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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal prosecutors Friday to use new anti-terrorism powers to track down terrorists by intercepting their Internet and telephone communications and financial transactions.\nAshcroft issued orders to 94 U.S. Attorney's offices and 56 FBI field offices after President George W. Bush signed a sweeping anti-terrorism bill into law.\n"Law enforcement is now empowered with new tools and resources necessary to disrupt, weaken and eliminate the infrastructure of terrorism organizations," Ashcroft said in a statement.\nUnder the new law, prosecutors have more powers to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists, wherever they are and whether they are communicating on the Internet or by phone.\nFor years, authorities have used surveillance to go after drug traffickers and organized crime, but some provisions of the eavesdropping laws did not apply to terrorism, the Justice Department said.\nAshcroft warned would-be terrorists that the government will be closely watching how they act, carefully listening to what they say and secretly reading the words they write.\n"If you overstay your visas even by one day, we will arrest you; if you violate a local law, we will hope that you will and work to make sure that you are put in jail and be kept in custody as long as possible," he said in a speech to the nation's mayors.\nEchoing a threat then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy made four decades ago to pursue mobsters for spitting on the sidewalk, Ashcroft said: "Let the terrorists among us be warned."\nHe pledged to use the new powers granted by Congress to pursue terrorist suspects relentlessly, intercept their phone calls, read their unopened e-mail and phone messages and throw them in jail for the smallest of crimes.\nJustice officials said they intend to use the new surveillance and wiretap powers granted by Congress on Thursday to build cases against many suspected terrorists already in custody on immigration violations or technicalities.\nCivil libertarians have complained that the new law gives government too much power to investigate Americans.\nAuthorities have arrested or detained 952 people in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, including 168 detained on immigration charges. Many have been arrested for relatively small crimes -- bank fraud, false identification or overstaying their visas. Most remain in custody, officials said.\nA small number of these people who are not cooperating are believed to have terrorist connections or links to the 19 hijackers who crashed airliners into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. One, detained in Minnesota, had sought flight instruction. Two others, detained in Texas, were found with a large amount of cash and box-cutters similar to those used by the hijackers.\nMohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan are jailed in New York as material witnesses. The two, detained on an Amtrak train in Fort Worth, Texas, seemed nervous when approached and told conflicting stories about their travel plans, police said.\nWhen officers said the travel plans sounded suspicious, according to a police report, Azmath said: "I did not have anything to do with New York."\nOfficials plan to run anthrax tests on items from the men's Jersey City, N.J., apartment, which contained magazine articles about bioterrorism.\nThe legislation allows intelligence officials to share information with prosecutors for the first time. The immediate effect will be that a bundle of intelligence files from the CIA and other agencies on terrorism suspects will be shipped to a Justice Department terrorism task force headed by Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff.\nFiles on prior attacks and radical groups gathered before the Sept. 11 attacks are of particular interest for what they may reveal about possible new attacks, Justice Department officials said.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON — For the second time this month, the FBI warned Americans on Monday that terrorists could strike here or abroad, possibly this week. The new alert was based on intelligence reports that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network may strike, officials said. \nThe information was deemed credible, said Attorney General John Ashcroft, but "unfortunately it does not contain specific information as to the type of attack or specific targets."\nThe FBI issued a terrorist alert on Oct. 11, saying an attack could come over a period of several days. The new warning specified a strike could come this week. \nFBI Director Robert Mueller said the Oct. 11 warning may have helped avert an attack. Ashcroft said the absence of an attack should not lull people "into a false sense of indifference." \n"It's important for the American people to understand that these (alerts) are to be taken seriously," said Ashcroft. \nHe urged Americans to "go about their lives." But the warning led him to cancel plans to travel Monday to Toronto to address a conference of police chiefs. \nOfficials said the warning was based in part on intelligence that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network may be agitating to strike again in the aftermath of the U.S.-led bombings on Afghanistan. \n"There certainly is intelligence that causes you to be concerned, and possibly that al-Qaida may be behind it," one senior U.S. official, insisting on anonymity, told The Associated Press. \nAshcroft said federal agencies were beefing up security and immigration authorities were increasing their efforts to keep suspected terrorists from coming onto U.S. soil. \nThe alert came as investigators continued to search for the source of the anthrax that has killed three people and infected dozens of others on the East Coast. \nSo far scientists have not matched the anthrax mailed from New Jersey with any samples of anthrax available in the United States, a source speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press. \nInvestigators suspect that a single person, perhaps a deranged U.S. resident with a biochemistry background, may be behind the attacks. \nOfficials have ruled out the presence of the additive bentonite, which could make the spores spread more easily through the air. \nBut the anthrax found in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle included silica, a crystal commonly used as a drying agent to control clumping in pharmaceuticals. \nThe presence of silica suggests that whoever sent the anthrax wanted it to float in the air so people would inhale it, said Greg Poland, a professor of infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic. Poland advises the Defense Department on protecting troops against biological threats. \nAshcroft said the FBI alert went out to 18,000 law enforcement agencies through an internal warning system. \nDistrict of Columbia executive assistant police chief Terrance Gainer said he first learned of the warning when reporters called him. "We ultimately got paged from the FBI to watch and see it on CNN," said Gainer. \nAn FBI spokeswoman said the warning went out to police before the news conference. \nGainer said the warning was "too amorphous" to warrant moving his department to its highest state of alert. He said D.C. police would still remain at an increased level of security. \nThe new warning came as jumpy Americans prepared to celebrate Halloween on Wednesday. Stories circulating on the Internet warned about possible attacks on Halloween. Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said authorities had received no specific information about a Halloween attack. \nThe alert follows the enactment Friday of new anti-terrorism laws that provide prosecutors with intelligence files on suspected terrorists and give them greater surveillance powers. Tucker said the Justice Department received information about the possibility of an attack on Monday, but she wouldn't comment on whether information gleaned from intelligence files or wiretaps pointed to new attacks. \nThe attorney general asked citizens to be patient if they encountered additional security measures and to note any suspicious activities. \n"We urge Americans in the course of their normal activities to remain alert and to report unusual circumstances and inappropriate behavior to the appropriate authorities," he said. \nIn other developments, a man whose name appears on an FBI watch list was indicted in Arizona on charges that he lied on Social Security and Federal Aviation Administration forms. \nMalek Mohamed Seif, 36, was charged with three counts of making false statements and two counts of Social Security fraud, according to the indictment in U.S. District Court.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will charge American Taliban member John Walker Lindh with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens in Afghanistan and will ask for life imprisonment rather than the death penalty, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday. \nLindh will be charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., rather than in by military tribunal. Other charges against him will include providing support to terrorist organizations and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban, Ashcroft said. \nThe attorney general said while the U.S. continues to seek justice against foreigners responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, "we cannot overlook attacks on America when they come from U.S. citizens." \nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush "is supportive of the process put in place. He is confident that the process will end in justice." \nThe charges were recommended to Bush by the National Security Council, which mediated advice from the Justice Department, the Pentagon and the State Department. \n"Youth is not absolution for treachery," Ashcroft told reporters. "Misdirected Americans cannot receive direction in murderous ideology." \nLindh is 20. \nHe was captured in November fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was taken into custody by U.S. forces after a prison uprising at a fortress in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Lindh has since been held on the amphibious attack ship USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. \nA baptized Roman Catholic who converted to Islam at 16, Lindh sent a letter to his parents in December saying he was safe and regretted not contacting them sooner. He apparently dictated the letter, dated Dec. 3, to an International Red Cross volunteer. \nAshcroft said the charges were based for the most part on Lindh's own statements to FBI investigators. \nHe said Lindh told agents that he joined a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan last May and spent seven months there. Osama bin Laden visited the camp several times and met Lindh on one occasion, Lindh said. \nIn the criminal complaint, the government said Lindh was interviewed by the FBI Dec. 9 and 10 and waived his rights to a lawyer. He had joined the military training camp in May 2001, it said, and was told by al Qaeda people to pretend that he was Irish and not to admit to anyone that he was American. \nThe complaint also said Lindh learned in early June that bin Laden had sent people to the U.S. to carry out suicide operations and that Lindh remained at the camp for the seven-week duration after he learned about the plan to carry out an attack. \nOn one occasion, the complaint said, Walker and four other trainees met with bin Laden for about five minutes, during which time bin Laden thanked them for helping. \nThe complaint said Walker heard about the U.S. attacks Sept. 11 or 12 on the radio and understood bin Laden had ordered them and that additional attacks would follow.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- The government released photos and video excerpts Thursday of five suspected al Qaeda members delivering what Attorney General John Ashcroft described as "martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists." \nAshcroft called upon people worldwide to help "identify, locate and incapacitate terrorists who are suspected of planning additional attacks against innocent civilians." \n"These men could be anywhere in the world," he said. \nAshcroft said five videotapes, shown without sound, had been recovered from the rubble of the home of Mohammad Atef, believed to have been Osama bin Laden's military chief. Officials say Atef was killed by a U.S. airstrike in November. The sound was left out to guard against the possibility that the messages contained signals for other terrorists. \nAshcroft said the videotapes "depict young men delivering what appear to be martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists."\nHe added that an analysis of the audio suggests "the men may be trained and prepared to commit future suicide terrorist acts." \nHe said the government had tentatively identified four of the five men depicted in the video as Abd Al-Rahim, Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan, Khalid Ibn Muhammad Al-Juhani and Ramzi Binalshibh. Ashcroft said not much is known about any of them except Binalshibh, a Yemeni whom officials allege was an associate of Sept. 11 suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta. \nIn the indictment handed down in December against Zacarias Moussaoui, Binalshibh was named along with Atta and the 18 other hijackers as an unindicted co-conspirator. \nAt a news conference, Ashcroft showed 30-second videos of Hasan, Al-Rahim and Al-Juhani. \nAshcroft said investigators were still translating the tapes; a decision about releasing the sound or a translation would be made after weighing security concerns, he said, adding that the department may decide not to release the sound. \n"The portions we released today we felt were safe for release, and we didn't believe they contained any surreptitious messages or coded signals that would be designed to alert parts of the terrorist network," Ashcroft said. \nIn the tapes, Hasan spoke, eyes cast down; he appeared to be reading, but only his face was shown. He wore a black and white scarf around his head. \nAl-Rahim was shown seated, talking and gesturing rapidly, at one point holding fingers up as if listing off various points. \nIn a disturbing video, Al-Juhani was shown seated in front of a colorful curtain taking a red and white scarf off his head and burying his head in his arms. \nIn a new setting with a plain background, Al-Juhani was shown hugging a rifle with a leather strap that had Arabic writing on it. Al-Juhani held the rifle close, not speaking, and at one point put his lips close to it, eyes closed. He then looked up and smiled. \nAshcroft said the public release of the video footage and photos was part of an effort to help "freedom-loving people become the best line of self-defense." \nAs for the attack that he said was called for in the video, Ashcroft said: "Whether or not the attack would be imminent or not is something we can't determine." \nFBI Director Robert Mueller said the videos came "from a trove of valuable information" discovered within Afghanistan. He said the tapes are still being analyzed to determine when they were made. He said there was no evidence any of the men had entered the U.S., although at least one had tried. \n"Every piece of information is potentially valuable," he said. "The principle is simple: An informed and enlightened public works." \nMueller said as the U.S. military action goes forward, "it continues in ways that I think support what we, and the CIA, are engaged in, which is identifying terrorists and preventing future attacks." \nAshcroft said officials believe progress is being made in combating terrorism but also admitted the war on terror is far from done.\n"We're further down the road then we were before, but this is no time for us to take our foot off the accelerator," he said.
(01/17/02 4:50am)
WASHINGTON -- A federal grand jury Wednesday charged alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid with being an al Qaeda trained terrorist in an indictment Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed as fresh proof of the government's ability to prosecute terrorists.\nAshcroft said the charges "alert us to a clear, unmistakable threat that al Qaeda could attack the United States again."\nThe attorney general discussed the charges shortly after a federal grand jury in Boston handed up a nine-count indictment, saying, "We must be prepared. We must be ready. We must be vigilant."\nThe indictment alleges that Reid attempted to kill the passengers on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami Dec. 22.\n"Richard Reid did attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction, consisting of an explosive bomb placed in each of his shoes," against Americans, said the 12-page indictment.\nAshcroft credited passengers and crew on that flight with stopping Reid from detonating the shoe bomb and bringing down the plane. \n"Our trust in the common sense of people who act in the face of terrorism was vindicated," he said. \nHe said Wednesday's indictment showed the wisdom of national alerts the government issued on three occasions prior to the Flight 13 incident.\nWednesday's indictment said Reid "received training from al Qaeda in Afghanistan."\nIn addition to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder and attempted homicide, Reid was charged with placing an explosive device on an aircraft, interfering with a flight crew, using a destructive device during a crime of violence and attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle.\nHe also was charged with attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle, a new charge created by Congress in an anti-terrorism bill enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.\n"Our ability to prosecute terrorists has been greatly enhanced by the U.S.A. Patriot Act," Ashcroft said.
(10/17/01 5:33am)
WASHINGTON -- Declaring the threat of bioterrorism is no joking matter, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday those who fake anthrax or other terrorist scares will face federal prosecution. He announced the indictment of one such man in Connecticut. \nFalse threats of anthrax attacks are "grotesque transgressions of the public trust," Ashcroft said at a news conference. \nAshcroft said the hoaxes tax the resources of an already overburdened law enforcement system. \n"The threat of bioterrorism is no joking matter," the attorney general said. \nHe detailed the prosecution of a Connecticut state employee who sat by quietly as a state agency building was evacuated for what the man allegedly knew to be a false threat involving white powder. \nIt is a federal crime to threaten to use biological agents or toxins. \nJoseph A. Faryniarz, an employee of Connecticut's environmental agency, told agency security guards on Oct. 11 that he found a powdery substance on a paper towel under some paperwork near his computer. On the towel was written "ANTHRAX," according to a criminal complaint. \nSecurity officials alerted the police and all 800 agency employees were evacuated. \nTwelve employees were forced to disrobe and be washed down with a decontamination solution, Ashcroft said. \nFaryniarz was given a chance to clear up the matter without jeopardizing his job. He told FBI agents that he thought the incident was a "bad joke" and said two colleagues might be involved. \nHe later acknowledged that he had been untruthful and said he knew the incident was a hoax even before the FBI arrived on the scene because another individual not named in the complaint had claimed responsibility. The two-day evacuation of the building cost taxpayers $1.5 million, Ashcroft said. \nThe FBI has received since Oct. 1 more than 2,300 reports of incidents or suspected incidents involving anthrax. Most have been false alarms or practical jokes, FBI Director Robert Mueller said. \nHe said the FBI has not ruled out the possibility that anthrax exposures around the country are the result of terrorism, although no direct link to organized terrorism has yet been found. \nBut similarities in the handwriting found in letters sent to Sen. Tom Daschle's office and to NBC in New York are being investigated, Mueller said. Tests showing where the anthrax came from are still ongoing. \nMueller said the FBI may not have moved fast enough to investigate a suspicious letter sent to NBC in New York that turned out to test negative for anthrax. \n"There were missteps at the outset," said Mueller. "We did not, as quickly as we would have liked, analyzed an initial specimen from a letter that turned out to be negative." \nHe said the problem did not affect the investigation but added that FBI field offices have been instructed to make sure suspicious materials are analyzed promptly.
(09/25/01 6:05am)
WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities have charged the first person with aiding the terrorist hijackers, according to court documents released Monday. Airports and airlines were asked to redo background checks for all workers with access to sensitive areas. \nHerbert Villalobos was charged in federal court in suburban Virginia with aiding one of the suspected hijackers to fraudulently obtain a Virginia identification card a month before the Sept. 11 attacks. \nA second man who aided with the I.D.'s is cooperating and was not charged, prosecutors said. The court records disclosed as many as five of the hijackers got Virginia cards in the month before the attacks. \nMeanwhile, the terrorism investigation proceeded on several fronts. \nAttorney General John Ashcroft disclosed that 352 people have been arrested or detained in the investigation and an additional 392 people were being sought for questioning about the attacks in New York and Washington. \n"We think they have information that could be helpful to the investigation,'' the attorney general told lawmakers. \nThe Federal Aviation Administration grounded farm crop dusters another day for fear they could be used in a biological or chemical attacks -- a ban that was being lifted at midnight -- and also asked airports and airlines to take new precautions with their own workers. \nThe FAA ordered that workers' identifications immediately be verified, followed by new checks of employment histories and possible criminal backgrounds. \nThe order affects tens of thousands of airport workers who have access to secure locations in airports, people such as baggage handlers, food service workers and mechanics. \n"We are requiring revalidation of all airport I.D.'s to make sure that they are genuine, current and belong with the person they are with,'' FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said. \nIn Florida, court records in Broward County showed one of the 19 hijack suspects was wanted on an arrest warrant at the time of the attacks. \nA bench warrant was issued June 4 for Mohamed Atta for failing to appear in court on a charge of driving without a license. Atta's Florida driver's license was revoked on Aug. 23. \n"There's over 200,000 warrants in the system,'' county sheriff's spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said. "So naturally, you're going to make sure you're going out and getting those wanted for murder. This is not one that's going to jump out at you.'' \nIn Virginia, an FBI affidavit filed in federal court alleged that as many as five hijackers -- Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhamzi, Majed Moqed, Ahmed Saleh Alghamdi and Abdulaziz Alomari -- went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 2. \nAll five were at the office that day to "conduct transactions relating to Virginia identification cards,'' the affidavit said. \nThe affidavit alleges that Villalobos and a second man -- his identity not revealed because he is a confidential witness -- signed identity papers for the hijackers. \nThe affidavit said Villalobos, using the alias Oscar Diaz, signed papers certifying that Alomari lived in Virginia. Alomari has been identified as a hijacker of a Boston flight that crashed into the World Trade Center. \nThe second man, a confidential witness, signed both a residency certification and an identity affidavit that was used by Alghamdi to obtain an identification card, the affidavit said. \nAlghamdi has been identified as a hijacker of the second plane that struck the Trade Center. \nThe affidavit said the unidentified local man was standing in a parking lot near the motor vehicles office along with several other men, including Villalobos, when three men approached in a van and asked for help in getting Virginia identification cards. \nVillalobos and his acquaintances then drove together to an attorney's office nearby with the others following. The papers, which can be used as identification for getting driver's licenses and state identification cards, require the signature of a notary public. \nAs for the crop dusters, Ashcroft told the House Judiciary Committee the FBI had gathered information raising fears the small farm planes could be used in a biological or chemical attack. "There is no clear indication of the time or place of these attacks,'' he said. \nAshcroft said that Atta, one of the hijackers, had shown interest in crop dusters and that another person now in federal custody had downloaded computer information about the planes. \nJ.D. "Will'' Lee, 62, general manager of South Florida Crop Care in Belle Glade, said Monday that groups of two or three Middle Eastern men came by almost every weekend for six or eight weeks before the terrorist attacks, including the weekend just before the assaults. \nLee said a co-worker, James Lester, positively identified one as Atta.
(09/17/01 4:42am)
WASHINGTON -- A second arrest warrant for a material witness in the hijackings investigation was issued by federal prosecutors in New York, the Justice Department said Saturday.\nThe person had not yet been arrested at the time the warrant was issued.\nInvestigators expected to issue additional warrants, perhaps as soon as Saturday evening, as the investigation into Tuesday's attacks shifts into higher gear.\n"We are at a point where there will be additional and more frequent warrants," said Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.\nMeanwhile, 25 people arrested for immigration violations since Tuesday's hijackings have been questioned by the FBI in the investigation, the Justice Department said.\nNone has been formally charged, either on immigration counts or with crimes related to the four hijackings, Tucker said. Some but not all of the detainees who have been interviewed are cooperating with the FBI. All are in the Immigration and Naturalization Service's custody.\nTucker said that the FBI may not be finished questioning the 25 detainees. None have been released.\nShe declined to say whether any of the 25 are suspected of being accomplices to the plot or whether they have significant information about the plot. "It's not clear in all cases how important their information is," said Tucker.\nAmong them are two men detained at an Amtrak station in Fort Worth, Texas. They were interviewed by FBI agents, taken into custody and flown to New York.\nThe two boarded a flight Tuesday morning in Newark, N.J., as the four hijackings were under way, said a law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The plane was grounded in St. Louis as the FAA halted all air traffic; the men then boarded an Amtrak train bound for Texas.\nThey were taken off during a routine drug search Wednesday night. Although no drugs were found, the men had box-cutting knives, authorities said, and also carried about $5,000 in cash, according to a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity. \nThe hijackers had used knives and box cutters to take control of the planes.\nThe official would not comment on whether the two from Texas were cooperating with authorities.\nSome of the 25 were detained because they were discovered to have immigration problems when FBI agents questioned them about the attacks. Others were arrested as part of unrelated investigations and came to the attention of authorities investigating the hijackings.\nThe immigration problems could range from overstayed or expired visas to being employed without a work visa. The detainees can be held for an indefinite amount of time, and there is no deadline for charging or releasing them.\nThe INS can detain those arrested for immigration problems for whatever time is deemed "reasonable" to deal with their case, department officials said. Prosecutors sometimes hold foreign nationals on immigration violations as a way to buy time to investigate other charges.\nOfficials declined to say where the 25 were arrested or where they are being detained.\nAlso Saturday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the investigation into the attacks was moving forward.\nThe FBI is looking for more than 100 people who may have information about the attacks, two planes flown into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a fourth into the Pennsylvania countryside.\n"We are making the kinds of contacts and developing the information that allows us to describe this as proceeding with reasonable success," said Ashcroft, who met with President Bush and administration officials at Camp David. "We are beginning to understand the ways in which this terrible crime was committed."\nInvestigators have sent the flight data recorder and voice recorder from the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania to the manufacturer for analysis. The cockpit voice recorder of the jet that hit the Pentagon was badly damaged and may not provide much information, officials said.\nIn Germany, police found "airplane-related documents" in a suitcase they believe belonged to one of the hijackers, federal investigators said Saturday.