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CNN Live Today

Terrorist Attack Thwarted in Jordan

Aired November 19, 2001 - 13:43   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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: While we have been keeping a very close watch on Afghanistan, in the meantime, CNN has learned that Jordanian intelligence helped to thwart a terrorist attack in Jordan. And this was just days before the September attacks in the United States. The targets, we're told, were two hotels in the resort town of Petra.

CNN's Mike Boettcher has our exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is the visible war being fought with bombs and bullets in Afghanistan. Then there is the invisible war where information is the lethal weapon.

A few days before September 11, it was vital information, according to anti-terror coalition intelligence sources, that thwarted a major terrorist attack in Jordan meant to coincide with the attacks on New York and Washington.

The clue to the attack came in a message from Afghanistan to Jordan, intercepted by Jordanian intelligence. The coded message said: Remember your bayat. Don't forget the time of the big wedding.

A bayat is the oath of allegiance that al Qaeda members give to Osama bin Laden. Big wedding is believed by intelligence analysts to be code for am imminent attack. The target of the attack, according to coalition intelligence sources, was to be two resort hotels in Petra, Jordan, a 2,000-year-old city that is a popular tourist destination.

Jordanian police discovered the intended targets after questioning three men whom Jordanian police suspect are part of an al Qaeda cell. Information about the planned Petra attacks and the big wedding message were passed on to Western intelligence agencies, but it did not point to any further targets such as the World Trade Center or the Pentagon.

Suspected al Qaeda members already have been convicted in Jordanian military court of trying to launch a similar simultaneous attack against the U.S. and Jordan during millennium celebrations almost two years ago. Early last month, yet another terrorist plan to bomb the U.S., British and Jordanian embassies in Beirut, Lebanon was uncovered by Jordanian authorities, according to coalition intelligences.

Jordan has become key in the intelligence war against al Qaeda, according to coalition sources, because it recognized in 1989 that returning Arab veterans of the soviet Afghan war, known as Arab- Afghans, were coming home with new plans.

(on camera): More than a decade ago, Jordanian intelligence began warning its counterparts in America and Europe that Afghan Arabs were organizing into small dangerous groups. Western intelligence agencies listened politely, but maintained their focus on nations like Iraq and Iran, not on a small band of men training in the Afghan mountains who called themselves al Qaeda.

(voice-over): Beginning in 1990, the late King Hussein of Jordan presided over a vigorous intelligence collection effort against al Qaeda, depending mostly on human intelligence, an early investment of resources which has been arrayed against al Qaeda, resources now of great value to the coalition.

Professor Magnus Ranstorp is a terrorism expert who closely tracks the intelligence war against al Qaeda.

MAGNUS RANSTORP, TERRORISM EXPERT: The unsung hero in intelligence terms is the Jordanians. And the Jordanians have had extraordinary capabilities, particularly leading to a number of arrests, the most recent one being the millennium plot. And the Jordanian track record, given the size of the country, is mammoth in terms of its contribution of our understanding to the al Qaeda network.

BOETTCHER: King Abdullah, who succeeded his father to the throne, has carried on his father's secret war against al Qaeda. But there is a downside to success. It has made Jordan as big a target as the United States.

Mike Boettcher, CNN, Amman, Jordan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Fascinating reporting.

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