Posted on 10/12/2001 2:20:46 AM PDT by sarcasm
ederal investigators have received evidence that some Middle Easterners in the New York area were warned ahead of time to stay out of lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, the Daily News has learned.
The FBI was able to confirm several such warnings occurred but has been unable to discover the source of the warnings.
Agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force have interviewed school officials in Jersey City and Brooklyn and questioned members of a Bronx mosque about the warnings, sources told The News.
James Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI's New York office, confirmed that agents were looking into several reports of warnings that preceded the attack against the World Trade Center.
"Among the e-mails and tips we received are a number of reports of people overhearing people boasting about or warning about coming attacks," he said.
Suspicious Comments
He declined to discuss specifics and would not say whether any of the 600-plus people detained in the terror probe were questioned about pre-attack warnings.
But officials and sources familiar with the investigation said the incidents include the following:
Jersey City school administrators confirmed that several days before the attack, a student of Middle Eastern descent issued a vague warning not to travel into lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11.
Joanne Kenny, associate superintendent of the Jersey City public schools, said, "Crisis staff determined that comments made or notes written were serious enough so we called the juvenile bureau of the Jersey City police and they followed up."
Sources Not Found
Jersey City police did not return calls seeking comment, but a source said the matter wound up being investigated by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force.
Kenny wouldn't discuss the nature of the warning or reveal the name of the student who made the comment. But a source said federal authorities investigated the matter and could not determine the source of the warning.
"They ran into a dead end, and whoever may have given the warning denied it," the source said.
In the Bronx, federal investigators received reports about a similar warning at a mosque, sources said. The sources would not reveal the name of the mosque.
Sources with the Joint Terrorist Task Force questioned dozens of members of the mosque, many of whom told agents they had been given a vague warning to stay out of lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, sources said.
One source said investigators again hit a dead end when the mosque's hierarchy denied having prior knowledge of the attack.
The source pointed out that in years past, law enforcement had received tips about warnings to stay away from specific locales and of planned attacks that never materialized.
"There's a cry-wolf aspect to this that you need to put this in context," the source said.
At Brooklyn's New Utrecht High School, the FBI was notified that a Pakistani student in a bilingual class "made a comment to a teacher the week prior about the twin towers," said Karen Finney, spokeswoman for the Board of Education.
Finney would not reveal the nature of the comment, but the Journal-News of Westchester reported yesterday that the student pointed at the tower during a heated political argument and declared, "Look at those two buildings. They won't be here next week."
School officials would not release the name of the student, but said he was still attending classes at New Utrecht. They said they notified New York police and that the matter was turned over to the FBI.
"I don't know what the status of the FBI's investigation is," Finney said.
Original Publication Date: 10/12/01
I dont think they love America at all. I think they love the free educations they can receive here along with the other minority benefits. Send them back!! And send them on Iraqi Air.
Like General Patton, I have absolutely no use for Arabs -- here or there.
Richard W.
I DO NOT TRUST A MUSLIM.
They teach that if you arent not a muslim, your as good as trash and are an infidel deserving of death. How can we trust that? Unless someone can convince me that there is no such thing in the Koran (qu'ran) then I may rethink my position but until then BLAH!
Oh thats right - I forgot. You can't stop and question minorities. Racial profiling don't ya know!! So what if 7000+ Americans lost their lives!! We protected these peoples privacy and that is the most important thing.
/sarcasm
Political correctness is now entrenched in law.
Suspicion that someone may be a criminal or terrorist is now considered a hate crime and a violation of a persons civil rights. (US Government: Why would you think he is a terrorist? Because he is an Arab-American? Are you a racist, bigot?)
Tolerance, inclusion, diversity, and political correctness will be the end of western civilization.
(What's really bizarre is that instead of accepting the fact the some people in this world are dangerous, this is going to be another opportunity for the west to prove its moral superiority and push for even more diversity).
Geez Louise, and the Left-Wingers thought those 'fundamentalist, Bible-thumping Christians' were so baad..I do wonder what the 'peace-protestors' would think of this (convert to Islam or die), if they only knew.
They should also know that Islam does not have a "tolerant" view of fornication, abortion, homosexuality or adultery--all are punishable by death. No wonder Bin Laden calls this a holy war.
Islam is become an ideology which defines itself AGAINST THE WEST. They have little money, weapons and resources. Their weapon is an ideology based upon a religion lending itself to great extremes.
The name needs to be made public.
I don't know what our intelligence agencies are doing, but whatever it is, they don't seem confident that they are going to stop another attack. Given this, I believe it is unconscionable for our political leaders to refuse to take the one step that would most hinder the terrorists in attacking us again. And that is first, to seek out and deport all people here illegally from terrorist states (the states that have been referred to by political leaders)and second to deal with those people here on visas from these states. I believe the risk merits revoking all these visas immediately but failing that, at the very least all these people should be required to renew their visas immediately at which time they will be investigated (and I mean real investigations), fingerprinted, and photographed. Any adherents of radical islamic fundamentalism or those who harbor the slightese anti-American views should be deported. Those people who do not comply should be located and deported on the spot.
Congress and political elites have imposed on America over the past 30 years an immigration policy that has never been supported by a majority of Americans and this policy is literally killing us. Now they are failing to do the one thing that would be most effective in protecting us.
Oh, you'll like this.
Back in the early 90's, we had the liberal's champion, Teddy Kennedy, putting some blurb in an Immigration bill that 'being a member of a known terrorist organization' was not enough to deny someone a student visa to study in the U.S.!
I am not kidding!
I want some HARD data, not hearsay before I start pointing fingers of blame. Urban legends have taken on a life of their own since 9/11, and the internet has been a rich source because things get passed around so quickly and people start believing them long before anyone debunks them, so when they ARE debunked it is almost like dissing someone's True Faith.
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