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CNN Live Today

Bin Laden's Lieutenant Accused of Being Major Planner of 09/11 Attacks

Aired September 12, 2002 - 13:36   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: One of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants is accused of being a major planner of last year's suicide hijackings. And now, sources tell CNN that information leading to this week's high terror alert in the U.S. came from that leader's Al Qaeda operatives.
Our Manila bureau chief, Maria Ressa, has this exclusive report.

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MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: CNN has learned this man applied for a U.S. visa extension last summer. It was denied, but it was only later that authorities discovered his real identity, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the world's most wanted men, carrying a reward of $25 million.

For years, these were the only two known pictures of him. He is the head of Al Qaeda's military committee, one of four key lieutenants of Osama bin Laden. U.S. authorities say he is a key planner for last year's September 11th attacks.

The blueprint goes back to 1995, when Mohammed lived in the Philippines, officials here say. He established a cell here with multiple plots against the U.S.: to bomb American planes, assassinate Bill Clinton, and hijack and crash planes into buildings in the U.S.

COL. RODOLFO MENDOZA, COUNTERTERRORISM OPS: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is educated; he can speak fluent English. I think he has some skills in flying and, also scuba diving.

RESSA: Mendoza interrogated a member of Mohammed's cell, who told him suicide attacks would move beyond one man soon, to bigger operations by land, sea and air, a foreshadowing of Al Qaeda attacks Mohammed would be involved in: the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in east Africa, the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, and less than a year later, September 11th.

Mohammed was finishing the groundwork in 1999, meeting with one group of September 11th hijackers in Germany, and a few months later, the second group in Malaysia.

Asian sources tell CNN, he was also planning ahead, sending this man, Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, to activate cells in southeast Asia one day before last year's September 11th attacks. Jabarah worked with Al Qaeda senior representative in the region, Omar Al Faruq (ph), to push local cells to acquire a goal of 21 tons of explosives to be for suicide bombing attacks against U.S. and Western interests in the region.

Information from these two men now in U.S. custody pushed the U.S. to raise the global terror alert warning Tuesday.

(on camera): It seems at least one of Mohammed's plots after the September 11th attacks last year worked -- the truck bombing of a Tunisian synagogue in April which left the 19 people dead. German investigators say three hours before the attack, the suspected bomber made one call, to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.

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