- WASHINGTON (UPI) - A Republican
on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department's Inspector
General Wednesday to investigate how the FBI handled an internal warning
last summer that terrorists might be taking flight lessons in the United
States, according to a letter obtained by United Press International.
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- Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote Inspector General
Glenn Fine Wednesday, warning that the FBI's "credibility is at risk."
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- In the letter, Grassley asked for an investigation into
how the FBI handled a now-infamous July 2001 memo from the FBI's Phoenix,
Ariz., field office recommending that the bureau keep an eye on flight
schools, obtain visa information on enrolled pilots and coordinate a nationwide
investigation. That memo reportedly stressed concern about a connection
between Middle Eastern flight students in Arizona with Osama bin Laden.
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- FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate panel last
week that memo likely did not make it to high levels of the FBI or the
CIA and that the agency should have made it a higher priority.
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- "This memo has emerged as one of the most significant
and alarming warnings that the FBI had before the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001," Grassley wrote. "It is essential that there
be an outside review of this matter by your office to answer all outstanding
questions, ensure accountability at the FBI and reaffirm the trust of the
American people."
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- In a separate letter Wednesday, Grassley also called
on FBI Director Robert Mueller to make the memo available to the public.
"I strongly urge you not to invoke secrecy in the way the government
so often does: as an excuse to prevent the release of embarrassing information,"
Grassley wrote.
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- The letters reflect increasing concern among Democrats
and Republicans in Congress that the Bush administration is stonewalling
congressional inquiries into whether U.S. intelligence agencies missed,
bungled or ignored what appear to be important warning signs of a pending
airline terror attack -- in the weeks prior to Sept. 11.
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- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., this week also sent 19 pages of questions to Bush administration
officials, mostly for FBI Director Robert Mueller, about U.S. intelligence
actions prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.
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- The questions posed by Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, seek
facts about:
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- -- How the FBI handled the July 2001 Phoenix memo.
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- -- Information on the August 2001 arrest of Zacarias
Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker," for visa violations after
he raised the suspicions of an instructor at a flight school in Eagan,
Minn. Leahy is particularly interested in FBI efforts to obtain information
from Moussaoui, his computer, and his apartment.
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- -- Facts about a warning from French intelligence officials
at least 10 days before Sept. 11 that Moussaoui had connections to radical
Islamic extremists.
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- -- Press reports that in 1995 Filipino authorities warned
the FBI that a Middle Eastern pilot trained at a U.S. flight school had
proposed crashing a jet into federal buildings.
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- -- How the FBI has handled information that potential
terrorists have taken advantage of U.S. flight schools. The FBI confirmed
for United Press International this week that some individuals mentioned
in the July 2001 Phoenix memo were not involved in the Sept. 11 attacks
and are still under investigation.
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- Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Fla.,
is also seeking a personal meeting with Attorney General John Ashcroft,
for this week if possible, to demand "cooperation with enthusiasm"
instead of "cooperation out of grudging necessity" on that committee's
investigation. Republicans on the committee agree with Graham.
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- Early this year, President Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney both personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.,
to limit any investigation to only the House and Senate Intelligence Committees
-- the same investigation that Graham and some Republicans are complaining
the administration is now stonewalling.
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- At the time, Daschle said "the vice president expressed
concern that a review of what happened would take resources and personnel
away from the effort in the war on terrorism." But Daschle added that
the "the American people have a right to know what happened and why."
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- Leahy and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Judiciary Committee ranking
member, in February asked for $1.5 million for their committee to conduct
their own investigation. But Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss, blocked
the request, according to Leahy.
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- "Senator Hatch and I have made a joint request for
additional funding to examine the events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks
and what steps are needed to make sure that our law enforcement is in a
position not to let history repeat itself," Leahy said last week.
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- "That request has been blocked by Minority Leader
Lott. An examination of FBI operations before 9/11 are essential, not to
lay blame, but to learn lessons and to be in a position to evaluate the
FBI reorganization plans."
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- Ron Bonjean, spokesman for Lott, said that the investigation
should be left to the Intelligence Committee so that the Judiciary Committee
can concentrate on confirming the president's judicial nominations.
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- "I realize that the House and Senate Select Intelligence
Committees are conducting a joint review of factors and events that led
up to the attacks and I appreciate their work," Grassley wrote to
the DOJ Inspector General. "However, their investigation comes from
a different perspective, and it certainly does not preclude the Judiciary
Committee from carrying out its oversight responsibilities."
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- (UPI Congressional Bureau Chief Mark Benjamin and UPI
Senior White House Correspondent Nicholas M. Horrock contributed to this
report.) Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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