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Five American Men Indicted for Supporting Terrorism

Aired August 29, 2002 - 14:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning to a federal grand jury in Detroit and Seattle have indicting five men as part of -- as the war on terrorism, rather. Authorities say more indictments may be coming as the FBI investigates alleged terrorist cells with possible links to Osama bin Laden.
To learn more on this, we turn to CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena. She's in Washington -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Kyra.

Well, the war on terror was fought on three fronts: in Seattle, Detroit and in Germany.

Let's start with Seattle. An American named James Ujaama stands accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, and with providing support and resources to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network. Officials say that those resources include safehouses and weapons. Ujaama denies any terrorist involvement.

Now over in Detroit, four men are in custody. They are accused of providing support to a terrorist organization that is linked to al Qaeda. Three of them, according to the indictment, are part of a terrorist sleeper cell and are accused of plotting terrorist acts in Jordan, Turkey and the United States. One other man, whose complete name is not known, was also indicted, and remains at large.

Finally, a Moroccan man was accused in Germany of supporting some of the September 11 hijackers. His name: Mounir El Motassadeq. He is accused of managing the bank account of one of the suicide hijackers and arranging wire transfers to others while they were learning to fly here in the United States. Investigators say that Hamburg was the operational base for a time for the cell that was led by September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta.

Now, none of those indicted has been charged directly with any terrorist act, but instead of helping to support the infrastructure that allowing terrorists to operate. Now, federal officials say that breaking down that network is vital in the effort to disrupt future terrorist acts -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kelli Arena, interesting developments. Thank you very much from Washington, there.

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