FEDERAL
BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION
Precedence:
IMMEDIATE
Date: 08 / 24 /
2001
To:
Counterterrorism
Attn: ITOS/RFU
ssa
Michael Maltbie
IOS
Rita Flack
From: Minneapolis
Squad
5 / JTTF
Contact:
SA Harry M. Samit, ext (612) 375 -
3365
Approved By:
Jones G
B
Drafted By:
Samit
Harry M:hms
Case ID #:
(s)
Title:
MOUSSAOUI,
ZACARIAS;
IT
– OTHER
OO
: MP
Synopsis:
Set
immediate lead to request FBIHQ/CTD/ITOS/RFU secure a search warrant
form the
Foreign Intelligence Security Court (FISC) for the property and
residence of
captioned subject.
Administrative: The
“T” symbols listed in the enclosed Letterhead Memorandum (LHM) are
described as
follows”
[BLACKED OUT]
This
communication references telcal from MP SA Jones to FBIHQ/CTD/ITOS/RFU
SSA
Maltbie on 08 / 24 / 2001.
Enclosure (s): Enclosed for RFU is an LHM as
need to cover
the lead set forth below.
To:
Counterterrorism
From: Minneapolis
Re:
08
/ 24 / 2001
Details: Captioned
subject, currently in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service
(INS) at St. Paul,
Minnesota, has among
his property items
believed to pertain to his activities in support of International
Terrorism. He has refused requests by Minneapolis for
consent to
search his effects.
As
set forth in enclosure, Minneapolis is
in
possession of intelligence indications that Moussaoui is connected to a
radical
fundamentalist group operating in Chechnya, whose leader has
ties to
Usama Bin Laden. For this reason, it is
imperative that his effects be searched in order to gather intelligence
relating to these connections and to any plans for terrorist attacks
against
the United States
or United States Persons to which he may be a party.
Minneapolis
therefore
requests that RFU secure, on an emergency basis, authority from the
FISC to
search Moussaoui’s effects and his residence at 209A Wadsack Drive, Norman, Oklahoma.
An LHM has been enclosed to facilitate this process. FBIHQ/CTD/ITOS/RFU is reminded that pending
matter is urgent as Moussaoui is expected to be deported by INS in the
near
future. Further, it is not yet known how
far advanced Moussaoui’s plan is or how many unidentified
co-conspirators
exist.
To:
Counterterrorism
From: Minneapolis
Re:
08
/ 25 / 2001
LEAD (s):
Set Lead 1:
COUNTERTERRORISM
AT
ITSO/RFU
Will
secure, on an emergency basis, authority from the FISC to search
Moussaoui’s
effects and his residence at 209A Wadsack Drive, Norman,
Oklahoma. An LHM had been enclosed to facilitate this
process. FBIHQ/CTD/ITOS/RFU is reminded
that pending matter is urgent as Moussaoui is expected to be deported
by INS in
the near future. Further, it is not yet
known how far advance Moussaoui’s plan is or how many unidentified
co-conspirators exist.
U. S.
Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of
Investigation
Minneapolis,
Minnesota
August
24, 2001
Moussaoui,
Zacarias;
IT
– OTHER
This communication is classified SECRET.
Nature of Investigation:
International
Terrorism_________
Request of Minneapolis: Minneapolis
requests that the Foreign Intelligence Security Court (FISC) issue a
search
warrant for the personal effects and, residence of captioned subject on
an
emergency basis.
(U) Investigative Background
This
investigation was initiated after Minneapolis
received information from Timothy Nelson, employed by Pan Am International
Flight Academy,
___________telephone _______, that he and co-workers were training a
student
they considered suspicious.
Pan
Am International Flight
Academy’s
Eagan Facility
is a fully accredited flight training center which uses flight
simulators to
train airline pilots form all over the world.
Training conducted there consists exclusively of initial
training for
persons far advanced in becoming airline pilots.
In both cases the typical student holds a
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airline Transport Pilot (ATP)
rating or
foreign equivalent and has at least two thousand flight hours.
Nelson
indicated that Zacarias Moussaoui, who met neither of the above
criteria, had
been in contact with his company’s headquarters in Miami, Florida
and had paid $ 8,000 - $ 9,000 dollars in cash for training on the
Boeing 747
Model 400 aircraft simulator.
What
set Moussaoui apart from all other students
in Nelson’s experience was that he had not aviation
background, and to
Nelson’s knowledge, no pilot’s license.
Nelson also considered it odd that Moussaoui indicated
that all he
wished to learn was how to take of and land the 747 Model 400, giving
the
reason that his was an “ego boosting thing”.
At the time Nelson called Minneapolis,
Moussaoui had already received two days of classroom training and had
been
schedule for 4 -5 upcoming simulator sessions over the course of the
next few
days. Mousssaoui had received his ground
school instruction from a contract instructor named Clarence Prevost,
who had
also indicated that the thought Moussaouri was unusual.
Prevost,
who is a retired airline pilot with more that 10,000 flight hours in a
wide
variety of aircraft, was subsequently interviewed regarding Moussaoui. Prevost is a contract employee of Pan Am who
travels to Minneapolis
in order to train students. He has been
doing so for several years and characterized Moussaoui as unlike any
other
student with whom he has worked.
At
the time Prevost was interviewed, Moussaoui had completed the ground
school
portion and performed one flight in a low fidelity simulator with him. Prevost was award that he had been schedule
for several more sessions in the higher-fidelity simulators in the next
few
days. Prevost noted that although
Moussaoui lacked aviation experience and knowledge, there were certain
747-400
systems in which has was particularly interested. Although
Prevost himself brought the subject
up, he indicated Moussaoui was extremely interested in the aircraft
doors and
their operation. Prevost indicated that
Moussaoui seemed surprised to learn that the doors cannot normally be
opened in
flight because of the pressurization of the cabin of the aircraft.
The
other system in which Moussaoui was interested was the Mode Control
Panel
(MCP). This is the portion of the
aircraft’s avionics suite which controls the aircraft when flying in an
automated mode and what allows the 747-400 Series aircraft to have a
two-person
flight crew as opposed to earlier models which required additional
pilots. Prevost indicated that at the time
they did
their one simulator session, Moussaoui already knew how to operate the
MCP from
previous study. For information, Prevost
indicated that the level of automation provided by the MCP gives the
747-400
the ability to fly, navigate and in some modes land in a fully
automated
manner.
Prevost
stated that for his upcoming high=fidelity simulator sessions,
Moussaoui
advised that he would “love” to fly a simulated flight from Heathrow
Airport in
England, to John F. Kennedy airport in New York, to include performing
all
navigation and communications involved.
He offered no explanation as to why he wished to do this. Prevost was also aware that Moussaoui was
interested in booking, additional simulator sessions after he finished
his
currently scheduled syllabus.
Investigation
by Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) Immigration and
Natrualization
Service (INS) Special Agents revealed the following information
regarding
Moussaoui and the individual believed to be traveling with him, Hussein
Al-Attas:
-
Moussaoui, a resident of the United Kingdom, traveling on French
passport # AE27016, entered
the U.S. at Chicago, Illinois
on 02/23/2001 on a visa wavier. He
traveled to Norman,
Oklahoma shortly
after this date, ostensibly
for the purpose of taking flying lessons in Cessna aircraft. Under the terms of the visa waiver program,
citizen of certain countries may enter the U.S.
without applying for a visa, however they are allowed to remain in the U.S.
for no more than 90 days from the date of entry. According
the INS records, Moussaoui was
admitted to the U.S.
only until 05/22/2001 and was therefore in a overstay status and
subject to
arrest any time after his date.
-
Al-Attas, a resident of Saudi Arabia, traveling on Yemeni
passport # _____ is in the U.S.
on a F1 (student) visa, first issued in
1995, Al-Attas indicated to INS that he
is a student at the University
of Oklahoma at Norman.
It
was decided to arrest Moussaoui on the overstay violation in order to
delay his
receiving any further training on the Boeing 747-400 aircraft until he
could be
interviewed and his true intentions
determined. He remains in INS custody as
of this date pending deportation to his country of origin.
When arrested, Moussaoui was armed with a
small sheathed knife in his pocket and admitted that a larger
folding-blade
knife found under the seat of At-Attas’ car was his.
Following
his arrest, Moussaoui’s property was brought from the hotel in which he
was
staying to INS storage at his request.
Included among this was a laptop computer, cellular
telephone and
numerous spiral notebooks and 747 flight manuals. He
denied requests for consent to search his
property.
Subsequent
interviews of both men and a consensual search of the effects of
Al-Attas
revealed the following:
-
At-Attas, during an interview on the
evening of
08/16/2001, described Moussaoui’s beliefs as having characteristics
known to be
consistent with those held by Radical Islamic Fundamentalists. He also admitted tha tMoussaoui, whom he
knows as Shaqil, is preparing himself to fight and has, in the past,
expressed
approval of “martyrs.”
-
During this same interview, Al-Attas
indicated that
Moussasoui believes that it is acceptable to kill civilians who harm
Muslims. Al-Attas was also asked if he
had ever heard moussaoui make a plan to kill those who harm Muslims and
in so
doing become a martyr himself. Al-Attas
admitted that he may have heard him do so, but that because it is not
in his
own heart to carry out acts of this nature, he claimed that he kept
himself
from actually hearing and understanding.
-
In a sworn statement signed on
08/17/2001, Al-Attas
indicated that Moussaoui would harm “non-believers”, described as Jews
and
Christians, secretly if he believed they were harming Muslims.
-
Moussaoui was unable to give a
convincing explanation
for his paying Pan Am 7- 8,000 for 747-400 training.
Although he indicated that he ad completed
approximately 50 hours of instruction at a flying school in Norman, Oklahoma,
his level of aviation experience was in no way adequate to qualify him
for this
training. His continued insistence that
this was indulging a desire for a “joy ride”, clashed with the
seriousness with
which he was studying and preparing and his anxiousness to return to
this when
releashed from INS custody. When
arrested, he had among his belongings several Boeing 747-400 Flight
Manuals and
is believed to have been making provisions to acquire additional date
regarding
the operation of this type of aircraft through electronic means.
-
Moussaoui had no convincing
explanation for the large
sum of money known to have been in his possession during his time in
the United States. For information, upon arrival he is know to
have opened a checking account with a deposit of $32,000 at a bank in Norman, Oklahoma. Moussaoui did not provide information of
sufficient detail or specificity to allow Minneapolis
to account for a legitimate source of this money. Minneapolis
opines that Moussaoui’s income from his self-described employment as a
freelance telemarketer in the UK
would not be adequate to allow him to spend $ 8,300 for aviation
training of no
value to his stated goal of becoming a pilot.
Although At-Attas indicated that his is aware that
Moussaoui receives
money from overseas via a bank in Norman, Oklahoma,
he had no information
as to the source.
-
Moussaoui was likewise unable to
convincingly explain a
trip to Pakistan
lasting from December 2000 until February 2001, initially informing
Agents that
is was for “personal reasons”. He later
indicated that he was in Pakistan
attempting to find a wife. Recipients
will note that Moussaoui arrived in the U.S.
only 16 days after leaving Pakistan,
a country determined through other Minneapolis
investigations to be a conduit for persons traveling to Afghanistan
in
order to provide or receive terrorist training and indoctrination.
-
Minneapolis
believes
that Moussaoui and, to a lesser extent, Al-Attas, were deceptive in
their
answers regarding their reasons for being the U.S.
and their involvement in
terrorist activities. Further,
Minneapolils is in possession of intelligence that Moussaouri is an
Islamic
extremist and believes that his training in the U.S.
represents preparation for
some future act in furtherance of these goals.
(U) Request of Minneapolis
Minneapolis
requests
authority be granted on an emergency basis by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
to conduct a search of Moussaoui’s personal property currently in INS
custody,
and for his residence at 209A Wadsack Drive, Norman,
Oklahoma. Minneapolis
wishes to emphasize the urgency of this matter in reminding recipients
that
Moussaoui is in INS custody pending deportation. Further, it is not yet
known
how far advanced Moussaouri’s plan is or how many unidentified
co-conspirators
exist.
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