WASHINGTON – Federal authorities are investigating whether four separate
cells of terrorists were involved in Tuesday's devastating attacks. At least one
set of hijackers is believed to have crossed from Canada and had ties to Osama
bin Laden, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
FBI agents obtained information from Internet providers, conducted searches,
and questioned people in Florida and Massachusetts. Early evidence indicated the
attacks were tied to the wealthy Arab and accused terrorist, including
communications among bin Laden supporters.
But officials cautioned the information, including raw intelligence, was
still developing. No significant arrests were made as of midday Wednesday.
"This could have been the result of several terrorist kingpins working
together. We're investigating that possibility," one law enforcement official
told The Associated Press.
Added another official: "The evidence suggests these cells each operated the
same way at the same time but we don't know yet whether each knew of the other's
activities."
Officials said authorities were gathering evidence that the four terrorist
cells may have had prior involvement in earlier plots against the United States,
including the USS Cole bombing and the foiled attack on U.S. soil during the
millennium celebrations.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were
investigating whether one group of hijackers crossed the Canadian border at a
checkpoint and made their way to Boston, where an American Airlines flight was
hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center in New York.
The officials confirmed a car believed to belong to the hijackers was
confiscated in Boston and contained an Arabic language flight manual.
Law enforcement officials said two hotel rooms in the Boston area believed to
have been used by the hijackers were searched by the FBI Wednesday afternoon.
The officials found information linked to a name on the manifest of one of the
hijacked flights. They declined to identify the man.
A Venice, Fla., man said FBI agents told him that two men who stayed in his
home while training at a local flight school were the hijackers. Charlie Voss
said the agents identified the men as Mohamed Atta and one known as Marwan.
The government believes the hijackers were trained pilots and that three to
five were aboard each of four airliners that crashed in the worst terrorist
attack ever in the United States, said Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy
Tucker. She said the conclusion was based on information gathered from frantic
phone calls made by passengers on the doomed jets.
"It appears from what we know that the hijackers were skilled pilots," said
Tucker.
The FBI in Miami issued a national bulletin for law enforcement agencies to
look out for two cars. Records with the Florida Division of Motor Vehicles show
that one of the vehicles the FBI was pursuing – a 1989 red Pontiac – was
registered to Atta.
The FBI has already received more than 700 tips from a special Web site
seeking information on the attacks.
Agents served search warrants on major Internet service providers in order to
get information about an e-mail address that may be connected to Tuesday's
terrorist attacks. Among those who received warrants was Earthlink, officials
said.
AOL, the nation's largest provider, said it will comply with requests
quickly.
The FBI interviewed Voss, of Venice, Fla., about two men who stayed with him
and his wife for a week in July 2000 while taking small-plane flight training at
the municipal airport.
FBI agents "informed me that there were two individuals that were students at
Huffman Aviation, my employer, and FBI told me they were involved in yesterday's
tragedy," Voss said.
The couple accepted the two men as house guests as a favor to the company,
Voss said. The men, who stayed just a few days, trained at the airport and came
to the house to sleep, he said.
Tucker declined to comment on evidence linking the attacks to bin Laden or
whether authorities have executed search warrants.
Lawmakers, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, believe bin Laden may have
been behind the attacks. "I don't think everyone in Congress has enough
information to make those assumptions," Tucker said.
She said investigators are following all credible leads, but declined to
comment on whether the government is close to arresting anyone. The 700 tips
came from a special FBI Web site seeking information on the attacks.
From broken bits of hijacked airplanes to intelligence intercepts, the FBI is
collecting evidence in its search for those responsible for the attacks. At the
Pentagon, an FBI team recovered parts of the airplane's fuselage and sought the
black box recorder that could provide conversations from the cockpits of the
doomed planes.
"Everything is pointing in the direction of Osama bin Laden," said Hatch, the
top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A flight manifest from one of the ill-fated flights included the name of a
suspected bin Laden supporter, Hatch and several law enforcement officials
confirmed. And U.S. intelligence obtained communications between bin Laden
supporters discussing Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon, Hatch said.
"They have an intercept of some information that included people associated
with bin Laden who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit," he said. Hatch
declined to be more specific.
AP-WS-09-12-01 1435EDT