WASHINGTON'U.S. authorities said for the first time Tuesday that they have identified three al Qaeda operatives from Germany who they believe played key roles in the Sept. 11 hijackings, and FBI agents are working aggressively to apprehend the fugitives as their investigation shifts overseas.
U.S. investigators, working with their German counterparts, believe the three suspected terrorists were 'closely associated' with three of the hijackers, including suspected ringleader Mohammed Atta, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said. Two of the fugitives tried to gain entry to the United States months before the attacks'apparently to join the hijackers'but were denied entry, law enforcement sources said.
One of those whose visa requests were rejected at least three times by U.S. Embassy officials in Germany also has been linked to the terrorist attack in Yemen on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole.
Germany has already put out arrest warrants for the three men in recent weeks. But Tuesday was the first time U.S. law enforcement officials have publicly identified them'or anyone apart from the 19 dead hijackers'as direct participants in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ashcroft's remarks, made in a joint appearance with German Interior Minister Otto Schily, underscored the recent shift in the terrorist investigation's focus from the United States to Europe, where many of the hijackers first organized and trained in the 1990s.
'It is clear that Hamburg [Germany] served as a central base of operations for these six individuals and their part in the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks,' Ashcroft said.
Sought in the international manhunt are Said Bahaji, 26, believed to be a Moroccan national; Ramsi Binalshibh, 29, of Yemen; and Moroccan national Zakariya Essabar, 24.
Ashcroft and Schily, who was in Washington to meet with U.S. officials about the status of the worldwide terrorist investigation, stressed the unusual scale of their bilateral probe, which includes the temporary assignment of 12 FBI agents in Germany.
But there were signs of tensions as well.
Schily said he told Ashcroft that the United States 'shouldn't play the scapegoat game' by portraying Germany as al Qaeda's hub, when in fact other European nations, as well as the United States, also failed to spot the terrorists within their own borders.
Schily and Ashcroft skirted what could prove an even more sensitive diplomatic hurdle if the fugitives are eventually apprehended: the question of whether they would be extradited to the United States to stand trial.
'Obviously we'd want them in the United States,' said a senior Justice Department official who asked not to be identified. The problem, however, is that Germany does not allow capital punishment and has a policy of extraditing suspects only if it is assured that 'the death penalty is not applied,' said Hans Dieter Lucas, spokesperson for the German Embassy in Washington.
