FBI links 9-11 hijacker to man named in Phoenix agent's memo
Posted on 09/25/2002 3:19:42 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
FBI links 9-11 hijacker to man named in Phoenix agent's memo
Senate votes to create independent panel for investigation
09/25/2002
WASHINGTON - The FBI has linked a Sept. 11 hijacker to a possible Islamic radical named in a Phoenix FBI agent's now-famous July 2001 memo, raising questions about whether a more aggressive investigation might have led authorities to Hani Hanjour before he crashed a jetliner into the Pentagon.
No one can say whether a more active investigation of the unnamed Phoenix man would have allowed the FBI to find Mr. Hanjour and foil the terrorist plot, the staff director of a congressional investigation into Sept. 11 intelligence failures said Tuesday.
However, Eleanor Hill said: "If the hijackers were in fact associating with individuals of investigative interest, there are more significant questions as to whether or not they should have come to the FBI's attention prior to the attacks."
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The fourth day of public hearings by House and Senate intelligence committees filled in new detail in the mosaic of missteps by the FBI, CIA and other U.S. agencies in the months and weeks preceding the terrorist attacks.
And virtually ensuring that the committees' work won't be the last word, the Senate voted Tuesday to establish a 10-person independent commission to investigate governmentwide failings related to Sept. 11, ranging from aviation security and border control to diplomacy. The White House last week dropped its resistance to an outside inquiry. The House earlier approved a narrower version.
Appearing Tuesday before the congressional committees, the author of the Phoenix memo and the Minneapolis FBI supervisor who oversaw the arrest of suspected al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui chronicled the disconnect between agents in the field and their Washington supervisors.
The Minneapolis supervisor, frustrated by the impediments in getting a warrant to examine Mr. Moussaoui's belongings, tried to get his Washington supervisors "spun up" by warning them Aug. 27, 2001, that Mr. Moussaoui might "take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center," according to a congressional report released Tuesday.
'We don't know'
"That's not going to happen. We don't know he's a terrorist," a headquarters agent replied, according to the committee report.
The Minneapolis supervisor, who testified Tuesday behind a screen, told lawmakers he had no reason to believe such an attack was planned and was only trying to get headquarters to focus on the case.
FBI agents in Minneapolis skirmished with Washington supervisors over Mr. Moussaoui, the would-be pilot detained in August 2001 on immigration charges. The Frenchman, since charged with conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks, drew the "full-bore" interest of the Minneapolis field office, the Minnesota agent said.
But when agents there sought a foreign intelligence surveillance warrant to inspect Mr. Moussaoui's computer and other belongings, FBI officials in Washington told them - erroneously - that the threshold hadn't been met to secure such a warrant.
"The Minneapolis field office experienced great frustration during the investigation and while navigating the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process," the agent said.
Prophetic memo ignored
A month before the Minneapolis agents came across Mr. Moussaoui and fretted about his interest in aviation, FBI agent Kenneth Williams wrote a now-prophetic memo suggesting that Osama bin Laden's adherents might have been training at U.S. flight schools.
That document, marked "routine" by Agent Williams, drew no action - and scant interest - from headquarters.
The memo named 10 Muslim men, one of whom has since been connected to Mr. Hanjour by flight school records and witness statements. That individual, whose identity has not been disclosed, came to the FBI's attention in 1999, two years after he and Mr. Hanjour apparently trained together at an Arizona flight school, the committee reported.
The Phoenix memo and the Moussaoui arrest came against the drumbeat of rising intelligence "chatter" in the summer of 2001 suggesting the likelihood of an al-Qaeda strike against U.S. targets, the report noted.
Yet at FBI headquarters, where few resources were devoted to strategic analysis of possible terrorist activities, the dots weren't connected, Ms. Hill testified.
"No one apparently saw the potential collective significance of the information despite the increasing concerns throughout the summer of 2001 about an impending terrorist attack," she said.
The committee also disclosed Tuesday that the FBI received two reports in 1998 and 1999 suggesting that terrorist organizations other than al-Qaeda planned to train operatives at U.S. flight schools. The experts considering the Phoenix memo were not aware of the earlier reports, the committee staff found, and didn't consider the possibility that such a strategy might be favored by terrorists.
"This is not surprising considering the lack of information sharing in the FBI," the report said.
The Moussaoui and Phoenix cases weren't connected, an FBI headquarters counterterrorism unit chief testified, because of the bureau's heavy caseload, a lack of analytic resources and antiquated, inadequate technology and communications systems.
'Extremely difficult'
"It is just extremely difficult for individuals to keep these matters connected and to see everything and to make these connections in their head," the unit chief told lawmakers from behind a screen.
Mr. Williams, who was photographed on Capitol Hill heading to previous closed hearings, also testified behind a screen, complaining bitterly that Congress had jeopardized his safety and his family's by not concealing his identity.
He, the Minneapolis agent and the counterterrorism section chief called on Congress to provide new resources to the FBI, saying new analysts and improved computer systems are badly needed.
In interviews with the committee staff, Mr. Williams described the FBI's counterterrorism and counterintelligence mission as the "bastard stepchild" of the bureau compared with its criminal work. And he said intelligence reports disseminated to the field dropped off in recent years as the FBI pared staff in Washington, leaving him feeling like he was "out on an island" in Phoenix.
The agents who testified Tuesday, as well as bureau managers, said that many reforms have been implemented since Sept. 11. And they bridled at some of the criticism and second-guessing since Sept. 11, with the unit chief saying many in the bureau are "fairly demoralized."
"September 11th was an incredibly tragic event, but it wasn't based on laziness. It was based on inadequate resources," he said.
E-mail mmittelstadt@dallasnews.com
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