With 25 people now in detention and more arrests expected, the FBI had been hunting two of the suspected hijackers involved in the terrorist attacks for just over two weeks before they struck, Newsweek reported on Saturday.
The magazine said the FBI launched its probe in late August after being told by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that the men -- Khalid al-Midhar and Salem Alhamzi -- were associated with Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden.
Also in the investigation, a man was arrested in New Jersey on Saturday in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center, the second confirmed arrest in the case, police said.
With two men now in custody, police investigating this week's horrific terrorist attacks have detained 25 people for possible immigration violations.
Investigators expected to issue additional warrants as the investigation into Tuesday's attacks shifts into high gear.
"We are at a point where there will be additional and more frequent warrants," said Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.
Authorities made their first arrest in the case on Friday. A man described as a material witness in the attacks was taken into custody in New York. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the man arrested was the same person detained Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport with a fake pilot's license.
None of the 25 held on immigration violations has been formally charged, either on immigration counts or with crimes related to the four hijackings, Tucker said. Some but not all of the detainees who have been interviewed are cooperating with the FBI.
Tucker declined to say whether any of the 25 are suspected of being accomplices to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or whether they have significant information about the plot. "It's not clear in all cases how important their information is," said Tucker.
Among the 25 are two men detained at an Amtrak train station in Fort Worth, Texas. They were interviewed by FBI agents, taken into custody and flown to New York.
The official would not comment on whether the two from Texas were cooperating with authorities.
New Jersey is one of several states described as areas where there is "intense activity" in the investigation, one official said. The other states are Texas, Florida, New York and Massachusetts, especially the Boston area.
The immigration problems could range from expired visas to being employed without a work visa. The detainees can be held for an indefinite amount of time, and there is no deadline for charging or releasing them.
Prosecutors sometimes hold foreign nationals on immigration violations as a way to buy time to investigate other charges.
Officials declined to say where the 25 were arrested or where they are being detained.
Among others who have been questioned or sought:
-- Zacarias Moussaoui, who trained briefly at a Minnesota flight school and was arrested Aug. 17 on an immigration violation. ABC television news reported that Moussaoui aroused the suspicions of a flight instructor because he wanted flight simulator instructions only on how to fly a 747 in horizontal mode -- not learn takeoffs and landings. He was moved Friday from a Minnesota county jail to an undisclosed location.
-- Amer Kamfar, a flight engineer who listed a Saudi Airlines post office box as his address in Federal Aviation Administration records, is being sought by the FBI. Kamfar was listed at various times as living at the same address in Vero Beach, Florida, as Abdul Alomari, one of the suspected hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the World Trade Center's north tower.
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