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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 21, 2001
WASHINGTON -- After 40 days of the most aggressive criminal investigation in American history, federal law enforcement officials have arrested 830 people but have failed to develop evidence that anyone now in custody was a conspirator in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Despite pursuing more than 365,000 tips from the public, senior investigators in the United States acknowledged that most of their promising leads for finding accomplices and some of their long-held suspicions about several suspects have unraveled.
Beyond that, none of the nearly 100 people still being sought by the FBI is seen as a major suspect, law enforcement officials said.
The widespread arrests began the day of the terrorist attacks, and the numbers steadily mounted as agents tracked down people through logs of the hijackers' cell phones, through interviews with their neighbors and through tips phoned in or sent to the FBI's web site. But none of those arrested have been accused of playing a supporting role in the hijackings. Most are being held on unrelated immigration violations, traffic violations or charges of falsifying documents, prompting complaints from civil rights advocates and immigration lawyers.
But the arrests have a purpose beyond the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks: preventing further attacks. And on that score, U.S. officials say the detentions have been much more successful.
Senior government officials say they believe they have captured at least 10 members of Osama bin Laden's network, al-Qaida, who may have been involved in cells planning other attacks.
Investigators say they know the hijackers received financial and logistical support from a small group of al-Qaida lieutenants outside the country, and the investigation has increasingly focused overseas.
The search for potential conspirators in this country has centered on nearly 20 material witnesses who are believed to have important information and have been brought to Manhattan for detention. But in recent weeks at least nine of them have been released from jail, officials said, and those still in custody are not cooperating.
In the past 10 days, two men have been charged with lying to the grand juries investigating the attacks. One was charged in Phoenix with giving false statements to the federal investigators about his association with Hani Hanjour, the hijacker believed to have piloted the jet that crashed into the Pentagon. A Jordanian man attending college in California was charged with making false statements describing his association with two other hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar.
The charges allow the authorities to keep the men in jail while they continue to investigate. But law enforcement officials say there is no evidence either man knew of the Sept. 11 plot.
EDMONTON, Alberta -- Three men arrested in northern Alberta on immigration charges are wanted for questioning by the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a government lawyer.
Emad Jamal Hassan, Yousef al-Amleh and Mohamadkhair Salah were arrested last week in Fort McMurray, Alberta, on charges of immigration violations.
An FBI spokesman from Chicago said two of the men were wanted there in a fraud investigation, with no link to the terrorist attacks.
-- Associated Press