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American Morning

Possible Plan to Assassinate Florida Governor Jeb Bush Foiled

Aired January 11, 2002 - 07:04   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, a possible plan to assassinate Florida Governor Jeb Bush today may have been foiled by state and federal law enforcement agents acting on information from a jailhouse snitch.

Now, the alleged plot was to happen today, four months after the terrorist attacks on September 11. That, according to the "Miami Herald," which broke the story last night and which CNN has now confirmed.

CNN's Mark Potter is standing by in Miami with the very latest on that -- Mark, what have you learned?

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Paula.

This case is being investigated by several agencies, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, in effect, the state police here, the FBI and local agencies. And this is an alleged plot, according to an informant, an alleged plot to kill Governor Jeb Bush by blowing him up with a truck bomb.

As you said, according to the "Herald," it was supposed to happen today.

Now, the question, however, that exists and is on everybody's mind is whether this information is actually credible. It does come from an informant, as you said, who is in jail. And there are a number of law enforcement officials who actually doubt the informant's credibility. Some sources have said that there is about a 50-50 split in the law enforcement community on how much to believe in this. What we do know is that the informant has failed a number of lie detector tests but also has provided some interesting information.

Now, the plot, according to the informant, involves four men in south Florida of Arabic last names who supposedly were plotting or trying to contract someone to drive a truck loaded with explosives to Tallahassee to blow up the governor.

Now that bit of information that has tantalized authorities involves the discovery of a van that they were alerted to by the informant. They found the van. They searched it. They found no bombs or bomb making material, but bomb sniffing dogs found something, they alerted to something. And, of course, that caught the attention of the authorities, who continue with this investigation. The four men have been watched. One was arrested already on unrelated INS charges. One was stopped last night in traffic in Broward County north of Miami. He was questioned by authorities, but then was released. This investigation is continuing. It's being taken very seriously. At the same time, there are serious questions about whether it's true or not -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well, Mark, let's talk a little bit more about that skepticism now. I think you've made it abundantly clear what investigators think of this informant, you know, even they question the voracity of it, at the same time saying he said some interesting things. Given that, where does the investigation go from here?

POTTER: Well, first of all, I want to say that despite that skepticism, it's being taken very, very seriously. This is the governor of Florida, it's the president's brother, it's after September 11. And it's being taken very seriously. And it continues.

My understanding is that all the people involved in this will be questioned thoroughly. We expect to hear more about this later today.

The governor, by the way, has been kept up on this since this investigation began in December. And by the way, it began because of a letter that was delivered to the governor's office in Tallahassee. The governor's up on this. He's back in Florida today and is described as safe and secure, going about his business. And he himself has expressed confidence in the investigators. But it's still going on. They have not by any stretch scrapped this investigation.

ZAHN: And we will continue to rely on you to track this story for us throughout the day.

Mark, thanks so much for that update.

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