Seattle Security Officials Unaware Of Threats Mentioned By Rice
April 9, 2004
By KOMO Staff & Seattle P-I.Com
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.
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