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American Morning

Evidence Authorities May Have Missed Signs 9/11 Was Coming More Than Year Before Attack

Aired May 29, 2002 - 07:01   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, disturbing evidence authorities may have missed signs that 9/11 was coming more than a year before the attack, and this time we are not talking about the FBI.

According to a number of newspaper reports in both Italy and the U.S., Italian officials caught alleged Al Qaeda terrorists on tape discussing a major attack on the U.S. involving airplanes. Those conversations took place as early as August of the year 2000.

CNN's Alessio Vinci has the latest now from Rome.

Good morning, Alessio.

AlESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Well, good morning to you, Paula.

Well, these transcripts were published by the two leading newspapers here in Italy, the "Corriere Della Sera" and "La Repubblica."

And according to the transcript, the conversation took place between the leader of a mosque in the northern city of Milan in northern Italy and a sheikh from Yemen. And according to those transcripts, the sheikh from Yemen is reported to be saying to the leader of the mosque, and I quote here, "In the future, listen to the news and remember those words 'above the head'." And the sheikh continues as saying, "The action will be one of those strikes you will never forget." Adding: "It will be a terrifying thing. It will move from south to north, from east to west. He who made this plan is a madman, but a genius. It will turn you to ice."

Another portion of the transcript says: "You know we are in a country full of enemies of God, but we are always mujahadeen fighters, freedom fighters. We can conquer any power using sparks and airplanes. They can't stop us even with their greater weaponry. We just have to hit them and keep our heads high." So these are part of the transcript published in Italian newspapers yesterday.

Now, Italian authorities stopped short of making any direct connection between the transcript and the two suspects and the September 11 attack, but they are saying that because of the September 11 attack, those transcripts now are gaining new relevance, a higher relevance for them. They are more important than what they originally thought.

Now, the reason why those transcripts are coming out only now is because while the intercepts took place at the end of 2000 and beginning of 2001, it took all this time for investigators to go to those intercepts, to transcribe them, to translate them. And mainly the investigators are saying that because of the poor quality of those intercepts, it took all this time to come to the conclusion of what those transcripts and what the two people, the two suspects were talking about.

So certainly, it would have been very difficult for investigators, even a year ago when those transcripts first emerged, at least on their desk, to make a direct connection with the September 11 attack.

Now, the mosque leader in Milan is a known person to Italian investigators. He was part of an investigation Italian authorities launched before the September 11 attack, which prompted the arrest of at least 10 Islamic militants. Those 10 Islamic militants were arrested both before and after the September 11 attack -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Very quickly here, Alessio, there seems to be the suggestion this morning that the FBI was involved in analyzing these intercepts. Is it clear at what point the FBI got involved with this process?

VINCI: Well, we did ask specifically this question to the Italian investigators, and they are basically telling us, we are not telling you anything about the involvement of the FBI in this investigation. We do know, however, that because of the cooperation between the Italian authorities and the United States authorities, it is conceivable that the FBI and other top security agencies in the United States have cooperated or collaborated with Italian authorities in trying to come to terms about what exactly these transcripts or any other investigation may have been leading to more information about the September 11 attack.

Back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Alessio Vinci, thanks so much for that late- breaking report.

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