By Dan Eggen And Bob Woodward
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The FBI is conducting more than 150 separate investigations into groups and individuals in the United States with possible ties to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization, according to senior U.S. officials.
The domestic targets include dozens of people who are under electronic surveillance through national security warrants, and others who are being watched by undercover agents attempting to learn more about their activities and associates, officials said.
Until now, law enforcement authorities had not disclosed the number of active al-Qaida investigations in the United States. The large number of cases suggests the FBI’s efforts against the terrorist network have gone well beyond the widely publicized dragnet that has ensnared hundreds of people in the United States and overseas.
The officials declined to offer details of the roughly 150 open investigations, or to name their targets. Some of the cases revolve around suspects already in U.S. custody, but most involve individuals who have been questioned and released or who have never been detained, officials said. They are hoping both to build possible criminal cases and monitor the development of possible terrorist plots.
"It runs the spectrum from one end to another," said one senior U.S. law enforcement official. "We don’t want to suggest that they are all al-Qaida terrorists running around loose. Some are very serious, but some are just suspected links or suspicious conduct . … The goal is to be on top of any possible plans."
U.S. counterterrorism investigators are unsure exactly how many al-Qaida operatives and sympathizers are in the United States, although in the days after Sept. 11 they identified four or five active cells that they put under intensive surveillance. Many of the active investigations involve people with marginal or unclear ties to al-Qaida, and are unlikely to result in criminal charges, officials said.
But the sheer number of active FBI investigations suggests the al-Qaida presence is far broader than previously known, several terrorism experts and law enforcement officials said.
"It is a good indicator of the depth of al-Qaida presence here," said Robert Blitzer, a former FBI counterterrorism official. "Hopefully, working these cases will lead to many more, and you’ll have a better sense of the infrastructure at work here. … The idea is to figure out what these individuals or groups are doing, what they might be planning and to try to penetrate the group and get closer to them."
The presence of al-Qaida members in the United States is of concern to senior Bush administration officials, who have issued several alerts since Sept. 11 warning of the possibility of another attack. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller have repeatedly said they view preventing another terror attack as their main priority, rather than securing criminal convictions.
Although more than 1,200 people have been detained in the United States, only a handful are believed to have ties to al-Qaida. Only one man, accused hijacking conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, has been charged so far in connection with the Sept. 11 plot.
In addition to the domestic detentions, the CIA has passed information to foreign intelligence services, which have had more than 500 suspected terrorists arrested or detained abroad.
The domestic dragnet has prompted criticism from civil libertarians, as well as concern from some former law enforcement officials and terrorism experts that the Justice Department is not effectively pursuing al-Qaida. But sources said the government is expanding its battle against terrorism with new tools and is now focused on a variety of leads.
For instance, an initiative to interview more than 5,200 young male visitors who entered the United States within the past two years has resulted in an increase in the number of ongoing domestic investigations related to bin Laden, according to law enforcement officials.
Another factor has been the recent anti-terrorism bill approved by Congress, which has given federal prosecutors and FBI agents an expanded ability to open criminal investigations based on information gathered for intelligence purposes. FBI and Justice officials said the law prompted an almost immediate surge in criminal terrorism investigations, especially those related to al-Qaida and bin Laden.
"We have gotten a great deal of new information that has led to new cases since 9-11," one official said. "The numbers have increased substantially."
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