Name of 9/11 Hijacker Known in 1999
— -- 9/11 Hijacker Briefly Detected By NSA in 1999
W A S H I N G T O N, Sept, 26 — The name of a future Sept. 11 hijacker washeard by the National Security Agency in early 1999, in what mayhave been the first detection by a U.S. intelligence agency of oneof the 19 plotters who took part in the attacks.
The NSA, which gathers intelligence by eavesdropping oncommunications, "received information in which a 'Nawaf al-Hazmi'was referenced. The parties involved were unknown to NSA," said aU.S. intelligence official, speaking Wednesday on the condition ofanonymity.
The intelligence official declined to provide more detail on theearly 1999 reference. The NSA did not immediately provide theinformation to other intelligence agencies, the official said.
Al-Hazmi was one of the five hijackers on the plane that crashedinto the Pentagon. In early 2000, he separately came to theattention of the CIA and the FBI, who learned he was at a meetingof al Qaeda operatives in Malaysia. It is unclear when the NSAinformation was matched with what the other counterterrorismagencies had learned.
But at some point, the NSA's information, kept in an agencydatabase, also associated al-Hazmi with al Qaeda, according to areport by Eleanor Hill, the director of the congressional inquiryinto the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hill's report, released last week, detailed the U.S.government's limited pre-Sept. 11 knowledge of the hijackers. NSADirector Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden told the congressional inquiry ofhis agency's information on Nawaf al-Hazmi, the intelligenceofficial said.
The report concluded that U.S. intelligence knew of only threeof the 19 eventual hijackers before the attacks: Nawaf al-Hazmi,Salim al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. Nawaf al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhartook part in the Malaysia meeting, and Salim al-Hazmi was a knownassociate of the two. U.S. officials had no knowledge of theirintentions, the report says.
Sept. 11 inquiry hearings, conducted by members of House andSenate Intelligence committees, were set to continue Thursday withthe testimony of Cofer Black and Dale Watson, the top CIA and FBIcounterterrorism officials at the time of the attacks.
Black ran the CIA's Counterterrorism Center from 1999 until May,and he remains with the agency. He previously served as anundercover CIA officer and played a role in France's capture ofIlich Ramirez Sanchez, commonly known as Carlos the Jackal, oncethe world's most famous terrorist.
Watson recently retired from his post as assistant director ofthe FBI's counterterrorism division.
—The Associated Press
Judge: ‘Shoe Bomb’ Suspect’s E-Mail Can Be Used at Trial
B O S T O N, Sept. 26 — E-mail from the man accused of trying to blow up atrans-Atlantic flight — including one note in which he described aduty to "remove the oppressive American forces" — can be used athis trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Attorneys for "shoe bomb" suspect Richard Reid had argued thesearch of Reid's electronic mail account was illegal because thesearch warrant was overly broad.
But U.S. District Judge William Young ruled that federal agentsneeded to search Reid's entire Hotmail account because theybelieved he could have communicated with co-conspirators in code.
Reid, a British citizen, is charged with attempting to blow upan American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22 withexplosives hidden in his shoes. Passengers and crew membersrestrained him after he allegedly tried to light a fuse. The flightwas diverted to Boston.
After his arrest, the FBI obtained a search warrant for Reid'se-mail accounts. Excerpts from his e-mail were included in courtdocuments filed by federal prosecutors.
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