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American Morning
Moussaoui Sent Revealing and Disturbing E-Mail to Minneapolis Flight School
Aired February 08, 2002 - 07:33 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: A new report this morning, the man identified as the 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, sent a revealing and disturbing e-mail to a Minneapolis flight school, saying his greatest goal was to fly a jumbo jet. Moussaoui was arrested before the September 11 terror attacks.
And for his take on this, we turn to Richard Butler, our ambassador in residence -- good morning.
RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER UNITED NATIONS CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: When you read this piece the first time this morning...
BUTLER: Deeply disturbed.
ZAHN: Yes. Everybody has to be who read this. Here is a guy, who set off every single red flag...
(CROSSTALK)
BUTLER: Absolutely. Absolutely. He sent an e-mail to the flight school, which is extraordinary. Can I read to you a piece of it?
ZAHN: Yes.
BUTLER: And I need my glasses. He said a number of things, but listen to this. He said: "Basically, I need to know if you can help to achieve my 'Goal,' my dream. I would like to fly in a 'professional' like manner one of the big airliners. I have to made my mind" -- his English wasn't so good, which should also have been a clue -- "I have to made my mind which of the following: Boeing 747, 757, 767 or 777 or Airbus 300 to be able to pilot one of these Big Bird" -- I guess he wasn't referring to Sesame Street.
ZAHN: No.
BUTLER: Bad English again -- "one of these Big Bird even if I am not a real professional pilot."
This was in the hands of the flight school before September 11. What's going on? ZAHN: But there were also bells that went off...
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: ... because he asked a lot of questions about how you communicate, according to this report, to the control tower.
BUTLER: With air traffic -- ATC, air traffic control. Yes, Paula, this is a terrible story. The timeline isn't quite clear. Maybe it will come out in the Moussaoui trial, the man who sent the e- mail. We need to know a lot more about this.
We also need to know a lot more about what the French authorities know, because -- or knew, rather, in the past tense -- because they had an open file on this guy. He had been in prison in their hands previously, a number of years before. There is a lot we need to know here. The gut question is: Were we in the position to know that September 11 was coming?
He had a computer. Legal authorities in Washington refused a request to look into his hard drive, even though he was refusing to open his mouth, when he was in custody. This is an extraordinary story.
ZAHN: And as it turns out, I guess some of these flight instructors deserve a great deal of credit, because once they thought his behavior was a little odd, they even discussed the fact that this guy could be a hijacker, and I guess one of them had a contact with the local FBI office...
BUTLER: Exactly. Exactly.
ZAHN: ... triggered a call the FBI, and then the FBI was on the case.
BUTLER: Yes, I think they did pretty well up to a point. But you know, let's make a positive out of a negative. What does this raise? I think it raises the question that we need an established, affirmed procedure with respect to people wanting to learn to fly. I don't mean to impose something very heavy on people. We have background checks for other licenses that people apply for. But, Paula, we now know that aircraft can be turned into missiles, and look what they did on September 11. It seems to...
ZAHN: And none of those folks who went to flight school had any interest in learning how to land the plane or take off the plane.
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: Or to learn how to keep the plane in the air.
BUTLER: It seems to me we could have a pretty rudimentary procedure of notification, you know, to the authorities, when people wanting to learn to fly that fit a certain profile, or more actually do fit a particular profile that raises questions. It wouldn't be too cumbersome. But I think we probably now need something like that. If that's the good thing that comes out of this terrible story, our security will be increased.
ZAHN: Let's move on to the Middle East.
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon surprised a lot of people yesterday, while at the White House announcing that he believed that we will see, or in his words, the existence of a Palestinian state. What is the significance of his saying that in that setting?
BUTLER: The setting was everything that he said it from the Oval Office. You know, I don't mean to rain on the parade, Paula, but I am a little bit underwhelmed by the idea that he says, yes, we will accept a Palestinian state. That's news partly because he has gone so far out in the other direction. We all get very grateful, when he comes back towards the middle.
Paula, a Palestinian state isn't all of the disagreements. I mean, this is what...
ZAHN: The Israeli public supports it.
BUTLER: Exactly. The Israeli public supports it. I think we should spare our gratitude slightly, when Prime Minister Sharon, you know, lives in the way that he has, because it is what it's about. There should be both a secure Israeli state and a secure Palestinian state. The big question is how to get there. But you are right, the setting was everything. That he said it in the White House is important.
ZAHN: Before we let you go, a quick thought on what we learned about Iran yesterday.
BUTLER: Yes, on the side of these talks between the president and Prime Minister Sharon, the Israeli defense minister, Ben-Eliezer, had a few things to say pursuant to what the head of the CIA had said earlier this week about an Iranian bomb. The Iranians are moving further and perhaps faster towards a nuclear weapon than we thought. This is very, very serious. The only thing slowing them down is making their own enriched uranium. Were they to get it from outside from the black market, it might be a very short time before we see the so-called Islamic bomb. Watch this space, Paula. This is a serious issue.
ZAHN: We'll be watching this space along with you.
BUTLER: OK.
ZAHN: Thank you.
BUTLER: Have a good weekend.
ZAHN: Richard Butler, you too as well -- see you Monday morning at the same time.
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