http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/HallsOfJustice/hallsofjustice133.html Schumer told the hearing that if the FBI had not been required to show that Moussaoui was an agent of a foreign power, agents "could have searched his computer files and, perhaps, come up with information needed to foil the hijackers' plans. And that may have been enough to force someone to put two and two together — to add the Moussaoui information with the Phoenix memo and realize something truly horrible was afoot."
A Slight and Momentary Digression
This argument, of course, has now become received wisdom in this town. Everybody now believes absolutely that the Minneapolis FBI was right. In her scathing memo to FBI chief Robert Mueller detailing the failed battle her field office waged for search warrants in the Moussaoui case, agent Coleen Rowley knew exactly what she was ranting about (despite the fact she told the Senate Judiciary Committee she's not really that familiar with FISA) — the agents at headquarters were cowards or idiots for not approving the warrant.
The fact of the matter is that at that time there was not even probable cause that Moussaoui was engaged in, or preparing to engage in, international terrorism. The French said he was tied to radical groups, including Chechens, but the United States did not consider them to be terrorists, and there was no mention of any al Qaeda connection.
So it's unlikely that even with the Schumer-Kyl proposed change, that a warrant for Moussaoui, based on what was known pre-9/11, would have been approved.
But the second part of the equation is equally fallacious; that if the agents had gained access to Moussaoui's computer, the information in it could somehow have enabled them to foil the terrorists' plans. In fact, the computer contained information about crop-dusting and flying 747s — perhaps suspicious, but far from a blueprint of the horrors of Sept. 11.
Even combining that arguably innocuous information with the notorious Phoenix memo's recommendation that the FBI check out Middle Easterners enrolled in U.S. flight schools would not likely have unraveled the terrorists' plot.
Some have maintained that if Moussaoui's luggage had also been searched, agents would have found the phone number of a man in Hamburg, Germany, with whom Mohamed Atta had stayed. But pre-9/11, the names of Atta and Bin Al Shibh and Darkazanli would have meant virtually nothing to investigators
Max B. Sawicky wrote:
> I remember the injunction against looking into the computer.
> I don't remember anything about "plans" being on it.
>
> mbs
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org]On
> Behalf Of joand315
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 12:46 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Dick Morris
>
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>
>>Dick Morris just said on the Daily Show that the FBI had Moussaoui's
>>computer a month before 9/11, which contained plans for the Pentagon
>>attack, but those dreadful pre-Patriot laws prevented them from looking
>>at it. Does anyone know what he's talking about?
>
>
> The FBI HQ in Washington, if I remember correctly, refused the request
> from the FBI in Minneapolis, to ask for a search warrant from the FISC,
> so that they could look at the computer, because they had just been
> reprimanded by that court for lying to it several times when asking for,
> as it turned out, less important search warrants. Back in those days,
> you remember you had to have a search warrant to look at other people's
> stuff and you weren't supposed to lie about the reason for requesting
> it. Those were the Pre-Patriot days.
> -joan
>
>
>>Doug
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>
>
>
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