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New arrest warrants issued in terrorism probe

Delray
Federal agents search the Delray Beach apartment used by two suspected hijackers.  


(CNN) -- Federal investigators issued two new arrests warrants for people wanted for questioning as material witnesses in the probe into Tuesday's hijacking attacks, sources told CNN Sunday.

The warrants were sealed and no details were made public. The people sought were not named, nor was there any information available on what their connection might be to the attacks.

Two witnesses are already in custody. One was arrested Saturday after being questioned while being held for possible immigration violations. The other was detained Thursday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for allegedly possessing a false pilot's license.

Sources tell CNN the two witnesses in custody have not been cooperating with investigators.

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Authorities have been conducting a massive manhunt for about 100 people on a federal "watch list."

The FBI Sunday searched an apartment in Delray Beach, Florida, linked to a suspect in the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed Tuesday in western Pennsylvania.

About a dozen agents were seen carrying garbage bags out of the residence where Saeed Alghamdi was believed to have lived. Some of the agents were wearing protective suits.

Another suspected hijacker, Ahmed Alhaznawi, may have lived at the same building.

Residents of the apartment complex told CNN Sunday that authorities had already searched the apartment on Wednesday.

Saturday, FBI agents in New Jersey raided the Jersey City apartment of one of two men authorities believe may have intended to hijack another plane last week.

The two men -- Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan -- have been in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service since last week and are cooperating with authorities. The two were on a flight from Newark to San Antonio that was safely diverted to St. Louis.

When detained on a train bound for San Antonio, the two men were found with box cutters -- instruments identified as weapons carried by at least some of 19 hijackers on the four jets.

Sources said the two had extensive knowledge of the terrorist network.

Law enforcement sources said they are looking at whether Azmath and Khan can be connected to a doctor from San Antonio who is also in INS custody. Sources said the two may have tried contacting the doctor after their hijacking plans went awry.

Authorities are also investigating whether Azmath and Khan's apartment was also used by other people involved in the plot.

Jersey City is home to the mosque of Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, who is in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

In other developments:

-- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Sunday he would ask Congress to rewrite anti-terrorism laws to strengthen the penalties for people who support terrorism and to give law enforcement greater authority to conduct surveillance.

He said that under current law a court authorizes a wiretap for a particular phone, not a person. "It doesn't make sense," Ashcroft said, in an age when multiple phones are common. Wiretaps should be focused on individuals, not the hardware, he said.

-- Bush administration officials are reviewing all the rules governing CIA and other intelligence activities abroad, ranging from the ban on assassinations to rules requiring informants to be checked for their criminal and human rights records, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNN on Sunday.

-- Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Florida, said he plans to introduce a bill creating an "Office of Counterterrorism" at the White House with broad power to direct the federal government's efforts to fight terrorism. The office would have powers similar to those of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, or office of the "drug czar."

-- Salem Alhamzi and Khalid Al-Midhar, two of the hijackers on the flight that slammed into the Pentagon, had been under U.S. surveillance before the attack, sources said. They also said there is evidence Al-Midhar was possibly connected to last October's attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.

-- New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said Sunday a passport belonging to one of the hijackers was discovered a few days ago several blocks from the crash site by a passerby. Based on the new evidence, the FBI and police decided to widen the search area beyond the immediate crash site.

-- A motel owner in Deerfield Beach, Florida, said Saturday he found Boeing aircraft manuals, aeronautical maps and martial arts books in a Dumpster Marwan Al-Shehhi, believed to have helped hijack one of the four planes in Tuesday's attacks, and another man checked out. The men stayed at the hotel, which is near a flight school, for two weeks.

-- CNN's Berlin Bureau Chief Bettina Luscher, Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler, and correspondents Eileen O'Connor, Susan Candiotti, David Ensor, Kelli Arena and Mike Boettcher contributed to this report.







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