Text of Senator Schumer's Letter to Robert Mueller Federal Bureau of Investigation
Dear Director Mueller:
I am concerned that the United States is not doing enough to make searching for Abdul Rahman Yasin a top priority for the American forces now combing Iraq for key enemy combatants. Yasin, as you know, is a fugitive on the FBI's most-wanted list who allegedly created the bomb used at the World Trade Center in 1993 that killed six and injured over 1,000 people.
Although Yasin was last seen in Baghdad and Iraq offered to hand him over to American authorities in February, he was not included him among the 55 individuals that American forces yesterday were told to find. According to news reports in New York City last night, officials at the FBI and the Justice Department did not get Yasin included on the lists of targeted fugitives because finding Yasin is not a top priority right now.
On February 20 of this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri wrote a 13-page letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in an attempt to rebut US Secretary of State Colin Powell's highly effective and comprehensive presentation to the UN Security Council about Iraq. In his letter, Sabri offered to hand over Yasin to American officials. I don't know if Saddam Hussein's government was lying to us when they said - just six weeks ago - that they had Yasin in custody, but our decision to not even add him to the list of people we're looking ought to be reconsidered immediately.
None of these people we are looking for are Boy Scouts, but we know that Yasin helped kill six Americans and helped injure over 1,000 more. His co-conspirators have been tied directly to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Their 1993 attack was a model for the attacks of 9/11, and he is the only figure in the 1993 World Trade Center attacks still at large. While we're looking for other fugitives, we should look for Yasin as well. We may have a unique chance to bring this man to justice.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator