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CNN Live At Daybreak

Explosives Found at Counterterrorism School

Aired August 19, 2002 - 06:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities say they may find 4,000 pounds of explosives today, when they open two bunkers at a training facility in New Mexico. I'm talking Albuquerque, New Mexico. Authorities say the school taught students from two Arab countries how to use high-powered explosives.
Reporter Arikka Von from affiliate KOAT has the story from Roswell, New Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARIKKA VON, CNN AFFILIATE KOAT REPORTER (voice-over): Surrounded by barbed-wire fences, HEAT, or High Energy Access Tools, is a counterterrorism firm that teaches various agencies to enter planes and buildings using explosives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Post-9/11, it's a very -- a growing business.

MAYOR BILL OWEN, ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO: It's not anything, on the one hand, that yet they advertised, but at the same time, they never tried to keep anything really a particular secret. I mean, I have been out there on tour. The police department had been out there on tour.

VON: But when federal agents raided the facility, they found more than 23,000 missiles worth $54 million. Court documents say the warheads were stored in mislabeled crates, something that made investigators suspicious, and residents nervous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then they find that there are missiles involved, and not (ph) live missiles, and you have to kind of wonder, what are we training for here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought, what is going on here? Are we training terrorists or what?

VON: In Vancouver, David Huddox's (ph) wife says they are on the right side of the law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We train Special Forces, we train law enforcement personnel.

VON: And investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms say HEAT was training students from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, both U.S. allies. Huddox (ph) claimed their business is legal, and suffering a revenge plot from a disgruntled employee. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are just a bunch of false and misleading accusations.

VON (on camera): While the warheads confiscated at this facility were enough to raise suspicion, the U.S. attorney's office says right now, this is a regulation issue, not a matter of terrorism.

In Roswell, New Mexico, Erica Vaughn (ph), CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And again, that report from Arikka Von of CNN affiliate KOAT in Albuquerque.

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