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American Morning

FBI Issued an Urgent Terrorist Warning Last Night

Aired February 12, 2002 - 08:07   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, the FBI issued an urgent warning last night that a terrorist attack, another one, could come against the United States as early as today.

The terror alert, which is the most specific one since September 11, warns that a 22-year-old Yemeni man and approximately a dozen accomplices could be planning an attack against targets in the United States and in Yemen. The warning came on the same day that U.S. General Tommy Franks was visiting Yemen to thank them for their help in the war against terrorism.

CNN's Brent Sadler has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm greeting and a firm handshake as Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Salih, gets an American pat on the back for fighting terror.

A question for General Tommy Franks, the chief of the U.S. Military Central Command, from his Yemeni host: "Where is Osama bin Laden?"

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: This is a question my granddaughter asked me.

SADLER: Finding humor amid the serious business of this day.

Top of the Yemeni leader's agenda: U.S. military assistance and training to upgrade Yemen's anti-terror capability. Yemen also wants U.S. logistical and intelligence support to help track down two on- the-run al Qaeda suspects in this country, and the means to tackle seaborne terror in the form of a new Coast Guard to supplement Yemen's small naval resources in patrolling 2,400 kilometers, or some 1,600 miles of coastline, of strategic importance to U.S. interests around the Arabian peninsula.

FRANKS: I did not suggest that our country had a desire to do anything unilaterally in this country. The purpose was to discuss how can we cooperate against what we both believe is a serious problem? And that is the terrorist threat. And I have some admiration for the fact that this government appears to be willing to move in the direction of countering terrorism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER: Yemeni security sources are telling CNN that information about the possible entrance of the terrorist suspect, Fawaz al-Rabeei, into Yemen from Afghanistan was passed on to the authorities here by both the United States and Great Britain.

Yemeni security officials are also telling me that they are taking this latest FBI terror alert seriously, and that they will take the necessary measures to defend Yemen and Yemen security, as well as that of its friends and allies, particularly, say the Yemenis, the United States -- back to you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Brent, what happened to the search inside Yemen for the two al Qaeda suspects that were thought to be in the country?

SADLER: Well, that manhunt for those two al Qaeda suspects, wanted in connection with the bombing of the destroyer Cole -- USS Cole some 16 months ago, is ongoing.

So what we have now in parallel, we have a new terror threat here in the Yemeni capital against U.S. interests. The U.S. Embassy behind really a ring of steel for the past six weeks, because of two previous terror alerts, and the ongoing search for these al Qaeda suspects.

All of this information, I should point out, is coming from investigations, interrogations, I should say, of Taliban and al Qaeda detainees, both in Kandahar, Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And the other point to make here is that the Yemenis themselves are expected to join FBI investigators in going through Yemeni detainees in Cuba as early as next week -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, thank you -- Brent Sadler on the ground in Yemen with the latest on the terrorist alert issued by the FBI.

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