US law enforcement officials investigating last week's terrorist attacks are pulling in more people for questioning, stationing armed guards on commercial jets and asking lawmakers for new laws to clamp down on terrorism.
US Attorney General John Ashcroft stressed the urgency of the moment on Monday by saying that associates of the hijackers "may be a continuing presence in the United States."
"It's very likely there was significant ground support and reinforcement assistance from collaborators" for last Tuesday's four teams of terrorists, Ashcroft said on CNN's Larry King Live program.
PHOTO: APN
As of Monday, the FBI had detained 49 people for questioning, holding them on immigration violations, double the number of several days ago. Some have asked for lawyers, and none have been charged in the attacks that may have killed more than 5,000 people.
In addition, authorities across the world are looking for nearly 200 other people to question in last Tuesday's attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The FBI is keeping a tight hold on its witnesses, jailing an unspecified number of them because they might otherwise flee. The Justice Department previously confirmed two people were arrested on such warrants. Courts have sealed all information about those arrested.
Asked to characterize whether those in custody were talking, FBI Director Robert Mueller said that "there are individuals cooperating, yes," while adding that others were not.
Federal agencies were being asked to contribute armed plainclothes security officials while the Federal Aviation Administration begins to train a new generation of marshals to provide security on airplanes. Four jetliners were hijacked in last week's attacks. Two were crashed into the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania after passengers apparently struggled with hijackers.
US officials have said Saudi Arabian exile Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization are the prime suspects in the attacks. Bin Laden has denied any responsibility.
Ashcroft outlined the sky marshals plan along with additional details of the legislative package he asked the US Congress to pass immediately. It would include use of the money-laundering statutes to prosecute people who provide resources to a terrorist organization. The package also included nationwide wiretap authorization so that when a suspected terrorist moved around the country, law enforcement agencies wouldn't have to get additional court approval for a wiretap in a different jurisdiction.
Additional detail emerged about one of the hijackers and possible associates.
Hani Hanjour, suspected of crashing American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, trained at a flight school in Bowie, Maryland, flying small planes over the Washington area at least three times in the six weeks prior to last Tuesday's attack.
Chief flight instructor Marcel Bernard said Monday that Hanjour wanted to demonstrate his flying competency.
But the airport used by the flight school wouldn't rent planes to Hanjour for solo flights because of doubts about his flying skills and his refusal to provide an address and phone number.
FBI agents pressed to learn whether any of those already in custody may have assisted the hijackings, were thwarted in their own efforts to hijack other planes or planned to carry out other attacks against Americans.
Among those being detained were two men who left on a plane from Newark, New Jersey, around the time of the attacks, and then took an Amtrak train to Texas from St. Louis after their plane was grounded as part of the government-ordered shutdown of the US aviation system.
Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47, were removed from an Amtrak train during a routine drug search Wednesday night. No drugs were found, but the men had box-cutting knives and about US$5,000 in cash, according to a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Hijackers in Tuesday's attacks used knives and box cutters to commandeer the four airliners.
The FBI was aggressively questioning their acquaintances in New Jersey, where at least 13 people were being detained, officials said. Agents also raided apartments and questioned several people in a New Jersey neighborhood that was once home to blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted of plotting the 1993 bombing of the trade center and other New York landmarks.
Khan and Azmath have been flown by authorities to New York, as was another man who had been held in Minnesota, officials said.
Zacarias Moussaoui was detained Aug. 17 after he aroused suspicions by seeking to buy time on a flight simulator for jetliners at a Minnesota flight school, law enforcement officials said.
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