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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [crimgov] FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked
BREAKING NEWS
FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked
Fortune's investigative reporter, the only journalist to see
confidential document, reveals its true name and nature.
FORTUNE.COM
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
By Richard Behar
What happens when bosses ignore memos from subordinates? The
country is now learning the answer to that question in a most
painful way.
On July 10, 2001, an FBI agent in Phoenix wrote a memo raising
serious concerns about Middle Eastern men attending U.S. flight
schools. The memo never made its way up the chain of command, and
no action was taken. It wasn't seen by FBI Director Robert
Mueller until after Sept. 11, and President Bush wasn't made
aware of its contents until a few weeks ago. The confidential
document still hasn't been released, and yesterday it was the
subject of a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee session.
Recently, I had a chance to read the memo -- apparently the first
journalist to have done so. It was shown to me by a reliable
government source, who permitted me to take notes but wouldn't
let me copy it. What I learned -- and what FORTUNE aired
yesterday on CNN -- is chilling. The memo raises questions about
what federal law enforcement officers knew and what they did or
didn't do to protect the U.S. from terror attacks in the months
before Sept. 11. After reviewing the memo, one cannot help but
conclude that the FBI dropped the ball -- perhaps ignoring the
alert altogether.
The memo was written by Phoenix FBI Special Agent Kenneth J.
Williams, described as a member of "Squad 16," and it was
approved by a man named William A. Kurtz. The title reads:
"Zakaria Mustapha Soubra; IT-OTHER (Islamic Army of the
Caucasus)." The "synopsis" says: "Usama bin Laden and
Al-Muhjiroun supporters attending civil aviation
universities/colleges in Arizona." And the memo bears the FBI
codes: "Derived from G-3" and "Declassify on X1."
Soubra, the memo said, was a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University in Prescott, Ariz. (According to the Los Angeles
Times, he was questioned by FBI agents in 2000, after he was
observed at a shooting range with another Muslim, who was a
veteran of Islamic jihads in the Balkans and the Middle East. No
charges were brought against him, and he is currently a senior at
Embry-Riddle.) The organization named in the memo's title, the
Islamic Army of the Caucasus, is based in Chechnya and was at one
time headed by a man named Amir Khattab, who, according news
reports, is suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden.
The FBI's probe of Soubra, according to the Williams memo, was
instituted on April 17, 2000, nearly 17 months before last year's
terror attacks. Williams warns in his July 10 memo of a possible
"effort by Usama bin Laden to send students to the U.S. to attend
civil aviation universities and colleges." He also refers to a
"fatwa by Al-Muhjiroun, spiritual leader Sheikh Omar Bakri
Mohammed Fostok." (Fostok, according to news reports, once ran a
London-based radical group called the Islamic Liberation Party,
dedicated to overthrowing Western society. He was arrested for
suggesting that it was permissible to kill then British Prime
Minister John Major, which he denied and was released without any
charges being filed.)
The Williams memo included the names of several Middle Eastern
students, one identified as a "Saudi national," who were
apparently students at Embry-Riddle at the time. One reason FBI
officials have given for not releasing the memo is that several
of these individuals are still under investigation. So, although
those names are now in my notebook, they will not be published
here.
FBI officials apparently didn't do much with the Phoenix memo. It
was sent to roughly a dozen FBI officials, none of whom
apparently sent it to the agency's acting director. FBI Director
Mueller, who took over in early September, before the attacks,
concedes that the agency didn't act aggressively on the memo.
Among other lapses, it never shared the memo with the CIA, which
only learned of its existence a few weeks ago. So the question
is: Had senior FBI officials, the CIA, and the Bush
Administration seen the Phoenix memo, could they have stitched
together enough clues to prevent the terror attacks? That's
something that may take months of hearings and investigation to
answer. But the first step is clear: The memo should be released
immediately, names blacked-out if necessary, so we can all learn
what Agent Williams knew.
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http://www.fortune.com/articles/phoenix_memo.html
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