WASHINGTON (AP) In the days before the Sept. 11 terror
attacks, the Justice Department turned down an FBI request to
search the computer of a man now being questioned about the suicide
hijacks.
The proposed search warrant described Tuesday by law enforcement
officials would have targeted the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui,
now held as a material witness in the terrorist probe. Searched
after the attacks, Moussaoui's computer was found to contain data
related to jetliners and crop-dusters. Fearing a potential threat,
U.S. officials temporarily grounded the agricultural planes.
Before Sept. 11, investigators lacked enough information to
justify the warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Sent to New York where a grand jury is investigating the
attacks, Moussaoui is not cooperating with authorities, the source
said.
The French-Algerian was taken into custody Aug. 17 after he
raised suspicions at a Minnesota flight school by telling
instructors he wanted to learn to fly a jetliner but did not want
to learn to land. He also asked about opening cabin doors while
planes were in flight. Detained on suspicion of immigration
violations, Moussaoui was in jail when his alleged colleagues
hijacked four jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade
Center, the Pentagon and a field in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Newsweek magazine first reported the FBI's request for a search
warrant and the Justice Department's rejection.
Police officials say France's internal security service had
placed Moussaoui on a 1999 watch list of those possibly affiliated
with militant Islamic groups.
Details about Moussaoui emerged as Attorney General John
Ashcroft said U.S. officials have told American allies that some of
the same terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks also have been
linked to the East Africa embassy bombings and the bombing attack
on the USS Cole.
The links, contained in a detailed summary of evidence sent to
allies Monday, connect the hijackers to fugitive Saudi millionaire
Osama bin Laden, who has been indicted in the embassy bombings and
is thought by U.S. officials to have masterminded the Cole attack.
Ashcroft refused to detail evidence but said, "The roots of
these activities were in Afghanistan.
"From very early stages in the investigation, we saw Osama bin
Laden, the al-Qaida network, as being a focal point of those
responsible for this act of terror," said Ashcroft.
He also said that because of the risk that terrorists could slip
across the Canadian border into the United States, the two are
working together to tighten security.
"Any time there are borders that are that open, and that
substantial, there are risks," Ashcroft said in an appearance with
Canadian Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay, who has been
appointed to a Cabinet-level commission to combat terrorism in
Canada.
Ashcroft's pledge for tighter border security came as documents
showed that one person in custody as part of the terrorism
investigation entered the country through Canada a few weeks before
the attacks.
Immigration papers released by the Justice Department showed
authorities were holding a Pakistani who entered the country
illegally across the Canadian border about two weeks before the
hijackings. The individual, who tried to enter the country at
Massena, N.Y., has been detained since Aug. 30, the documents said.
Another Pakistani entered the country through Miami using a fake
passport and visa last April, the documents showed.
The names of those detained are blacked out for privacy reasons
and the documents do not specify whether the detainees are linked
to the hijackings. Immigration authorities have detained 142 people
in connection with the terrorism investigation.
In other developments:
The government is investigating trading in shares of 38
companies, including major airlines, cruise lines, General Motors
and Raytheon, to determine whether people used advance knowledge of
the terror attacks to profit.
Five gasoline stations in Sullivan County, N.Y., were raided by
federal agents, who questioned some of the managers about the
September attacks and in some instances seized the businesses'
financial records. Two gas station proprietors said the agents were
from the Internal Revenue Service.
Gas station manager Manhar Patel said the agents asked about the
attacks of Sept. 11, and that when they mentioned the World Trade
Center, "I told them I knew nothing about that."
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