And again
FBI monitoring suspected Al-Qaida cells in Minneapolis
Greg Gordon and Randy Furst
Star Tribune
Published Sep 18, 2002
The FBI is monitoring suspected terror cells in Minneapolis, New York and several other U.S. cities, based partly on U.S. intelligence and information from Al-Qaida members in custody, a terrorism expert said Tuesday.
"They're clearly monitoring a whole variety of suspected cells in the United States," said Neil Livingstone, a Washington-based security consultant with close ties to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Livingstone confirmed portions of a report by ABC-TV News, which said several dozen of the suspected cell members are U.S. citizens who underwent terrorist training at Al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
ABC reported that, in addition to Minneapolis and New York, FBI agents are focusing on Boston, Portland, Ore., Houston, Seattle, Miami and two cities where they recently arrested groups of men believed tied to Osama bin Laden's global network: Detroit and Buffalo, N.Y.
Livingstone said he would add Dearborn, Mich., to the list.
ABC said documents found in Afghanistan mentioned the U.S. cities where cells are believed to be located.
Minnesota law enforcement officials were mum Tuesday about a pending terrorist investigation in the Twin Cities, the scene last year of the arrest of alleged Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and the shutdown of several money transfer operations with alleged terrorist links.
The FBI's local Joint Terrorism Task Force "continues to investigate numerous counter-terrorism matters, and we do not comment on the specifics of those cases or specifics of any operations," said spokesman Paul McCabe.
State Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver said that he is aware that "there may be an investigation into a possible terrorism cell" in Minnesota, but that he knew none of the specifics.
Hennepin County Sheriff Patrick McGowan knows nothing about the alleged surveillance, although he has helped to coordinate the task force, said spokeswoman Roseann Campagnoli.
Under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a secret, 11-judge court authorizes wiretaps, searches and other surveillance of suspected terrorists.
"I am wondering how it is leaking because FISA is an extremely confidential collection process that is utilized through sealed documents unavailable to the public," said William Michael Jr., a former terrorism and national security coordinator for the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis.
"Very few people in this state . . . would have direct knowledge of whether [such monitoring] is occurring."
Tracing cell members' phone calls can be difficult even with a FISA warrant. Livingstone said U.S. intelligence agencies have nonetheless been able to intercept some of the calls by identifying Al-Qaida phone numbers overseas.
Cell members, many of whom blend into society and wait years for instructions, have been found to make overseas calls on public telephones with prepaid phone cards that require no identification. They often use coded language.
Livingstone noted the big advantages cell members gain by attaining citizenship; he pointed out that Ramzi Binalshibh, the alleged paymaster of the Sept. 11 hijackers who was arrested last week, was refused a visa to enter the United States four times before the attacks. "These guys [with citizenship] don't have to worry about getting a visa."
FBI Director Robert Mueller said recently that about 100 suspected terrorists across the country have been subjected to round-the-clock surveillance. ABC said hundreds of others are being investigated.
The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies began selecting cities where cells might be operating about five months ago, he said. They have been aided by information from several alleged Al-Qaida members who have been arrested, including John Walker Lindh, an American who was seized during the war in Afghanistan.
One law enforcement official said a delegation from the Twin Cities flew to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to join in the interrogation of hundreds of Al-Qaida members being detained there.
Livingstone said FBI agents have used hidden cameras to acquire photos of the suspects -- photos that can be shown to jailed Al-Qaida members willing to cooperate in return for a lighter penalty. Many of these "nonentities . . . are picking out pictures for us right now," he said.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress relaxed the FISA law so that investigators no longer must declare intelligence gathering as the primary purpose for obtaining a warrant; it must only be a "significant" purpose. For a terrorism-related warrant to be approved, the court must find it more likely than not that the person being monitored is an agent of a terrorist organization.
The surveillance is stirring anxiety among Arab-Americans and in the Twin Cities' Somali community.
Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, reacted to the report of Minneapolis surveillance by saying at a news conference Tuesday that the government is unfairly targeting the Muslim community, and in particular Somalis.
"It's installing a fear in the hearts of these people," he said. "We are not terrorists. The Somali community are not terrorists. The immigrants are not terrorists."
But in answer to a question, he said he did not know if there were terrorist cells in Minneapolis. Still, he said, the report "has the effect of creating a continuation of the witch-hunt atmosphere" in Minneapolis.
Jamal spoke on Riverside Avenue in Minneapolis in front of a building that housed two firms used by Somalians to wire money home. The two firms were raided and closed by federal agents in November, but were cleared last month of any links to Al-Qaida. Three other Minneapolis firms remain closed.
"The community has been calling us, frightened, shocked, thinking that their phone is wired, paranoid, completely fearful," Jamal said.
-- Staff writer Chris Graves contributed to this report.
-- Greg Gordon is at
ggordon@mcclatchydc.comand Randy Furst is at
rfurst@startribune.com.