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American Morning

America Strikes Back: Suspect on List Described as Notorious Master Terrorist Linked to Deadly Attacks on American Targets

Aired October 10, 2001 - 10:20   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the suspects named on the latest list that's going to be released from the White House is described as a notorious master terrorist linked to deadly attacks on American targets in the Middle East going back to the 1980s.

We get more now from CNN's Mike Boettcher.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beirut, October 23rd, 1983, America's wake-up call to suicide terror on a massive scale. This was ground zero on that day. The U.S. Marine barracks, Beirut; 241 American servicemen are killed on a suicide attacker drive a truck bomb through the barracks' entrance. Just six months earlier, 63 had died, 17 of them Americans, when another truck bomb ripped apart the U.S. embassy in Beirut. Among the dead, some of the CIA's top Middle East operatives. The result, the first U.S. offensive against terrorism is launched.

But within a year, the U.S. Marines who had been participating in a multinational peacekeeping mission to end the fighting in Lebanon's civil war are withdrawn, and the mastermind of those attacks is never apprehended.

Now, CNN has learned that as part of the any war on terrorism, U.S. officials are again targeting the alleged mastermind of the Beirut bombings. His name, Imad Mugniyah, a founder of the Lebanese Islamic militia Hezbollah, which U.S. officials labels as a terrorist group. This is as close as we can come to showing you Mugniyah's face. U.S. Investigators say he is one of these men, the hijackers of TWA flight 847 in 1985.

His face has remained hidden for almost 20 years, and he is believed to have had at least two plastic surgeries since the TWA operation. He is the unknown terrorist, but incredibly, before September 11th, Mugniyah was considered by the United States to be responsible for killing more Americans than any one else in the world.

MAGNUS RANSTROP, UNIV. OF ST. ANDREW'S: Imad Mugniyah is very much the opposite of bin Laden. He has the skill. He is much more professional. He operates as really a faceless terrorist, because we don't know what he looks like. We don't really know where he is. BOETTCHER: Magnus Ranstrop, a professor at Scotland's St. Andrew's University Center for the Study of Terrorism, is one of the world's leading experts on Lebanon's Hezbollah.

RANSTROP: Imad Mugniyah is the one who has been pinpointed, who was the most hunted man by U.S. intelligence, ever since the 1983 Marine barracks bombing. He has been pinpointed as someone who was instrumental in conducting Hezbollah's foreign operations.

BOETTCHER: This summer, we went to Lebanon, Mugniyah's birthplace, in search of information about the man considered to be a master terrorist. What we found were a lot of people afraid to talk about him.

(on camera): In Beirut, start asking questions by Imad Mugniyah and you get a consistent reaction, the raised eyebrow, that look that says, are you crazy? After all, he is one of the world's most hunted men. And as local legend had it, one person asking too many questions about him was shot and killed right here on Beirut's famous Corniche (ph).

Investigators don't know where he is, possibly Iran or Lebanon's Beca (ph) Valley. And Western intelligence operatives don't know what he looks like. They only know him by his fingerprints. And some intelligence sources see those fingerprints on the September 11th attacks. They point to his experience in hijacking, as demonstrated in 1985 when that TWA flight was hijacked to Beirut during flight from Athens to Rome. And they're trying to find out if his experience was tapped by Al Qaeda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are beating the passengers. They are beating the passengers. They are threatening to kill us now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOETTCHER: Pilot John Hesray (ph) pleads for the authorities to comply with the hijackers request for fuel during the 1985 hijack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want the fuel now, immediately, five minutes, five minutes for fuel, now, five minutes, or he is going to kill passengers. He will open the door and kill the passengers and throw them on to the ramp, immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOETTCHER: The hijackers, Imad Mugniyah believed to be among them, carry out their threat, and dump the body of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stevens (ph) on to the tarmac. He had been beaten and shot to death. Mugniyah is named in a sealed indictment for that crime and is a suspect in many others -- kidnapping western hostages in Beirut in the 1980s, the 1985 abduction, torture and murder of William Buckley, the CIA's station chief, the 1988 abduction and subjected murder of Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, a U.S. Marine was serving with U.N. forces in Lebanon, bombings of the Israeli embassy in a Jewish community center in Buenos Ares in the early 1990s, more than 100 dead. And a host of other terrorist actions in the past 20 years.

But the specter of Mugniyah and dangerous new alliance was raised by this man, Ali Mohamed (ph), a former U.S. special forces sergeant who admitted involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

In court documents, he said that he set up security for a meeting between Mugniyah and Osama bin Laden in 1994. I arranged security for a meeting in Sudan between Mugniyah, Hezbollahs' chief, and bin Laden, swore Ali Mohamed. Hezbollah provide explosives training for Al Qaeda and al-jihad.

RANSTROP: There has been a massive intelligence effort to try to locate Mugniyah for almost over 20 years. And until bin Laden popped up on our radar screens, Imad Mugniyah was the master terrorist, who was truly faceless, who was truly dangerous, and if there was an alliance between Imad Mugniyah and the Al Qaeda, that would be the worst possible scenario.

BOETTCHER: Did that scenario play out on September 11th? It is a still unanswered question before investigators.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER: We have been trying for months to get a pictures of Imad Mugniyah without success. But this morning, U.S. government, Paula, is finally releasing his picture. There he is, Imad Mugniyah.

ZAHN: go ahead, Mike.

BOETTCHER: I was going to say, this is an old picture. We knew this picture existed, and it was tough getting our hands on it, Paula. This is a very old picture. Since this picture was taken -- we believe it was more than 15 years ago -- he has had a couple of plastic surgeries. He would be very difficult to identify, and he is a completely different kettle of fish than Osama bin Laden. He, as we said, is the most secretive terrorist on Earth.

ZAHN: What is the point of putting out this picture, Mike, if it is so outdated, if he had a couple plastic surgeries. Is it to encourage people that know what he looks like now to come forward for the $5 million reward the FBI is offering.

BOETTCHER: Well, I think so. To put a face with the name of a terrorist, even though he may not look like that now, we do know there is an all out effort to get to Mugniyah.

Now he has in the past few years been living in Iran. There are reports that he may have fled Iran in recent weeks, perhaps going to Lebanon's Beca Valley. All of these locations are being checked. But they think that any photo of him will help.

And like I said, he has been the most wanted terrorist on Earth, up until Osama bin Laden.

ZAHN: And just describe to us how he has remained at large for so many years. Exactly who's taken the fall for him, who's protecting him?

BOETTCHER: Well, he has been in Iran and protected there. He has not -- you would have to be very precise about this. He is not protected by the Iranian government, but is he protected by more radical clerics in Iran, and that is the caveat there. There is some division in Iran what to do about Imad Mugniyah, and that's why he may have left.

But that's how he has managed to survive all of these years. Plus, no one has seen him. He is very secretive. The U.S. almost got him in 1995. He was on a flight from Cartume (ph) to, I believe, to Damascus, Syria, which was supposed to stop in Saudi Arabia. Now U.S. intelligence forces tell me that U.S. special forces were in Saudi Arabia or nearby, and when that plane landed, they were going to get him. But the Saudis did not allow landing rights for the plane, and it went on to the final destination, so they missed him. There were a couple of other attempts in the mid 1980s in France to get hands on Mugniyah, but those failed as well.

ZAHN: Mike, I have to tell you, I have seen a report a couple of times now, and it is absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

BOETTCHER: You're welcome.

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