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CNN Live At Daybreak

Suspected Money Supplier Was Key Figure in India-Pakistan Conflict

Aired October 29, 2001 - 06:07   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. officials had targeted a British born man as being the money supplier for the suspected hijackers in the September 11th crashes. As CNN's Maria Ressa reports, this man was also a key figure in one chapter of the India- Pakistan rivalry.

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MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Once a standout student at the London School of Economics, Ahmed Omar Said Sheik is the man the FBI thinks sent start-up money to the hijackers for the September terrorist attacks.

BRAHMA CHELLANEY, POLITICAL ANALYST: He's supposed to be a - an expert in financial dealings. He reportedly is controlling certain aspects of the financial transactions of the Al Qaeda network.

RESSA: The British-born of Pakistani parents, he speaks five languages, perhaps a sixth, the language of violence. Known in India as Omar Sheik, he was jailed in 1994 for kidnapping these western tourists whom he tried to exchange for the freedom of 10 jailed militants.

A.K. JAIN, ARRESTING OFFICER: Very powerfully built man and it was, at one stretch, seven, eight of us had to pull him down on his bed. So in unarmed combat he was fully trained.

RESSA: Arresting officer A.K. Jain says under questioning Omar Sheik admitted he was supported by the Pakistan government's intelligence service, the ISI.

JAIN: He had told me that.

RESSA: He admitted to you.

JAIN: Oh yes, yes.

RESSA: The kidnappings came amid an increasingly violent struggle by militants to try to rest Kashmir from a half century of Indian rule.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was here on a mission that had received support from the ISI, and after his release, it was very clear that he was provided protection and safe haven in Pakistan with the direct support, with the knowledge and obviously with the connivance of the Pakistani intelligence.

RESSA: In 1999, Islamic militants hijacked an Indian airlines jumbo jet in an ordeal that lasted eight days with 178 passengers and crew. It ended when India agreed to release Omar Sheik and two other prisoners.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was received by a Lieutenant Colonel of the Inter-services Intelligence of Pakistan and taken away to an undisclosed destination. He did surface in Pakistan a few months later where he was obviously given protection and safe haven by the ISI.

RESSA: At the highest levels, Pakistan denies India's assertions.

ABDUL SATTER, PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER: Otherwise if you ask only India, you will find that even a hijacking hoax was blamed on the ISI, which was absolutely false and similarly whenever anything happens, you don't conduct any investigations without looking at the facts and jumps to the conclusion that Pakistan is to blame.

RESSA: Whatever the truth this latest war of wars is just one more example of what a difficult tightrope the U.S. will have to walk in trying to keep the friendship and support of both these rival nations in its own fight against terrorism.

Maria Ressa, CNN, New Delhi.

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