FBI pinpointing terrorist movements

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.

One month after the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, FBI agents have pieced together a solid time line tracing the movements of the suspected hijackers in Las Vegas and throughout the United States.

"We're working on pinning down their travels through the United States," Las Vegas FBI spokesman Daron Borst said Wednesday.

Borst would not discuss the progress of the time line.

But investigators close to the nationwide criminal investigation said agents now have a "pretty solid handle" on the whereabouts of the terrorists in the weeks leading to the attacks that killed thousands at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Agents in Las Vegas and across the country now are in the process of "filling in the gaps," primarily nailing down specific times and dates of the their travels, investigators said.

More than 4,000 agents from 56 FBI field offices and 30 oversees bureaus are involved in the investigation and putting together the time line.

The FBI disclosed this week that additional agents were brought to Las Vegas from other parts of the country to help pursue hundreds of local leads.

Agents have obtained evidence that five of the 19 suspected hijackers -- Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Samir Jarrah, Hani Hanjour and Nawaf Alhazmi -- were here at various times between May and August. Their visits have been documented primarily through hotel and car rental receipts.

British prosecutors have disclosed that a sixth man, Algerian flight instructor Lotfi Raissi, also was in Las Vegas during that period. Raissi, held in a London prison, reportedly helped train the hijackers. Four of the five suspects were believed to have piloted the airlines that crashed in the attacks.

What still apparently isn't fully known to agents is exactly what the suspects, all believed to have died in the crashes, were doing here. Some were reported to have used the Internet here to communicate with others outside the city.

ABC News reported that Atta and several others criss-crossed the country on long airline routes, such as Las Vegas to New York, to test security and get familiar with the jetliners.

On one US Airways flight on Aug. 1, the network reported, two suspected hijackers spent time observing the crew and videotaping security and in-flight procedures. One of the terrorists, claiming to be a student pilot, even got a tour of the cockpit.

Borst declined to comment on the reported scouting missions.

Agents, meanwhile, still are said to be trying to pin down whether the five hijackers met with other associates during their visits.

But they now believe they were not here to soak up the entertainment scene here.

"All indications are that they were here for business, not pleasure," an investigator said.

Two national terrorism experts interviewed by the Sun agreed.

"People who are planning to commit suicide don't come to Las Vegas to have fun," said Vince Cannistraro, a terrorism consultant for ABC News.

Cannistraro, the CIA's chief of counter terrorism operations from 1988 to 1990, said it was likely the suspected hijackers were planning the attacks in New York and Washington, as well as additional attacks on the West Coast.

"There is a lot of stuff investigators don't know yet," Cannistraro said. "I do know, however, that there were plans to attack other targets and those targets were on the West Coast."

Cannistraro would not disclose what he has learned about the other targets.

But he added: "There's a real possibility something else could happen. The bureau is very nervous that something on the West Coast is going to happen."

There has been speculation that Disneyland in Southern California may be a target.

And Cannistraro wouldn't rule out Las Vegas, as well.

Neither would Larry Johnson, another terrorism expert who has been a consultant to several national news organizations, including CNN, NBC and the New York Times.

Johnson, a deputy director in the State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism, said it was possible that the suspected hijackers were in Las Vegas planning an attack here.

"These guys were like puritans from hell," Johnson said. "They very much see the United States as a corrupt decaying source of sin. And Las Vegas from their perspective would be the capital of sin."

Johnson also theorized that the terrorists could have been plotting more than one attack.

"They may have been planning for multiple incidents and putting together back-up plans in case one failed so they would have alternatives," he said. "In Las Vegas, they could hang out and not draw any attention because it's a tourist city."

Cannistraro agreed.

"Las Vegas gets people from all over the world," he said. "You can dress in a tuxedo or a bikini and not draw any attention."

Even investigators close to criminal case acknowledged that Las Vegas is one of maybe a handful of international cities in the United States where people of all ethnic backgrounds can move about unnoticed.

But Borst insisted that there is no evidence the city has been a terrorist target.

"We have no information that suggests Las Vegas was or will be a target," he said. "But we continue to work day and night searching for any information that would lead us in the direction of the people who perpetrated these attacks or people who are planning future attacks."

Borst also said it was "irresponsible" to suggest that other terrorist plots were in the works on the West Coast without disclosing the source of the information.

Johnson described the reported terrorist pilots who visited Las Vegas as the leaders of the hijacking plot.

"These were the planners," he said. "These guys appeared to be pretty savvy. They traveled more than most business travelers."

Agents have traced all of the five suspected hijackers to other parts of the country, including Phoenix, Sand Diego, South Florida and the Washington area, prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. Several also visited Europe, primarily Germany and Great Britain.

Johnson said they traveled a lot to avoid suspicion and make it harder for investigators to establish a pattern of behavior.

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