Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

America's New War: Authorities Release Information on Hijackers

Aired September 14, 2001 - 17:33   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.
JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we want to get more information on the search for whoever is responsible behind these horrible, horrible things that we have seen. Joining us now, Mike Boettcher who has been following up on the investigation. Mike, investigators looking into this know more now about those they think are responsible.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And they've shared some of it with us today, Joie. They released two lists today. One of the living, that included 100 people, but it was kept private, and this list, of the dead. The hijacked suspects, all 19 of them, aboard the four aircraft -- three of them that went into buildings, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the third that crashed into a field near Pittsburgh.

You will notice that many of these people are from Florida. There is seven pilots in there. Some -- three of them are from the New York/New Jersey area. They list that as their address. Seventeen lived in the United States. The other two came from overseas. And we have been developing more information on each one of these people.

But what we would like to do is take a look at Mohammed Atta, who was on board one of those aircraft, the American Airlines aircraft that goes from -- I am trying to get the flight number right now. Mohammed Atta was on American flight 11, from Boston to Los Angeles. And we have put together a road map of his travels. And it shows the international nature of the travels of Mohammed Atta.

He started out in Hamburg, Germany, where he traveled and lived in the 1990s. And then from there, in May of 2000, he ended up in Venice, Florida. And he took a flight training class there. In December of 2000, he was at Coral Springs, that's where we pick him up there. He rented an apartment while he was living in that part of Florida. Then, in December of 2000, Opa-Locka, he was at the Sim Center in Opa-Locka, Florida.

Now, the Sim Center instructor says that Mohammed Atta and two other people came there, and they wanted to take simulator time in the 727, and he said, "the odd thing was, they weren't interested in takeoffs and landings, they were more interested in how to make turns in a jetliner."

Then in February of 2001, we pick him up again in Hamburg, Germany. German police the last two days has been going through apartments that have been lived in by Mohammed Atta. According to German authorities, they've been looking at clues there. So he returned there for some reason.

And then, in August 2001, he came back to Pompano Beach, Florida where he rented a car at an agency called Warrick. And Warrick Rental Car said they rented him two cars over the period of about 30 days. And in the last two weeks, the second car that he rented -- in about three weeks, he put 3,000 miles on that car, which would take him up and down the Eastern seaboard if he would have wanted to. So that was the extraordinary amount of mileage.

Then last week, we pick up the trail of Mohammed Atta in Palm Beach County, and there he went to the flight center and asked to take three refresher flights and said that he wanted to practice, that he was a pilot. He had the license. So, he was there, and that's right before he left for Boston, Massachusetts, where at the Alamo Rental Car agency, he rented a car and then drove up to Portland, Oregon on the morning of the attack in Portland, Oregon. He left the car there -- pardon me, Portland, Maine.

He left the car there, caught a commuter flight to Boston, and then boarded that American Airlines jet that the crashed into the World Trade Center.

CHEN: Mike, we want to follow up on all of this. Now, we want to turn to CNN's Bill Delaney following up on the story from Boston and Logan Airport. Bill, as Mike noted, there has been a path already traced over all over these different cities across the world as well, and at Logan and in the Boston area there is evidence and indication that those involved may have been doing more, making some more inquiries in that area?

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, many fragments, many strands. Investigators here in the New England region following thousands, really tens of thousands of leads, as they try to understand how 10 hijackers hijacked those two 767s last Tuesday.

Now, one intriguing fragment -- I am standing at Eastern Air Charter in Norwood, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, where law enforcement officials and other sources tell us several days before the hijacking, men identified as Middle Eastern types were here at Eastern Air Charter making inquiries. They wanted to know about chartering a twin-engine jet. They wanted to know about that jet's fuel capacity. They wanted to know how soon they could chatter such a jet. Could they do it quickly, and they wanted to know how long it would take to fly to New York.

Now, one high law enforcement official I spoke to, said to me, Joie, he believed that there was a high possibility, he said, that these were either the hijackers themselves or another team. Now, of course, the FBI hasn't ruled out the possibility that other teams are still at large. Eastern Air Charter officials themselves downplaying all this, but another source told us law enforcement authorities have been here, he said, tearing the place apart.

Couple of other strands of many here -- the "Portland Press Harold" reporting today that in Portland, Maine, one of the hijackers, it's reported, had lived for at least a year and may have had a relationship, in fact, with a local woman. Amid other reports from many sources today, FBI sources that the planning for all of this of course took many, many years. Back to you, Joie.

CHEN: CNN's Bill Delaney, following up with more parts of the investigation up in Boston. Thanks very much, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com