Request to search computer refused

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department turned down a request for a national security search warrant that would have allowed investigators to search the computer of a man who is now a material witness in the Sept. 11 attacks investigation.

As new details emerged about what terrorism activity the FBI was pursuing before the attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft pledged to work with Canadian officials to protect the U.S.-Canadian border from international terrorists.

Ashcroft said there's a risk that terrorists could slip into the country through the Canadian border and said the two countries were working together to tighten security.

"Anytime there are borders that are that open and that substantial, there are risks," Ashcroft said in an appearance with Canadian Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay, who has been appointed to a Cabinet-level commission to combat terrorism in Canada.

U.S. officials have told American allies that some of the same terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attack also are linked to the 1998 East African embassy bombings and the attack last year on the USS Cole.

The links, contained in a detailed summary of evidence sent to allies Monday, connects the hijackers to fugitive Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, who has been indicted in the embassy bombings and is thought by U.S. officials to have masterminded the Cole attack.

Ashcroft declined to offer details on any evidence but said, "The roots of these activities were in Afghanistan."

"From very early stages in the investigation, we saw Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida network, as being a focal point of those responsible for this act of terror," Ashcroft said. Al-Qaida is a terrorist network associated with bin Laden.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, a request to search the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Algerian being held in New York, was rejected because investigators didn't have enough information to justify the warrant, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Moussaoui was taken into custody on Aug. 17 after he raised suspicions by seeking jetliner training at a Minnesota flight school but did not want to learn how to land, officials said.

Moussaoui asked about opening cabin doors while planes were in flight, among other inquiries that raised suspicions, according to the law enforcement source. He was detained on immigration violations and was in jail when the attacks occurred.

On watch list

Police officials say France's internal security service had placed Moussaoui on a 1999 watch list of those possibly affiliated with militant Islamic groups.

But investigators did not have a strong case for a search warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the official said.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI got the warrant and found information related to jetliners and crop-dusters on Moussaoui's computer hard drive, fueling suspicions that he may have been part of the plot, officials said. The government also grounded crop-dusting planes temporarily.

One theory is that he was supposed to help hijack one of the four planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in the Pennsylvania countryside. The search warrant request was first reported by Newsweek magazine.

Moussaoui has been named a material witness -- meaning he is suspected of having information relevant to the case -- and sent to New York, where a grand jury on the terror case has been convened. He is not cooperating with authorities, the source said.

Tighter border security

Ashcroft's pledge for tighter border security came as documents showed that one person in custody as part of the terrorism investigation entered the country through Canada a few weeks before the attacks.

Immigration papers released Tuesday by the Justice Department showed authorities were holding a Pakistani who entered the country illegally through the Canadian border about two weeks before the Sept. 11 hijackings. The Pakistani, who tried to enter the country at Massena, N.Y., has been detained since Aug. 30, the documents said.