Agent linked Arab students, Islamic radicals

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — An FBI agent’s warning last summer linked several Arab students training at U.S. aviation schools to a militant Muslim group in London whose leader openly supported Osama bin Laden, government officials said Wednesday.

The agent, Ken Williams, was concerned by the students’ affiliation with Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed’s group because the sheik had been involved with a fatwa, an Islamic call to action, that suggested airports as one of several legitimate attack targets in the United States, officials said.

In addition, Williams’ memo identified another Muslim figure in Arizona — who was not training at aviation schools but was linked through phone communications to one of bin Laden’s top lieutenants, Abu Zubaydah, the officials said.

The agent spent extensive time trying to link that man to one of the students, but never succeeded, officials said.

The officials declined to further describe the communications or the man who contacted Zubaydah, citing concerns about protecting intelligence-gathering methods.

Zubaydah is believed to be bin Laden’s operational chief, who ran al-Qaida’s terrorist training camps and is suspected of helping organize the Sept. 11 hijackings, U.S. officials have said.

Zubaydah was captured by the FBI and Pakistani officials during a raid in March and remains in U.S. custody. During interrogations, he has alleged made several threats against U.S. targets that have prompted protective warnings, officials say.

Current and former government officials who are familiar with Williams’ memo and debriefings said the counterterrorism agent from Phoenix ascertained that several Arab students training at Arizona flight school held anti-American views.

And through an interview with one of the students and other intelligence, Williams linked several of the Middle Easterners to the Al-Muhajiroun, an Islamic extremist group in London, the officials said.

Bakri, the group’s leader also known as Omar Bakri Fostok, has been connected by U.S. and British intelligence to bin Laden and has openly supported bin Laden’s calls for jihad, or holy war, against the United States, the officials said.

Williams’ memo mentioned one fatwa involving Bakri that identified several possible targets, including airports, the officials said.

Not mentioned in Williams’ memo were several other links between the London sheik, who is of Syrian descent, and bin Laden.

Bakri was one of several Muslim leaders to receive a letter faxed from Afghanistan in summer 1998 from bin Laden that laid out four objectives for a jihad against the United States, including downing airliners.

"Bring down their airliners. Prevent the safe passage of their ships. Occupy their embassies. Force the closure of their companies and banks," the bin Laden letter to Bakri read.

Bakri also is quoted as calling himself "the mouth, eyes and ears" of bin Laden and his group recruits young Muslims to participate in a jihad across the globe.

Shortly after the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in October 2000, Bakri received an international call claiming responsibility for the attack on the American ship from "Muhammad’s Army," an extremist group previously known to be active only in the Russian regions of Chechnya and Dagestan. U.S. officials believe bin Laden was behind that attack as well.

Bakri has issued other fatwas against British leaders and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf — some since Sept. 11, officials said.

The sources’ description of Williams’ evidence provides the most extensive disclosure to date of what prompted the veteran counterterrorism agent from Phoenix to send an electronic communication to FBI headquarters in Washington asking that the FBI canvass all U.S. flight schools to identify other Middle Eastern students who might be training.

He also asked that a system be set up to allow federal immigration officials to warn local FBI offices when new students came to train at aviation schools. The FBI did not act on his suggestions until after Sept. 11.

Williams identified several Arab students at Arizona aviation schools, including one school in Prescott, who were seeking training in aviation engineering, flight lessons and airport operations. He had ascertained that at least one of the students had also made inquiries about airport security operations, the officials said.