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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Under Attack: Authorities Pursuing Leads

Aired September 13, 2001 - 07:41   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now we are checking in with Attorney General John Ashcroft, who joins us from Washington. Welcome, sir. We appreciate your joining us this morning.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: Are there any arrests near?

ASHCROFT: We are pursuing a great many leads. We are developing information. I'm not going to comment on whether or not arrests are imminent. We wouldn't want to compromise any of the activities. But I can tell you that the 4,000 special agents of the FBI, the offices of U.S. attorneys and the FBI around the world are pursuing constructively leads.

We have not only the 4,000 agents, but 3,000 support personnel for them, and then additional scientists and lab technicians who are already hard at work in this matter.

ZAHN: All right, we have been reporting for 12 hours now that the FBI took several men into custody yesterday. How critical is the information those men have given your agents to some ultimate arrests?

ASHCROFT: Well, very frankly, we're attentive to all the evidence that's available to us. We're pursuing a variety of leads. We're not going to comment on specific evidence that might be available from any particular sources. We feel like we're making progress. We know that between three and six individuals on each of the hijacked airplanes were involved. We know that they were trained and technically proficient, that they were trained in the United States to fly, some of them at least, to fly these airplanes, and they flew them with deadly accuracy. These were acts of war and we're very methodical and we're going to be complete about developing an understanding and as soon as we have the capacity to bring to justice people who are associated with this as ground support for these operations, we're going to do that.

We have as a major priority the development of the understanding and the apprehension of those involved in this crime and in this act of war against the United States and we're going to act aggressively. We're also going to act aggressively, though, to protect the safety of America's traveling public and to get our airline industry back in the sky, and that's why we've, in the Justice Department, have coordinated efforts with the Department of Treasury and Customs agents, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol officers, U.S. marshals are going to, by the hundreds, help secure both the airports and the air traffic in the United States to help make sure the traveling public has a basis for knowing that the skies will be safe.

ZAHN: Mr. Ashcroft, I want to come back to a point you made earlier on confirming the fact that four of these hijackers or each of the four terrorist teams had certified pilots on board. You confirmed the fact that some of them were trained in the United States. "Time" magazine is reporting today that some of these pilots had flown for an airline in Saudi Arabia. Do you know if those pilots were trained in the U.S. or, in fact, in Saudi Arabia?

ASHCROFT: I'm not prepared to comment on the "Time" article.

ZAHN: And why is that, sir?

ASHCROFT: Well, there are certain things that we want to say or wouldn't want to say about various pieces of evidence and leads which we are undertaking and it's not our intention to do anything that would compromise either the kind of intelligence we receive in this case or the kind of progress we might make in apprehending these perpetrators of these acts of war.

ZAHN: All right, CNN is also being told by sources it is possible that members of each of the hijacking team may not even have known each other prior to commandeering the jets and that perhaps they waited on board for signals from somebody somewhere else to tell them what to do. Can you confirm that is true this morning?

ASHCROFT: No, I'm not prepared to comment on that kind of allegation.

ZAHN: Is it anywhere close to being accurate?

ASHCROFT: I'm not prepared to comment on that kind of allegation.

ZAHN: All right, let's move on to something else. There is a feeling among some Americans as they watch how successfully you've been able to turn up information on some of these suspects over the last 24 hours or so and they're saying, you know, why couldn't anybody have stopped these guys? What do you tell them this morning?

ASHCROFT: Well, I can tell them that we did not have any information that these kinds of attacks were going to take place and that frankly this is a big country with lots of space for people who then, if they come together in a concentrated way and then don't care about their identity because they're going to perish in the crime, may leave evidence that otherwise would not have been as clearly available.

This is a unique perpetration of acts of war in a very criminal sense but those who perpetrated these acts understood that their own involvement would end their lives. So we don't have the normal setting where people who commit the crimes are not a part of -- and normally we try to use information from them and what they do after their criminal acts to put the story together. That's not a part of our capacity in this setting.

ZAHN: I respect how cautious you have to be about what kind of intelligence information you're going to share and what not. Are you able to tell us this morning if your investigation has led you towards any one responsible party?

ASHCROFT: I'm not able to identify any one responsible party for you today. I would say that we are making progress in this investigation and following and developing an understanding of the kinds of associations that the individuals who perpetrated these acts of war had.

ZAHN: Mr. Attorney General, one last question for you this morning. The president yesterday said that the United States government will spend what it takes to not only clean up the horrible destruction in Washington and New York, but also to combat terrorism. Are you confident that Congress is going to give you the funds that you think you need to, in fact, combat terrorism so this won't happen again?

ASHCROFT: Well, I believe that the entire nation is, the entire nation is united here. I've talked to members of the Congress. I've heard them speak, members of both parties. This is one of those situations where Americans set aside other things that might divide us and we are, I think, conspicuously and appropriately united in this setting and I believe that the members of Congress will act in good faith to work with the administration here to make sure the public can be assured of its safety and security to every extent possible.

We obviously want this country to be back at the business freely as the kind of culture we ought to be, as a leading culture of freedom in the world, and we don't believe that the kinds of costs associated with that are beyond what we should undertake. We're going to get that done.

ZAHN: Mr. Attorney General, thank you very much for joining us on CNN this morning.

ASHCROFT: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: We very much appreciate your time.

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