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CNN Live At Daybreak
America Under Attack: Investigation in Washington Makes Good Progress
Aired September 14, 2001 - 07:21 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on this morning, where are we headed? All right, meanwhile the investigation of the crimes is hitting full stride here in the U.S. and around the world.
Our national correspondent, Eileen O'Connor, joining us from Washington with the latest on that aspect of this story -- Eileen.
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, it is very important that the investigators try to find out who the people were who were involved in that because they do believe that they perhaps have not caught all of the people or that all of the people involved were not, of course, killed as the hijackers and there could be still other people out there with other plans.
And what we know is at least eight people were arrested and detained for questioning at two New York airports yesterday.
Four of those people had tried to board a flight on Tuesday and were confronted and quickly left because of a watch list that's been distributed to airport personnel.
Now, these same people were picked up when they came again yesterday. They had open tickets. One of the total group picked up had false identification as a pilot.
And the investigation, as you said, is in full swing all across the country, with federal authorities searching homes and hotels where they believe the people involved in the plot may have stayed over the last week. That includes areas in Virginia, also in Maine and as well as Newark and in Florida.
One person that is being seen increasingly as a linchpin in all of this, where a lot of connections are going through, is Mohamed Atta. He was listed on American Flight 11, according to federal law enforcement sources. That was a flight from New York to Los Angeles. He and -- and that was the one that went into the first World Trade Center tower.
He and another associate, Marwan Alshehhi, attended two different flight schools in Florida. A third man, possibly a cousin of Alshehhi named Walid Alshehhi, was listed as well on Flight 11, according to official documents from New York. Now, this is the first plane that flew into the World Trade Center, as I've said. Now, that cousin also attended a flight school, a different flight school in Florida. Federal law enforcement sources say that they traced their track all the way back to Hamburg. Yesterday we had several arrests in Hamburg. German authorities say that they know that Mohamed Atta used to live in Hamburg with Marwan Alshehhi and a third individual and that they were associated with a terror group.
One of the people arrested in Hamburg yesterday was an airport worker. German authorities say they are still looking for others that may have been associated with this group. And again, police are on the lookout, law enforcement authorities. Airport workers have been given a list of names to watch out for -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Eileen, first of all, do investigators have the sense that there were perhaps some thwarted efforts on Tuesday to perhaps hijack other planes and engage in attacks on other targets?
O'CONNOR: Absolutely they do. And as you know, some precautions have been made. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says that they have fighter planes on alert to go into the sky if they do detect any kind of unusual movement of any planes that subsequently do take off.
Those New York airports, you know, were open just very briefly and once these people were detained, they closed down very quickly. National, as well, in Washington still remains closed and we're starting to hear some reports of incidents perhaps in other airports across the country.
Also, you know, there is this, the security measure that was taken by the White House in putting the vice president, Dick Cheney, up at the Camp David.
It's very clear that federal authorities are being very cautious in the reopening of these airports and that they do believe perhaps that there other members of this group, other members associated with this plot that still could be out there and still could be planning other things -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Given the number of suspects, the number of locations, initially it might strike one as kind of odd that intelligence personnel didn't have some indication this might have been brewing. But I suppose it is possible that each of these distinct units didn't know about the others.
O'CONNOR: Absolutely, and federal law enforcement sources tell me that they are increasingly working under the assumption that many of these groups did not know each other, that there was some signals that, some overt signals that would happen on the aircraft.
You know, one of the things, Miles, that's so important about getting those flight data recorders isn't just about what happened on the plane. It's also what the hijackers might have said about other plans. As you know, we heard, that was reported, that air traffic control conversation on that flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. The microphone was left open.
We heard that one of the hijackers was heard to say that they had other planes and they had other targets. Federal law enforcement very interested in talking to all those people that had cell phone conversations with families. Also looking at these flight data recorders. They want to know did the hijackers talk about any other targets, about any other groups, any other airports that those groups might have been working out of -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Eileen O'Connor reporting to Washington from us.
Those cockpit voice recorders will, of course, be key as they sift through the rubble trying to find that information. What will be interesting to see if is these hijackers who admittedly, apparently, were very sophisticated were able to disable those cockpit voice recorders. That information will be crucial. Hopefully there'll be something on those tapes.
Now, the White House and Congress have cut a deal to provide $40 billion in emergency aid to help New York and Virginia recover from Tuesday's attacks. On Capitol Hill this morning, CNN's Kate Snow with more on that -- Kate.
KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Congress today expects to vote on this emergency spending bill. Late last night, the Speaker of the House was meeting with Mitch Daniels, the economic adviser from the White House, and also the two senators from New York, trying to work out some of the language of this $40 billion bill. The White House, according to sources, wanted unfettered access to all that money so they could spend it as they see fit. Some on Capitol Hill are a little concerned about that. They want more control over this money.
But the bottom line is yes, it will be for $40 billion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN SWEENEY (R), NEW YORK: We'll vote today early this morning to appropriate this emergency supplemental. It's essentially $40 billion, $10 billion to be used for intelligence and defense purposes, $10 additional billion which will be used at the discretion of the president, who will have 15 days in which to submit to Congress his list of requirements, and then $20 billion to what you would call local aid to New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, to cover their costs as it relates to the domestic expenses, public safety, humanitarian, the search and rescue missions that we are watching the images of on CNN all day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now, ironically much of the detail of this language in this bill was worked out on the east lawn of the Capitol yesterday. You see here members evacuating the Capitol. This happened last evening as negotiations had been going on about the budget and about this emergency spending bill. The Capitol evacuated for about 15 minutes. There was a suspicious package that had been found on the Senate side of the building. It was a false alarm.
After the evacuation, the members were allowed to go back inside and they just had a chance, though, to talk while they were outside here on the lawn and at that point we're told that they were talking about these figures, they were talking about the $40 billion.
And Miles, just to give you a little perspective on how much money we're talking about here, on Tuesday before the attacks ever occurred, the House was set to take up a measure regarding defense spending. This is what they were going to do on Tuesday. And there was $18 billion in that bill that the president wanted to spend on defense that everyone was arguing about. They were very concerned. There were some Democrats who said it would break the budget.
Miles, that's $18 billion they were arguing about. Now they're going to spend twice that much in one day, and that's just an initial figure, to get some help and some relief -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: As minority leader Dick Gephardt said yesterday, this is not the time to talk about the budget. But eventually the bills are going to have to be paid. When will the day of reckoning occur, Kate?
SNOW: All we can tell you, Miles, is not yet. I've talked to a lot of members about this and they keep saying look, right now we're unified. Right now we're working on matters of absolute urgency. Down the road we can worry about the accounting -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Kate Snow on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.
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