Feds make first arrest in terrorist probeBy JOHN SOLOMON
and KAREN GULLO
Associated Press Writers
http://web.archive.bibalex.org/web/20020704230353/multimedia.belointeractive.com/attack/news/0914warranta.htmlWASHINGTON – Federal authorities made the first arrest Friday in the worldwide investigation of this week's terrorist attacks, a government official said.
The suspect was arrested because authorities have determined that the individual has information highly relevant to the investigation and is a high-flight risk, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Justice Department said the warrant identified the suspect as a material witness.
The official would not say where the arrest was made.
It was the first break in the investigation that has spanned the globe. The FBI has received over 36,000 leads and has issued hundreds of subpoenas.
Meanwhile, the FBI provided warnings Friday to two Southeast cities – Richmond, Va., and Atlanta – that information developed since Tuesday's attacks suggested terrorists may have had plans for attacks in those cities, law enforcement officials said.
But late Friday, further investigation left officials doubtful of the threat.
The information came from an acquaintance of one of the hijackers, suggesting Federal Reserve banks in the cities might be targeted, the officials said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
The information was shared with the cities, but the witness failed a a lie-detector test Friday evening, suggesting his account was not credible, the officials said.
Authorities said they were still developing leads, and were investigating whether more terrorists might still be in a position to strike. They were searching for 100 people they want to question in connection with Tuesday's devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined to discuss what he had learned from intelligence briefings but said cities may still remain in danger.
"You've got to assume there was probably more planned, maybe for the aftershock," Shelby added.
He praised authorities for immediately closing airports Tuesday but added, "Even if they lie low for a few weeks, that doesn't mean they won't come back, because they will; they will until we destroy them."
The investigation, named PENTTBOM, involved one of the worst acts of terrorism ever on U.S. soil.
A list of more than 100 people has been distributed to thousands of local police departments, the Federal Aviation Administration, border patrols and FBI field offices, said Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"We believe they may have information that could be helpful to the investigation," said Ashcroft.
Federal officials wouldn't say whether the 100 names include suspects in the plot to hijack and crash four jetliners Tuesday.
The FBI on Friday released the names of 19 hijackers who commandeered and brought down the planes. Many lived in Florida and several had gone to pilot training school in Venice, Fla.
Some of the 19 have been linked to Osama bin Laden or his organizations, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said four of the dead hijackers had been linked to bin Laden's Al-Qaida network: Waleed Alshehri, Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, and Saeed Alghamdi.
In addition, U.S. intelligence were checking the background of suspected hijacker Khalid Al-Midhar, to see if he is connected to Zein al-Abidine al-Midhar, the former head of the Islamic Army of Aden in Yemen who was executed a few years ago in connection with a kidnapping. The group was one of three to claim credit for last fall's bombing of the USS Cole.
Among the 19 was Mohamed Atta, 33, of Hollywood and Coral Springs, Fla., identified by German authorities as being tied to an Islamic fundamentalist group that planned attacks on American targets. The Justice Department said Atta was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 that took off from Boston's Logan Airport and crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
All the hijackers had Middle Eastern names. FBI Director Bob Mueller would not comment on whether any of the hijackers were associated with bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who administration official believe is behind the attacks.
Investigators are focused on several locations within the U.S., including Florida, where several of the hijackers lived and attended flight training school. Seven of the 19 hijackers lived in Delray Beach, Fla.
Federal authorities have launched a massive search for individuals who assisted the hijackers, believing that there may have been a vast network of people who plotted and carried out Tuesday's attack. FBI Deputy Director Tom Pickard is leading the investigation.
Hundreds of subpoenas have been issued, more than 30 search warrants have been searched and investigators have seized computers and other documents.
Investigators also recovered voice and data recorders from the plane that smashed into the Pentagon and the data recorder from the flight that crashed near Pittsburgh. Mueller said the data recorders for the Pentagon flight had yielded some information, but the voice recordings for the flight had yielded nothing so far.
The FBI has a transcript of communications between the pilots and air traffic controllers for a portion of the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, officials said.
Ashcroft appealed to the public for information about the 19 persons identified as hijackers on the four planes by calling 1-866-483-5137. The Justice Department had originally said there were 18 hijackers, but then ascertained that five hijackers, not four, were on American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon.
Besides Atta, the hijackers who were believed included Hani Hajour, who was on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon; Wail Alshehri and Abdulaziz Alomari, who were on one of the Boston flights; Marwan Al-Shehhi, hijacking on United Flight 175 out of Boston and Ziad Jarrahi, who flew on United Flight 93 out of Newark, N.J., which crashed in a field 80 miles from Pittsburgh.
The FBI dispatched teams of agents to airports, where authorities are supposed to be checking passenger lists against the list of 100 people wanted for questioning.
AP-WS-09-14-01 2042EDT====================
Note that the article screaming '
911 was NOT an inside job!!!' was published on "AP-WS-
09-14-01 2042EDT".
Birthertruthertenther; thanks for rescuing this from the memory hole.
The article link in your original post was for the article I included in this post.
Still need the link for your OP.
