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Captured Operative Critical Figure in al Qaeda

Aired March 03, 2003 - 14:01   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the one that did not get away. He is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported chief of operations, and the biggest catch to date in the war on terror. For those whose job it is to stop terror before it starts, a big arrest, even a huge arrest. It is only half the battle. The rest is learning what the suspect knows, and using that knowledge to try to save more lives.
For more now on the next step in the Mohammed case, we catch up with CNN's Mike Boettcher, joining us live now from Amman, Jordan. Mike, what is the latest?

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, that battle you talked about is taking place, probably, in a small room somewhere in an unknown location in a secret place where detainees have been taken to be interrogated by CIA officials. This war, this battle is being waged on two fronts to get this information.

First, the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Secondly, trying to interpret the documents and computer disks that were found.

Now, this is all very, very important, because coalition intelligence sources tell CNN that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in the last few months, had shifted his emphasis in launching attacks on North America -- specifically, the United States. So they want to find out what he had planned, what he knows. It has been reported that there were names of operatives -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had the Rolodex of al Qaeda in his mind, and apparently he had it on paper as well, but that is yet to be completely confirmed. He had established cells all the way from Asia to Europe, and to the United States. He was the operations chief. If you look at Osama bin Laden as the chairman, he was the chief operating officer -- that's Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. And he knows everything, the plots.

Interrogation reports from those who have been detained from al Qaeda, who have been interrogated over the last several months, and year and a half or so say that he was a man constantly on the move, on the phone, and he is a person that they consider not a back breaker to al Qaeda, but the most important get yet, certainly a very big pain in the back for al Qaeda -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Mike, give us a sense of some of the other people who would be -- aside from Osama bin Laden, who we're all familiar with, some of the other people who might be in the sights of intelligence organizations right now, and perhaps that Mohammed might lead them to.

BOETTCHER: Well, in the intelligence community, in the counterterrorism community, there is a large school of thought that actually, there is one man operationally more important than Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and that is Saif Al Odel (ph). He is a former Egyptian army officer who is the security chief for bin Laden.

There are reports, according to my sources, that they believe he is hiding in Iran, as is the second person who is very important, and that is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Now, that is the man that Secretary of State Colin Powell pointed to as the link between al Qaeda and Iraq.

He, too, according to coalition intelligence sources, is believed hiding in Iran. Now, these are two very important operational people. But to look at it, if they get those two, those are the two top lieutenants left. Four others are gone, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and al Qaeda has been seriously crippled because of this.

O'BRIEN: All right. Mike Boettcher. Thank you much, very much for joining us from Amman, Jordan. We appreciate that.

He alluded arrest a week ago in Pakistan, but his luck ran out on Saturday. Today he is being interrogated, as Mike referenced, under all appropriate pressure, we're told in an undisclosed country.

CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi is live from Islamabad with details of Mohammed's capture -- Ash-Har.

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN ISLAMABAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Miles, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is an al Qaeda fugitive that has been on the run and has escaped capture on several occasions here in Pakistan.

Cooperation between intelligence forces, between Pakistan and the United States have been tracking him in various places around the country. Now, on September 11 of 2002, authorities were hoping to catch Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in a raid that occurred there at an apartment in the port city of Karachi.

Now, in that raid, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to have escaped, in that raid, however, Ramzi Binalshibh was caught. Now, we understand that just over two weeks ago in the city of Quetta, intelligence sources had tracked Khalid Shaikh Mohammed down there. They had conducted a raid there, but did not find Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at the time.

They instead caught one al Qaeda operative believed to be an Egyptian who provided some information that helped them get to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on Saturday. Now, he was found in the city of Rawalpindi, which is just about nine miles south of the capital here, Islamabad. U.S. officials conducting a joint raid with Pakistani forces here. They went into a house that belonged to a member of one of the largest religious political parties here in Pakistan, the Jamyat Islami (ph). They went in, they found Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, along with another associate, an al Qaeda, operative and this Pakistani man. They took him into custody, and he was then, within a few hours, transferred to U.S. custody and flown out of the country -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

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 March 3, 2003 - 14:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the one that did not get away. He is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported chief of operations, and the biggest catch to date in the war on terror. For those whose job it is to stop terror before it starts, a big arrest, even a huge arrest. It is only half the battle. The rest is learning what the suspect knows, and using that knowledge to try to save more lives.
For more now on the next step in the Mohammed case, we catch up with CNN's Mike Boettcher, joining us live now from Amman, Jordan. Mike, what is the latest?

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, that battle you talked about is taking place, probably, in a small room somewhere in an unknown location in a secret place where detainees have been taken to be interrogated by CIA officials. This war, this battle is being waged on two fronts to get this information.

First, the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Secondly, trying to interpret the documents and computer disks that were found.

Now, this is all very, very important, because coalition intelligence sources tell CNN that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in the last few months, had shifted his emphasis in launching attacks on North America -- specifically, the United States. So they want to find out what he had planned, what he knows. It has been reported that there were names of operatives -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had the Rolodex of al Qaeda in his mind, and apparently he had it on paper as well, but that is yet to be completely confirmed. He had established cells all the way from Asia to Europe, and to the United States. He was the operations chief. If you look at Osama bin Laden as the chairman, he was the chief operating officer -- that's Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. And he knows everything, the plots.

Interrogation reports from those who have been detained from al Qaeda, who have been interrogated over the last several months, and year and a half or so say that he was a man constantly on the move, on the phone, and he is a person that they consider not a back breaker to al Qaeda, but the most important get yet, certainly a very big pain in the back for al Qaeda -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Mike, give us a sense of some of the other people who would be -- aside from Osama bin Laden, who we're all familiar with, some of the other people who might be in the sights of intelligence organizations right now, and perhaps that Mohammed might lead them to.

BOETTCHER: Well, in the intelligence community, in the counterterrorism community, there is a large school of thought that actually, there is one man operationally more important than Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and that is Saif Al Odel (ph). He is a former Egyptian army officer who is the security chief for bin Laden.

There are reports, according to my sources, that they believe he is hiding in Iran, as is the second person who is very important, and that is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Now, that is the man that Secretary of State Colin Powell pointed to as the link between al Qaeda and Iraq.

He, too, according to coalition intelligence sources, is believed hiding in Iran. Now, these are two very important operational people. But to look at it, if they get those two, those are the two top lieutenants left. Four others are gone, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and al Qaeda has been seriously crippled because of this.

O'BRIEN: All right. Mike Boettcher. Thank you much, very much for joining us from Amman, Jordan. We appreciate that.

He alluded arrest a week ago in Pakistan, but his luck ran out on Saturday. Today he is being interrogated, as Mike referenced, under all appropriate pressure, we're told in an undisclosed country.

CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi is live from Islamabad with details of Mohammed's capture -- Ash-Har.

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN ISLAMABAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Miles, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is an al Qaeda fugitive that has been on the run and has escaped capture on several occasions here in Pakistan.

Cooperation between intelligence forces, between Pakistan and the United States have been tracking him in various places around the country. Now, on September 11 of 2002, authorities were hoping to catch Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in a raid that occurred there at an apartment in the port city of Karachi.

Now, in that raid, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to have escaped, in that raid, however, Ramzi Binalshibh was caught. Now, we understand that just over two weeks ago in the city of Quetta, intelligence sources had tracked Khalid Shaikh Mohammed down there. They had conducted a raid there, but did not find Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at the time.

They instead caught one al Qaeda operative believed to be an Egyptian who provided some information that helped them get to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on Saturday. Now, he was found in the city of Rawalpindi, which is just about nine miles south of the capital here, Islamabad. U.S. officials conducting a joint raid with Pakistani forces here. They went into a house that belonged to a member of one of the largest religious political parties here in Pakistan, the Jamyat Islami (ph). They went in, they found Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, along with another associate, an al Qaeda, operative and this Pakistani man. They took him into custody, and he was then, within a few hours, transferred to U.S. custody and flown out of the country -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.

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