little ability to follow the lessons, several sources said. The instructor "tried to tell him he was wasting his money," one source said, but Moussaoui persisted.
A person familiar with the briefings said Pan Am denies the most widely reported remark attributed to Moussaoui: that he wanted only to learn to operate the aircraft in flight, and did not need takeoff or landing instructions.
After his arrest, Pan Am learned that Moussaoui had flown 57 hours in a Cessna 152 in Oklahoma but never soloed, an accomplishment usually achieved after 20 hours.
In the meantime, Oberstar said, the instructor voiced his suspicions about Moussaoui to colleagues, one of whom offered the number of an FBI friend who could advise whether the information should be reported. When the instructor phoned, the FBI agent strongly urged him to pursue the matter but gave him the wrong agent to call, the sources said. The instructor made three more calls before reaching the right agent on Aug. 15, the sources said. Moussaoui was arrested the next day and held on an immigration violation.
The FBI then checked Moussaoui's name with foreign intelligence agencies, and was warned by the French intelligence service that he may have terrorist connections. But the Minneapolis agents were unable to persuade FBI lawyers in Washington, D.C., to seek a warrant to search his possessions under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires evidence that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist group.
Frustrated local FBI agents visited the school a couple of times before Sept. 11, trying to obtain enough evidence for a warrant, a source said.
Asked about this account, Paul McCabe, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Minneapolis office, said he could not comment on a pending investigation. FBI Director Robert Mueller said last week that he was comfortable that bureau lawyers made the right decision at the time on the warrant request.
Oberstar, however, expressed dismay that FBI headquarters did not approve seeking search warrants sooner. He called the Minnesota flight instructor "a hero" who "kept pursuing it until what he saw as a dangerous situation was addressed."
When FBI agents in Minneapolis finally obtained a warrant after the Sept. 11 attacks, they found voluminous information on crop-dusting planes on Moussaoui's computer hard drive, similar to material gathered by the hijackers' ringleader, Mohamed Atta, the indictment said.
Hanjour's English
While Moussaoui behaved oddly, Pan Am representatives never suspected that Hanjour, whom they found to be amiable, was a terrorist, the sources said. By the time he enrolled at Pan Am's school in Phoenix last January, Hanjour had attended English language school, bounced around several western flight schools for a few years and obtained a commercial pilot's license.
Beginning in April 1996, Hanjour studied English for more than four months at Holy Names College in Oakland, Calif., and reached level five of the school's 12 levels of English proficiency, said school spokesman Mike Palm. That was sufficient to "survive very well in the English language," Palm said.
When Hanjour enrolled in January at Pan Am's Phoenix facility, Oberstar said, his instructor made a more critical assessment of his English.
The FAA began clamping down on U.S. flight schools in recent years to ensure that no one who cannot speak conversational English receives a flight certificate.
Oberstar and others said the Pan Am instructor questioned how Hanjour got a flight certificate with his English, felt it was inadequate to complete the firm's course and phoned the FAA. Oberstar said the instructor asked: "What do we do about this? We don't think we should continue a person in flight training whose English is so inadequate."
Pan Am officials were dissatisfied by the FAA inspector's response: suggesting he might know of an Arabic-speaking person who could assist him with his English, Oberstar and others said. That approach apparently didn't work. Hanjour "flunked out" in March, a company executive told legislators.
Oberstar said the FAA representative had no reason to believe that Hanjour was a terrorist. But, recalling that he held a subcommittee hearing a few years ago into a New York plane crash caused by the pilot's failure to understand instructions in English from air traffic controllers, he said Hanjour's language problem should have sounded "alarm bells" with the FAA.
Jerry Snyder, an FAA spokesman in Los Angeles, said he could not comment because the matter is under investigation.
Pan Am also came in contact with a third Sept. 11 figure: Atta. The company's Miami office recently discovered it had received an inquiry from Atta early last year, one source said. The school sent him information, but he chose instead to attend a flight school in Venice, Fla., the source said.
Thursday, December 20, 2001
White House Denies Amerian the Right to a Lawyer
American Taliban has no right to lawyer, insists White House
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
20 December 2001
The White House insisted yesterday that the captured American Taliban prisoner John Walker Lindh was a military prisoner who did not have the right to a lawyer, at least until formal charges were brought against him.
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
20 December 2001
The White House insisted yesterday that the captured American Taliban prisoner John Walker Lindh was a military prisoner who did not have the right to a lawyer, at least until formal charges were brought against him.
Friday, December 14, 2001
Senate Intelligence Panel To Hold Hearing On 9/11 Intelligence Failures
Senate Intelligence Panel To Hold Hearing On 9/11 Intelligence Failures
Fri Dec 14 2001 09:54:49 ET
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been quietly gearing up for a major hearing, bipartisan -- Democrat Bob Graham, Republican Richard Shelby -- in February, starting in February, a Pearl Harbor-type investigation of the intelligence failure: open hearings, closed hearings, going back to CIA intelligence failures with the Khobar Towers, Supercolumnist Bob Novak reported Wednesday.
Fri Dec 14 2001 09:54:49 ET
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been quietly gearing up for a major hearing, bipartisan -- Democrat Bob Graham, Republican Richard Shelby -- in February, starting in February, a Pearl Harbor-type investigation of the intelligence failure: open hearings, closed hearings, going back to CIA intelligence failures with the Khobar Towers, Supercolumnist Bob Novak reported Wednesday.
American withdrawal from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty
Secret US deal with Putin over ABM treaty
By Toby Harnden in Washington
(Filed: 14/12/2001)
GENERAL Colin Powell has said that yesterday's American withdrawal from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty was "orchestrated" with Russia in an act of co-operation that would previously have been unthinkable.
In his first interview with a British newspaper since becoming secretary of state, he said that President Bush had discussed his decision with President Putin beforehand.
He said: "For those who have predicted catastrophe, they are going to find out that an arms race does not break out between the US and Russia. In fact, at the same time Russia heard our notice of withdrawal they agreed to cut their weapons to our level."
The Bush administration believes that a missile defence system will defend both America and Russia against the threat of nuclear attack from "rogue" states.
Gen Powell said that he and Mr Bush had spent the first months of the new administration building a fresh relationship with Russia.
President Putin had agreed that the US abrogation of the treaty, effective in six months' time, would not damage Russia's security.
Last night Mr Putin said on Russian television that America's move was mistaken but not unexpected and signalled that he wanted to keep Moscow's warming relations with Washington on track.
By Toby Harnden in Washington
(Filed: 14/12/2001)
GENERAL Colin Powell has said that yesterday's American withdrawal from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty was "orchestrated" with Russia in an act of co-operation that would previously have been unthinkable.
In his first interview with a British newspaper since becoming secretary of state, he said that President Bush had discussed his decision with President Putin beforehand.
He said: "For those who have predicted catastrophe, they are going to find out that an arms race does not break out between the US and Russia. In fact, at the same time Russia heard our notice of withdrawal they agreed to cut their weapons to our level."
The Bush administration believes that a missile defence system will defend both America and Russia against the threat of nuclear attack from "rogue" states.
Gen Powell said that he and Mr Bush had spent the first months of the new administration building a fresh relationship with Russia.
President Putin had agreed that the US abrogation of the treaty, effective in six months' time, would not damage Russia's security.
Last night Mr Putin said on Russian television that America's move was mistaken but not unexpected and signalled that he wanted to keep Moscow's warming relations with Washington on track.
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
USA Debates New War Plan for Iraq
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUNDAY DEC 16 2001 9:21:59 ET XXXXX
MAG: USA DEBATES NEW WAR PLAN FOR IRAQ, TROOPS; POSSIBLE PARTICIPATION OF IRAN
Here he comes again!
The NEW YORKER is set to unleash a new report by controversial spook J-man Seymour M. Hersh, publishing sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
Headlined "The Iraq Hawks," Hersh drops details of a new war plan for Iraq which is "now at the center of a furious debate in Washington."
MORE
Iraqi opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress have "given the Bush Administration an updated war plan, which calls not only for bombing but for the deployment of thousands of American Special Forces troops," Hersh writes.
Hersh's expose is set for December 24 & 31 editions of the magazine.
There is "a second significant addition to the plan: the participation of Iran," which has agreed to permit opposition forces and their military equip ment to cross the Iranian border into southern Iraq.
The Iraqi National Congress has, with American approval, opened an office in Teheran.
"America's success in routing the Taliban has improved Chalabi's standing with some elements of Washington's defense community," Hersh writes.
One defense analyst tells Hersh, "They believe they have found the perfect model, and it works. The model is bombing, a modest insertion of Special Forces, plus an uprising."
The debate within the Bush Administration over what to do about Iraq has been sharp and personal, Hersh reports.
Pentagon officials "are at odds with the State Department," in particular with Richard Ar- mitage, who signed a 1998 open letter to President Clinton that advocated American support for Iraqi insurgents but who "has now become, in private, an opponent of the revised Chalabi plan," Hersh reports.
Stephen Solarz, the former New York congressman who helped draft the 1998 letter, says, "September 11th changed the whole equation. Before then, an argument could be made that deterrence worked."
But many within the Administration are skeptical of Chalabi and his supporters. One senior Administration official tells Hersh that the Administration has no intention of allowing "a bunch of half-assed people to send foreigners into combat."
Referring to Chalabi and his supporters in and out of government, the official asks, "Who among them has ever smelled cordite? These are pissants who can't get the President's ear and have to blame someone else. We're not going to let them lead others down the garden path."
One former high-level intelligence official explains the pro-Chalabi group this way: "It's the revenge of the nerds....They won in Afghanistan when everybody said it wouldn't work, and it's got them in a euphoric mood of cockiness."
The new Hersh streets on Monday.
Developing...
MAG: USA DEBATES NEW WAR PLAN FOR IRAQ, TROOPS; POSSIBLE PARTICIPATION OF IRAN
Here he comes again!
The NEW YORKER is set to unleash a new report by controversial spook J-man Seymour M. Hersh, publishing sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
Headlined "The Iraq Hawks," Hersh drops details of a new war plan for Iraq which is "now at the center of a furious debate in Washington."
MORE
Iraqi opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress have "given the Bush Administration an updated war plan, which calls not only for bombing but for the deployment of thousands of American Special Forces troops," Hersh writes.
Hersh's expose is set for December 24 & 31 editions of the magazine.
There is "a second significant addition to the plan: the participation of Iran," which has agreed to permit opposition forces and their military equip ment to cross the Iranian border into southern Iraq.
The Iraqi National Congress has, with American approval, opened an office in Teheran.
"America's success in routing the Taliban has improved Chalabi's standing with some elements of Washington's defense community," Hersh writes.
One defense analyst tells Hersh, "They believe they have found the perfect model, and it works. The model is bombing, a modest insertion of Special Forces, plus an uprising."
The debate within the Bush Administration over what to do about Iraq has been sharp and personal, Hersh reports.
Pentagon officials "are at odds with the State Department," in particular with Richard Ar- mitage, who signed a 1998 open letter to President Clinton that advocated American support for Iraqi insurgents but who "has now become, in private, an opponent of the revised Chalabi plan," Hersh reports.
Stephen Solarz, the former New York congressman who helped draft the 1998 letter, says, "September 11th changed the whole equation. Before then, an argument could be made that deterrence worked."
But many within the Administration are skeptical of Chalabi and his supporters. One senior Administration official tells Hersh that the Administration has no intention of allowing "a bunch of half-assed people to send foreigners into combat."
Referring to Chalabi and his supporters in and out of government, the official asks, "Who among them has ever smelled cordite? These are pissants who can't get the President's ear and have to blame someone else. We're not going to let them lead others down the garden path."
One former high-level intelligence official explains the pro-Chalabi group this way: "It's the revenge of the nerds....They won in Afghanistan when everybody said it wouldn't work, and it's got them in a euphoric mood of cockiness."
The new Hersh streets on Monday.
Developing...
Friday, December 07, 2001
Muslim behind bars, despite a judge's order
U.S. News and World Report
Breaking news 12/07/01
EXCLUSIVE: Muslim behind bars, despite a judge's order
A Turkish Muslim from White Plains, N.Y., held in a New Jersey jail for more than two weeks, remains behind bars, despite a judge's order that he be released.
Atila Kula, a 27-year-old former computer student, was picked up by the FBI on Nov. 20, and questioned about the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Kula's lawyer Kerry Bretz insists his client has no knowledge of the incidents. Bretz, who is based in New York, says Kula was likely singled out when the Immigration and Naturalization Service conducted a review of soon-to-expire student visas. Kula finished classes at Baruch College on October 17.
Unlike other foreign nationals detained by the government, Bretz says, Kula was legally in America. Students are permitted to stay 60 days after classes end.
Kula's wedding--which was to have been December 1--would have made him eligible for a work permit.
This week, in a hearing closed to the public, an immigration judge ordered Kula immediately released. But when immigration lawyers said they intended to appeal the decision, the judge's order was automatically stayed, and Kula was sent back to jail.
Immigration officials say they cannot discuss the specifics of Kula's case; they will say only that they have not picked up people randomly and do not appeal cases without good reason.
Russ Bergeron, an INS spokesman, says that detainees' rights have not been abridged. He also noted that Kula could get married in jail. Last week, Denise Cordovano, Kula's fiancee, asked for just such a ceremony. The local sheriff turned her down.
Breaking news 12/07/01
EXCLUSIVE: Muslim behind bars, despite a judge's order
A Turkish Muslim from White Plains, N.Y., held in a New Jersey jail for more than two weeks, remains behind bars, despite a judge's order that he be released.
Atila Kula, a 27-year-old former computer student, was picked up by the FBI on Nov. 20, and questioned about the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Kula's lawyer Kerry Bretz insists his client has no knowledge of the incidents. Bretz, who is based in New York, says Kula was likely singled out when the Immigration and Naturalization Service conducted a review of soon-to-expire student visas. Kula finished classes at Baruch College on October 17.
Unlike other foreign nationals detained by the government, Bretz says, Kula was legally in America. Students are permitted to stay 60 days after classes end.
Kula's wedding--which was to have been December 1--would have made him eligible for a work permit.
This week, in a hearing closed to the public, an immigration judge ordered Kula immediately released. But when immigration lawyers said they intended to appeal the decision, the judge's order was automatically stayed, and Kula was sent back to jail.
Immigration officials say they cannot discuss the specifics of Kula's case; they will say only that they have not picked up people randomly and do not appeal cases without good reason.
Russ Bergeron, an INS spokesman, says that detainees' rights have not been abridged. He also noted that Kula could get married in jail. Last week, Denise Cordovano, Kula's fiancee, asked for just such a ceremony. The local sheriff turned her down.
Sunday, December 02, 2001
Secret US plan for Iraq war
Secret US plan for Iraq war
Bush orders backing for rebels to topple Saddam
War on Terrorism: Observer special
Peter Beaumont, Ed Vulliamy and Paul Beaver
Sunday December 2, 2001
The Observer
America intends to depose Saddam Hussein by giving armed support to Iraqi opposition forces across the country, The Observer has learnt.
President George W. Bush has ordered the CIA and his senior military commanders to draw up detailed plans for a military operation that could begin within months.
The plan, opposed by Tony Blair and other European Union leaders, threatens to blow apart the increasingly shaky international consensus behind the US-led 'war on terrorism'.
It envisages a combined operation with US bombers targeting key military installations while US forces assist opposition groups in the North and South of the country in a stage-managed uprising. One version of the plan would have US forces fighting on the ground.
Despite US suspicions of Iraqi involvement in the 11 September attacks, the trigger for any attack, sources say, would be the anticipated refusal of Iraq to resubmit to inspections for weapons of mass destruction under the United Nations sanctions imposed after the Gulf war.
According to the sources, the planning is being undertaken under the auspices of a the US Central Command at McDill air force base in Tampa, Florida, commanded by General Tommy Franks, who is leading the war against Afghanistan.
Another key player is understood to be former CIA director James Woolsey. Sources say Woolsey was sent to London by the hawkish Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, soon after 11 September to ask Iraqi opposition groups if they would participate in an uprising if there was US military support.
The New York Times yesterday quoted a senior administration official who admitted that Bush's aides were looking at options that involved strengthening groups that opposed Saddam. Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State, said that action against Iraq was not imminent, but would come at a 'place and time of our choosing'.
Washington has been told by its allies that evidence it has presented of an Iraqi link to 11 September is at best circumstantial. However, US proponents of extending the war believe they can make the case for hitting Saddam's regime over its plan to produce weapons of mass destruction.
A European diplomat said last week: 'In the past week the Americans have shut up about Iraqi links to 11 September and have been talking a lot more about their weapons programme.'
The US is believed to be planning to exploit existing UN resolutions on Iraqi weapons programmes to set the action off.
Under the pre-existing 'red lines' for military action against Iraq - set down by Washington and London after the Gulf War - evidence of any credible threat from weapons of mass destruction would be regarded as sufficient to launch military strikes along the lines of Operation Desert Fox in 1998, when allied planes made large-scale strikes against suspected Iraqi weapons complexes.
Opposition by Blair and French President Jacques Chirac may not be enough to dissuade the Americans. One European military source who recently returned from General Franks's headquarters in Florida said: 'The Americans are walking on water. They think they can do anything at the moment and there is bloody nothing Tony [Blair] can do about it.'
Bush is said to have issued instructions about the proposals, which are now at a detailed stage, to his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, three weeks ago. But Pentagon sources say that a plan for attacking Iraq was developed by the time Bush's order was sent to the Pentagon, drawn up by Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, chairman of the joint chiefs General Richard Myers, and Franks.
The plan is to work with a combination of three political forces: Kurdish rebels in the north of Iraq, radical Sunni Muslim groups in and around Baghdad, and, most controversially, the Shia opposition in the south.
The most adventurous ingredient in the anti-Iraqi proposal is the use of US ground troops, Pentagon sources say. 'Significant numbers' of ground troops could also be called on in the early stages of any rebellion to guard oil fields around the Shia port of Basra in southern Iraq.
Bush orders backing for rebels to topple Saddam
War on Terrorism: Observer special
Peter Beaumont, Ed Vulliamy and Paul Beaver
Sunday December 2, 2001
The Observer
America intends to depose Saddam Hussein by giving armed support to Iraqi opposition forces across the country, The Observer has learnt.
President George W. Bush has ordered the CIA and his senior military commanders to draw up detailed plans for a military operation that could begin within months.
The plan, opposed by Tony Blair and other European Union leaders, threatens to blow apart the increasingly shaky international consensus behind the US-led 'war on terrorism'.
It envisages a combined operation with US bombers targeting key military installations while US forces assist opposition groups in the North and South of the country in a stage-managed uprising. One version of the plan would have US forces fighting on the ground.
Despite US suspicions of Iraqi involvement in the 11 September attacks, the trigger for any attack, sources say, would be the anticipated refusal of Iraq to resubmit to inspections for weapons of mass destruction under the United Nations sanctions imposed after the Gulf war.
According to the sources, the planning is being undertaken under the auspices of a the US Central Command at McDill air force base in Tampa, Florida, commanded by General Tommy Franks, who is leading the war against Afghanistan.
Another key player is understood to be former CIA director James Woolsey. Sources say Woolsey was sent to London by the hawkish Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, soon after 11 September to ask Iraqi opposition groups if they would participate in an uprising if there was US military support.
The New York Times yesterday quoted a senior administration official who admitted that Bush's aides were looking at options that involved strengthening groups that opposed Saddam. Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State, said that action against Iraq was not imminent, but would come at a 'place and time of our choosing'.
Washington has been told by its allies that evidence it has presented of an Iraqi link to 11 September is at best circumstantial. However, US proponents of extending the war believe they can make the case for hitting Saddam's regime over its plan to produce weapons of mass destruction.
A European diplomat said last week: 'In the past week the Americans have shut up about Iraqi links to 11 September and have been talking a lot more about their weapons programme.'
The US is believed to be planning to exploit existing UN resolutions on Iraqi weapons programmes to set the action off.
Under the pre-existing 'red lines' for military action against Iraq - set down by Washington and London after the Gulf War - evidence of any credible threat from weapons of mass destruction would be regarded as sufficient to launch military strikes along the lines of Operation Desert Fox in 1998, when allied planes made large-scale strikes against suspected Iraqi weapons complexes.
Opposition by Blair and French President Jacques Chirac may not be enough to dissuade the Americans. One European military source who recently returned from General Franks's headquarters in Florida said: 'The Americans are walking on water. They think they can do anything at the moment and there is bloody nothing Tony [Blair] can do about it.'
Bush is said to have issued instructions about the proposals, which are now at a detailed stage, to his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, three weeks ago. But Pentagon sources say that a plan for attacking Iraq was developed by the time Bush's order was sent to the Pentagon, drawn up by Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, chairman of the joint chiefs General Richard Myers, and Franks.
The plan is to work with a combination of three political forces: Kurdish rebels in the north of Iraq, radical Sunni Muslim groups in and around Baghdad, and, most controversially, the Shia opposition in the south.
The most adventurous ingredient in the anti-Iraqi proposal is the use of US ground troops, Pentagon sources say. 'Significant numbers' of ground troops could also be called on in the early stages of any rebellion to guard oil fields around the Shia port of Basra in southern Iraq.
Bush Team Seeks Broader Surveillance Powers
Bush Team Seeks Broader Surveillance Powers
By Jim McGee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 2, 2001; Page A25
The Bush administration is asking Congress for a second major expansion of federal surveillance powers that legal experts say would radically change laws that have long protected the rights of Americans.
A Justice Department proposal would eliminate the chief legal safeguard in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). A CIA proposal seeks legal authority to gather telephone and Internet records from domestic communication companies.
The still-secret proposals would build upon and expand new intelligence-gathering powers that were granted to the FBI and the CIA under the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Signed into law Oct. 26, that anti-terrorism bill laid the foundation for a larger and more powerful domestic intelligence-gathering system.
The legislative changes submitted to the House and Senate intelligence committees are consistent with Bush administration efforts to make fundamental changes to improve the FBI's intelligence-gathering capabilities. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft has favored the "disruption" of what he calls suspected terrorist groups.
The new proposals are part of a broader effort by the administration to change a complex legal framework that was built after the Watergate scandal to govern domestic intelligence gathering.
At the Justice Department, lawyers are working on a proposed revision of the attorney general guidelines, a set of rules that governs FBI domestic security and foreign counterintelligence operations, a senior government official said. For 25 years, the guidelines have served as the FBI's operational template.
The Justice Department asked Congress to remove the key legal restriction on obtaining wiretaps under the FISA law. The law permits extensive use of listening devices in espionage and international terrorism cases so long as the target is connected to a foreign power or international terrorist group.
FISA wiretaps are considered especially sensitive because agents who obtain them need not have any proof that crimes are being committed, only probable cause that the target is working on behalf of the foreign power or terrorists. By contrast, agents who wiretap suspected mob figures or drug lords must show a judge persuasive evidence that specific crimes are being committed.
By removing the requirement of a foreign connection, the administration proposal would make it far easier to mount surveillance on people who have no known connection to actors overseas.
"This amendment would fill a gap that has become increasingly apparent since September 11," said the Justice Department proposal, because the requirement to show a connection with a foreign power "limits the ability of the President to use this statute against, for example, hijackers or other terrorists without affiliation or known affiliation with a specific group or foreign state."
The CIA's proposal would give the agency the same legal authority the FBI now has to obtain information on foreign intelligence targets from domestic telephone and Internet service providers.
The new proposals came at the invitation of the Senate and House intelligence panels, which asked the agencies to submit technical corrections to the anti-terrorism bill or suggest laws that would help combat terrorism, according to an informed source.
Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert M. Mueller III declined to be interviewed for this article, as did CIA Director George J. Tenet. "What is being done is because of the congressional initiative," said Justice spokeswoman Susan Dryden. "The Department of Justice has simply provided technical guidance upon request as we do regularly on countless issues."
Experts in intelligence law say the proposed change to FISA would gut the law's rationale. "That is an absurd and unnecessary change in my view," said Kenneth Bass, who oversaw FISA surveillance applications at the Justice Department. "That is a radical change."
Stuart Baker, a former general counsel at the National Security Agency, said: "That is a big step. This blurs the line between intelligence and law enforcement."
The CIA asked for authority to force telephone and Internet service providers to hand over without a court order information on foreign intelligence targets living outside the United States who are not U.S. citizens or legal residents.
The FBI already has this authority. Under the law, the CIA would have the same authority if the CIA director declares "there is a substantial likelihood that the communications of the target contain intelligence information" relating to international terrorism.
"This is pretty audacious," said James X. Dempsey, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy and Technology and an expert on the legal aspects of electronic surveillance. "What they are asking for is the ability to carry out e-mail interceptions without a court order, upon the say-so of the director of central intelligence."
The proposed new authority for the CIA would be added to new powers granted under the U.S.A. Patriot Act that gave the CIA access to foreign intelligence information gathered by domestic grand juries, wiretaps and criminal investigations conducted by the FBI and other agencies.
A senior U.S. official said this second wave of anti-terrorism measures reflects the administration's belief that it can harness the political energy of wartime to gain even more power and autonomy for federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
"A lot of this is not being driven by problems that prosecutors or investigators are having," the official said. "It is just a good time to get everything. It is totally politically and public-perception-driven."
"It is turning FISA into a one-stop shop for wiretaps," said Jerry Berman, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy and Technology who participated in the drafting of the FISA statute in 1979. "Joe Six Pack thinks they [FISA wiretaps] are carefully targeted on foreigners and terrorists."
By Jim McGee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 2, 2001; Page A25
The Bush administration is asking Congress for a second major expansion of federal surveillance powers that legal experts say would radically change laws that have long protected the rights of Americans.
A Justice Department proposal would eliminate the chief legal safeguard in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). A CIA proposal seeks legal authority to gather telephone and Internet records from domestic communication companies.
The still-secret proposals would build upon and expand new intelligence-gathering powers that were granted to the FBI and the CIA under the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Signed into law Oct. 26, that anti-terrorism bill laid the foundation for a larger and more powerful domestic intelligence-gathering system.
The legislative changes submitted to the House and Senate intelligence committees are consistent with Bush administration efforts to make fundamental changes to improve the FBI's intelligence-gathering capabilities. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft has favored the "disruption" of what he calls suspected terrorist groups.
The new proposals are part of a broader effort by the administration to change a complex legal framework that was built after the Watergate scandal to govern domestic intelligence gathering.
At the Justice Department, lawyers are working on a proposed revision of the attorney general guidelines, a set of rules that governs FBI domestic security and foreign counterintelligence operations, a senior government official said. For 25 years, the guidelines have served as the FBI's operational template.
The Justice Department asked Congress to remove the key legal restriction on obtaining wiretaps under the FISA law. The law permits extensive use of listening devices in espionage and international terrorism cases so long as the target is connected to a foreign power or international terrorist group.
FISA wiretaps are considered especially sensitive because agents who obtain them need not have any proof that crimes are being committed, only probable cause that the target is working on behalf of the foreign power or terrorists. By contrast, agents who wiretap suspected mob figures or drug lords must show a judge persuasive evidence that specific crimes are being committed.
By removing the requirement of a foreign connection, the administration proposal would make it far easier to mount surveillance on people who have no known connection to actors overseas.
"This amendment would fill a gap that has become increasingly apparent since September 11," said the Justice Department proposal, because the requirement to show a connection with a foreign power "limits the ability of the President to use this statute against, for example, hijackers or other terrorists without affiliation or known affiliation with a specific group or foreign state."
The CIA's proposal would give the agency the same legal authority the FBI now has to obtain information on foreign intelligence targets from domestic telephone and Internet service providers.
The new proposals came at the invitation of the Senate and House intelligence panels, which asked the agencies to submit technical corrections to the anti-terrorism bill or suggest laws that would help combat terrorism, according to an informed source.
Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert M. Mueller III declined to be interviewed for this article, as did CIA Director George J. Tenet. "What is being done is because of the congressional initiative," said Justice spokeswoman Susan Dryden. "The Department of Justice has simply provided technical guidance upon request as we do regularly on countless issues."
Experts in intelligence law say the proposed change to FISA would gut the law's rationale. "That is an absurd and unnecessary change in my view," said Kenneth Bass, who oversaw FISA surveillance applications at the Justice Department. "That is a radical change."
Stuart Baker, a former general counsel at the National Security Agency, said: "That is a big step. This blurs the line between intelligence and law enforcement."
The CIA asked for authority to force telephone and Internet service providers to hand over without a court order information on foreign intelligence targets living outside the United States who are not U.S. citizens or legal residents.
The FBI already has this authority. Under the law, the CIA would have the same authority if the CIA director declares "there is a substantial likelihood that the communications of the target contain intelligence information" relating to international terrorism.
"This is pretty audacious," said James X. Dempsey, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy and Technology and an expert on the legal aspects of electronic surveillance. "What they are asking for is the ability to carry out e-mail interceptions without a court order, upon the say-so of the director of central intelligence."
The proposed new authority for the CIA would be added to new powers granted under the U.S.A. Patriot Act that gave the CIA access to foreign intelligence information gathered by domestic grand juries, wiretaps and criminal investigations conducted by the FBI and other agencies.
A senior U.S. official said this second wave of anti-terrorism measures reflects the administration's belief that it can harness the political energy of wartime to gain even more power and autonomy for federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
"A lot of this is not being driven by problems that prosecutors or investigators are having," the official said. "It is just a good time to get everything. It is totally politically and public-perception-driven."
"It is turning FISA into a one-stop shop for wiretaps," said Jerry Berman, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy and Technology who participated in the drafting of the FISA statute in 1979. "Joe Six Pack thinks they [FISA wiretaps] are carefully targeted on foreigners and terrorists."
Ashcroft Wants FBI to Spy on Churches
FBI agents rebel over new powers
Liberty Watch: Observer campaign
Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday December 2, 2001
The Observer
The US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, was yesterday reported to be ready to relax restrictions on the FBI's powers to spy on religious and church-based political organisations.
His proposal, leaked to the New York Times, would loosen limits on the FBI's surveillance powers, imposed in the 1970s after the death of its founder J. Edgar Hoover.
The plan has caused outrage within the FBI itself with agents expected to act upon new surveillance powers describing themselves as 'very, very angry'.
The spying, wiretapping and surveillance campaign unleashed by Hoover against church and political groups was called 'Cointelpro', and was aimed mainly at the movement behind civil rights activist Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers, the anti-Vietnam war movement and, on the other wing, the Ku Klux Klan.
When the system was revealed, upon Hoover's death, restrictions were put on the security bureau, in the form of two sets of regulations pertaining to foreign-based and domestic groups. The rules forbade FBI agents from sending undercover agents into churches, synagogues or mosques unless they found 'probable cause or evidence' that someone in them had broken the law.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Susan Dryden, said no final decision had been made on their reintroduction.
According to sources, the plan has caused a sharp rift within the department and the FBI. Ashcroft and the new FBI director, Robert Mueller, are pushing the plan eagerly, but there is strong opposition among officials inside both the bureau and the Justice Department.
Internal opposition to the plan will exacerbate an already fractious atmosphere in the FBI since President Bush took office.
Some agents told the New York Times that they considered any weakening of the guidelines 'a serious mistake', and that the Justice Department had 'not clearly described' the proposed changes. 'People are furious right now,' said one agent.
The changes would become part of what civil liberties groups regard as a dangerously changing legal landscape in the US: 1,200 people with connections to Islamic groups have been taken into custody, and Draconian security measures, such as wiretapping of lawyers, pushed through Congress.
Further plans are now afoot to seek out and interview some 5,000 immigrants, mostly Muslims, who have entered the US since January.
Liberty Watch: Observer campaign
Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday December 2, 2001
The Observer
The US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, was yesterday reported to be ready to relax restrictions on the FBI's powers to spy on religious and church-based political organisations.
His proposal, leaked to the New York Times, would loosen limits on the FBI's surveillance powers, imposed in the 1970s after the death of its founder J. Edgar Hoover.
The plan has caused outrage within the FBI itself with agents expected to act upon new surveillance powers describing themselves as 'very, very angry'.
The spying, wiretapping and surveillance campaign unleashed by Hoover against church and political groups was called 'Cointelpro', and was aimed mainly at the movement behind civil rights activist Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers, the anti-Vietnam war movement and, on the other wing, the Ku Klux Klan.
When the system was revealed, upon Hoover's death, restrictions were put on the security bureau, in the form of two sets of regulations pertaining to foreign-based and domestic groups. The rules forbade FBI agents from sending undercover agents into churches, synagogues or mosques unless they found 'probable cause or evidence' that someone in them had broken the law.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Susan Dryden, said no final decision had been made on their reintroduction.
According to sources, the plan has caused a sharp rift within the department and the FBI. Ashcroft and the new FBI director, Robert Mueller, are pushing the plan eagerly, but there is strong opposition among officials inside both the bureau and the Justice Department.
Internal opposition to the plan will exacerbate an already fractious atmosphere in the FBI since President Bush took office.
Some agents told the New York Times that they considered any weakening of the guidelines 'a serious mistake', and that the Justice Department had 'not clearly described' the proposed changes. 'People are furious right now,' said one agent.
The changes would become part of what civil liberties groups regard as a dangerously changing legal landscape in the US: 1,200 people with connections to Islamic groups have been taken into custody, and Draconian security measures, such as wiretapping of lawyers, pushed through Congress.
Further plans are now afoot to seek out and interview some 5,000 immigrants, mostly Muslims, who have entered the US since January.
All articles in this archive are used under "fair use" as they are important to the national discussion of whether or not the people of this country are being deceived by their government. These articles are used as evidence in that discussion.
