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CNN Live At Daybreak
FBI Knew Years Ago Of Plan Similar to September 11 Attacks
Aired March 15, 2002 - 05:33 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has obtained confidential evidence the FBI knew years ago that terrorists were planning to hijack passenger planes and fly them into U.S. buildings. The plot was uncovered by Philippine investigators.
Our Maria Ressa has details from the capital, Manila.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In confidential documents from the Philippines obtained by CNN, the plan was clear. This interrogation report of an Islamic militant says, "He will board any American commercial aircraft, control its cockpit and dive it at the CIA headquarters." Other buildings targeted: the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
It sounds similar to September 11, but it's not. This report is dated January 20, 1995. Other documents tell of an attack against U.S. nuclear facilities and of militants training in U.S. flight schools.
Philippine and U.S. authorities busted that terrorist cell then, and the FBI, using the Philippine documents, did check the four flight schools named there, but found no evidence of any other planned terror attacks.
The man questioned seven years ago: Abdul Hakim Murad, a pilot who trained in those four schools in the U.S. He was convicted two years after the cell was busted for plotting to bomb U.S. airliners in Asia, and is now in U.S. prison, along with two conspirators, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing, and the man who fought with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, Wali Khan Amin Shah.
And Wali Khan has a link to a man still on the run. Here is Wali Khan's name listed on the board of directors of Konsojaya, a Malaysian company now out of business, which Philippine investigators say funded that 1995 terrorist cell.
Also on Konsojaya's board, Riduan bin Isomuddin, an Indonesian cleric and Afghan war veteran, better known as Hambali.
According to intelligence officials in the region, Hambali is now the main operator for al Qaeda in Southeast Asia. Intelligence officials in the Philippines say, like in 1995, Hambali's network still has its leadership based in Malaysia and training camps in the Philippines.
COL. RODOLFO MENDOZA, COUNTERTERRORISM INVESTIGATOR: Yes, it's the same network, but it was expanded. It was modernized. It became sophisticated, and it attracted a lot of membership. So organizationally, it expanded.
RESSA: Police in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines say Hambali was behind a series of bombings in the region in 2000. Intelligence sources in those countries believe they were practice runs for a larger plot: to bomb the U.S. Embassy and U.S. commercial and military targets in Singapore.
This surveillance tape allegedly planning that attack was found in what the U.S. military calls an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan. Last December, Singapore arrested 13 suspected terrorists, who police there say report to Hambali.
is wanted for arrest in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. He has never spoken publicly or responded to the charges, but intelligence officials in the region believe Hambali, using the 1995 Manila plot as a blueprint, helped plan the September 11 attacks.
BRIG. GEN. ROBERT DELFIN, PHILIPPINE INTELLIGENCE CHIEF: It's a continuous process in the fight for these terrorists.
In January, 2000, intelligence sources in Malaysia say Hambali was videotaped meeting with two of the September 11 hijackers in Malaysia, Khalid al-Midhar Nawaf Alhamzi. Malaysian officials say Hambali also met with one of the suspects of the bombing of the USS Cole.
(On camera): Intelligence officials tell CNN Hambali left Malaysia in late February for Indonesia. Two days later, he left again for an unknown location. No one knows exactly where Hambali is now, but investigators in the region say he is the key to an al Qaeda operation here that U.S. officials have said publicly are larger and more dangerous than they first thought.
Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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