President Bush on Wednesday expanded the worldwide terrorism hunt beyond Osama bin Laden and unveiled posters of 22 “most wanted terrorists,” who are accused of plotting five deadly attacks on American targets over the last two decades.
Standing at the FBI headquarters near a wall of posters displaying photographs of the fugitives, the president declared: “Terrorism has a face and today we expose it for the world to see.”
“All our allies and friends will now be familiar with these evildoers and their associates. For those who join our coalition, we expect results, and a good place to start would be to help us bring these folks to justice,” Bush said. “Eventually, no corner of the world will be dark enough to hide in.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft joined the president on his visit to the FBI, the hub of the investigation into the terrorist attacks. The presidential appearance Wednesday underscored the notion that the investigation and the military actions are linked, in purpose and in politics.
Authorities said they have detained or arrested 655 people in the United States and are searching for 202 more, though officials said the number of people with direct knowledge of the attacks is much slimmer. No one has been charged with helping plot the hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
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3 more arrests in Europe
In Italy and Germany, authorities on Wednesday arrested three men suspected of having links to bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network. A Libyan was arrested in Munich and two Tunisians were apprehended in Milan, according to a spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington. The men allegedly are part of a North African terrorist cell that has suspected ties to bin Laden.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, which claimed victims from more than 60 countries, scores of arrests have been reported around the world. But until Wednesday little exposure had been given to this group of terrorist suspects who have been wanted for years by the U.S. government.
Bin Laden and the 21 other men on the “most wanted terrorist” list have been charged in five attacks, including the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the 1998 attack on U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The Bush administration also repeated Wednesday its offer of $5 million for information on the location of bin Laden. A senior Justice Department official said the offer of rewards for bin Laden and the other suspects aren’t intended to bring them in “dead or alive” as President Bush has suggested several times.
“We’re paying for information on their whereabouts,” the official said.
The State Department is offering rewards of up to $110 million for information that leads to the capture of all 22 terrorist suspects–a prospect authorities acknowledge is unlikely. But U.S. officials are hopeful that releasing the names and photographs of the 22 terrorist suspects will stir new information on the fugitives.
“Terrorists live in the shadows, under the cover of darkness,” Bush said. “We will shine the light of justice on them. Our global manhunt will track the trail of terror and leave no place to hide.”
Posters circulated worldwide
The posters, which decorated the wooden paneling of the FBI auditorium and will be sent around the world, list detailed information on the suspects. The bin Laden poster describes him as standing 6-feet-4 to 6-feet-6 and weighing 160 pounds.
“Bin Laden is believed to be in Afghanistan,” the poster declared. “He is left-handed and walks with a cane.”
Bin Laden is charged with the Aug. 7, 1998, bombing of the two U.S. Embassies in Africa that killed 11 U.S. citizens and more than 200 Kenyans. Government officials don’t expect that the Saudi multimillionaire will be turned over. The wanted posters are designed to illustrate that the investigation–and the military action–started with crimes.
“They have blood on their hands from Sept. 11 and from other acts against America in Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen,” Powell said, referring also to the bombing of the USS Cole last year in Yemen, which killed 17 U.S. sailors.
In addition to bin Laden, two of his top lieutenants are named on the list of embassy bombing suspects. Investigators believe the men, Mohammed Atef and Ayman al-Zawahiri, also may have helped finance or plan the Sept. 11 hijackings.
Other suspects on the list are charged in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Greece to Italy, on which a U.S. Navy diver was tortured and murdered. Four men on the list are linked to a 1996 bombing at the Khobar Towers military housing complex in Saudi Arabia in which 19 U.S. Air Force personnel were killed, authorities said.
Meanwhile, as government officials warned of additional terrorist attacks in the United States, local authorities jumped on dozens of possible threats. Two U.S.-Canadian border crossings were closed after customs officials received a bomb threat. Parts of the subway system in Washington were closed for the second straight day, though reports of a chemical attack proved untrue.
Charges dropped in Detroit
In Detroit, a criminal complaint has been dismissed against a man whose residence was searched Sept. 17. Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 21, had been charged with identity fraud; fraud and misuse of visas, passports and other documents; and conspiracy to commit those crimes. But federal prosecutors dropped the complaint Wednesday, and Ali-Haimoud was released, according to his lawyer, Heather Bendure.
FBI agents searched the home looking for another man, Nabil Al-Marabh, who was arrested two days later in suburban Chicago and transported to New York as a material witness in the terrorist attacks.
The FBI’s ‘most wanted terrorists’
The FBI released the names and photographs Wednesday of 22 alleged terrorists most wanted for their involvement in 5 terrorist acts. The Justice Department has set rewards of $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any of the individuals.
NAME
NATIONALITY
ASSUMED LOCATION
COMMENT
WANTED FOR: HIJACKING OF TWA FLT. 847
June 14, 1985: Hijackers killed one passenger before holding the others hostage for 17 days.
Ali Atwa
Lebanese
Lebanon
Hassan Izz-al-Din
Lebanese
Lebanon
– Alleged members of the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization.
Imad Mugniyah
Lebanese
Iran
– Alleged head of security for Hezbollah.
WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING
Feb. 26, 1993: A bomb in a van in the underground parking lot of the World Trade Center garage exploded, killing 6 people and injuring more than 1,000. Bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef was sentenced to 240 years in prison.
Abdul RahmanYasin
American
Unknown
PLOT TO BOMB AIRCRAFT IN FAR EAST
January 1995: Conspirators hatched a plot in Manila, Philippines, to bomb 12 commercial U.S. airliners flying routes from Southeast Asia to the United States. An FBI investigation resulted in life sentences for three other conspirators.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammad
Kuwaiti
Unknown
KHOBAR TOWERS BOMBING IN SAUDI ARABIA
June 25, 1996: Terrorists detonated a bomb 85 feet from the towers, killing 19 U.S. Air Force personnel.
Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Mughassil
Saudi Arabian
Unknown
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Ali Saed Bin Ali el-Hour
Saudi Arabian
Unknown
Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub
Saudi Arabian
Unknown
Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser
Saudi Arabian
Unknown
U.S EMBASSY BOMBINGS IN KENYA AND TANZANIA
Aug. 7, 1998: Car bombs exploded outside the two U.S. Embassies, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injuring more than 4,000.
Osama bin Laden
Saudi Arabian
Afghanistan
– Alleged leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
Mohammed Atef
Egyptian
Unknown
– Alleged to be Osama bin Laden’s second in command.
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Egyptian
Afghanistan
– Founder of Islamic Jihad, believed to be bin Laden’s doctor, adviser.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed
Kenyan
Unknown
– Believed to have computer skills.
Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil
Egyptian, Kenyan
Unknown
Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam
Kenyan
Unknown
– Worked as a clothing vendor
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
Tanzanian
Unknown
Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan
Kenyan
Unknown
– Managed a trucking business in Kenya.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
Egyptian
Afghanistan
– Fled Nairobi, Kenya, on Aug. 6, 1998, for Pakistan.
Anas al-Liby
Libyan
Afghanistan
– Recently lived in Britain, where he was given asylum.
Saif al-Adel
Egyptian
Afghanistan
– Believed to be a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda.
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Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali
Egyptian
Afghanistan
– Fled Kenya Aug. 2, 1998, for Karachi, Pakistan.
Mushin Musa Matwalli Atwah
Egyptian
Afghanistan
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation