Minneapolis FBI agent warned about Moussaoui before Sept. 11

Minneapolis FBI agent warned about Moussaoui before Sept. 11
Greg Gordon
Star Tribune

from http://www.startribune.com/stories/1576/3323144.html

Published Sep 25, 2002 MOUS25

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, a Minneapolis supervisory FBI agent told bureau headquarters that he wanted to make sure that Zacarias Moussaoui "did not take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center," congressional investigators said today.

The agent, apparently the same figure scheduled to testify this afternoon before a joint House-Senate intelligence committee, then told the panel investigators that he had no reason to believe Moussaoui was planning such an attack, but was merely trying to get the attention of FBI headquarters, their report said.

But the unnamed Minneapolis agent said that the headquarters official replied, "That's not going to happen. We don't know he's a terrorist. You don't have enough to show he's a terrorist. You have a guy interested in this type of aircraft -- that is it."

In the report on their inquiry into the FBI's handling of its investigation of Moussaoui, the committee staff said that the headquarters official "does not remember this exchange."

The staff report laid out in detail the steps that Minneapolis agents took after Moussaoui was detained on Aug. 16, 2001, after he aroused suspicions at a Twin Cities flight school where he was trying to learn how to fly a 747 jet without having a pilot's license.

The report said that even while preparing for Moussaoui's deportation to his home country of France on immigration violations, the agents continued discussing with FBI headquarters whether there was enough evidence to justify a national security warrant authorizing a search of Moussaoui's possessions.

Moussaoui had traveled to Chechnya to join members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida terrorist group in fighting the Russians, and the discussion focused on whether the Chechen rebels qualified as a "recognized" foreign power on the State Department's list of terror groups, the report said.

For officials to obtain such a warrant, the subject of such an investigation must be linked to a hostile foreign power or terrorist group.

But the report said the dialogue was "based on a misunderstanding" of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The FBI's deputy general counsel told the joint congressional investigative staff that, in fact, the FBI can obtain a search warrant under the FISA law for any international terrorist group, including the Chechen rebels.

The report said "because of the misunderstanding Minneapolis (agents) spent the better part of three weeks trying to connect the Chechen group to Al-Qaida," including stepping outside bureau protocol and directly contacting the CIA's counterterrorism center. FBI headquarters never agreed to pursue a FISA warrant before Sept. 11, insisting that there was insufficient evidence.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, a search warrant was sought and granted, and Moussaoui has been charged with conspiracy in the attacks.