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American Morning

Where Are Terrorists Planning to Strike Next?

Aired February 12, 2002 - 07:05   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: The big question this morning -- where are terrorists planning to strike next? Well, late last night the FBI warned that another terrorist attack could come as early as today. It is the most specific warning to date. The FBI says a Yemeni man and more than a dozen associates could be planning an attack against targets in the U.S. and in Yemen.

CNN's Jonathan Aiken joins us now from Washington with the very latest on this latest threat -- good morning, Jonathan.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Paula.

What the FBI is telling us is that it doesn't have real specific information like a target to go along with this threat. But it does have enough information to warn us that attacks on either the United States or U.S. interests in Yemen could take place as early as today.

The agency feels that the information it does have is credible enough certainly to have rushed this information out to law enforcement agencies, over 18,000 of them across the United States and the public, using not only the media, but also the FBI's Web site in order to get the word out and offer some pictures of some of the people who may be involved.

You're looking at a picture of the FBI Web site now, www.fbi.gov. And one of the pictures on there is one you should focus on, one gentleman in particular. His name is Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei. He's thought to be 23 years old, born in Yemen, carrying a Yemeni passport. The information from the FBI not specific on where he may be. The agency says that as many as a dozen other people may be involved in this and the FBI is saying it had no information prior to this to suggest that al-Rabeei may have been a terrorist.

Where did this information come from? Well, detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba provided some of the information to U.S. authorities, as did detainees being held at the Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan.

The FBI says the specificity of the information, especially the names of those who may be involved, led the agency to issue this latest terror alert. And, Paula, three alerts at least out since September 11, and that includes one put out in December that runs into March until the Olympics are over. Again, we should tell you uncorroborated information behind this alert, not fully vetted by U.S. intelligence, not fully vetted by overseas intelligence, either. No targets have been specified but the FBI just wanted the public and law enforcement agencies to be alert about it -- Paula.

ZAHN: I know, Jonathan, you said there was enough credible evidence this time to issue this warning, but are you aware of any people within the Pentagon that were opposed to allowing this to go public?

AIKEN: Not that I'm aware of, though it's one of these, you know, what comes first the chicken or the egg things. If an alert has to be issued, if government agencies have some, what they feel, to be credible information out there to put people on notice, the bottom line has been since September 11 to get it out there. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has said several times he knows he could be accused of playing wolf, you know, the boy who cried wolf on this and how many times will the public listen to alerts that may not turn into anything?

But also what if something happens and the government doesn't say anything? And so the agencies find themselves really caught and they feel it's better to err on the side of caution and get the information out there.

ZAHN: All right, Jonathan Aiken, thanks so much for the update.

AIKEN: Sure.

ZAHN: An Algerian pilot who the U.S. believes gave flight instructions to at least one of the suicide hijackers of September 11 was just released on bail because of lack of evidence. Just what happened to the government's case against Lafti Raissi, who at the time of his arrest in London on September 21 was regarded as the lead instructor to the hijackers?

Well, senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar has this report from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lafti Raissi has been in prison now for more than four months, wanted for extradition to the United States, so far charged only with what the prosecution acknowledges are holding charges, two counts of falsifying information on a U.S. federal form.

U.S. authorities have repeatedly called him the lead flight instructor for the September 11 hijackers. They have said he would most likely be charged with conspiracy to murder and could face the death penalty.

In previous court appearances, British prosecutors have said there is evidence of what they called active conspiracy, proof of telephone calls, correspondence, even videotape of Raissi with the hijackers.

For months his defense lawyers have argued there is no evidence.

RICHARD EGAN, RAISSI'S LAWYER: His treatment at the hands of the United States government is nothing short of outrageous.

MACVICAR: The FBI has said that Lafti Raissi trained Hani Hanjour (ph), the pilot believed to have flown American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. But the FBI has now privately retreated from many of its claims and the defense says much of the claimed evidence simply does not exist or does not support the allegations.

For example, the FBI has alleged that at this Arizona flight school on five separate occasions in 1998 Raissi and Hanjour shared a flight simulator. The defense says there are no records that show them using the simulator at the same time.

The FBI has also claimed Raissi and Hanjour flew together in the same small plane in March, 1999. The defense says that Hanjour, in fact, flew that day with another instructor, as noted in the instructor's log book. And as for the key videotape which the court was told showed Raissi and Hanjour together, the defense says it is a Web cam image of Raissi with a cousin. The U.S. has not mentioned the video in months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That, of course, was CNN's Sheila MacVicar reporting for us out of London -- Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Paula, as we told you a couple of minutes ago, police in Pakistan have arrested the lead suspect in the kidnapping of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl. We'll get the latest now live from CNN's Ben Wedeman in Karachi -- Ben, what can you tell us? BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jack, as you mentioned, they did arrest today, the Pakistani police arrested Sheikh Omar Saeed, a man they have been describing for several days as the ringleader in the kidnapping of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl.

Now, according to police sources, the Mr. Sheikh Omar Saeed is in the custody of the Sind (ph) police. That's the police of this province of Karachi. And according to a very senior source within the investigation, Sheikh Omar Saeed has already told them in the short span he has been in their custody that Daniel Pearl is alive and that he is in Karachi. So certainly his arrest is already beginning to yield important information that could lead to the early release of Mr. Pearl -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, Ben, appreciate it.

Ben Wedeman in Karachi.

Just another footnote to the story, three other suspects reportedly taken into custody by Pakistani police earlier today. They were connected to the computer that police think was used to send those notes demanding the release of the detainees from the Guantanamo detention center, Camp X-Ray in Cuba. Those three suspects are due -- they've been arraigned, they're in custody and are due back in court in about 14 days. There's also, according to one spokesman and the wire report that I was looking at in Pakistan, the government sources over there think that Daniel Pearl is still alive and they hope at this point still to be able to gain his release at some point -- Paula.

ZAHN: It's amazing how much this one arrest, how much information it's actually yielded.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

ZAHN: Up front this morning, a lot of breaking news plus questions about whether a CIA missile strike last week killed al Qaeda terrorists or innocent civilians. Three people killed in the attack have not yet been identified. But the Pentagon says evidence recovered from the site suggests the missiles did not hit the wrong target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: There are no initial indications that these were innocent locals, and I base that on the facts that this team, in addition to just looking at the site where the strike occurred, also did some exploration in the surrounding area to include some caves, a nearby village and talking to locals. So I think that that sort of puts us in a comfort zone right now is that these were not innocents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And the Pentagon now says the missile attack was a joint military-CIA operation.

Let's turn now to CNN military analyst General Wesley Clark. He joins us from his home back in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Welcome back, General.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Lots of territory to cover this morning.

First of all, we'd love for you to try to clear up some of these conflicting reports about who was targeted by this hellfire mission. We know that local villagers are saying those were peasants that were hit. That is not what the Pentagon says the evidence shows. Let's listen to their defense of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STUFFLEBEAM: The anecdotal reports, what I hear of what has been recovered from that site to date include things like weapons and ammunition, include things like communications systems or at least things that would give you the impression that there may have been communication devices, documents in English having to do like with applications for credit cards, possibly, or maybe for airline schedules.

So the intelligence that was garnered to be able to facilitate the strike, the initial indications afterwards would seem to say that these are not peasant people up there farming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Who's telling the truth here, General?

CLARK: Well, I think it may be too early to know, but I think there's evidence on both sides. We just heard the Pentagon's report there and they found a lot of evidence, obviously, that says that these people had equipment and had documents and so forth.

But if you listen to the peasants' account, and the "Washington Post" carried the story over the last couple of days, it's possible these people were in there just digging for scrap, trying to salvage things and maybe they figured they could pick up equipment and sell it. They probably were armed. I guess everybody over there is armed. They probably did have communications. Most everybody does.

And so what the real significance of this story is, Paula, is probably not about the three people. It's more about the difficulties of continuing our operations in that country. Regardless of what the story is that we believe, the important question is what's the story the Afghan people believe? How effective are we going to be operating in that environment? Are we going to build allies? Are people going to come forward with information? Or are we going to have to take operations that inevitably a few failures cause the alienation of the population? And this has to be the principal concern of the men and women who are doing the planning of these operations right now.

ZAHN: Well, some would argue if, you know, that might be just one case of alleged mistaken identity, but then you've got this other story about these 27 Afghan villagers being mistaken for leaders of al Qaeda and Taliban. And they are describing their treatment now by American special forces as very harsh.

Let's listen to their words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STUFFLEBEEM: In terms of the beatings that had been reported, there is no information that we have heard that would support that that is, in fact, the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Well, in fact, what those villagers said, and we'll lift this out of the "Washington Post," was, "They were beating us on the head and the back and the ribs. They were punching us with fists, kicking me with their feet. They said, 'You are a terrorist. You are al Qaeda. You are Taliban.'" And then we heard John Stufflebeem of the Navy just deny those accounts yesterday.

Clarify this for us this morning.

CLARK: I'd be surprised if our troops did all of that. But typically people are handled very strongly when they're first taken captive because there's an effort to intimidate them into submission so you don't have any problems with resistance. Whether it went that far, I'd be very surprised if we did that. Our troops don't, are not trained to do that kind of thing. They wouldn't do that kind of thing.

But again, the significance is what's being spread about our actions inside Afghanistan? Because we're going to have to operate in this environment for some time. We're going to need sources. We're going to need reliable sources that we can use as a basis for our further operations. We haven't finished the job in Afghanistan and these reports are cause for concern.

ZAHN: General, a quick thought on this latest terror alert that was released late last night?

CLARK: Well, this is more information that's coming in. I think we have to put credibility on this. Our government certainly does. We don't know, as they said, where this could happen, but I think it's also, on the one hand it's a source of concern, but it's also a source of reassurance. We are working to get information and information is coming forward.

We know there are thousands of people out there in these cells and there have to be other plans coming to bear against us. There just have to be.

So the fact that we're getting information about them, that we've got some identities, is, it has to be read as a good sign.

ZAHN: But just what is the American public supposed to do every time they hear one of these?

CLARK: I think that we, it's a twofold response. Number one, we've got to be alert and we've got to be aware of our surroundings and if there are things that are going on that look suspicious or odd, please, someone's got to notify the authorities right away.

But the other is it's a check that says our services are working, we're producing information and here's what we know right now that's urgent.

ZAHN: It may not be what we want to hear, though, right?

CLARK: Right. Exactly.

ZAHN: General Wesley Clark, thanks so much for your insights this morning. It's always good to have you on A.M.

CLARK: Paula, thank you.

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