|
|
September 6, 2002/Elul 29 5762, Vol. 55, No. 1
FBI acknowledges El Al terror attack
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - The FBI has viewed the July 4 shooting at the El Al ticket counter of the Los Angeles International Airport as a possible act of terrorism from day one, according to a letter sent to a New York congressman last month.
In a letter dated Aug. 16, John Collinwood, assistant director of public and congressional affairs at the FBI, says that the Los Angeles office of the FBI opened a case on the shooting in which two people were killed as a terrorist investigation immediately after it occurred, even though the agency did not publicly acknowledge this.
"Perhaps confusion resulted when our representatives declined to make an immediate public assessment that this tragic shooting was an act of terrorism, opting instead to explain that the FBI would collect more information and evidence prior to reaching a more definitive conclusion," Collingwood said in a letter to Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.).
"In any case, terrorism has certainly not been ruled out in this case, and we do not intend this interim period of information gathering to imply that it has been," the letter continued. "It is, in fact, being investigated as such."
He was responding to Engel's letter, sent in late July, expressing concern that the FBI's Los Angeles field office said just hours after the attack that there was no evidence to indicate terrorism.
This view contrasted sharply with that of Israel, which immediately classified the shooting as a terrorist incident.
It also prompted outrage among many American Jewish leaders, who said they were puzzled by the FBI's response, given that the gunman was of Egyptian origin and had reportedly made anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements in the past.
Engel said that because the suspect reportedly expressed these sentiments before the attack, "the presumption that this was an act of terror on United States soil is not hard to reach."
Engel's office said that the FBI's response only recently surfaced because mail sent to the Capitol is being delayed by anthrax searches.
On Independence Day at 11:30 a.m., Hesham Mohammed Hadayat, an Egyptian man, opened fire at the ticket counter of the Israeli national airline, killing Yaakov Aminov, 46, and El Al ticket agent Victoria Hen, 25.
Hadayat sprayed bullets around the area before being shot and killed by El Al security guards.
At a news conference hours after the attack, Richard Garcia, a Los Angeles field office official, said, "There's nothing to indicate terrorism," saying the presumption was that the shooting was an isolated incident.
The FBI defines terrorism as the "unlawful use of force and violence" to further "social or political objectives."
American Jewish leaders almost immediately raised concerns that the FBI was not investigating the terrorism angle sufficiently. A group of rabbis threatened to sue the FBI unless it called the shooting a terrorist act.
McLaughlin said the investigation is close to a conclusion and that a final report should be issued within the next few weeks.
|
