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CNN Live At Daybreak

FBI Trying to Find If There's Link Between Al Qaeda and Tanzanian Man Arrested in North Carolina

Aired April 18, 2002 - 05:09   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: COSTELLO: And the FBI is trying to find out if there's a link between al Qaeda and the Tanzanian man arrested in North Carolina for overstaying his student visa. A letter found in an Afghanistan cave congratulated Issaya Nombo for obtaining a U.S. pilots license.

Reporter David Waters of Central Florida News 13 visited that flight school where Nombo received his training.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID WATERS, NEWS 13 CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A flight school in Central Florida may now have a tie to the al Qaeda network and Osama bin Laden. A letter congratulating flight student Issaya Nombo on getting his pilots license was found in a cave in Afghanistan. Nombo trained in Titusville at Voyager Aviation's flight school. Joe Cadiz ran the facility that housed Voyager Aviation. He says the rules that may have allowed Nombo to get flight training worry him.

JOE CADIZ, FLIGHT BASE OPERATIONS MANAGER: Well, it shows that just about anybody can get flight training if they have the money.

WATERS: The FBI arrested Issaya Nombo Monday for overstaying his student visa. It shows Nombo entered the U.S. in May last year. Shortly after getting into the country, the Tanzanian native trained and received his ATP license. That stands for Airline Transport Pilots License, enabling Nombo to fly commercial airliners.

The flight school's Web site has a note congratulating Nombo on the accomplishment. But the FBI grew suspicious, Nombo's student visa expired in August and a copy of his congratulatory letter was found in a cave in Afghanistan.

(on camera): The student pilot got his license from Voyager Aviation. The same company that helped give him that license is also the one that turned him into the FBI.

(voice-over): The flight school's owner helped FBI agents track down Nombo to where he's been living in North Carolina, 20 miles southwest of Raleigh in a town called Apex. He's from Tanzania, another worry for the FBI because in 1998 two U.S. embassies were bombed in Africa. One was in Tanzania. And the bombings killed hundreds.

They're all puzzling clues that Joe Cadiz is concerned about as he prepares to launch his own flight school at the same facility.

CADIZ: It kind of worries me some but then again we can't quit living because of that. We've got to go on.

WATERS: David Waters, CNN, Broward County, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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