Hitting the Wall

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The names of those few who remain suspicious are well known. They are the ones who aren't talking. Zacarias Moussaoui, for example, was arrested in August on immigration charges after he expressed interest in learning how to maneuver but not land planes. It turns out that French officials have long believed Moussaoui was connected to terrorist groups. The FBI would also like more information from Ayub Khan and Mohammed Azmath, who were arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 12 with hair dye and thousands of dollars in cash in their possession. They had taken a train from St. Louis and were traveling on phony Indian passports. Last week the FBI told the New York Times that when the two were found, they had shaved off most of their body hair. An inspirational memo in some of the hijackers' belongings instructed them to "shave excess hair from the body"; the reasons are unknown.

The FBI believes the most helpful leads in the Sept. 11 case will come not from those detained in the U.S. but from Germany, where Atta and other terrorists lived and the seeds of the hijackings were probably planted. Still, agents hope those detained here can help them identify patterns that will distinguish members of sleeper cells from innocent bystanders. And there's always a chance that a detainee who appears innocuous may turn out to be hiding something. "Understandably, nobody wants to be responsible for releasing the wrong person," says Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. "Even though the vast majority don't have a terrorist bone in their bodies, they are not being given the benefit of the doubt right now." Nor for a long time to come.