Attorney General John Ashcroft
FBI Director Robert Mueller
Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
September 14, 2001
2:43 P.M. EDT
ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: The director of the FBI and I just returned from a memorial service at the National Cathedral and wanted to take this time to give you a report in regard to these matters.

Today the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a list of 19 individuals who have been identified as hijackers aboard the four airliners that crashed on Tuesday. The FBI requests that anyone who may have information about these individuals, even though these individuals are presumed to be dead -- anyone with information about these individuals immediately contact an FBI field office or call the toll-free hotline. The toll-free hotline, as you know, is 1-866-483- 5137 -- 1-866-483-5137.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also forwarded a list of more than 100 names to numerous law enforcement organizations. These are the names of individuals the FBI would like to talk to because we believe they may have information that could be helpful to the investigation. The organizations that we have submitted these names to include the Federal Aviation Administration, the airlines, FBI field offices, about 18,000 police departments across America, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Customs Service. Now, the nature of this list is that it would be changing constantly as people are either removed from it or added to it.

But we believe that the individuals on the list may have information that could be helpful to us in our efforts.

I want to take this moment to extend our appreciation to state and local law enforcement organizations that have cooperated with this investigation, have acted responsibly, and have been very helpful to us. Their dedication and swift action has been essential to the progress of the investigation.

I'm pleased now to call upon the director to give you some more information.

MR. MUELLER: Before we answer questions, I thought I would fill you in on the extent of the investigation to date.

As of today, we have 4,000 special -- FBI special agents who are working on the case in various offices around the country and on various aspects of the investigation, and we have 3,000 support employees also on the investigation. Twenty FBI legat offices are running down leads overseas, and all 56 FBI offices around the country are engaged in the investigation. We have conference calls several times a day to make certain that everything is being coordinated appropriately.

To date, we have had more than 36,000 total leads. Of those, over 30,000 have come in off the Internet, 3,800 have been received on the FBI hot line, and another 2,400 have been generated through the various field offices.

As you well know and have picked up, we've conducted hundreds of interviews around the country. We've served over 30 search warrants in various places. Hundreds of subpoenas have been issued, and we have, in the course of seizing some of those search -- those -- executing some of those search warrants, we have seized computers, other documentary information that are following up on.

One other point I'd make before we respond to questions, and that is that we have dispatched to -- sent to the various major airports FBI agents, teams of FBI agents, to assist in quickly resolving any incidents that may come up when passengers are -- a passenger or passengers are attempting to board an aircraft or obtain a ticket and there's some question raised, so we can minimize the inconvenience to the person who may well be stopped and also swiftly resolve the issue.

And with that, I believe we're happy to take whatever questions you might have.

QUESTION: Director, have you obtained -- have you obtained under seal or otherwise any fugitive-from-justice warrants, in other words, leveled any kind of charges against anyone in this investigation?

MR. MUELLER: Well, if it were under seal, I probably couldn't tell you. But I can say that there have been no FBI arrests at this time. Any detentions that have occurred have been pursuant to immigration holds where an individual's been out of status.

QUESTION: Director, the list of hijackers, have they been connected to organizations connected to bin Laden?

MR. MUELLER: I can't get into the details of that.

QUESTION: Director --

QUESTION: Director, did it astonish you that --

MR. MUELLER: Sorry. We'll take one and then two. Yes, sorry.

QUESTION: Did it just astonish you that they trained -- all their training came from the U.S., there were so many of them trained as pilots and that they lived in the open, they weren't hiding their identities? Does any of that astonish you or shock you?

MR. MUELLER: Well, the tragedies quite clearly astonish and shock me and the country. The fact that there were a number of individuals that happened to have received training at flight schools here is news, quite obviously. If we had understood that to be the case, we would have -- perhaps one could have averted this. But beyond that, I and I think everybody else is just astonished at the extent of the tragedy as a result of what happened last Tuesday.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Director, there were two people removed from a flight last night, I guess it was New York. And those two people's names appeared on a (watch list ?) How did they get on -- how were they able to board if their names were on --

MR. MUELLER: All I can tell you that that was pursuant to a watch list other than those names were pursuant -- were on the watch list for reasons not related to this investigation.

QUESTION: Mr. Mueller, on the list of the hijackers, two quick questions. One is there are several shared last names. Were many of them related to one another? And the second question is, Del Ray Beach and Hollywood, Florida, seem to be very common residences. Do you know whether those were like bases of operation for these men?

MR. MUELLER: I can't -- we are still -- while we have the names for the manifest and are still pursuing investigations of those names to try to document and absolutely be certain that the person that went down with the plane fits with the name on the manifest, the further association of the names we're still investigating.

QUESTION: Director, what can you tell us about --

QUESTION: And the Del Ray Beach --

MR. MUELLER: All I can say, that there are a number of places in the country, without specifying any particular place,

where we have conducted a number of interviews and several search warrants -- executed several search warrants.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: What can you tell us about a D.C. Police all-points bulletin being put out about a silver or gray minivan that may be

carrying a chemical weapon?

MR. MUELLER: I can't tell you anything about that.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: What have you learned from the cockpit voice recorder and from the flight data recorders of the two planes?

MR. MUELLER: They're currently over at the NTSB, and I think the question should be directed to the NTSB on those at this instant.

QUESTION: But they referred us to you.

MR. MUELLER: As of this moment, we have not learned or received anything off those recorders. Well, actually, I should say, we have not received anything off the voice data recorder. There is a -- that recorder, which is other than the voice data recorder at the Pentagon that we picked up, and we did receive information off that.

QUESTION: What did that tell you about that flight, about its path?

MR. MUELLER: I can't get into that now, sir.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: (Off mike) -- but what confidence do you have the names on the list are actually the people who were on the plane, as opposed to aliases or stolen identities? Do you have a level of confidence there yet?

MR. MUELLER: There -- I think we have a fairly high level of confidence, but, as you -- when we spoke to you yesterday we had 18 individuals who we believed were the hijackers. We now have a 19th that our investigation has disclosed was probably one of the hijackers on that plane that left Dulles. And consequently, continuous investigation updates our confidence, or level of confidence, degree of confidence, in assuring that the person who actually was on the plane is associated with the name.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Have you identified any suspects or individuals who you believe still are at large who may have been the leaders or masterminds of this conspiracy?

MR. MUELLER: I'm sorry, what --

QUESTION: Have you identified any suspects who are -- you believe are still at large in the United States, who were the masterminds or leaders of this conspiracy?

MR. MUELLER: I cannot get into the details of the investigation. Suffice it to say, if we believe that there is somebody in the United States who is associated with this conspiracy and we had evidence upon which to base a charge, we would have and would level that charge.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Robert, can you say anything about the immigration status of the 19? Are any of them out of legal status?

MR. MUELLER: I think we -- I believe we tried to provide some of those visa details on the listing that we provided to you.

I can say that some of them were out of status, yes. I'm not certain how many or which names -- or which individuals whose names appeared on the manifest and we believe to be a hijacker, was out of status.

Yes?

QUESTION: It's common for the FBI to name a case agent on a big case. Have you guys done that on this one?

MR. MUELLER: The investigation is being run by Tom Pickard out of headquarters here, with Dale Watson and numerous other, I would say, "senior" FBI agents assisting in various capacities.

QUESTION: And the name of the investigation, sir? Has the investigation been given a name, and what is it?

MR. MUELLER: PENTBOMB --

QUESTION: I'm sorry --

MR. MUELLER: PENTBOMB -- P-E-N-T-B-O-M-B.

QUESTION: Can you address the issue of intelligence failure? You didn't know anything about any of these guys, we still don't know a lot about them. What --

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: That was the last question. Thank you.

END