http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/35031.htm
FBI CLOSING IN ON EVIL GANG
By AL GUART
November 25, 2001 -- The FBI is close to making the first arrests on U.S. soil directly linked to the Sept. 11 World Trade Center terror attacks, The Post has learned. The arrests could be in New York City, possibly within days but certainly within two weeks, sources say.
"We're very close," a source said. "Stay tuned."
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force plans to round up between three and five suspects on charges they "aided and abetted" the 19 hijackers who turned two commercial jets into explosive missiles that brought down the Twin Towers, wrecked the Pentagon and claimed nearly 4,000 innocent lives.
"These are not material witnesses," one law-enforcement source said. "They facilitated the attack. They aided and abetted the hijackers."
Sources said the suspects had not been arrested earlier because they are under intense surveillance as the FBI seeks leads in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and others in his al Qaeda terror network.
The suspects' phones have been tapped for several weeks - with FBI agents under orders to make instant arrests at any sign they might attempt to flee, the sources said.
It is not known whether the suspects were planning something, or just hiding.
They could face 20 years to life in prison if convicted on a wide range of possible charges. They also could be tried in a special military court behind closed doors under new provisions ordered last week by President Bush.
While more than 1,000 people have been detained on immigration charges or as material witnesses in the United States, none has yet been indicted with a charge directly relating to the organization of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Overseas, alleged members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have been arrested and charged with having a hand in the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, including one suspect in Britain who allegedly taught four hijackers to fly and eight in Spain accused of aiding the plotters.
Meanwhile, the Immigration and Naturalization Service yesterday announced the arrest of a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad sympathizer in Tampa, Fla., on charges he violated his visa.
Mazen al Najjar, who helped raise money for the anti-Israel and anti-U.S. groups, was ordered deported by the U.S. 11th Circuit court in Atlanta.
Al Najjar is not directly linked to Sept. 11.
Sources would not say what led the FBI to the suspects, but there are several possibilities:
* Evidence gleaned from suspected al Qaeda members busted in Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain, Jordan and other countries in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
* Information from scores of material witnesses who testified before grand juries here.
* Leads spilled by suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who has allegedly cooperated with probers here since he was brought to the city Sept. 13 on immigration charges.
Moussaoui, 33, was arrested Aug. 17 after he drew suspicion at a Minnesota flight school by paying $6,800 in cash to train on a flight simulator to learn how to steer a Boeing 747.
An FBI check of his computer turned up information about crop-dusters, spurring the Federal Aviation Administration to ban their use nationwide for several days.
Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan descent, is suspected of being part of a separate planned hijacking attack in Europe, federal sources said. But he is yet to be charged with anything other than immigration violations.
The FBI also has continued to probe meetings between Mohamed Atta and other hijackers that are thought to have taken place at the Helmsley New York Hotel just days before the attack.