Monday September 17 1:44 AM ET
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - From enhanced wiretapping authority to stiffer penalties for those who harbor terrorists, the Bush administration is asking Congress for sharper tools to help solve last Tuesday's hijacking disasters.
Congressional leaders emerged from FBI (news - web sites) headquarters Sunday saying they were pleased with the progress of the investigation, and the Justice Department (news - web sites) disclosed that a federal grand jury in New York is working on warrants for material witnesses.
At least two arrests have been made to keep witnesses in custody; authorities said they won't disclose any others because of grand jury secrecy rules.
The first arrest was of a man at John F. Kennedy International Airport who had a fake pilot's license. No details were released on the second.
Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and FBI Director Robert Mueller stressed the importance of swift action on new legislation to be sent to Capitol Hill this week. People linked to terrorism may be present in the United States and quick congressional action is urgently needed because of the potential threats, said Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker.
``We need to upgrade'' U.S. law because federal law enforcement agencies have better tools against organized crime and illegal gambling ``than we do against terrorists,'' Ashcroft said.
Currently, suspicion of terrorism is not a valid legal reason to get a wiretap.
Ashcroft said wiretap authorization should be focused on the person rather than the phone he uses because with the advent of ``disposable telephones ... it simply doesn't make sense to have the surveillance authority associated with the hardware.''
Penalties for people who aid terrorists should be raised to at least the same level as the punishment for those who help people involved in espionage, Ashcroft said in a televised address from Camp David, Md., where he and other top national security officials met with President Bush (news - web sites) People who harbor terrorists now face five-year prison terms.
``Our effort is to develop all the information we can about terrorism, the terrorists and the terrorist networks that have inflicted this injury on the United States and this assault upon the people of the world, and to do everything we can to disrupt them and to put an end to their capacity,'' Ashcroft said.
An early expression of support came from Sen. Orrin Hatch (news - bio - voting record) of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites).
``We need to modernize our laws to make sure that no stone goes unturned in this investigation,'' Hatch said after the FBI meeting. He embraced the administration's proposal for nationwide jurisdiction of court orders authorizing law enforcement officials to identify telephones, computers, and other communications devices being used in terrorist act.
Senators including Richard Shelby, R-Ala., vice chairman of the intelligence committee, expressed satisfaction with the pace of the investigation after CIA (news - web sites) and FBI briefings.
In other developments, a man detained at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after the attacks was handed over to the FBI at the U.S. border. The unidentified man, held by Canadian immigration officials since Tuesday, chose to be transferred to the United States and the FBI took him into custody. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer said Friday the man was being investigated for a possible connection to the attacks.
In Florida, several FBI agents searched a Delray Beach, Fla., apartment where suspected hijackers Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami previously lived. Both were aboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in rural Pennsylvania, and Alghamdi was one of three suspects with the same last name.
A resident of the apartment complex, Stacy Warm, said four Middle Eastern men lived on her floor and that she thought they were drug dealers because they came and went at all hours, carrying dark bags. ``They were extremely unfriendly,'' Warm said. ``They would never speak to us.''