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CNN Live Today

Italians Wiretapped Suspected al Qaeda Before September 11

Aired May 29, 2002 - 14:09   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we move on now to more on the war on terror.

Italian intelligence may have actually taped conversations by suspected al Qaeda operatives talking about the September 11 attacks more than a year before they actually happened.

For more on this, we go to Rome and to our bureau chief there, Alessio Vinci -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Carol.

The transcript of a conversation between what Italian investigators believe were two al Qaeda operatives in Italy were published by two leading Italian newspapers, "La Republica" and "Corriere Della Sera" over the past few days.

And according to those transcripts, the conversation took place between an Egyptian national who was the leader of an Islamic mosque up in the northern Italian city of Milan, and another suspected terrorist coming from Yemen.

The two men are know as Es-Said (ph), the imam leader, and al- Hilal (ph), the Yemeni national. And according to the transcript, al- Hilal (ph), the Yemeni, is telling his colleague, quote, "In the future, listen to the news and remember these words -- above the head."

The sheikh continues as saying that "The action will be one of those strikes you will never forget." Adding, "It will be a terrifying thing. It will move from south to north, from east to west. He who made this plan is a madman, but a genius. It will turn you to ice."

And according to Italian investigators, this conversation took place on January 24, 2001, in a car, as the two men were driving together.

And according to the transcripts published in those two newspapers recently, the Yemeni sheik also says, quote, "You know we are in a country full of enemies of God, but we are always mujahedeen fighters or freedom fighters. We can conquer any power using sparks and airplanes. They can't stop us even with their greater weaponry. We just have to hit them and keep our heads high." End of quote. Now, Italian authorities are stopping short from saying that there is a direct connection between the two suspects and the September 11 attack. They have those transcripts ever since early January, as I said, but it took a lot of time to actually translate those transcripts from Arabic into Italian, and analyze them.

Italian investigators are also complaining that it took a long time to do this job because of the poor quality of the wiretaps.

But what we do know, according to Italian officials, is that the Italian officials knew who exactly this imam was, because he was part of an investigation that Italian authorities had launched against possible al Qaeda members before the September 11 attack.

They did know that he was the right-hand man (UNINTELLIGIBLE) if you want, of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), who was the number two al Qaeda in Egypt. And we also know that he fled Italy two months before the September 11 attack.

Italian investigators also believe that he actually was killed during the war in Afghanistan.

Also, what we do not know exactly, because Italian officials are not really telling us, is how soon did the Italian officials transmit those transcripts to United States officials in the United States.

What we do know, however, is that according to a United States official, these transcripts, or part of those transcripts, were only recently transmitted to the United States, so therefore this should not be considered as one of those dots, if you want, that United States officials may have failed to connect in order to prevent or perhaps foresee what happened in the September 11 attack -- Carol.

LIN: Alessio Vinci in Rome, thank you very much for that.

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