Justice Department Releases Photographs of 19 Suspected Hijackers
(Ashcroft, Mueller remarks at September 27 press conference) (730) By Wendy S. Ross Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director George Mueller, at a joint news conference September 27, released to the public photographs of the 19 persons believed to have hijacked the commercial airliners that crashed September 11 into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania. "It is our hope that the release of these photos will prompt others who may have seen the hijackers or been on contact with them to contact the FBI with any information they may have that would be helpful to the investigation," Ashcroft said. The photos can be viewed at http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/penttbom/penttbomb.htm. Mueller said the photographs have helped investigators across the nation and across the world "uncover information related to the hijackers and their potential associates. And we are releasing the pictures to the public at this time in the hopes that they will lead to further advances in the investigation." He asked anyone "who has information based upon these photographs to contact our FBI immediately, either through our toll- free hotline, which is 1-866-483-5137 -- again, 1-866-483-5137 -- or through our Web site, which is at www.ifccfbi.gov." Mueller said that "we've had over 100,000 tips on our Web site and our hotline. We actually have in excess of 200,000 leads that we are currently investigating. The photographs, he said, may have come from passports, a driver's license obtained in the United States, or other identification documents. "Consequently, these photographs we've identified with the individuals whose names appear on the manifests," of the airplanes. "What we are currently doing is determining whether when these individuals came to the United States these were their real names, or they changed their names for use with false identification in the United States; that false identification being used up to and on the day of September 11th, and that false identification used to purchase the tickets, and thereby being the name on the manifests of the planes that went down." The investigation, Mueller said, "has reached out to a number of countries to determine whether or not these individuals definitively, and the photographs we have here, and the names associated with these photographs, are the actual identities of the individuals prior to the time they came to the United States." Asked whether any of these 19 people are connected to terrorist groups, including Osama bin Laden, Mueller responded that "We believe that one or more of them do have contacts with al Qaeda." The primary focus of law enforcement, he said, "in addition to bringing to justice those responsible for the attacks on September 11th, is on preventing potential future attacks. We are working hard to identify and locate associates of the hijackers who may pose a threat to this nation." Mueller also said that federal indictments have been returned on two hate crime investigations related to attacks on Arab- or Muslim-Americans. "These indictments were based on FBI investigations in the Salt Lake City and Seattle field offices, and these indictments are proof that those who attempt to take out their anger and frustration on innocent Americans will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Mueller said. He added that since the September 11 attacks, "we've initiated approximately 90 hate crime investigations across the country in over 30 FBI field offices, and we remain committed to working with the various Arab-American, Muslim-American, and Sikh-American communities to assure that any such acts are vigorously investigated and prosecuted." Mueller said that earlier September 27 he had met "with key leaders of the Arab-American, Muslim-American and Sikh-American communities, and we addressed issues of mutual concern and discussed ways which we could together address those concerns. "I want to today acknowledge the outpouring of support and cooperation that the FBI has received from these communities, not only in the course of our investigation, but in response to our call last week for translators. We literally were inundated with volunteers from any one of the Arab-American, Muslim-American and Sikh-American communities. And I want to thank those communities for their assistance in this regard as well as their assistance in our investigations." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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