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CNN Live At Daybreak
One That Got Away: German Government Seeks Planner at Heart of Attacks on U.S.
Aired October 31, 2001 - 05:39 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Since the tragedy of September 11th we've been able to connect the web of terrorists to more than a dozen countries. Now in a joint CNN and "Fortune Magazine" investigation, a man who has been dubbed bin Laden's "terror engineer" has been tracked to Karachi, Pakistan.
CNN's Sheila MacVicar brings us the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the story of one who got away, the story of the escape of an accused planner, the story of how Saed Bahaji slipped away before anyone knew they should be looking for him.
He is now one of the world's most wanted, accused with two others by the German government of how they organized and planned the attacks of September 11th -- suspected of providing logistics and financing to those who flew the planes.
Like them, he lived in Hamburg, 26 years old, a computer science student, a German citizen with a Moroccan father and a former roommate of Mohammed Atta.
In August while the suspected hijackers in the United States were finalizing their plans, Saed Bahaji was making his. He got a visa for Pakistan from the embassy in Berlin. He told his family he was taking a suddenly offered internship with a computer software firm in Pakistan.
He left behind his wife and young son and on September 3rd, he left for Karachi. The last time the family heard from him was in this e-mail obtained by "Fortune Magazine" and CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (reading): "September 4th, greetings from Pakistan, praise be to Allah. I am fine. I won't be phoning often. It's too expensive. All is good."
MACVICAR: Saed Bahaji was gone. A week later it was September 11th. Within days German investigators were in his house in Hamburg. They found this shipping invoice for a package of what was described as CDs of religious speeches sent from what turned out to be a false address in Karachi. Richard Behar is an investigative reporter for "Fortune Magazine".
RICHARD BEHAR, "FORTUNE MAGAZINE" INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: It was clear that a package came from Karachi. That established the Karachi connection, and that led German investigators to turn their eyes to Karachi.
MACVICAR: With one more reason to look hard in Karachi, German police gave Pakistani investigators a list of six German phone numbers and asked them to see if anyone in Pakistan had been dialing those numbers and where in Pakistan those calls came from.
BEHAR: Well those six phone numbers were run through a master computer and bingo, one hit, and it was a phone booth.
MACVICAR: This pay phone on a street corner in Karachi. Three times, someone used this phone to call one number in Hamburg, Germany -- Saed Bahaji's home phone. Three quick calls on August 31st for 37 seconds. On September 2nd, the day before Saed Bahaji left, for one minute and 14 seconds. And for the last time on September 4th -- the day he arrived.
(on camera): It was the location of this phone booth that gave investigators their next piece of the puzzle. They reason that this was not simply a random choice, but that there had to be something in this neighborhood, some place perhaps, where an accomplice of the fugitives could wait.
(voice-over): Two blocks away, they found the Embassy Hotel. When investigators checked the hotel's records, they found Saed Bahaji and he wasn't alone. The hotel records show that Saed Bahaji arrived at 3:30 in the morning of September 4th. He checked into room 318 with two other men previously unknown, all sharing the same room.
BEHAR: The investigators found that these men made a real mistake, because all three of them were staying in the same room in the same hotel, and that essentially helps put all three of them involved in this plot.
MACVICAR: Investigators went back to Karachi Airport. Immigration cards show that not only had Bahaji shared a room with two others, he had flown all the way from Hamburg with them. Abdula Husseini (ph), the passport said he was a citizen of Belgium and Amar Mullah (ph) from France.
The more investigators looked, the more they found. Mohamed Belfatmi (ph), an Algerian who lived in Spain on the same flight from Germany and staying one floor below at the same Embassy Hotel.
The Citizen's Police Liaison Committee, based in Karachi is one of Pakistan's most sophisticated police forces. Jameel Yusuf is the chief.
CHIEF JAMEEL YUSUF, CITIZEN'S POLICE LIAISON COMMITTEE, KARACHI, PAKISTAN: Actually by their mistake, we wanted to find more people who could have been associated in those acts. So that evidently speaks that they're traveling in groups and they're moving around in groups.
MACVICAR: They traveled in a group only as far as Karachi. Early in the morning of September 5th, investigators say, Saed Bahaji flew to Quetta, Pakistan close to the Afghan border. His roommates, the men traveling as Abdula Husseini and Amar Mullah flew to Islamabad and then it is believed went on to Afghanistan.
Mohamed Belfatmi simply disappeared. There is no trace of him or anyone using that name on any flight from Pakistan headed anywhere. Investigators in Europe have confirmed that the man known as Mullah traveled on a false or stolen document.
BEHAR: The real holder of that passport is in France and has already been interviewed.
MACVICAR: Do we know who Amar Mullah or the man using Amar Mullah's was?
BEHAR: No.
MACVICAR: Belgium law enforcement sources tell CNN the man known as Abdula Husseini was traveling on a forged passport. The street address does not exist. They do not know his true identity.
CNN has learned, German investigators strongly believe he played a major role in preparing the attacks of September 11th with Saed Bahaji, they have told us. They believe he was at the heart of the plot.
(on camera): European law enforcement and intelligence agencies say German investigators are very actively seeking information about the man known as Husseini. There are persistent reports that Husseini returned to Germany in early October and was arrested. German investigators refused to confirm or deny those reports, saying the subject was too hot, too sensitive for them to comment.
Sheila MacVicar, CNN, Islamabad.
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