Agents look 'under every known rock'

By GEOFF CUMMING AND AGENCIES

In a worldwide hunt on an unprecedented scale, intelligence agencies are "shaking every known bush, looking under every known rock", for those responsible for the devastating attacks on New York and Washington.

Stung by their failure to prevent the carnage, but buoyed by pledges of support from a global community, American agents are tapping sources, keeping close contact with overseas security services and sifting for clues through communications intercepted in the last few weeks.

Nearly 8000 investigators and support staff fanned out across the US yesterday, pursuing more than 2000 leads.

Defence officials said the military would be ready for any plan of action.

"We have land-based aircraft, Navy carriers and other ships that can fire cruise missiles," said one. "We don't need to wave that threat. Everybody knows it."

The European Union vowed solidarity with the United States.

Overseas CIA officers were contacting their foreign agents, intelligence analysts were checking imagery from spy satellites for movement on the ground in areas where terrorists might lurk, and FBI investigators were looking for any sign that the hijackers may have received inside help at the airports.

The four planes - two from Boston, one from Newark, New Jersey, and one from Washington's Dulles International Airport - were taken over by between three and six people on each plane, using knives and box-cutters and, in some cases, making bomb threats.

FBI director Robert Mueller said the agency had found evidence of the hijackers' presence in Boston, Providence on Rhode Island, and in Miami.

Boston police identified at least five Middle Eastern suspects, including two brothers carrying Saudi passports. CNN named them as Ameer Abbas Bukhari and Adnan Bukhari.

At least one had trained as a pilot at a flying school in Florida. The brothers are believed to have boarded United Airlines flight 175, the second of two aircraft to hit the World Trade Centre, at Boston's Logan Airport.

Authorities recovered a flight manual in Arabic from a bag believed to have belonged to one of the hijackers. They also seized a rental car at the airport containing a copy of the Koran, a videotape on how to fly commercial jets and a fuel consumption calculator in a pair of bags meant for American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the World Trade Center twin towers.

In Florida, agents removed student files from two flying schools and raided an apartment block in Coral Springs.

Acting on a tip from the FBI, police in Hamburg searched an apartment where the brothers allegedly had lived. It had not been used since February.

At least two other suspects flew to Logan Airport from Portland, Maine, where authorities believe they had travelled after entering the US from Canada. Maine authorities impounded a rental car used by the pair. Cigarette butts found near the car will be tested for DNA.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, said after an intelligence briefing: "I think they are beginning to see a pattern of travel of the 15 or so people that were involved. They would go to one country, then another country, and then enter the United States."

Agents wearing bulletproof vests and carrying shields stormed Boston's 36-story Westin Hotel. Three people were held and then released.

Suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's ties to Boston are being closely scrutinised.

Investigators have been questioning drivers from Boston Cab, where two known associates of bin Laden once worked, to see if they had ties to baggage handlers, who in turn may have supplied weapons to the hijackers.

In Providence, police removed three passengers from an Amtrak train but no arrests were made.

At a Hollywood restaurant, Shuckums, agents showed staff photos of two men. Manager Tony Amos said he identified a man in a photo bearing the name Mohamed, who had claimed he was a pilot.

FBI agents also searched a Hollywood apartment and took "bags of items", said the property owner.

In another neighbourhood, agents searched two houses next door to each other, leaving with several rubbish bags of evidence and towing away two cars. Neighbours said a Middle Eastern family with four children moved out of one of the homes last weekend.

In a Florida search, at Vero Beach about 110km north of West Palm Beach, FBI agents checked four homes in three neighbourhoods.

Agents asked Hank Habora about a neighbour, Amer Kamfar, 41, licensed as a flight engineer. Mr Habora said the family moved into the house in February, but moved out suddenly a few days ago.

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