FBI Releases Photos, Seeks Public Tips
W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 27, 2001 -- The FBI today released photographs of the 19 men suspected of carrying out the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, and asked Americans to help identify possible accomplices.
MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:• FBI Probes E-Mail Warning • European Terror Plot Foiled • 18 Arrests in 'Hazmat' Scam • Suspects Held Without Bail
Attorney General John Ashcroft today called the effort part of a "national neighborhood watch," hoping that someone, somewhere will recognize one of the photos and lead investigators to some of the terrorists' associates.
FBI Director Robert Mueller suggested those accomplices might be planning further terrorist attacks in the United States.
"Our primary focus is on preventing potential future attacks," he said. "We are working hard to identify and locate associates of the hijackers who may pose a threat to this nation."
Investigators are also trying to determine whether the names they have attached to the faces are in fact the true identities of the hijackers.
"What we are currently doing is determining whether, when these individuals came to the United States, these were their real names," Mueller said.
Ashcroft and Mueller said more than 100,000 tips had been phoned in or e-mailed to the FBI since the Sept. 11 attacks and that agents were pursuing some 200,000 leads in connection with the investigation.
With the release of today's photos, they are hoping to generate even more.
Anyone with information should call 1-866-483-5137 or visit the FBI's special Web site, ifccfbi.gov.
FBI Probes Possible E-Mail Warning
The FBI is investigating a pair of seemingly ominous e-mail messages received by employees at an instant messaging service two hours before the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center in New York.
According to Alex Diamandis, the vice president of sales and marketing for Odigo, two messages were received by a pair of employees at the U.S.-based company roughly two hours before the terrorist attack. Diamandis said the messages warned that "something bad is going to happen in two hours," but made no reference to the twin towers, New York or any specific location.
Odigo has its headquarters in New York City and is a leading provider of instant message services in Israel.
FBI investigators are said to be attempting to trace the messages and determine who sent them.
European Terror Plot Foiled
An ambitious terrorist plot to attack a host of American interests overseas was foiled when a captured Osama bin Laden operative divulged the list of targets and the identities of his fellow conspirators, sources tell ABCNEWS.
Intelligence sources in Europe and the United States say the intended targets included the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the U.S. Consulate in Marseille, France, buildings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France.
The outlines of the plan were known to French and American authorities before Sept. 11, but the attacks were not scheduled to take place until much later this year. Authorities had reportedly been surveilling the suspected terrorist cells for several weeks but moved in quickly after the attacks on New York and suburban Washington.
Sources tell ABCNEWS the terrorist ring was broken up after key bin Laden operative Djamel Begal, an Algerian national, was captured this summer in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Begal, under interrogation by Dubai authorities, revealed the list of targets and the identities of other members of the ring.
Sources say the terrorist ring was made up of roughly 50 individuals, 30 of whom have been taken into custody in France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. Twenty are still being sought in a manhunt across Europe.
Arrests made in connection with the plot include: Six Algerian men arrested in Spain on Wednesday: Mohamed Belaziz, Mohamed Boualem Khnouni, Ocine Khouni, Madjid Sahouane, Yasin Seddiki and Hakim Zerzour.
Three individuals arrested in Britain on Sept. 25.
Seven men arrested in pre-dawn raids in France on Sept. 21. All seven have been placed under formal investigation.
Five men arrested in Belgium on Sept. 13, including a Belgian man of North African origin and Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian man.
Four men, including Jerome Courtailler, a Frenchman, arrested in the Netherlands on Sept. 13 and a fifth arrested there on Sept. 26.
Asbhy also claimed to have found Adbi carrying a newspaper clipping about Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999.
A second man was held without bail on Wednesday in connection with the attacks. Judge Sewell granted the government's request to continue holding Herbert Villalobos, who is charged with helping five of the suspected hijackers fraudulently obtain Virginia driver's licenses. Though his defense attorney argued Villalobos was not involved in the hijackings, the judge ruled that "the defendant certainly unlawfully engaged in acts that contributed" to the attacks.
Abdi and Villalobos are two of more than 300 individuals arrested and detained by the federal government, often on charges unrelated to the hijackings.
ABCNEWS has learned investigators have recovered from at least one crash site and other locations tied to the hijackers, writings portraying their hatred for America and the glory of martyrdom. One law enforcement source tells ABCNEWS that given that level of hatred, authorities can afford to take no chances.