Discussing N.Y. Blast Gets FBI Aide Suspended

Underscoring the sensitivity of the World Trade Center bombing prosecution, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh has suspended the chief of the FBI’s New York office for commenting about the case on television, it was disclosed Tuesday.

Freeh suspended James Fox, soon to retire as an assistant director after more than 30 years of service, for commenting that a confidential FBI informant “gave us nothing (that) would have prevented the bombing” that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 last Feb. 26.

Although the comments added nothing new to what Freeh’s predecessor, FBI Director William S. Sessions, had said publicly last summer, Fox’s remarks came after the first trial was under way and followed admonishments from the judge, from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and from Freeh himself that no official was to comment about the federal prosecution.

Fox, a popular executive with his 1,100-agent force in New York, routinely had given news briefings after last February’s explosion while the FBI and other agencies were trying to solve the case. But he has been much less visible since the trial began last September for four persons accused of bombing the twin skyscrapers.

The FBI has been embarrassed by the conduct of a key confidential informant, Emad Ali Salem, who secretly recorded his conversations with FBI agents. Transcripts of those recordings leaked to New York news media indicated that Salem claimed he had had a role in the trade center bombing and had alerted the FBI--a claim that federal officials have dismissed as empty boasting to increase his informant fees.

Salem, a former military officer, was once a bodyguard to Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, who has been charged as the leader of a larger terrorist ring that also plotted to bomb United Nations headquarters and the Lincoln and Holland commuter tunnels in Manhattan.

Fox, during a half-hour TV interview on his government career, said of Salem: “He gave us nothing. No one gave us anything. If we had information, we would have prevented the bombing.”

FBI spokesman John Collingwood said that Freeh, a former judge, deemed the comments “inappropriate.”

A government source said that U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White in New York telephoned Freeh after Fox’s Dec. 4 interview to express “horror and indignation” that Fox had discussed the case, even briefly. Freeh telephoned Fox on Dec. 10 to apprise him of his suspension, with pay, until his retirement Jan. 2.

Fox, 55, has specialized in counterterrorism and organized crime investigations during a career that began in 1962. Before taking over the New York office in 1987, he held positions in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this article.