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CNN Live Today

America Under Attack: Investigation Expands

Aired September 13, 2001 - 13:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Over at the Justice Department, CNN's Kelli Arena has been working the investigative side of this. Kelli joins us now.

Kelli, what do you have?

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, we just heard from Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller about the ongoing investigation. They have they have gotten thousands of tips that they are pursuing, that they have identified at least 18 hijackers. They said two planes had five hijackers; the other two had four hijackers each. They do say that they have several people that have been detained.

Now here's how that's working. The FBI investigators are trying to establish links to the hijackers that they do have information on, trying to find associates, friends -- people who may have some connection. When they go to interview these people and they asked for proper identification, in many cases, there are INS violations. So as proper procedure is followed, those people are detained.

We have also been told by several FBI sources that in some cases, some people have been arrested -- not on charges directly related to this investigation, but on other state and local charges. There have been several people detained; how many is not really important at this point, Aaron, because that number keeps fluctuating. While the FBI may think that they have useful information, many of these so-called witnesses are released after some time, because they simply have nothing to offer.

Another thing that the FBI said is that, on the human level -- and the Justice Department says that they are trying to streamline the process of getting funds to victims' families -- death benefits and so on -- so they are working as hard as they can to put more staff on the scene and to streamline the administrative process so that that money starts flowing a lot quicker than it normally does.

As for the extent of this investigation, the FBI had told us they ad as many as 4,000 agents and 3,000 other support personnel on the case. We are now told they have upped that number and included many more offices.

Earlier in the day, I had spoken to the FBI. They said as many as 20 of their overseas offices are now engaged directly in this investigation.

So this is just taking on mammoth proportions in terms of the number of resources that are going into trying to establish exactly who did this.

Aaron, I caution against trying to establish any links at this point. There have been many reports out there trying to attach these hijackers to one organization or another. Sources do tell us that they are just not there yet. These organizations are very hard to link together. Sometimes there is no link; people act independently. So I caution against targeting -- as did the attorney general, cautioning against any violent acts toward Arabs living in this country or Arab-Americans -- Aaron?

BROWN: Kelli, thanks. Kelli Arena is covering the investigative side from the Justice Department.

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