Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Public Alerted

Aired December 30, 2002 - 14:11   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; The FBI is asking you to be on the lookout for five men who may have entered the United States illegally from Canada on Christmas Eve.
Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena has been covering this story all day.

Hi, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, the FBI, as you know, posted pictures of the five men on its Web site over the weekend. There's not much that is known about these individuals beyond what they look like. The names that the FBI has posted could be aliases, according to officials. Date of birth could be fraudulent. Even where the men are from is an open question right now.

More importantly, what it is that they're doing in the United States is also unknown. Intelligence suggests the men are traveling together as a group. Intelligence sources have linked them together, which is causing a great deal of concern, because perhaps these five individuals are part of some sort of mission.

But there is nothing that comes up in the terror databases among U.S. intelligence about the five men. You see them here now. They have not been involved as far as intelligence can tell us with any previous terrorist attacks. They are not involved in the planning of any future attacks as far as U.S. officials can tell, nor have they any concrete links to any known terrorist.

So we're starting here with a completely clean slate. The manhunt is on. FBI has shared all the information it has with its 18,000 state and local law enforcement partners, and the hunt is on. And it is, I am told, a top priority to find these men.

PHILLIPS: Well, how did the FBI find out about the men in the first place, Kelli? There's been a lot of speculation.

ARENA: There was an investigation that was going on between the U.S. and Canada involving the fraudulent obtaining of visas and passports. After -- there was several names that came up in that investigation, these five among a broader list of names. These are the five that the U.S. had the most interest in, because it coincided with information that came, I am told, by sources from Pakistan.

Nothing, like I said, linking these men in any way concretely to any terrorist activity, but raised enough questions on the part of the U.S. authorities that they started to do more digging and then intelligence suggested that these five men entered into the United States illegally.

But even that, there's no evidence to back that up. That's just from intelligence sources, and all of it points to the fact that they entered the United States probably through the eastern part of the Canadian border, very close to New York State, which prompted officials to immediately bring New York's governor in the loop and to share that information with New York City officials, which as you know, are planning a very big New Year's Eve celebration.

PHILLIPS: So when you look at all the facts and you gather all this information, does this fit into the pattern of Al Qaeda?

ARENA: It does in this way, and again, let's underscore, no evidence to suggest anything at this point, but terrorism experts point out several things: one, Al Qaeda usually does use cells that have four to five people. All intelligence points to these five individuals being referred to as a group. The second thing is that Al Qaeda does tend to use individuals who will not raise red flags with the authorities, who have no criminal past, who have no overt terror connections, so that if they are stopped in the course of trying to pull of their mission, chances are that they may be let go, because once you run their names through databases, they come up clean. So that is something else that is causing a concern.

One official said to me it's eerily like the September 11th hijackers. Those, too, there's no information on most of those men. They had clean slates until, obviously, September 11th. So a great deal of concern, very, very serious. Everyone's taking this very seriously. Regardless of the vacuum of information here, it's the unknown that is perhaps even more disturbing at this point.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kelli Arena, following the story, appreciate it.

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 December 30, 2002 - 14:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR; The FBI is asking you to be on the lookout for five men who may have entered the United States illegally from Canada on Christmas Eve.
Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena has been covering this story all day.

Hi, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, the FBI, as you know, posted pictures of the five men on its Web site over the weekend. There's not much that is known about these individuals beyond what they look like. The names that the FBI has posted could be aliases, according to officials. Date of birth could be fraudulent. Even where the men are from is an open question right now.

More importantly, what it is that they're doing in the United States is also unknown. Intelligence suggests the men are traveling together as a group. Intelligence sources have linked them together, which is causing a great deal of concern, because perhaps these five individuals are part of some sort of mission.

But there is nothing that comes up in the terror databases among U.S. intelligence about the five men. You see them here now. They have not been involved as far as intelligence can tell us with any previous terrorist attacks. They are not involved in the planning of any future attacks as far as U.S. officials can tell, nor have they any concrete links to any known terrorist.

So we're starting here with a completely clean slate. The manhunt is on. FBI has shared all the information it has with its 18,000 state and local law enforcement partners, and the hunt is on. And it is, I am told, a top priority to find these men.

PHILLIPS: Well, how did the FBI find out about the men in the first place, Kelli? There's been a lot of speculation.

ARENA: There was an investigation that was going on between the U.S. and Canada involving the fraudulent obtaining of visas and passports. After -- there was several names that came up in that investigation, these five among a broader list of names. These are the five that the U.S. had the most interest in, because it coincided with information that came, I am told, by sources from Pakistan.

Nothing, like I said, linking these men in any way concretely to any terrorist activity, but raised enough questions on the part of the U.S. authorities that they started to do more digging and then intelligence suggested that these five men entered into the United States illegally.

But even that, there's no evidence to back that up. That's just from intelligence sources, and all of it points to the fact that they entered the United States probably through the eastern part of the Canadian border, very close to New York State, which prompted officials to immediately bring New York's governor in the loop and to share that information with New York City officials, which as you know, are planning a very big New Year's Eve celebration.

PHILLIPS: So when you look at all the facts and you gather all this information, does this fit into the pattern of Al Qaeda?

ARENA: It does in this way, and again, let's underscore, no evidence to suggest anything at this point, but terrorism experts point out several things: one, Al Qaeda usually does use cells that have four to five people. All intelligence points to these five individuals being referred to as a group. The second thing is that Al Qaeda does tend to use individuals who will not raise red flags with the authorities, who have no criminal past, who have no overt terror connections, so that if they are stopped in the course of trying to pull of their mission, chances are that they may be let go, because once you run their names through databases, they come up clean. So that is something else that is causing a concern.

One official said to me it's eerily like the September 11th hijackers. Those, too, there's no information on most of those men. They had clean slates until, obviously, September 11th. So a great deal of concern, very, very serious. Everyone's taking this very seriously. Regardless of the vacuum of information here, it's the unknown that is perhaps even more disturbing at this point.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kelli Arena, following the story, appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com