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CNN Live At Daybreak

Search for Rudolph Slows As FBI Focuses on Future

Aired March 21, 2002 - 06:35   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: Not all terrorist suspects being sought by the U.S. government have links to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. The FBI is still looking for alleged Olympic Park bomber, Eric Robert Rudolph.

Our Brian Cabell has the latest on that manhunt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is on the FBI's most wanted list, been there since 1998, charged with four bombings in Atlanta and Birmingham, including the Olympic Park bombing.

CHARLES STONE, RETIRED FBI AGENT: I believe Eric is still in western North Carolina. I believe he is still alive, and I believe that one day he will be caught.

CABELL: At one point in 1998 during the search for Eric Rudolph, more than 200 federal and state agents combed the rugged Nantahala Mountains in western North Carolina, not far from where Rudolph lived before fleeing. Agents were convinced they were hot in his trail.

(on camera): But that was four years ago. Investigators now concede they have just about run out of leads in the case, and they have all but shut down the investigation into the disappearance of Eric Rudolph.

(voice-over): The Southeast Bomb Task Force, which led the Rudolph investigation, will soon abandon its headquarters near the FBI field office in Atlanta. Most of the dozen agents working the case will be reassigned, and by June, the fugitive part of the investigation is supposed to be transferred to the Charlotte field office.

It was only the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics that kept the task force going at full speed. Officials wanted to be prepared just in case Rudolph decided to reappear. There hasn't been a live sighting of him since the summer of 1998.

TODD LETCHER, FBI: We need to send the message that we are not going away, that this case is a top priority, that we are going to find Eric Rudolph.

CABELL: That was the official line last summer. It's still the official line, but agents, who have already spent $30 million trying to track him down, will now spend much less time on him. That leaves Emily Lyons, a nurse who was maimed in a bombing allegedly committed by Rudolph in 1998, to wonder whether she will ever see Rudolph brought to justice.

EMILY LYONS, BOMBING VICTIM: Well, if he is like the Unabomber that takes so long to be caught, I may be gone by then. I'd love to have it happen while I am still alive and fairly young. In reality, I'm not sure if that will happen.

CABELL: The FBI's mission has changed since September 11. It's using more agents to try to prevent future acts of terrorism. Some of the agents could come from this investigation, which it says has basically come to an end.

Brian Cabell, CNN, Andrews, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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