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Seattle Security Officials
Unaware Of Threats Mentioned By Rice SEATTLE - Security officials here say they were never
told that federal agents suspected al-Qaida terrorists might try to hijack a
plane and free convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam, information mentioned by
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in her testimony to the Sept. 11
Commission.
Ressam is an important government witness in terrorism cases. Since his 1999
arrest has spent most of his time in the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac,
south of Seattle.
Rice told the Sept. 11 Commission on Thursday that the CIA had warned
President Bush of possible activity. She said that checks had been made on
whether a courthouse involving the Ressam case in 2001 was under surveillance
and that "the FBI had full field investigations under way."
But Charles Mandigo, retired FBI special agent in charge for Seattle, told
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that no one informed him of threats to the
detention center or the courthouse.
The chief district judge who presided over Ressam's case, a deputy U.S.
marshal charged with courthouse security, Ressam's defense lawyer Tom Hillier,
and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Gonzalez, who helped prosecute Ressam,
all said they also were never apprised of the possible danger, the newspaper
reported in Friday editions.
The local joint terrorism task force likewise was not told of an
investigation of threats against the courthouse or the center, said a federal
anti-terrorism agent who the paper did not identify.
A White House spokesman defended Rice's testimony as accurate.
"These statements represent what was in the PDB (president's daily brief from
the CIA)," said spokesman Frederick Jones.
When asked why federal and local law enforcement weren't aware of the
information, Jones told the newspaper: "I cannot take at prima facie value that
you've contacted the correct FBI agents. I don't know what the ground truth is."
He said it was up to intelligence agencies to determine whether information
in the CIA briefing was correct.
Rice's comments came in response to aggressive questioning from Sept. 11
Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste about the content of the intelligence briefing.
She said the Aug. 6, 2001, briefing was at Bush's request for information on
whether "something might happen or something might be planned by al-Qaida inside
the United States. He asked because all of the threat reporting or the threat
reporting that was actionable was about the threats abroad, not about the United
States."
Rice went on to say the briefing had "a discussion of whether or not they
might use hijacking to try and free a prisoner who was being held in the United
States ... Ressam. It reported that the FBI had full field investigations under
way.
"And we checked on the issue of whether or not there was something going on
with surveillance of buildings, and we were told, I believe, that the issue was
the courthouse in which this might take place."
Her comments also included mention of Osama bin Laden's appreciation of the
1993 bombing, apparently in reference to the February attack that year on the
World Trade Center in New York.
Ressam was arrested by U.S. Customs agents in Port Angeles on Dec. 14, 1999,
when he tried to enter the United States on a ferry from Victoria, British
Columbia, in a car containing explosives.
He is awaiting sentencing after agreeing to testify in other terrorism cases.
Proceedings in his case began in Seattle before Chief District Judge John
Coughenour, who moved the trial to Los Angeles because of pretrial publicity.
Coughenour, who has top-secret security clearance, presided over the case in
both cities.
"No, I never heard anything about it," Coughenour said of the courthouse
surveillance. The Mulindwas Communication Group
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