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CNN Live Event/Special

America's New War: The Investigation

Aired September 17, 2001 - 03:08   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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's turn to the investigation here for just a moment.

Officials who are doing that investigation say that they face a complex web of terrorist organizations, but they are reporting some progress again. On Sunday, arrest warrants were issued for two more material witnesses thought to have information vital to the investigation. A pair of material witnesses is already in custody.

FBI agents also raided an apartment in New Jersey belonging to two men who were detained in Texas. CNN's Eileen O'Connor has details now on the investigation.

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EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Wednesday, authorities stopped an Amtrak train from St. Louis to San Antonio and took into custody two men -- Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan -- on INS violations.

Sources say the two had been booked on a flight from Newark to San Antonio on Tuesday. It had been diverted to St. Louis. Law enforcement sources say the men also possessed a chilling item -- box cutters. Barbara Olson, wife of the Solicitor General, told her husband on a cell phone call from American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon that the men who hijacked her plane used box cutters.

TED OLSON, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: She told me that she had been herded to the back of the plane. She mentioned that they had used knives and box cutters to hijack the plane. She mentioned that the pilot had announced that the plane had been hijacked -- I believe she said that. And she -- I had to tell her about the two airplanes that had hit the World Trade Center.

O'CONNOR: Law enforcement sources are looking into the possibility that Azmath and Ali Khan were headed for this house in San Antonio, owned by a man with a similar last name to two of the hijackers. He's now in custody on potential INS violations.

They are also looking into this residence in Jersey City, New Jersey. Both Ali Khan and Azmath lived here. The FBI searched the home and sources say are finding the information helpful. They are also looking into the possibility that other people connected to the hijackers used this address at one time or another. The home in Jersey City is close to the mosque where Sheikh Omar Abdul Rakman (ph) used to preach before he went to prison for his role in inspiring the first attack against the World Trade Center in 1993.

Eileen O'Connor, CNN Washington.

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