FBI Big: Moussaoui Barely Discussed

(CBS/AP)  The headquarters supervisor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's international terrorism operations section testified Tuesday he spent about 20 seconds discussing the case of Zacarias Moussaoui before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Later, however, he acknowledged an additional discussion.

Michael Rolince testified at Moussaoui's death penalty trial that he had two hallway conversations with a subordinate, David Frasca, that dealt primarily with a dispute over whether to get a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer and notebook.

But on cross examination by defense attorney Edward MacMahon, Rolince conceded that he also later discussed with FBI and CIA officials a plan to have a foreign intelligence service search Moussaoui's computer once the United States deported him to that service's country.

Earlier, Rolince said he was warned in a hallway by Frasca that the issue of whether to get a search warrant could not be resolved at a lower level and that a call might be coming from the FBI's Minneapolis field office for Rolince.

"On any given day there were dozens" of debates at his level among the field offices, headquarters and the Justice Department about whether they had enough information to get a search warrant, he said.


His testimony followed statements in court Monday by Harry Samit, the FBI agent who arrested Moussaoui in Minnesota, that FBI superiors ignored his repeated warnings that Moussaoui might be a terrorist interested in hijacking an airliner. The bureau's failures thwarted an opportunity to prevent the attacks, he said.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney MacMahon, Samit acknowledged that he warned higher-ups and others in the government at least 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist, and detailed much of his information on Moussaoui in a 24-page document CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports.

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Watch Stewart's report on Samit and the FBI.

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Rollince took the stand after the jury saw videotaped testimony that Moussaoui tried to enlist an Oklahoma roommate, Hussein al-Attas, in holy war even as he pressed ahead with his own terrorist training.

In the deposition, presented by prosecutors to build their case that Moussaoui was a serious terrorist threat, al-Attas said Moussaoui talked about holy war every day when they roomed together, taught him martial arts and proposed sending him to Pakistan to learn the Islamic militant justification for jihad.

"Your obligation, like any other Muslim, is to be ready for jihad," he quoted Moussaoui as telling him. Al-Attas also said Moussaoui told him: "This is the only way for me to get to paradise."

Both were arrested in Minnesota on Aug. 16, 2001, after Moussaoui's efforts to obtain flight training aroused suspicion. Unlike Moussaoui, al-Attas made bail and was re-arrested on Sept. 11, 2001, after the attacks.

Al-Attas testified he believed that Moussaoui wanted him to fight holy war in Chechnya, but that Moussaoui never asked him outright.

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