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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

New Warnings About Possible Terrorist Attack; New Hope on Fate of Daniel Pearl

Aired February 12, 2002 - 19:00   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.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Tonight on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, THE WAR ROOM:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I want to encourage all law enforcement officials and frankly all Americans everywhere to be on the highest state of alert.

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BLITZER: Fresh warnings of a possible terror attack, perhaps as early as now.

Fresh hopes after the arrest of a key suspect in the kidnapping of an American journalist. How good is the intelligence on the homefront and on the battlefield? We'll hear from our correspondents. And I'll speak live with Senator Evan Bayh of the Intelligence Committee, former CIA director James Woolsey, and Frank Smyth of the committee to protect journalists, as we go into THE WAR ROOM.

Good evening, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Washington. We'll get to the latest FBI alert for terrorism in just a moment. But first, we're following a breaking story out of Connecticut, where a hostage standoff is still unfolding.

Police have surrounded a classroom at Fairfield University, where a former student is holding 18 people hostage. You're looking at these picture of the Canisius Hall on the campus. And the suspect claims to have an explosive device. The 17 students and one faculty member were taken hostage about three hours ago. Five other hostages, all women, were released. Police negotiators are trying to talk the suspect into giving up. We'll have an update on this story as additional information becomes available throughout our program.

But now to another matter. Since September 11, the federal government has issued several alerts, warning the American public to be on guard for another terrorist attack. But those earlier alerts have been vague. Not the latest FBI alert, which includes specific names of suspected terrorists and a timeframe for attack, namely, as early as today.

The Justice Department says a Yemeni national and number of associates possibly linked to al Qaeda may be planning attack in the United States or against U.S. interests in Yemen. Authorities are asking Americans to keep their eyes wide open.

Let's turn now to our national security correspondent, David Ensor. He joins from here in our Washington bureau. He has additional details -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it all happened very quickly. And the word there was a new threat was put out, officials say, less than 24 hours after they had first heard about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): The first indication that there might be a new plot to attack a U.S.-related target came Monday, say U.S. officials, from one of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The man spoke of hearing of a plot from a fellow prisoner, back when he was held in Afghanistan, before being sent to Cuba.

U.S. officials quickly interviewed that other prisoner, still in Afghanistan. He told them that he'd heard a Yemeni named Fawaz Al- Rabeei was organizing a terrorist attack for February 12 or thereafter against a U.S.-related target, possibly in the United States or in Yemen. The man also gave investigators about half dozen other names he said were also involved.

ASHCROFT: I want to encourage all law enforcement officials, and frankly all Americans everywhere to be on the highest state-of-alert in regard to these individuals.

ENSOR: In fact, the list of 17 names, 13 of them pictured, made public on the FBI Web site, includes additional men whom U.S. intelligence has reason to believe are associates of the original group.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

U.S. officials say they regard the threat as specific and credible, though they do not know what the target was to be. Officials also say they do not even know for sure whether all the suspects are still alive, or whether any of them could have made it into the United States -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David, I understand you have some additional information on the brother of the Fawaz Rabeei, the suspected terrorist included in this latest FBI alert?

ENSOR: Well, that's right. We understand that one of -- that a brother of this suspect is a prisoner of the U.S. and it's allies in Afghanistan. Now officials will not confirm whether he was the source of the specific information about this alleged plot, but that's a possibility. In any case, he is a prisoner, the brother of the alleged ringleader of this plot.

BLITZER: And obviously, David, they would not be issuing this alert unless they had some specific hard information. They're not going to make the American public even more concerned than they already are, unless the information was very credible, is that right?

ENSOR: Well, that's right. Although I do get the sense that they are not at all sure that this plot was still going to happen. In other words, there seems to be a belief among some of the people I talked to that some of these people, whose names have been put on the list, may not even be alive anymore. And the others may have gone underground. So they wanted to get the information out there, warn people. But at the same time, they're not altogether sure this was really going to happen.

BLITZER: David Ensor, thank you very much for that report.

And all this is taking place as Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf is now in Washington for a meeting with President Bush tomorrow. There's been an apparent breakthrough in the case of the missing American journalist Daniel Pearl. Pakistani authorities have arrested the alleged mastermind behind the kidnapping.

Let's go live to CNN's Ben Wedeman. He's in Karachi with the latest details -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, that suspected mastermind, Sheik Omar Saeed was arrested Tuesday afternoon. Of course now, it's Wednesday morning in Karachi. He was arrested Tuesday afternoon in the northeastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

Now according to the Inspector General of the Punjab province, where Lahore is located, he was picked up. He gave up fairly peacefully. He was picked in a house where also his wife and his child. Now according to a senior police source close to the investigation and during the course of a preliminary interrogation, Mr. Saeed told them that Daniel Pearl is alive and is in Karachi.

Now the police believe now that they have Saeed in custody, and apparently he is cooperating. They believe they may be able to find Mr. Pearl sooner, rather than later.

Now Mr. Saeed is not new to kidnapping. He was involved -- he was in fact arrested in India in 1994 for the kidnapping of British and American tourists. He's also said to have links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. He apparently wired funds to two of the hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Now the Karachi authorities say that he was -- Mr. Saeed was transported from Lahore to Karachi last night. And yesterday, they were saying that within the next 12 hours, it would be critical to the investigation to the search for Mr. Pearl. Of course, now those 12 hours have passed. We haven't really heard any updates on this story since yesterday afternoon. So really, it's a question of wait and see here, Wolf, to see if Mr. Saeed is actually going to be able to lead investigators to Daniel Pearl -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And Ben, we know that Mr. Saeed was born in Britain, was educated at the London School of Economics. What else is there in his background that makes him the suspected ringleader of this kidnapping?

WEDEMAN: Well there are actually -- there is some question as to whether he's actually the ringleader. Now just to give you a bit of background on him. As you mentioned, he went to the London School of Economics. He apparently spent a summer in Bosnia, involved in volunteer work there. And that is where sources believe he became associated with Islamic militants.

He's also associated with an organization called Jaish-e- Mohammed. That means the Army of Mohammed. And that is a banned hard-line Islamic group.

Now as I mentioned before, he was involved in these kidnapings in India in 1994. And apparently during his time in jail, he wrote a diary. And that diary gives you the idea that he's not necessarily a mastermind. He was sort of the bait. He's a very worldly young man. Urbane. He's a chess player. Very well educated.

He was used to lure these British and American tourists into these kidnapings. Now the question is, is he really the mastermind? Now there are sources familiar with the investigation, who suggest that he is not the ringleader, that there are others involved, and that possibly the Pakistani authorities, for fear that intelligence operatives related to the government might be involved, they're focusing on Sheikh Omar Saeed, but there is some question as to whether he is actually the true mastermind in this case.

Wolf?

BLITZER: Ben Wedeman in Karachi. And let's hope, of course, that the optimism about Danny Pearl's release turns out to be justified.

And this note, be sure to join me once again at the top of the hour for a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. We'll take a close look at the terror threat. Among my guests will be John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted."

Trying to crack a kidnapping. Targeting terrorists, or guarding the home front. Is the United States getting the information it needs?

Joining me now here in the CNN WAR ROOM, the Senate Intelligence Committee member Evan Bayh, former CIA director James Woolsey, and Frank Smyth of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He was detained for 18 days by Iraqi troops after the Gulf War.

Remember, you can e-mail your WAR ROOM questions to us. Go to my web page, cnn.com/wolf. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily column.

Senator Bayh, you're privy to sensitive information. Without compromising, obviously, classified information, this latest FBI alert, how credible is the information?

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IN), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, it's very credible, Wolf. We were able to not only get the information from Guantanamo Bay, but to verify it through a couple of other sources. And this individual has past track record of planning attacks on the United States' interests. In Yemen, he was apprehended by the Yemenis, subsequently released a couple of years ago. So you put all of that together. And in this particular case, while there was no information about where or what method, there was a date attached. So it -- you put all that together, it's more credible.

BLITZER: And this alert is obviously more specific because of the names, the pictures, the individuals, the specific timing of the threat, which could have come as early as today. So far, obviously, there hasn't been anything that we know of.

BAYH: Well, that's correct. And when you get a specific identity on an individual, you're then able to reach out to other people who know that individual, to try and corroborate whether the story is true or not. And you can build a stronger case and determine how credible it is. And so, this is a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is, of course, that we're still under threat. The good news is that our intelligence, our information is getting better.

BLITZER: By all accounts, Director Woolsey, the intelligence community is doing a better job. Are you convinced of that right now?

JAMES WOOLSEY, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: I think so. I think they've shown themselves in Afghanistan, based partly on the preparation that they did, by being there for several years before 9/11, working with the predator.

BLITZER: The drone, the unmanned plane.

WOOLSEY: Which now also is armed. I think they are doing better than a lot of people had thought would be the case. Because when 9/11 happened, the cry went up, isn't this an intelligence failure. And we must not know anything. It turns out we knew a good deal. We didn't know enough to stop that. But I think American intelligence is working the problem well.

BLITZER: As you take a look at role, though, at the role of the CIA in the war in Afghanistan, it's not just gathering intelligence. It's also fighting. They're the ones who launched this Hellfire missile that attacked this convoy of suspected al Qaeda fighters.

WOOLSEY: Well also, their paramilitary people were on the ground with special forces, doing very much the same kind of thing the special forces were doing. It was Mike Spann, who was tragically killed in the prison uprising. We've had one American sergeant and one CIA officer killed by hostile fire in the Afghan war, a number of others have been killed by accidents or friendly fire.

But the CIA has been in there, mixing it up. And paramilitary operations and running those drones and firing the Hellfire missiles from the drones. It's -- we're at war. And it's a different situation that when we're not. And I think they're doing what they ought to be doing. BLITZER: Frank, you spent a lot of time in to part of world. You know it quite well. Do they, the terrorists who are out there, the suspected terrorists, the actual people who are trying to fight the United States, do they have a sense that the U.S. is on top of situation, is going to beat them?

FRANK SMYTH, CMTE. TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS: Well, I think what they're trying to do is find vulnerabilities that they can hit at, such which is what happened in 9/11. And I think they recognize the United States has a tremendous amount of firepower, but they're trying to bring to bear as much resources as they can, to hit targets of vulnerability.

BLITZER: And if you take a look at the -- Senator Bayh, the earlier alerts. And we could put it up on our screen, showing the various FBI alerts going back to October 11, October 29, December 3, extended on January 3, to include through March 11 because of the Olympic Game, and now this one. Some people are suggesting, the American public is going to get numb from all of these alerts. They don't know what to expect.

BAYH: Well, unfortunately, Wolf, these may become a fact of life for sometime, until the terrorist threat has subsided. In this case, there was more specific information. That's number one. And number two, there is a school of thought that this has a chilling effect on the terrorists' activities. They tend to be a little reluctant when they know they're under scrutiny, when they know our alert has been heightened. And so, it may actually have a deterring effect.

BLITZER: At the same time, we have an e-mail question from Rick in Florida, Director Woolsey, who asks this. "Isn't the media," meaning us, "giving away a lot of information to these terrorist groups? They must watch the news as well. Is it possible they are being tipped off by all the coverage?"

WOOLSEY: Well, I think those decisions really are made by people like the Attorney General and the FBI director and the CIA director, when they decide to issue one of these alerts. Here, clearly, we had information about who and when. We didn't have what and where. And it may be that the people of -- who were going to carry it out, are killed or in prison or whatever. It may never occur.

But who and when is two of the four. And that's reasonably specific as intelligence goes. Often, you only have one of those four. And I think since it came from people who are in custody, there probably wasn't a question in this case of betraying sources and methods.

Often it's more difficult than that. You'll have a signals intercept or an agent somewhere. And you'll have maybe who or maybe when from them. And you have decide whether by disclosing it, you have disclosed something that might alert people to the fact you've tapped into a particular communication or that you've got an agent in a particular place.

It's a tough call, but it's not the media's fault. I mean, the media reports what the CIA director and the FBI director say. And they're the ones who have to make those calls.

BLITZER: We have to make those decisions all the time. We're going to pick up on the Danny Pearl case in just a moment. We have to take a quick break. When we come back, is it a coincidence that a key arrest in the Danny Pearl case kidnapping came on the eve of the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's meeting with President Bush? We'll discuss that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN WAR ROOM. The day before Pakistani's President Pervez Musharraf is to meet with President Bush, authorities back in Pakistan arrest the alleged mastermind in the Danny Pearl kidnapping. Is that just a coincidence?

Frank Smyth, what do you think?

SMYTH: I think that Pakistani authorities have been mounting a tremendous effort to try to get this cleared up before Musharraf came to the United States. They've been turning over every stone they possibly could. They made arrests of three suspects last week, who they linked to the original e-mails that were sent. And they've arrested the lead suspect. It seems like they're closing in. And we are optimistic.

BLITZER: And all this publicity that we, the news media, are giving to the case of Danny Pearl. You were once held in captivity by the Iraqis right after the Gulf War for what, 18, 19 days? Does it help or hurt his cause by all this discussion -- open discussion we're having?

SMYTH: No, it absolutely helps its cause. It keeps the pressure on internationally and puts the pressure on the captors to realize that the world is paying attention, that if they bring any harm to Mr. Pearl, it'll only come back on them.

BLITZER: There was an editorial, senator, in "The Washington Post" today. Let me read it, an excerpt from it. "For all he has done in the past five months to advance the counter terrorist cause, the Pakistani leader has much more to do. And the Bush administration should match the political and economic rewards it offers him with concerted pressure to move ahead."

Is that good advice?

BAYH: Well, there's always room for improvement, Wolf. But the Musharraf has made substantial strides. And I would say, in fact, he's a man of courage, given the internal dynamic within his country to do what he has done. So absolutely keep working with him to continue the progress, but let's not ignore what the man has done to date. It's been a lot.

BLITZER: So as far as the -- in the case of Danny Pearl is concerned, you have confidence in the Pakistani government that they're doing everything feasible to win his freedom? BAYH: I have absolute confidence for a couple reasons. First, it's in their interest. And secondly, we have people on the ground helping them.

BLITZER: How -- a lot of people are suggesting, Director Woolsey, that Pervez Musharraf, who's about to meet with President Bush tomorrow, is going to become a historic figure in not only that part of the world, but in the history of the Islamic world?

WOOLSEY: Well, I hope so. And he -- with to last speech he gave, he's about two-thirds of the way toward (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BLITZER: The founder of modern Turkey.

WOOLSEY: Right. And I think that if he goes that way, and Pakistan becomes a secular democracy, it would be a stunning thing for the history of the Mideast. I hope that he does not end up like Anwar Sadat, making a wonderful gesture and starting something, and then getting killed by the Islamists.

BLITZER: Paying the price. Let me go back to you, senator, and go back to where we started on this FBI alert. If nothing happens in the next day, two days, three days, four days, what does the American public do next?

BAYH: I think what we've been doing since September the 11, Wolf. We get on with our lives. But when we have specific credible evidence about an imminent threat, we take the seriously and support our authorities who are attempting to prevent the harm.

BLITZER: And you have confidence that the government of Yemen, where some of these suspects came from, that they're cooperating fully with the U.S. in searching for these guys?

BAYH: I do. I think there's been an eye opening on the part of the Yemen government since September 11. Part of the country, though, is relatively lawless. The northern part that abuts Saudi Arabia. And there's some work to be done there.

BLITZER: Based on what you know, do you believe any of these suspects are now in the United States?

BAYH: No, we have no information that they've entered the United States. However, it's not to say they couldn't have entered under an alias of some kind.

BLITZER: All right. Senator, Frank, Director Woolsey, thanks for joining us.

And remember, I want to hear from you. Please go to my web page at www.cnn.com/wolf. Click on the designation for comments to me and my producers. We'll try to get some of those on the air as often as we can.

And coming up, the latest on the hostage stand-off at a Connecticut campus. We'll be back in just a moment with a quick check of the top stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: An unfolding hostage situation in Connecticut tops this hour's "News Alert." Police say a recent Fairfield University graduate is holding 17 students and one faculty member hostage in a religious studies class. He claims to have an explosive device. The suspect has released five other students, all women. And police are negotiating right now with him.

The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic began today at the Hague with prosecutors laying out their case, accusing the former Yugoslav president of medieval savagery and calculated cruelty. Milosevic is charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the deaths of thousands of people during the Balkan Wars.

Some controversial words from CNN founder and AOL/Time Warner vice chairman, Ted Turner. In a speech at Brown University last night, he said the September 11 hijackers were brave, but probably a little nuts. Today Turner said this, "The comments I made at Brown University on Monday, February 11th, were taken out of context. And I deeply regret any pain they may have caused. I abhor violence in any form and wholeheartedly support the campaign to free the world from the threat of terrorism." Ted Turner goes on to say, "The attacks of September 11 were despicable acts. I in no way meant to convey otherwise."

And that's all the time we have tonight. Please join me again in 30 minutes, when we'll have a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. That at the top of hour at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific. And this note. At 10:00 Eastern tonight, join Aaron Brown on "NEWSNIGHT". Aaron has a special interview with the visiting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

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