Special Report: Aftermath of Terror
FBI Questions Former Employer Of Men Arrested After Hijackings
By JERRY MARKON and TOM HAMBURGER Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
As federal investigators continue their hunt for those responsible for sending anthrax through the mail, they are following the trail of the 19 hijackers and those who may have ties to them.
In New Jersey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun testing the belongings of three men taken into custody after the Sept. 11 attacks for traces of anthrax. Meanwhile, the owner of a Newark newsstand who employed the men is cooperating with authorities looking into their backgrounds.
Federal investigators say they still are considering the possibility that a domestic group is responsible for the anthrax crisis. But the agency also is pursuing the notion that the anthrax attacks may be related to the hijackers and Osama bin Laden.
Usman Bandukra, the newsstand owner, contacted authorities after seeing news reports that two of the men -- Ayub Ali Khan and Mohamad Azmath -- had been arrested on Sept. 12 in Fort Worth, Texas, with thousands of dollars in cash and box-cutter knives in their possession, according to Mr. Bandukra's lawyer, Richard Gruber.
In several interviews with FBI agents and federal prosecutors since then, Mr. Bandukra has turned over employment records for Mr. Khan, Mr. Azmath and the third man, Mohammad Aslam Pervez, Mr. Gruber said. All three men lived in the same Jersey City, N.J., apartment and worked at the newsstand, S&S News at Newark's Penn Station. Old magazines with articles about bioterrorism were found in the apartment and had subscription labels with Mr. Khan's name.
Special Agent Sandra Carroll, spokeswoman for the FBI's office in New Jersey, where hundreds of investigators are working to trace who mailed the letters that were sent from Trenton to Washington and New York City -- said anthrax tests on items removed from the Jersey City apartment have begun. So far, there are no links between the two men and the anthrax incidents, Ms. Carroll said. The investigators plan to return to the apartment once those tests are complete, she said.
According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan last week, Mr. Pervez also denied to FBI agents writing about $51,000 in checks during 1996 and making deposits of more than $62,000 in checks and money orders during 1995 and 1996, as well as one this year. Some of Mr. Pervez's checks were written to S&S News and its owner, and some of the checks deposited into Mr. Pervez's account came from the newsstand owner, the complaint says. Mr. Pervez is charged with perjury and is being held without bail.
In Florida, pharmacists received subpoena requests during the weekend for details about anyone purchasing Cipro and other antibiotics during the year. In Tennessee, FBI agents tracked reports that Mohammed Atta, the presumed leader of the hijackers, made two visits to a small airfield located next to a chemical plant.
In Oklahoma, FBI agents searched the home of a man acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, a French-Moroccan novice pilot who had shown interest in crop dusting. Recently, agents have begun asking more questions about Mr. Moussaoui, the 33-year-old novice pilot from France who was arrested in Minnesota after telling flight instructors he wanted to fly commercial jets but wasn't much interested in learning to take off or land.
He is being held in New York on a material-witness warrant. He has refused to explain why he had information on crop dusting and wind currents on his laptop computer, according to investigators. During the weeks before the Sept. 11 attack, Mr. Atta also showed interest in crop dusters, which might be used to distribute anthrax or other biological agents.
Mr. Moussaoui was arrested on Aug. 17, after he raised suspicions by paying more than $8,000 in cash to the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Eagan, Minn., and insisting to instructors that he wanted to learn to fly commercial aircraft. Before traveling to Minnesota, he spent five months in Norman, Okla., taking pilot lessons.
Last week the FBI searched the home of man who had befriended Mr. Moussaoui when he was studying to be a pilot in Norman, Okla.
The man, Mujahid Abdulqaadir, is an American citizen living in Norman. He is being held in New York on a material-witness warrant. His home computer and personal papers were seized last week by the FBI.
In the meantime, the FBI is chasing reports that Mr. Atta flew a small single-engine aircraft to an airfield at Copperhill, Tenn. Mr. Atta is believed to have landed there earlier during the year and inquired about a nearby chemical plant. John Rutkosky, the retired airport manager, said he has been contacted by the FBI within the past week about his sighting of Mr. Atta.
Mr. Rutkosky's encounter occurred about a month after Mr. Atta's first visit to the airfield. In the initial visit, a pilot at the airport was questioned by Mr. Atta, when the alleged hijacker flew there in a single-engine plane with a companion. Mr. Atta began interrogating the pilot about the chemical plant, which has ceased operating.
As for Mr. Pervez, who came to the U.S. from his native Pakistan in the late 1980s, little is known about his movements early in September. He began working for Mr. Bandukra's Newark newsstand in the early 1990s, then worked at the Trenton newsstand that he and Mr. Bandukra purchased from 1996 to 1998, before resuming work at the Newark facility in October 1998. He left on Sept. 1.
Although Mr. Bandukra isn't named in the complaint, Mr. Gruber confirmed that Mr. Bandukra and Mr. Pervez exchanged checks. Mr. Gruber said it was a business transaction: Mr. Pervez invested about $40,000 in a newsstand that Mr. Bandukra was buying at the Trenton railroad station. When the purchase price dropped, Mr. Bandukra refunded part of Mr. Pervez's investment, Mr. Gruber said.
"There's no mystery here," said Mr. Gruber, who added that he and his client "didn't have a clue" how Mr. Pervez came up with the money he invested.
Mr. Gruber said Mr. Bandukra has been told by federal authorities he isn't under suspicion. Mr. Bandukra declined to comment, according to Mr. Gruber. Attorneys for Mr. Azmath and Mr. Khan couldn't be located.
Charles Lavine, a lawyer for Mr. Pervez, declined to comment.
-- Gary Fields in Washington and Mark Schoofs in New York contributed to this article.