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CNN Live At Daybreak

Maryland State Trooper Pulled Speeding Terrorist Over

Aired January 09, 2002 - 06:01   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well it was a routine traffic stop for a Maryland State Trooper, Joseph Catalano. Only a few days later did he realize he'd let one of the September 11th suspected hijackers slip through his hands. But as CNN's Susan Candiotti reports, authorities say there were no suspicious signs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A run-of-the-mill traffic stop, just after midnight September 9th, in northern Maryland.

TROOPER JOSEPH CATALANO, MARYLAND STATE POLICE: You were going 90 in a 65. Can I see your driver's license and registration, please.

CANDIOTTI: The driver is never seen or heard.

CATALANO: Still live on Quicksilver drive? OK. I'll be right with you.

CANDIOTTI: That driver, Ziad Jarrah, then a nobody to authorities. Who on this night was heading north, presumably to Newark, where he would board United Airlines flight 93.

CATALANO: OK, sir. Ninety miles an hour in a 65 zone is a $270 fine.

CANDIOTTI: Too late, investigators would learn. Jarrah was part of a terrorist cell in Germany that planned the September 11th attacks, who took flying lessons in the U.S.

CATALANO: ... check or money order, mail it in. And you do so within 15 days.

CANDIOTTI: Two days later, Jarrah would help take over flight 93, the flight which crashed in Pennsylvania.

CATALANO: Here's the information. You're free to go.

CANDIOTTI: The haunting question: could he have been stopped? The plot foiled? Absolutely not, authorities insist. Jarrah was not on a terrorist watch list.

MIKE CLEMENS, FBI: When Jarrah was stopped on I-95, he was not on the radar screen of any federal agency, and he was actually here, as I'm told, legally, under a multiple entry visa that was good through 2005.

CANDIOTTI: At this, from the trooper, who surely must have thought about the events that night, time and again.

CATALANO: He was calm. He was real cooperative. Just a routine traffic stop.

CANDIOTTI: Jarrah's license checked out. Nothing inside the car appeared suspicious. Like the other hijackers, Jarrah blended into his community, a modest, suburban home.

COL. DAVID MITCHELL, MARYLAND STATE POLICE: They integrated themselves into society here in America. Gave no rise to suspicion.

CANDIOTTI: Even more chilling, even if Jarrah had been on a watch list, police say they don't have the time or manpower to check with the FBI every time they pull someone over.

MITCHELL: Without any reason to believe someone might be wanted or there might be information that we need to know about, we don't run every name of every person we stop.

CANDIOTTI: Colonel Mitchell was asked if troopers would now run checks on anyone with Middle Eastern or Arab sounding names. Absolutely not, he fired back. That would be profiling.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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