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American Morning

BBC Reporter Looks at Terror Arrests

Aired September 16, 2002 - 08:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A sixth suspect has now been arrested in the upstate New York terror investigation. Mokhtar al-Bakri (ph) was apprehended in Bahrain. Five other New York men are being held in a federal detention center, and the investigation goes on.
CNN's Jeff Flock standing by in Buffalo with the very latest on what investigators need to do next and how these guys got to these men in the first place.

Good morning -- Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning to you.

A couple of other headlines since we talked last hour. It's school time, and already the ripples are beginning to be felt here in this community of Lackawanna, which is south of us here in Buffalo. There will be extra security guards, we are told, in both middle and high schools today. There are about 20,000 people in Lackawanna, 2,000 of Yemeni descent, and many of them have children that go to school and they are concerned about a potential backlash.

Also we have learned that Governor Pataki will be coming here to talk to members of the Yemeni community, also concerned about backlash against the community because of the news of this terror cell.

Six people in federal custody, not too far from here, in Batavia, New York. Not yet a picture on Mr. al-Bakri, but the rest of them, we know what they look like. They had their initial court appearance on Saturday. They are charged specifically with having been part of terrorism training in Afghanistan in the year 2001.

Now, what do we know about them? I asked Mike Battle after he was on with you, Paula, just a short time ago, do we know that these men were part of an al Qaeda cell? He would not confirm that to us. He also made clear that at this point, there is no information that these men were planning anything. Still, as he told you, this was still a significant series of arrests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BATTLE, U.S. ATTORNEY: These arrests are very significant when you consider the fact that dealing with terrorism requires that we think about preemption and prevention, so to the extent we may have stopped something, the formation or otherwise, of something that might have happened in the future, it's very important. We simply cannot afford to wait for something to happen. That is not to suggest that we had evidence that something was about to happen or that it was going to be done by these individuals. But to the extent we may have broken something up, that is very significant to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: Just to leave you with this notion, Paula. That is members of the community paint a picture of six men perhaps that went overseas looking for religious training, perhaps got sucked down a road that they were not intending. That is how they are painting it. Mike Battle says it was something very different than that. We will wait to see how it comes out.

That is the latest from here. Back to you.

ZAHN: We both recognize that U.S. attorney Battle could not say a whole lot about this case because he doesn't want to compromise his investigation. But he did confirm that he believed, Jeff, that these suspects trained at the same al Qaeda training camp as John Walker Lindh did, right?

FLOCK: That is correct. And it's unclear whether there was overlap or not. But they do believe they were there at the same time. Members of the community here seem to think they went to Pakistan to get religious training, maybe wound up on a trip that they didn't intend. One of the brothers of one of these men told us that his brother came home early from this trip because he missed America, missed pizza, missed television. He says he's a good patriotic American, Paula.

ZAHN: The other interesting thing we learned, Jeff, this morning was from a man who represents the Muslim-American community there. He said in spite of the fact that someone from their own community tipped off the FBI to potentially, I guess, suspicious behavior, the fact remains that these guys didn't do much in their communities that would have given up their cover. They blended in well, right?

FLOCK: He said that he knows all of them and that you would never have guessed anything and, you know, in terms of the community, no one at this point, it's interesting to note, has come forward to say, yes, I helped federal government. Perhaps that is too much to ask that somebody would come out and take credit or blame for that. But as you heard Mike Battle say, they got significant help. At this point, no one in the community seems to know where that help specifically came from.

ZAHN: Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it. See you in our next hour -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, a joint Pakistani-American raid on Karachi on Wednesday of last week helped capture one of the most wanted men. He's 30 years old, his name is Ramzi Binalshibh and many say he was supposed to be the 20th hijacker a year ago.

In somewhat of an understatement, the secretary of state, Colin Powell, says the U.S. Officials are anxious to talk with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think he's a pretty big fish. This is, perhaps, he's within the circle of those who were responsible for 9/11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Big, then. How big is Binalshibh's arrest? What might he tell investigators in the U.S.?

Jane Corbin is a senior correspondent with the BBC. She's also the author of a brand-new book called "Al Qaeda, the Terror Network That Threatens the World." Jane is our guest in London.

Good to have you with us here, across the Atlantic. There's a look at the book. Pick up on what Colin Powell just said. How big of a fish? Do you agree with some that say Binalshibh was possibly top two or top three within the al Qaeda network?

JANE CORBIN, BBC SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I think that he's important for two reasons. One is the part that he played in the planning of September the 11th. Then there is evidence that since September the 11th, the bombing campaign in Afghanistan and the dispersal of al Qaeda top leadership, that he was one of the few who really had connections within that very small group and that he assumed an even more important role because he was seen to have been so successful in the planning and execution of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

HEMMER: Jane, listen to what he said apparently in an interview conducted in June of this past summer with Al-Jazeera, indicating that Mohammed Atta, believed to be the pilot onboard American Airlines Flight 11, that crashed in the North Tower, the first hijacked plane, apparently sent him a coded message. We'll listen and talk about it here.

Apparently, we don't have that right now. But in that interview, he indicated there were a few signals sent across the Atlantic from Mohammed Atta to Binalshibh in Hamburg. What would be the significance about this correspondence at that time, Jane?

CORBIN: Well, of course, it's significant because this was the means by which Atta kept in touch with the hierarchy back in Afghanistan, was through Hamburg and through Ramzi Binalshibh. He was a linchpin, if you like, of the organization. Ramzi himself attempted to go to America to join the other three to become one of the pilots. He failed because his visa was turned down four times. In my book, I have got the details of why that visa was turned down one time after another. So he couldn't. He was frustrated. But instead, he stayed in Hamburg and messages were channeled through him back to al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

In addition to that, Binalshibh took part in a very important planning meeting just weeks before the attacks, in Spain. When Mohamed Atta came back across the Atlantic -- at great risk; he could have been discovered -- and took part with Binalshibh and other unknown members of the hierarchy in Spain to finalize the target, to finalize all the details of the plan.

HEMMER: Jane, the visa you mentioned, do you think American authorities were on his tail, or was there another reason why he was rejected four times?

CORBIN: He was rejected essentially because he was a Yemeni. There were question marks over the Yemenis because I think it was known that many of them did support al Qaeda. Of course, after the attack on the USS Cole, which took place in Aden Harbor, in Yemen, of course, you know, Yemenis went right to the top of the suspect list.

Now, he was not suspected himself at that point of involvement. It was one of those many missing leads that failed to be made, tragically, by the intelligence community. So there was no direct suspicion about him. I think as a Yemeni, there were worries about letting him in, and that is why his visa was turned down.

Some of those pilots who got in and made it to the states tried very hard. I spoke to one of the flying schools in Florida, and the owner had been persuaded by the pilot, called (UNINTELLIGIBLE), to try and sponsor Ramzi Binalshibh and actually got this man in Florida to try to push this visa application. Still, it didn't go through. He very much wanted to be one of those pilots. He failed, but, instead, he became one of the key logistics people.

HEMMER: Ultimately, there is a question right now as to whether or not he's going to give up the information.

I'm up against the wall here time wise. Jane, thanks. We will come back and talk about it again.

Sorry, go ahead.

CORBIN: OK, Bill. I think the last thing is what did he know about plots since September the 11th. He became important.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: That's right.

Sorry, Jane. I got to go.

CORBIN: OK, Bill.

HEMMER: Jane Corbin at the BBC, in London.

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