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CNN Live Saturday

Key al Qaeda Operative Arrested

Aired September 14, 2002 - 12:02   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We begin now with a significant break for the Bush administration in its war on terrorism, the arrest in Pakistan of a suspected key al Qaeda operative. Ramzi Binalshibh has acknowledged playing a role in last September's attacks. And the FBI believes he was originally intended to be the 20th hijacker. For the latest, we turn to CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena with more. Hi there, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good afternoon. Well, the arrest of Binalshibh is one of the most significant breakthroughs in the war on terror to date. U.S. officials, though, aren't saying a whole lot about the arrest, but the president did offer a general confirmation earlier today.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We captured one of the planners and organizers of the September the 11th attack that murdered thousands of people, including Italians (ph). One by one, we're hunting the killers down. We are relentless. We are strong, and we're not going to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: Now, beyond that, government officials have been extremely tight-lipped on this issue. Attorney General John Ashcroft flat out refused to answer a question about Binalshibh at a press conference in Denmark earlier today. So we have had to rely on sources. And those sources tell us that Binalshibh remains in Pakistan, that both CIA and Pakistani intelligence officials have access to him.

One other development today: Germany formally asked for Binalshibh's extradition. It has had a warrant out for his arrest for nearly one year. No comment from the government on that front either.

Now, ironically, Binalshibh was picked up exactly one year after the September 11 attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): This is believed to be one of the Wednesday raids that netted Ramzi Binalshibh, the man who had admitted playing a direct role in the September 11 attacks by helping to plan and finance the operation. His capture is a significant breakthrough for Pakistani and U.S. authorities.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Should Ramzi Binalshibh chose to cooperate with investigators, I mean, he could basically lay out the whole 9/11 plan for the first time.

ARENA: Binalshibh was caught in Karachi. Pakistan's president told CNN about the raid by that country's intelligence service earlier this week that resulted in the capture of 10 al Qaeda operatives.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PRESIDENT, PAKISTAN: It was a good operation, and they are -- there's one Egyptian, one Saudi and eight Yemenis in this. And I'm told maybe there is an important person also involved.

ARENA: By his on admission, Binalshibh was an integral part of the Hamburg, Germany terrorist cell that spawned the likes of Mohammed Atta. Binalshibh was, in fact, a roommate of Atta's, the hijacker who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.

U.S. officials allege Binalshibh sent money to at least two of the hijackers, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi.

Germany issued an international warrant for Binalshibh's arrest right after the attacks in September, but he eluded capture, disappearing in Pakistan a year ago. He resurfaced to be interviewed on audiotape for a documentary aired on Al Jazeera, the Arabic television network this week.

In the interview, Binalshibh boasted about his role in the September 11 attacks, even the early morning phone call he got on August 29, 2001 from Mohammed Atta with a coded message setting the date.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

RAMZI BINALSHIBH (through translator): He said, "a friend of mine gave me a puzzle and I want you to help me out."

I said to him, "it this the time for puzzles, Mohammed?"

He said, "Yes, I know, but no one else but you can help me."

He said, "two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down -- what is it?"

I said, "did you wake me up just to tell me this?"

As it turns out, two sticks is the number 11, a dash is a dash, and a cake with the stick down is the number nine, and that was September 11.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: As mentioned earlier, investigators believe that Binalshibh planned to be the 20th hijacker. He did try to enter the United States four times prior to September 11, but he was denied a visa each time. Now, Binalshibh has also been linked to at least one post-9/11 attack on a synagogue in Tunisia. So the big question now is whether he will talk. If he does, he could provide up to date information about the al Qaeda terrorist network and possible plans for future attacks.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kelli Arena, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Well, our senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar is keeping a close watch on the arrest in Pakistan, and she's with us now from London to shed more light on the story. Good to see you, Sheila.

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. Yes, indeed, the saga of Ramzi Binalshibh and the role which he has played throughout the long planning process, at least two years, through the attacks and then through the last year, Binalshibh in the Al Jazeera documentary described himself as "the coordinator of the September 11 attacks." And as Kelli mentioned, it was very clear he was the coordinator left behind in Germany only because he failed on at least four occasions to get a visa to enter the United States.

We know that at one point, he even put down a down payment to pay for flying lessons at one of the schools attended by one of the other pilot hijackers of the 9/11 attacks.

So Binalshibh stuck in Germany, instead took up another kind of role, and that was really as being the logistitian and financier. There are some suspicions on the part of some German investigators that Binalshibh's contacts and connections with al Qaeda may go back years longer than those of Mohammed Atta and others. He has been, it is believed, spotted attending a key meeting of al Qaeda operatives in the Far East in the weeks before the USS Cole was struck. He also is known, according to Spanish investigators, to have attended an important summit in Spain with Mohammed Atta and other key al Qaeda operatives still unidentified in the weeks before the September 11 attacks.

So someone clearly who was very important and will be very important to investigators both in the United States and here in Europe. People are still looking for clues as to what exactly happened here -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Sheila, given that very intimate involvement, it would be believed that he is unlikely to want to talk, unlikely to want to point the finger at anybody, to help in the ongoing search for other arrests. Meantime, the issue now is going to be, will he be extradited and to where would he be extradited, since both the U.S. had him on a list and Germany had him on a list as well as a wanted man.

MACVICAR: Well, Germany has had an arrest warrant out for him since the 21st of September, 10 days after 9/11, where they charged him with association and membership in a terrorist organization, al Qaeda. They also charged him with murder, the murders of the thousands who died on September 11.

However, we do know that in the last little while, Germany's interior minister has been speaking and saying, listen, we think it's a great thing that he's arrested. We're very pleased. We would like access to him to question him. We believe that he could help us extensively in understanding precisely what happened, the recruitment process, who else may have been involved, who else we need to look at in Germany. But it seems the Germans were indicating that they would not themselves request his extradition.

Now, he is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, currently before -- trying to go forward in a federal court in the United States. Unindicted, American officials have previously made clear, because they were holding open the possibility that perhaps he could be brought before a military tribunal. So we don't yet know what the judicial process will be.

Now, as for speaking, he did give this interview to Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera says the interview took place in Karachi. They had told us that the interview took place in June, and that he clearly, it would seem, remained in Karachi after he gave this interview. And there is no question from the sound that we have heard on tape of Ramzi Binalshibh speaking. First off, there is no question of remorse here, and there is a degree of boastfulness. He wanted people to know precisely what he and al Qaeda had done.

WHITFIELD: So, Sheila, quickly, the differences or similarities between Moussaoui and Binalshibh here, I mean, since they were both been labeled potential 20th hijackers -- sounds like they have very similar backgrounds.

MACVICAR: Well, to a certain extent, they do. Moussaoui was -- is a French national. He had been in school in England for a long time. He has a graduate degree from a university here in London. So he speaks English fluently.

Binalshibh, as far as we know, does not speak English. As a matter of fact, we know that there was an attempt made at one point to get him a visa via an English language school in Florida. Now, it's never really been entirely clear precisely why that -- those visa requests, multiple visa requests, were refused.

But in any event, he was denied entry to the United States, and it's at that point that the contact with Moussaoui seems to be made. Investigators even believe that Binalshibh traveled from Germany to London to meet with Moussaoui, and that after Moussaoui successfully entered the United States, he transferred money to him from a fund that he was basically running to support the rest of the hijackers in the United States. That's one of the things that helps to link Moussaoui and Binalshibh, all together into the whole plot around 9/11.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you very much, Sheila MacVicar from London. Appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com