352 Held, 400 Sought in Dragnet, Ashcroft Says

U.S. authorities have taken 352 people into custody and are looking for nearly 400 more who might have information on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft disclosed Monday.

The new numbers dwarf previous reports about those detained and sought in the probe, underscoring how much secrecy surrounds the investigation. Until Monday, it was known only that about 80 people were being held on immigration charges in connection with the case, while perhaps a dozen others had been arrested as “material witnesses.”

Ashcroft, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee to urge passage of legislation that would give authorities stronger tools to fight terrorists, said the new numbers show that the investigation is “moving aggressively forward.” Authorities have also conducted 324 searches and issued 3,410 subpoenas, he said.

Law enforcement authorities say some of the people arrested in the case are cooperating with authorities and that the investigation has already produced key evidence about how the suspected terrorists were organized, financed and trained.

Some of those 352 people who Ashcroft said have been taken into custody may have already been released, Justice Department officials said.

But authorities refused to give a breakdown of the 352 people or the charges against them because they said it could compromise the sensitivity and secrecy surrounding the investigation. Many of the documents in the case have been sealed by court order.

Officials said that 98 of those detained are being held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for alleged immigration violations.

“Some of these people could be very tangential to the case,” acknowledged one FBI official who asked not to be identified. But others may prove critical in reconstructing how the hijackers were able to infiltrate American society and plot their attacks.

Some Arab-American leaders and civil rights groups questioned whether authorities are rounding up Middle Easterners with little or no direct connection to the case.

Of the several dozen people whom authorities have publicly acknowledged detaining, virtually all are of Middle Eastern heritage. “When you’re talking about hundreds of people being arrested, it brings a chill to the whole American Muslim community,” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Southern California branch.

“The problem is that we know very little about who is being held and on what basis. We’re putting a lot of trust in our government not to abuse the powers given them,” he said in an interview.

Questions About Why Some Are Being Held

Ayloush said his group has been contacted by friends and family of four men who are in federal detention in connection with the case--all Middle Easterners who were attending college in Orange County on student visas. Ayloush said that despite federal charges that the men had violated immigration law, all four appear to have valid, current visas.

The American Islamic group has also been contacted by two other people who were subpoenaed to come to New York to testify before a federal grand jury. One is a San Diego man who may have worked with a suspected hijacker at a gas station there, Ayloush said.

The FBI has picked up material witnesses in New York, Texas, Los Angeles and elsewhere, according to law enforcement sources, while others were arrested by local and state authorities around the country because of their possible connections to the case.

Two detainees who have drawn particular scrutiny are a pair of men from India who were removed from a train in Fort Worth on the day of the attacks. Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47, who authorities said were carrying box-cutters and thousands of dollars in cash, were arrested as material witnesses and transferred to New York City for questioning.

Investigators are also focusing on Zacarias Moussaiou, who was arrested on immigration charges in Minnesota in August and had allegedly offered to pay thousands of dollars in cash for flight lessons but only wanted to learn how to steer, not to land. Investigators suspect that Moussaiou may have had contact with at least two of the hijackers in the attacks.

In one of the few cases in which authorities have released public documents, federal court records in Virginia showed Monday that authorities have arrested a man who allegedly helped five of the suspected hijackers illegally obtain Virginia driver’s licenses.

The hijackers allegedly paid several hundred dollars to obtain false, notarized identification documents from a law office, allowing them to then get driver’s licenses.

The man appears to be the first to be publicly charged with helping the terrorists, but he is not charged with participating in the plot to hijack jetliners and crash them into buildings.

Also Several Dozen Arrests in Europe

Authorities in Europe have also arrested several dozen people in connection with the terrorist investigation in recent days, but a relative of a 26-year-old fugitive wanted in Germany for mass murder as an accomplice in the Sept. 11 terror attacks insisted Monday that authorities have the wrong man.

Osman Kul, whose daughter is married to fugitive Said Bahaji, said his son-in-law is a devout Muslim who couldn’t have played any part in the attacks.

“I would have nothing to do with these crazy people, these terrorists who killed thousands of innocent people. They will burn in hell for eternity for what they did,” he said, adding that he was horrified by the slaughter and felt deep compassion for the American people.

But U.S. authorities said the expansion of the investigation to Europe underscores the worldwide threat posed by terrorist networks.

“The highly coordinated attacks of Sept. 11,” Ashcroft told members of Congress on Monday, “make it clear that terrorism is the activity of expertly organized, highly coordinated and well-financed organizations and networks.”

Indeed, authorities suspect that the terrorists may have been planning additional hijackings that day that were thwarted only after all commercial flights were grounded. And the Justice Department has put out warnings around the country about the threats of other attacks, many of them unsubstantiated.

These included an FBI advisory about a threat that “a film studio in California could be the target of a terrorist bombing attack in retaliation for any possible bombing attacks by the United States in Afghanistan.”

Officials in California downplayed the threat, but a law enforcement source disclosed Monday that Ashcroft took it seriously enough that he called Gov. Gray Davis personally last week to alert him.

Davis’ office refused to provide any details of the conversation. “It was a private conversation. [We have] no details other than to confirm what you have discovered,” said Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio.

*

Times staff writers Carol J. Williams in Hamburg, Germany, and Dan Morain in Sacramento contributed to this report.

RELATED STORY

Crop-dusting concerns: Terrorist interest in spray planes spurs U.S. to consider new restrictions. A3