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CNN Live At Daybreak

Abdullah Al Mujahir Being Held as Enemy Combatant

Aired June 11, 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: Now more on the dirty bomb suspect. Abdullah Al Mujahir is a U.S. citizen being held by the Defense Department as an enemy combatant. At that status, he can be held indefinitely without being charged with any crime and with fewer legal rights.

CNN's David Ensor has more on his arrest and is alleged link to the dirty bomb plot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When he was arrested May 8th at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Jose Padilla, or Abdullah Al Muhajir as he calls himself, was carrying over $10,000, U.S. officials say, though he only declared 8,000 to U.S. Customs.

It was captured al Qaeda operations chief, Abu Zubaydah, who first told U.S. interrogators about the U.S. citizen working for al Qaeda two weeks before the arrest in Chicago. Zubaydah did not give the man's name, officials say. That came from other sources.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We know from multiple, independent and corroborating sources that Abdullah Al Muhajir was closely associated with al Qaeda, and that as an al Qaeda operative, he was involved in planning future terrorist attacks on innocent American civilians in the United States.

ENSOR: Officials say Padilla, or Al Muhajir, met twice in Karachi, Pakistan with Abu Zubaydah and other senior al Qaeda operatives. And that in another Pakistani city, Lahore, he received training with another man in how to make bombs.

ASHCROFT: While in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Al Muhajir trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices.

ENSOR: An associate was arrested in Pakistan, U.S. officials say, prior to his arrest. In the weeks before his arrest, Padilla Al Muhajir traveled, officials say, between Pakistan, Egypt and Switzerland. He arrived in Chicago on a reconnaissance trip, likely to include Washington, D.C.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: We stopped this man in the initial planning stages. ENSOR (on camera): U.S. officials say some of what Abu Zubaydah tells them they know to be false, but this is an example where what he told them was crosschecked and proved correct with other intelligence sources, potentially stopping a radiological bomb attack that could have killed many and terrorized many more.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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