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American Morning

FBI Looks For Five With Suspected al Qaeda Link

Aired December 30, 2002 - 09:01   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: Back to that FBI alert, those five men you have been seeing pictures of that the FBI is trying to track down. Photographs of the men are posted on the agency's Web site, and the FBI is appealing to you for your help in finding them.
Kelli Arena is standing by in Washington. She joins us now by phone on this holiday week to share with us what she has learned about what this all means -- good morning, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, I can tell you that there is a high level of concern at the FBI over finding these five men. One law enforcement official says that the situation is very serious.

Now, that's not due to any specific information, but more in terms of the circumstances surrounding how information about these men came in.

Number one, it comes in during a very tenuous climate. Obviously, attacks continue against U.S. interests overseas. You have an increased level of so-called chatter coming in, which just means information suggesting that there could yet still be another attack, and you have information linking these five men, sort of suggesting that they are a group of individuals that came into the United States at the same time, around Christmas Eve, is what the FBI believes. They have no information confirming that they're actually in the country, but intelligence suggests that they are in the country and that they came in through the Canadian border.

Again, no information to back that up, just intelligence. I am told that information was developed about these five men in a separate investigation with Canada that was not a terrorist investigation but that corroborating information also came in from Pakistan. I know that are there several news reports out there suggesting that the names indicate that these five men may be Pakistani.

The FBI is not sure that these names are the correct names. They are names that the FBI believes that the individuals are using. But they're pretty confident that the pictures that they put out there are, indeed, the pictures of these five men.

No terrorists links, no information in databases, these guys have a completely clean slate, but that is also troublesome because one FBI official told me that is exactly the M.O., the same description that you could have used for the September 11 hijackers. The governor of New York has been advised. The White House is advised. Information is being gathered and, as you said, the pictures are on the Web sites so the FBI is asking the public for help, if anybody has seen these individuals.

They are not listed as armed and dangerous, although law enforcement sources say they have no information to prove that they are not, so they should be approached with caution. Not approached -- just call the FBI, let them know if you have seen these individuals, and that's where we stand at this point, Paula.

ZAHN: Kelli, before we let you go, one of our guests on the air earlier this morning who is quite schooled in these matters of security, suggested that perhaps, given the clean slate that the FBI says these guys have, that maybe they could be used by al Qaeda as couriers. Is anybody saying that is a possibility here?

ARENA: It's all open at this point, Paula. They honestly don't know. They don't know why they came into the country. They don't know what -- what they're doing here, what -- you know, what -- if they're involved in a mission, if they are supposed to just hook up with other people, if there are more than five.

Lots of questions that remain unanswered, but I can tell that the assumptions are that, A, they are traveling together. B, that they're coming here with some -- with some purpose. Now, whether that's just to make a connection and pass on something, information or otherwise to other people in the United States, not clear.

Or if they're here with a mission in mind. Not clear. But again, these are, as one law enforcement source said, these are the exact type of people that al Qaeda uses. People that would not raise any red flags. People that have no criminal history. No terrorist history. People that would not necessarily, if they were caught say, for a speeding violation or questioned at a point of entry, that would not show up and raise suspicions on the part of law enforcement. So that is why the level of concern is very high. Again, it's a tricky road to walk here because, A, you have no information. But, B, the lack of information is also causing a great deal of concern.

ZAHN: Well understood. Kelli Arena, thank you very much. You have actually given us more information than anybody else has today.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 30, 2002 - 09:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to that FBI alert, those five men you have been seeing pictures of that the FBI is trying to track down. Photographs of the men are posted on the agency's Web site, and the FBI is appealing to you for your help in finding them.
Kelli Arena is standing by in Washington. She joins us now by phone on this holiday week to share with us what she has learned about what this all means -- good morning, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, I can tell you that there is a high level of concern at the FBI over finding these five men. One law enforcement official says that the situation is very serious.

Now, that's not due to any specific information, but more in terms of the circumstances surrounding how information about these men came in.

Number one, it comes in during a very tenuous climate. Obviously, attacks continue against U.S. interests overseas. You have an increased level of so-called chatter coming in, which just means information suggesting that there could yet still be another attack, and you have information linking these five men, sort of suggesting that they are a group of individuals that came into the United States at the same time, around Christmas Eve, is what the FBI believes. They have no information confirming that they're actually in the country, but intelligence suggests that they are in the country and that they came in through the Canadian border.

Again, no information to back that up, just intelligence. I am told that information was developed about these five men in a separate investigation with Canada that was not a terrorist investigation but that corroborating information also came in from Pakistan. I know that are there several news reports out there suggesting that the names indicate that these five men may be Pakistani.

The FBI is not sure that these names are the correct names. They are names that the FBI believes that the individuals are using. But they're pretty confident that the pictures that they put out there are, indeed, the pictures of these five men.

No terrorists links, no information in databases, these guys have a completely clean slate, but that is also troublesome because one FBI official told me that is exactly the M.O., the same description that you could have used for the September 11 hijackers. The governor of New York has been advised. The White House is advised. Information is being gathered and, as you said, the pictures are on the Web sites so the FBI is asking the public for help, if anybody has seen these individuals.

They are not listed as armed and dangerous, although law enforcement sources say they have no information to prove that they are not, so they should be approached with caution. Not approached -- just call the FBI, let them know if you have seen these individuals, and that's where we stand at this point, Paula.

ZAHN: Kelli, before we let you go, one of our guests on the air earlier this morning who is quite schooled in these matters of security, suggested that perhaps, given the clean slate that the FBI says these guys have, that maybe they could be used by al Qaeda as couriers. Is anybody saying that is a possibility here?

ARENA: It's all open at this point, Paula. They honestly don't know. They don't know why they came into the country. They don't know what -- what they're doing here, what -- you know, what -- if they're involved in a mission, if they are supposed to just hook up with other people, if there are more than five.

Lots of questions that remain unanswered, but I can tell that the assumptions are that, A, they are traveling together. B, that they're coming here with some -- with some purpose. Now, whether that's just to make a connection and pass on something, information or otherwise to other people in the United States, not clear.

Or if they're here with a mission in mind. Not clear. But again, these are, as one law enforcement source said, these are the exact type of people that al Qaeda uses. People that would not raise any red flags. People that have no criminal history. No terrorist history. People that would not necessarily, if they were caught say, for a speeding violation or questioned at a point of entry, that would not show up and raise suspicions on the part of law enforcement. So that is why the level of concern is very high. Again, it's a tricky road to walk here because, A, you have no information. But, B, the lack of information is also causing a great deal of concern.

ZAHN: Well understood. Kelli Arena, thank you very much. You have actually given us more information than anybody else has today.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com