By Curt Anderson, Associated Press, 4/17/03

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WASHINGTON -- The FBI announced Thursday that it had sent agents to Iraq to assist in recovering antiquities stolen from museums by looters.

"We are firmly committed to doing whatever we can to secure these treasures to the people of Iraq," FBI Director Robert Mueller told a news conference at the Justice Department.

He said the agents would "assist with criminal investigations" and with the recovery of stolen items.

Mueller also said the FBI was cooperating with the international law enforcement organization Interpol in issuing alerts to all member nations to try to track any sales of the artifacts "on both the open and black markets."

Mueller declined to say how many agents had been sent.

He said that agents in the United States were poring over documents captured by U.S.-led forces in Iraq, including those from a compound controlled by an extremist Islamic group.

Attorney General John Ashcroft told the same news conference that the FBI had completed wartime interviews with nearly 10,000 Iraqis living in the United States.

"Cooperation of the Iraqi-American people was essential to safeguard this nation," Ashcroft said. Mueller said that as a result of the interviews, 250 reports containing pertinent information were sent to the U.S. military.

The FBI director said the reports included information helpful "in locating weapons production and storage facilities, underground bunkers, fiber optic networks, and Iraqi detention and interrogation facilities."

Ashcroft said that action had been taken against six Iraqis known to be officials of the Iraqi intelligence service. Five of them had diplomatic status and were expelled. The sixth, the son of a former diplomat, was arrested.

With the war winding down, Ashcroft and Mueller gave an update on their activities.

They noted that there have been no major terror attacks within the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, despite heightened concerns during the war with Iraq.

Still, Ashcroft said, "We know that a significant terrorist threat persists," and said authorities would remain vigilant.

Among the concerns are other forms of potential terror, including those from anti-government and right wing extremists who could commit their own acts of terror, Justice Department officials said.

In its latest bulletin to state and local law enforcement officials Thursday, the FBI noted that April 19 marks the 10th anniversary of the government raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which nearly 80 people died as the compound burned to the ground.

The FBI bulletin, which goes to 18,000 law enforcement and government agencies, contains no specific threat because of the anniversary. But it does note that U.S. extremist groups have in the past used anniversaries such as Waco to stage terrorist attacks.

Timothy McVeigh chose the Waco anniversary to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, for example.