Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Target: Terrorism - Suspected Terrorist Letters
Aired October 01, 2001 - 07:28 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: Investigators are studying letters they say link three of the September 11 hijackings. They are in Arabic and give instructions to the hijackers on how to carry out their attacks. They also talk about the relationship with god. For instance, part of the letter reads, "God, I trusted you. God, I lay myself in your hands. There is no deity but one god. There is no god except the god of the highest throne. There is no deity but god."
Joining us this morning with a look at the letter and references to the Koran is Muslim cleric Ghazi Khankan. Thank you for being with us, sir.
AL HAAJ KHANKAN, MUSLIM CLERIC: Thank you. Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Khankan, you've had a chance to look through these notes. Part of them seem to be religious calls to action. Part of them seem to be just calls to action. Do you see it as a fair interpretation of the Koran?
KHANKAN: There is nothing in the letters which condones or suggests or supports what these people have done. That is suicide and killing innocent people. And the Koran is very clear. It says don't you dare kill the life that god has made sacred. And anyone who commits suicide here will not see paradise and anyone who commits suicide will be in hell fire. That is the Koranic statement.
Therefore, anything in this letter is simply, number one, we don't know who wrote it. Number two, he says something, god open all doors for me in it. There is no such thing in the Koran. The Koran says oh, Allah, or god, open the doors of your mercy, not your door or doors to me.
O'BRIEN: Let's share one more excerpt with folks who aren't quite as familiar with the letter for just a moment.
KHANKAN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: This one says this, "Everybody hates death, fears death, but only the believers who know the life after death and the reward after death would be the ones who will be seeking death."
It seems to me this is a justification for martyrdom. Would you interpret it that way? KHANKAN: That's his explanation. The Prophet said he who kills himself, he who commits suicide will be throwing himself into hell fire. So his interpretation is not that of Islam and anyone that god says, anyone who hurries in the matter of his life, therefore he is deprived of paradise.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's...
KHANKAN: These are very important points because El Koran is very clear and says and do not kill the life that god had made sacred. That is very, very important. And another one is a person who kills one person, it's as if he has killed humanity. If you have saved one person, it is as if you have saved humanity.
O'BRIEN: All right, so then based on your reading of these letters...
KHANKAN: Yes?
O'BRIEN: ... would you have the assumption that this was, there was a religious motivation at the root here? If there was a religious motivation, was it, in your mind, imagined?
KHANKAN: There is no religious motivation in it. It seems that someone is urging people to commit suicide for a political reason and not for an Islamic reason.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's get one more quote up here. And this takes us more to the practical nature of this note. It says, "Check all your items, your bag, your clothes, knives, your will and your passport, all of your papers. Check your safety before you leave. Make sure that nobody is following you. Make sure that you are clean, your clothes are clean, including your shoes."
And that last passage is what I found most interesting. Isn't it true that Muslims cleanse themselves before they pray? Is that an allusion to that, do you think?
KHANKAN: Of course we have to always be clean when we face god almighty in our prayers. But to have your will and you -- who's going to read your will if you're going to die on that plane? Number two, within traveling within the United States, you don't need a passport. You just need an I.D.
O'BRIEN: Well, so give me the bottom line. Do you doubt the validity of these notes and do you doubt that they are linked, in fact, to the hijackers?
KHANKAN: If the black boxes were disintegrated, you cannot hear what the words were in the black boxes. How could a piece of paper exist with the 2,000 degrees of heat from the fire? It sounds very incredible.
O'BRIEN: All right. Of course, one of those letters was found in a bag which didn't get on the plane. KHANKAN: And the point is whether it was written before or after the incident and who wrote it. We still don't know who was the -- I would like to see an expert to check the handwriting of all these people, hmmm?
O'BRIEN: All right...
KHANKAN: And make sure that it is one of them.
O'BRIEN: All right, we appreciate your time and your insights on the Koran, Ghazi Khankan.
KHANKAN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
