Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Two Men Arrested in Philippines Claim Not To Know Each Other

Aired March 22, 2002 - 06:32   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: Following the September 11 attacks, intelligence officials around the world stepped up their efforts to crack al Qaeda's global network. It has been virtually impossible for journalists to speak with jailed terrorist suspects, but CNN has managed to do it -- managed to obtain exclusive interviews with two men and their families who Philippine authorities accused of being members of terrorist sleeper cells.

Our Maria Ressa brings us this amazing story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this lower-class neighborhood in Manila, Larita Ali (ph) and her children watch news about Osama bin Laden on TV, but the war on terror has had a very real immediate impact on her family.

Nearly four months ago, Philippine police arrested her husband, Jordanian Hassan Dden Ali, along with two Palestinians, Ahmed Abd Masrie and Mohammed Sabri Salamah. Confidential police documents obtained by CNN say the three are actively involved in recruiting members for a terrorist cell linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, charges the three vehemently deny.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, which police escorts repeatedly tried to stop, Hassan Ali accuses the Philippine police of planting evidence for their case in his home.

HASSAN DDEN ALI, JORDANIAN SUSPECT: There is conspiracy between immigration and Philippine National Police (ph). They want to catch me, and not only me, all Arabs.

RESSA: He grew angry when the police again tried to stop the interview.

ALI: Let people to know -- let people to know what is happening. Why you are catching me? I am willing, OK, to tell everything and everywhere.

RESSA: Intelligence sources tell CNN they believe these men are part of an al Qaeda sleeper cell connected to a 1995 terrorist cell busted here, led by Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. All three arrested have lived in the Philippines for more than a decade, Ali the longest at 17 years. Salamah, in these intelligence documents dated December 1994, came under police surveillance while working with Mohammed Jamal Kalifa (ph), who police say funneled money to extremist groups here from his brother-in-law, Osama bin Laden.

Masrie, according to intelligence officials, shared a house with Ramzi Yousef and his conspirator, Abdul Hakim Murad. Both men are serving life sentences in U.S. prisons.

ANDREA DOMINGO, IMMIGRATION COMMISSIONER: The three that were arrested were actually in the same place during their high school days with Murad and Yousef, and I guess other people like Kalifa (ph), they seem to know each other.

RESSA: Not true, says Masrie. He says he did live in the house pinpointed by intelligence officials, but that he never met Ramzi Yousef. He denies intelligence claims he went to high school with the other two men arrested with him.

AHMAN ABED MASRIE, PALESTINIAN SUSPECT: How come? I am in Lebanon and Kuwait (ph), and also I have my high school certificate, different country.

RESSA: Ali said they never met until they were arrested.

ALI: What we know, we know it only here, only after they plant evidence.

RESSA: His wife told a slightly different story. "They were all students here in the Philippines back then, so they met each other that way."

When told what his wife said, Ali conceded they met as students, but did not know each other well.

(on camera): Is this discrimination against Arabs and Muslims as the men claim, or effective police intelligence work against a terrorist network? That question may never really be answered in court. With no anti-terrorism law in the Philippines, all these men will face will be criminal charges, the first illegal possession of firearms.

Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.