Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
America's New War: Terrorists in our Midst
Aired September 20, 2001 - 07:32 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.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESP.: Now, as the military deployment takes place, the president prepares not only to address Congress tonight, but also to meet with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair to plot military strategy, a very critical criminal investigation continues here in the United States.
CNN's Eileen O'Connor joins us now with the latest.
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, you're right, very critical because the president also wants to prove that he's seeking justice here in doing any kind of military strike. And so the threads of this investigation are getting longer and longer and they are reaching throughout the world. But one of the things that's very interesting is as the police retrace the steps of these suspected hijackers, they're discovering how easily it was and how easy it was to become hidden in America.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'CONNOR (voice-over): Portland, Maine shocked at the proof: suspected hijackers living in their midst. Surveillance photos released by the police show Mohammed Atta with another of the suspected hijackers right there at airport, calmly walking through security, despite the knowledge by intelligence agencies worldwide that Atta was a man to watch.
It's the same here just outside the Washington, D.C. beltway. A surveillance photo uncovered, taken days before at an ATM of two Pentagon hijackers. Federal agents working around the clock retracing where they slept, ate, spent time.
Police spokesman Jim Collins.
JIM COLLINS, LAUREL, MARYLAND POLICE: Then again, these people blend in so well, you could have been with them shopping, you could have passed them on the street, you would never know it.
SURESH PATEL, PIN-DEL MOTEL OWNER: They act like just a normal person to me.
O'CONNOR: Suresh Patel owns the Pin-Del Motel. Ziad Jarrahi checked into room 105 on August 27, paying by credit card. Nawaq Alhamzi stayed there September 1, in room seven. He paid cash. On September 11, Jarrahi, the FBI says, was in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Alhamzi is suspected in helping slam American Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
PATEL: I feel, you know, terrible about that. You know, if I would have some kind of hint, you know, we would have called the police or FBI or anything. But it was too late.
O'CONNOR: At some point it is believed that Nawaq Alhamzi moved here to the Valencia Motel to join other suspected hijackers. People here talk of how they got pizza, shopped at the local Giant. One of them honed his flying skills at a nearby airfield. And then there is the gym.
SPEROS COURTIS, GOLD'S GYM: And they really didn't stand out. And it's very common for groups of three guys to come in and work out in the evening here.
O'CONNOR: Regional manager Speros Courtis says the suspected hijackers paid cash and signed their real names. Patrons say knowing men who could commit such heinous acts were among them gives them the creeps.
GABRIEL ROBINSON, GOLD'S GYM MEMBER: It's an uneasy feeling. You pretty much got to kind of have like a third eye.
DENNIS BALTIMORE, GOLD'S GYM MEMBER: It makes me feel kind of, you know, upset that, you know, these people can just blend in here and then go out and do something like that.
O'CONNOR: Something no one could imagine, even in their worst nightmares.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'CONNOR: Now, one of the key threats that investigators are looking at is really tracing back that financial trail and the use of credit cards is going to be very critical because tracing back the money, following the money, as usual, will lead, they believe, back to Osama bin Laden and his associates -- John.
KING: Eileen O'Connor, thank you very much.
And as Eileen noted in her piece, one of the many questions in the wake of these tragedies, whether airline security should be improved.
Hearings on that issue later today. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at nine o'clock this morning will look at whether the federal government needs to boost security measures at its airports around the country. CNN will provide coverage on that throughout the day. Here's a morning glimpse of the Capitol, those buses outside bringing law makers up to New York for a firsthand look at the devastation.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
