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U.S. Declassifies Facts Uncovered About Hijackers
Aired September 26, 2002 - 14:36 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's old news to many members of Congress, but the outside world is getting its first peek today at some fascinating information uncovered by U.S. authorities concerning some of the 9/11 hijackers.
CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena is live from D.C. with that.
Hi, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Well these facts were laid out before members of Congress back in June, but were just declassified today. FBI Director Robert Mueller offered more on the record detail about the hijackers than we have ever heard before.
Now, some of them were startling revelations. Hijacker Nawaf al- Hazmi reported an attempted street robbery on May 1, 2001 to Fairfax, Virginia police. That is just three months before the September 11 attacks. He later declined to press charges. Now, if you recall he was one of the two hijackers that U.S. intelligence had information on before September 11.
Another bit of detail: the hijackers did conduct surveillance flights. Now, we reported that investigators believed that hijackers did a few dry runs. Director Mueller not only confirmed that, but said that the first of those flights occurred on May 24 of 2001, when Marwan al-Shehhi flew from JFK in New York to San Francisco's airport. We also learned more about the contact that the hijackers had with each other. During the summer of 2001, some of the hijackers specifically, Mohammed Atta, who was the alleged ringleader and Nawaf al-Hazmi met face-to-face on a monthly basis to discuss the status of the September 11 operation.
Now, this new information was released at the very same time that the FBI's head of counterterrorism, Dale Watson, was testifying on Capitol Hill before the committee that's investigating intelligence lapses pre-9/11. Now, he offered the strongest public defense of the FBI to date, saying that the FBI did the best job it could given the amount of intelligence coming in, combined with limited resources.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Kelli Arena, 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
Aired September 26, 2002 - 14:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's old news to many members of Congress, but the outside world is getting its first peek today at some fascinating information uncovered by U.S. authorities concerning some of the 9/11 hijackers.
CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena is live from D.C. with that.
Hi, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Well these facts were laid out before members of Congress back in June, but were just declassified today. FBI Director Robert Mueller offered more on the record detail about the hijackers than we have ever heard before.
Now, some of them were startling revelations. Hijacker Nawaf al- Hazmi reported an attempted street robbery on May 1, 2001 to Fairfax, Virginia police. That is just three months before the September 11 attacks. He later declined to press charges. Now, if you recall he was one of the two hijackers that U.S. intelligence had information on before September 11.
Another bit of detail: the hijackers did conduct surveillance flights. Now, we reported that investigators believed that hijackers did a few dry runs. Director Mueller not only confirmed that, but said that the first of those flights occurred on May 24 of 2001, when Marwan al-Shehhi flew from JFK in New York to San Francisco's airport. We also learned more about the contact that the hijackers had with each other. During the summer of 2001, some of the hijackers specifically, Mohammed Atta, who was the alleged ringleader and Nawaf al-Hazmi met face-to-face on a monthly basis to discuss the status of the September 11 operation.
Now, this new information was released at the very same time that the FBI's head of counterterrorism, Dale Watson, was testifying on Capitol Hill before the committee that's investigating intelligence lapses pre-9/11. Now, he offered the strongest public defense of the FBI to date, saying that the FBI did the best job it could given the amount of intelligence coming in, combined with limited resources.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Kelli Arena, 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
