Mark Rossini
Encyclopedia
Mark Rossini is a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
who played an important role in trying to track Al Qaeda before its attacks on the United States and before September 11, 2001.
show Nova included segments from interviews Rossini, who described his experience serving as one of the two FBI liaisons to an interagency team assigned to track Osama bin Laden
, and his contacts. Rossini described being aware that two dangerous associates of bin Laden, Nawaf al-Hazmi
and Khalid al-Mihdhar
, had valid US visas, but that his CIA manager stopped him from passing the information to the FBI headquarters. He was advised that if he informed his FBI colleagues he would be breaking the law. The two men turned out to be hijackers of American Airlines flight 77
on 9/11.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
who played an important role in trying to track Al Qaeda before its attacks on the United States and before September 11, 2001.
Role in tracking Osama bin Laden, and al Qaeda
The PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
show Nova included segments from interviews Rossini, who described his experience serving as one of the two FBI liaisons to an interagency team assigned to track Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, and his contacts. Rossini described being aware that two dangerous associates of bin Laden, Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf al-Hazmi
Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
and Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid al-Mihdhar
Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks....
, had valid US visas, but that his CIA manager stopped him from passing the information to the FBI headquarters. He was advised that if he informed his FBI colleagues he would be breaking the law. The two men turned out to be hijackers of American Airlines flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight, from Washington Dulles International Airport, in Dulles, Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California...
on 9/11.