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American Morning

Jordan Played Key Role in Stopping Additional September 11th Attacks

Aired November 19, 2001 - 09:09   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 ANCHOR: We have new word this morning that there was even more violence planned for September 11th. At least one attack was drawn up for targets outside of the U.S. An exclusive CNN report reveals that Jordan played a key role in stopping terrorist attacks on two hotels in that country. The assault was allegedly timed to coincide with U.S. terror attacks. CNN's Mike Boettcher is following that story. Mike, bring up to date on what you learned.

Good morning.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, a few days before September 11th, Jordanian intelligence intercepted what they say was an important message that was the trigger, they say, for an attack against their country, and now, according to coalition intelligence sources, it is believed that that attack was meant to coincide with the September 11th attacks in the United States.

Now the message intercepted was sent from Afghanistan to a suspected al Qaeda cell in Jordan. Now that message read, and let's take a look at the contents, "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" was believed by intelligence analysts to be the code for an imminent attack. Now, the intercepted message led to arrest of three people.

Those three people, according to coalition intelligence sources, gave up information that the targets of the attack were to be two hotels in the tourist destination of Petra, Jordan. Now, Petra is located in the southern desert of Jordan. It's a city about 2000 years old. Each year it attacks tens of thousands of foreign tourists who come there to look at the sites in this beautiful part of Jordan. And it was meant to attack at a time when the hotels would have been full.

Now that information was passed on to western intelligence agencies, but there was nothing specific talking about any other further terrorist attacks and of course that message was in code. Jordanian officials now believe the big wedding plot, as we said earlier, was meant to coincide with the September 11th attacks. A simultan -- a similar plan was uncovered before the millennium. Al Qaeda apparently had a plan to attack targets in the United States, specifically LAX Airport, Los Angeles International, and also tourist hotels in Jordan. So that was a similar sort of attack.

Now Jordan has become very good at collecting intelligence on al Qaeda because many years ago they recognized at the end of the Soviet- Afghanistan war that militant fighters, Arabs, were returning to their country, to Jordan, and to other parts of the world with ideas about launching terrorist attacks. In the years after 1989, Jordan broke up several attacks in their country and passed on information about other attacks to be launched in Europe and in the United States. As one intelligence official told me, the Jordanian Intelligence Directorate probably saved hundreds of lives because of the information they provided.

ZAHN: And a -- just a quick assessment on the level of cooperation between Jordan and U.S. intelligence officials now?

BOETTCHER: Well --

ZAHN: In the wake of this new information that has just surfaced.

BOETTCHER: They are a key partner and because they have a head start -- had a head start dating back to 1989 in launching a real vigorous campaign to go after al Qaeda, to infiltrate it, to collect on it. They are the key in the intelligence-gathering coalition.

ZAHN: Mike Boettcher, fascinating report. Good work as always. Thank you.

BOETTCHER: Thank you.

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