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American Morning

America Under Attack: Suspect Names Released

Aired September 14, 2001 - 10:22   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go now to Washington, CNN's Eileen O'Connor standing there -- Eileen.

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, I have a lot of details that we have gleaned from document checks and crosschecks of the documents over the last few days as we've been getting information from law enforcement sources up and down the East Coast, the United States, and all over the United States.

First of all, let us start with Mohammed Atta. This is a man who, all of these many -- many of these men are linked through. Mohammed Atta is listed on -- he was listed on American Flight 11, from Boston to Los Angeles. American 11 was the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. He rented a car that was later found at Logan Airport, that is what put authorities onto him. He held U.S. and Egyptian driver's license. He had the passport that was United Arab Emirate, but we are being told by official in that government that he's not a citizen of that country.

Law enforcement sources tell me that they are operating under the assumption that these UAE passports may well be false, there apparently is a big problem with that identification being false.

Their latest residence -- his latest residence was in Coral Springs, Florida and in Hamburg, Germany, and he attended flight schools at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Florida, Sim Center in Opa- Locka, Florida. We were there yesterday. He also, according to sources, attended another flight school in Palm Beach and possibly an additional flight school to get some refresher courses very recently.

Now, he is also linked to a man, two brothers, Waleed Alshehhi and Marawn Alshehhi. Now, these are both men who would appear to be Saudi by their last name. This is a Saudi name that in fact it's from a tribe that fought in Afghanistan in the '80s and '90s, which could bring you to bring to Osama bin Laden. Now, also, as you know, Osama bin Laden is originally of Saudi nationality.

So this is where you are seeing the evidence that the United States government is saying they have linking this to Osama bin Laden.

Now, the Alshehhi's -- we know from the German authorities that Marawn Alshehhi lived in Germany, in Hamburg, with Mohammed Atta. As I said, Mohammed Atta was listed on Flight 11, Boston to Los Angeles. But, Marawn was listed on United 175; that was Boston to Los Angeles. That plane was the one that hit the second World Trade Center tower. Marawn attended those same flight schools along with Mohammed Atta.

And, as you know, his cousin, Waleed, was also associated with these two men, he attended the a flight school, Embry Riddle University in Daytona Beach, another flight school. He was onboard Flight 11 with Mohammed Atta.

So we now know that the pilots, the probable pilots, of those two planes out of Boston all had extensive flight training in schools in Florida that the authorities have been working on. These are the alleged pilots. We don't know how many pilots might have been aboard the plane. All of these men listed here could have had the ability to fly those planes.

Now, these men are also linked to some of the men on the list, for instance, another man named Alamari (ph) on the list, Abuhim Alamari. He has -- was linked to a flight school in Vero Beach. Police had gone to that flight school, it's called Flight Safety International. Neighbors have said that this man was at Flight Safety International. But a next door neighbor of his, taken into custody for questioning, we know through his lawyer, has told the FBI that Alamari is actually safe in Saudi Arabia and should be presenting himself to U.S. officials in that country at -- we were told he would be presenting himself yesterday. And they are claiming, these associates of Alamari who are in custody, one associate of Alamari, is claiming that all of this associated to them is a case of mistaken identity. So we must tell viewers that, while there are there names on this list, it could be that they are perhaps stolen identity -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Eileen O'Connor thank you very much.

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