FBI held back probe of '20th hijacker'

NEW YORK, OCT. 6. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had held back its agents from opening a criminal probe of a man who investigators now suspect was meant to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks, a media report quoting a senior U.S. Justice Department official has said.

Mr. Zacarias Moussaoui, a 33-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested on August 17 on illegal immigration charges after he tried to learn flying large aircraft, but expressed no interest in mastering take off or landing, the New York times reported today.

Senior officials at FBI headquarters rejected requests from agents in Minneapolis for a wider investigation on two occasions, even after a French intelligence agency warned the bureau in a classified two-page cable on August 27 that Mr. Moussaoui had ``Islamic extremist beliefs''. Other law enforcement officials told The Times that the information about Mr. Moussaoui was also reviewed by a counter- terrorism panel before September 11. The panel set the issue aside because the panelists, among them officials from the FBI and the CIA, were unable to determine whether Mr. Moussaoui represented any threat.

Law enforcement officials said it remained unclear if an earlier and more aggressive investigation of Mr. Moussaoui might have turned up evidence that could have helped the authorities prevent the Sept 11 attacks.

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Section  : International
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