http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010918/ts/attack_investigation_dc_23.html Tuesday September 18 7:55 PM ET News Home - Yahoo! - My Yahoo! - News Alerts - Help FBI Investigating Florida Terrorist Connection (WKMG, Orlando) By James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) is investigating whether other airplanes may have been targeted for hijacking as it seeks to question more than 190 people about last week's deadly airline attacks, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said on Tuesday. Ashcroft also said 75 people who may have helpful information about the attacks are in custody for immigration violations, and new steps were adopted allowing even longer detention of such individuals before charges must be brought. ``We are looking at the possibility that there may have been more than four planes targeted for hijacking, but we are not able at this time to confirm that,'' he told a news conference at FBI headquarters. Two of the airplanes hijacked a week ago slammed into New York's World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon (news - web sites) outside Washington and a fourth into a field in rural Pennsylvania. The toll of people officially listed as dead or missing following the Sept. 11 assaults approached 6,000 on Tuesday. Ashcroft said he directed the head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to revise its regulations, which had allowed for 24 hours for a decision on whether to charge a person taken into custody because of a violation. ``The revision announced last night expands the 24-hour time period to 48 hours, or to an additional reasonable time, if necessary, under an emergency, or in other extraordinary circumstances,'' Ashcroft said. EVERY LEGAL STEP ``We have a responsibility to use every legal means at our disposal to prevent further terrorist activity by taking people into custody who have violated the law and who may pose a threat to America,'' he said. Federal law enforcement officials said investigators were trying to determine whether any of those in custody may have planned other hijackings and they stepped up the search for accomplices in the biggest investigation in FBI history. In Washington, D.C., an FBI official told reporters the hijackers and their known associates used public computers, such as those in libraries, as well as their own personal computers to communicate. ``They did use it (the Internet) and they used it well,'' the official said of the e-mails of the hijackers and their associates. The FBI has been able to get e-mails that date back as far as 30 to 45 days, the official said. The official said the e-mails were in English and Arabic, that there were hundreds of communications, and the e-mails were not just limited to the United States. The hijackers did not use encryption techniques, the official said. The official said the FBI had received good cooperation in the investigation from Internet service providers, along with banks in tracing the money trail and the airline industry. In south Florida, where a number of the suspected hijackers are thought to have lived recently, the FBI searched library computer records, librarians said on Tuesday. In Fort Lauderdale on Monday, FBI officials searched Broward County Library records of patrons who signed up to use some 600 computers with Internet access at 37 library branches, dating back to Sept. 1, 2000, Libraries Director Sam Morrison told Reuters on Tuesday. Ashcroft said the list of more than 190 people wanted for questioning had been sent to federal, state and local law enforcement officials and to the airline industry. The list on Friday had more than 100 names. The officials said the FBI was investigating whether any of the 75 individuals -- up from 49 a day ago -- being held for immigration violations in the course of questioning about the attacks or those arrested as material witnesses may have been plotting other hijackings. SAUDI ARABIAN-BORN RADIOLOGIST QUESTIONED In San Antonio, a Saudi Arabian-born radiologist had been detained and was being questioned by the FBI after his apartment was raided last week, FBI agents said. He works at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. The FBI would not say whether he was suspected of being connected to two men who are in custody in New York after they were removed from an Amtrak train in Fort Worth, Texas, last week carrying box-cutters and a large amount of cash. The train was headed for San Antonio, and agents said the box-cutters were similar to those believed to have been used by hijackers in the attacks. The federal law enforcement officials said the FBI remained interested in the two men, who gave their names to police in Texas as Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47. They were flown to New York for questioning, they said. Investigators also remained interested in the first man who was arrested last week on a material witness warrant, the officials said. The man has not been identified. He initially had been stopped by police at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York with a fake pilots license. Another person flown to New York for questioning had been held in Minnesota, the officials said. That man was detained on Aug. 17 for immigration violations after he aroused suspicions by seeking to buy time on a flight simulator for jetliners at a Minnesota flight school, despite a lack of experience or skills, they said. None of the 75 taken into custody for immigration violations has been charged in connection with the hijackings, a Justice Department (news - web sites) official said. Ashcroft said the FBI had received more than 96,000 tips and potential leads. Email this story - View most popular | Printer-friendly format Earlier Stories FBI Probes if Other Planes May Be Targeted -Ashcroft (September 18) FBI Probes if Other Planes May Be Targeted-Ashcroft (September 18) Hijackers' Associates May Still Be in U.S. (September 18) CORRECTED: Hijackers' Associates May Still Be in U.S. (September 18) Ashcroft: Hijackers' Associates May Still Be in US (September 17) U.S. Moves to Bolster Arsenal in Terror Fight (September 16) Archived Stories by Date: News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs (841 msg Sep 19, 7:38 PM ET) Conversations: Start a live discussion News Alerts: terrorist terrorism world trade center osama | FBI | John Ashcroft | Justice Department | Pentagon More Alerts: News Bulletins, News, Mobile, Stocks ADVERTISEMENT Weekly Specials Search News Advanced Search: Stories Photos Audio/Video Full Coverage Home Top Stories Business Tech Politics World Local Entertainment Sports Op/Ed Science Health Full Coverage Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Questions or Comments Privacy Policy - Terms of Service -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]