Officials: Dirty Bomb Suspect a 'Small Fish'

— -- Some Officials Say Padilla Is a Minor Figure

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 14 — The government media blitz after the arrest anAmerican accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb wasalmost unprecedented for a terrorist suspect post-Sept. 11.

Attorney General John Ashcroft held a news conference viasatellite while visiting officials in Moscow. Justice Departmentofficials in Washington called him a significant terrorism figureand President Bush weighed in to agree.

But two months later, U.S. law enforcement officials close tothe case say José Padilla is probably a "small fish" with no tiesto al Qaeda cell members in the United States.

The FBI's investigation has produced no evidence that Padilla had begun preparations for an attack and little reason tobelieve he had any support from al Qaeda to direct such a plot,said one of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Still, some authorities believe Padilla should remain detained.

Padilla, 31, is being held in a military brig in South Carolinaas an enemy combatant, a legal designation allowing the governmentto jail him without formal criminal charges. His attorney hasargued in court that he is being held illegally and should bereleased.

Investigators have said they believe Padilla, a Muslim convertand a former Chicago gang member, ventured overseas in search ofclerics connected to the most radical branch of Islamicfundamentalism.

In early June, Ashcroft announced from Moscow via satellitehookup that Padilla was arrested at O'Hare International Airport inChicago. Ashcroft's deputies also convened a news conference inWashington.

"We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack theUnited States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb," Ashcroftsaid, adding that the government's suspicions about Padilla's planscame from "multiple, independent, corroborating sources."

Now, two law enforcement officials close to the case say thereis no evidence a plot was under way. However, one had been"thought out as a possibility," an official said.

Padilla's attorney, Donna Newman, said the government wasavoiding a court case because it has little evidence against him.

"What we could analyze from government statements is that theydidn't have sufficient evidence to charge him," Newman said. "Allthey could do was allege that he was somehow involved in thetalking stages of a plan and they didn't even allege his role. Andthat is supposed to be enough to hold him without trial?"

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the matterTuesday.

A "dirty bomb" does not produce a nuclear explosion; itspreads radioactive material over a large area. Scientists say itis more likely to cause widespread sickness and panic than deaths.

Since Padilla's arrest, the government has been more low-key inannouncing arrests of terrorism suspects. No news conference washeld when James Ujaama was taken into custody last month in Denver.Instead, law enforcement officials simply confirmed theapprehension when reporters asked.

Ujaama was arrested as a material witness to terrorist activityand flown to Virginia. Federal authorities say they believe hesupplied computer equipment to an al Qaeda terrorist camp inAfghanistan.

Most of the information that led to Padilla's arrest came fromcaptured al Qaeda operational chief Abu Zubaydah, officials said.Zubaydah, the highest-ranking terrorist leader taken into U.S.custody since Sept. 11, was captured and wounded in a raid inFaisalabad, Pakistan, in late March.

One U.S. law enforcement official said the information Zubaydahis supplying during interrogations is not always accurate andinvestigators are treating his comments with increasing skepticism.

For months, Padilla worked out of Lahore, Pakistan, and twicemet with senior al Qaeda operatives in Karachi in March, governmentofficials have contended. Padilla and the others are alleged tohave discussed a radiological weapon plot, as well as proposals tobomb gas stations and hotel rooms.

Investigators have since decided Padilla may have attended themeetings more as an observer than a participant, one U.S. officialsaid.

Still, other officials suggest Padilla was important to thegovernment's terrorism investigations. A senior law enforcementofficial said he may have been a scout, chosen for his ability tomove around the United States legally with a driver's license andpassport.

There are no plans to bring Padilla before a military tribunaland U.S. officials have argued he can be held until the governmentdeclares an end to the war on terrorism.

— The Associated Press

How Will Schools Handle Sept. 11?

N E W Y O R K, Aug. 14 — With crayon drawings and building block toys,children in the New York area are still resurrecting the WorldTrade Center. Then they ignite the drawings in scribbled orangeflames, and topple the blocks with their small fists.

Nearly a year after the nightmare of Sept. 11, children arestill struggling to understand what they went through that morning.

Many parents are expected to keep their children home this Sept.11, but the 1.1 million-pupil school system will be open andadministrators are struggling to mark the day without triggeringterrible memories.

So far, simple, brief and unforced are the themes.

"What we have learned and seen over the past year is that theimpact is deep and how children respond is often unpredictable,"Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said.

He said some schools may plan individual programs, but all willacknowledge the anniversary by observing the citywide moment ofsilence planned just before 10:30 a.m., the time the second towercollapsed.

At that moment last year, Monica Watt's daughter was grippingthe hand of her second-grade teacher as they fled Public School 89,three blocks from the stricken trade center. Some students watchedthe first tower collapse.

Watt and other parents of children affected by the disaster saythey agree with the idea of a brief observance at the start of theday.

"I think a lot of parents are not going to send their childrento school that day, but if they go, I don't think ignoring it isbetter," Watt said. "I'm just concerned that it'll go on throughthe whole month and they're never going to be able to get away fromit."

School officials said they never seriously considered cancelingclasses this Sept. 11 in keeping with Mayor Michael Bloomberg'sposition that public offices remain open. "We will carry on ourresponsibilities to our families and to our city," the mayor said.

Debbie Leach, whose 8-year-old daughter, Michal, attends P.S. 41in Greenwich Village, said schools need to maintain a normalatmosphere.

"You have a little acknowledgment of what happened, and then goon with life," Leach said. "If you linger on it and have a wholeday of memorials, it would be too much."

Watt said her 8-year-old daughter, Melissa, has not been able tosleep by herself since Sept. 11. Her 3-year-old son, William, sawpeople jumping from the towers that morning.

In their Battery Park City apartment overlooking the disastersite, the Watt children still draw pictures of what they saw.William carefully includes ladders to save the jumpers.

Parents say their children show signs of stress in their play,building and then destroying towers of blocks. A book of children'sart, soon to be published by the school system, includes drawingsof the trade center in flames.

A study released by city schools in May found that 76 percent ofcity schoolchildren often thought about the attack six months afterSept. 11; 24 percent had problems sleeping and 17 percent hadnightmares.

The study also said an estimated 75,000 children showed six ormore symptoms of post-traumatic stress — enough to be diagnosedwith the disorder. Nearly 90 percent were suffering at least onesymptom.

One recent afternoon, Andre Moten, 6, visited a park near groundzero for the first time since the attack. He used to come regularlywith his grandmother and older brother, Shirod.

"I dream what happened to the World Trade Center," said Moten,clad in an "I love New York" T-shirt. "And in my mind I keepthinking that the World Trade Center fell down."

Schools in suburban areas that lost large numbers of people inthe attacks are also mindful of grieving children as they plan forthe anniversary.

In Middletown, N.J., where more than 30 children lost a parent,administrators plan to observe a moment of silence in all schools.Further programs may be planned by individual schools.

Levy said schools throughout the nation have floodedadministrators with calls seeking guidance on how to prepare forthe anniversary. They responded by creating a Web site withguidelines and suggestions, which they also distributed to cityschools.

The 18-page handout warns teachers that children's needs willvary greatly on this year's Sept. 11: "No one way to memorializewill meet everyone's needs."

— The Associated Press

FAA Manager: Ohio Controllers Faced Sept. 11 Decisions

O B E R L I N, Ohio — Air traffic controllers believed they had ahijacked plane in the air over Ohio on Sept. 11. They just didn'tknow which plane.

During tense moments that morning at Cleveland Air Route TrafficControl Center, the first guess was that Delta Flight 1989 washijacked, not United Airlines Flight 93.

"We knew right away we had a problem. The first thought was,'Is that Delta 1989?'" said Rick Kettell, manager of the FederalAviation Administration's busiest regional center.

Kettell talked Tuesday about the drama of the day for the airtraffic controllers who had the last contact with United Flight 93before it crashed in Pennsylvania.

The center, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland, guides planesat high altitude as they fly over portions of seven states: NewYork, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana andMichigan.

The center's controllers were concerned about the Delta flightbecause it had departed Boston five minutes behind United Flight175, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Centerin New York.

"We knew the magnitude of what we were dealing with," Kettellsaid. "We knew what happened in New York before our involvementbecame very keen."

Shortly after Delta Flight 1989 checked in with the ClevelandCenter while over Syracuse, N.Y., the center's controllers heardtwo transmissions that sounded like a cockpit struggle.

Meanwhile, Flight 93 had climbed to 41,000 feet over theCleveland Center, and then over nearby Elyria turned 120 degrees tothe southeast, a move that surprised controllers.

"We were finally able to deduce by the airplanes talking backto us which was the airplane not talking to us, and that was Flight93," Kettell said.

While there was still no confirmed problem with the Deltaflight, the center expressed concerns to Delta's headquarters inAtlanta, which instructed the plane to land at Cleveland HopkinsInternational Airport. It was brought in moments before theCleveland Center received an order to ground all planes.

Meanwhile, two more transmissions came in with a terrorist'svoice speaking to passengers. By then, controllers knew for surethat it was the United flight that had been hijacked.

"What we don't know was whether one of the pilots keyed thefrequency so we could hear it or if they [terrorists] hit the wrongbutton not knowing the equipment," Kettell said. "My thoughts arethat probably the pilot was trying to help us."

Later that tense day, after most planes had landed, Oberlinpolice warned the center of a small plane still flying and headedtoward the center. That warning resulted in a brief evacuationexcept for essential employees. Kettell said that plane simply flewpast and was never identified.

No other center employee took part on the press briefingTuesday. An FAA spokesman said the controllers involved still donot want to talk about it.

In June, the center dedicated a memorial on its grounds torecall those who died when the hijacked plane crashed. Etched instone are the words: "In honor of the men and women of theCleveland Center and those aboard Flight 93 for their heroicactions on September 11, 2001."

— The Associated Press

Senators Question Justice Dept.’s Cooperation in Probe

W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 14 — The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee anda top Republican on the panel expressed concern Tuesday that theJustice Department was not fully cooperating with a probe intoalleged security lapses in the FBI's translator program.

The program has played an important role in interpretinginterviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden's network since Sept.11, including translating such sensitive documents asal Qaeda-related wiretaps, documents recovered in Afghanistan andinterrogations of al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Basein Cuba.

The charges were raised in a letter to Attorney General JohnAshcroft from committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen.Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the crime anddrugs subcommittee.

Justice Department officials acknowledged receiving the letterbut declined further comment.

The department's inspector general is investigating charges byFBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds, a former contract linguist forthe bureau, of security problems with another linguist. Edmondsalso charged the linguist with translating some innocuousinformation rather than important, intelligence-related material.Edmonds was fired last spring for performance issues.

"We are troubled that the Department of Justice, including theFBI, may not be acting quickly enough to address the issues raisedby Ms. Edmonds' complaints or cooperating fully with the inspectorgeneral's office," the senators wrote.

FBI officials have said they believe the program is solid andsecure. The Associated Press reported in June that the agency wasinvestigating the charges.

— The Associated Press