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American Morning

Terrorism in the U.S.

Aired July 28, 2003 - 08:34   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also in this country, the threat of terror in the U.S. Last week's 9/11 report is raising new concerns about the possibility of future attacks. It is now known that the hijackers had significant contact with at least 14 other people here in the U.S., some of whom were targets of FBI probes. Who are they? Do they still pose a threat today?
Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek" magazine live in D.C. back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Nice to see you, Michael. Good morning to you on a Monday.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF, "NEWSWEEK" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Of the 14 then, who's considered the most suspicious, who's considered the most dangerous? Do we know?

ISIKOFF: Hard to say. Because we haven't seen all the evidence. As you know, some of it has been redacted in the congressional report released last week, and that sort of famous 28 pages that has been deleted.

But we do know about some of the figures. Probably number one is this man Omar Al Balubi (ph), the Saudi who sort of met the hijackers, Khalid Amadar (ph) and Nawaf Al Hazmi (ph), shortly after they came into the country, sort of claimed to have just overheard them speaking Arabic at a local restaurant, and then decided to befriend them, took them to San Diego, set them up an apartment, fronted them their first two month's rent. He was widely suspected of being the advance man for the hijackers.

In fact, in our new issue of "Newsweek," we quote a former FBI official who oversaw the investigation of Omar Al Balubi as saying that the FBI agents at the time, in the weeks and months after 9/11, believed that he definitely had knowledge of the plot, and that his meeting with the hijackers was not a coincidence; it was planned ahead of time.

He was picked up in England, because he had already left the country, was interrogated, and then let go. The FBI has consistently said he was let go, because there was just not enough evidence to charge him with a crime, to bring him back to the United States. We report in this week's issue, that one of the things in the classified section of the report is that the Saudi government had intervened with the British government, and pushed for Balubi's release from Britain, and he is now back in Saudi Arabia.

HEMMER: What does that say, then, about the Saudi government and their connections possibly to this country?

ISIKOFF: Well, we don't know. This is one of the mysteries. Balubi is the mystery man of September 11th. He could be the key to a whole other layer of the 9/11 plot that has yet to be uncovered. Or this could be a case of a misfire by the congressional committee, and they're aiming fire at an innocent man. But he's clearly now put on the spotlight. He's living openly back in Saudi Arabia, giving interviews, press interviews, professing his innocence.

As you may know, Senator Chuck Schumer over the weekend wrote a letter asking the White House to request the Saudi Arabian government to turn Balubi back over to the United States so he could be held as a material witness and further questioned about his -- whether or not he had a role in September 11th.

But if he did, if he did, it could be quite significant, because, as the report makes clear, he was widely suspected also of being a Saudi government agent. In fact, he went for a meeting at the Saudi consulate directly before his first encounter with the hijackers.

Another thing we report in this week's issue is that some people believed in the U.S. government that he may have met with a particular consular official in the Islamic affairs section, Fayad Al Fanari (ph), who was stripped of his diplomatic visa and barred entry into the United States earlier this year, reportedly because of possible ties to terrorism.

So all that suggests that there may be, and this is one of the things the report raises, a cadre of people working inside the Saudi government, mostly in the Islamic affairs sections, who have sympathies for bin Laden, and they have been working for the hijackers. It's unclear, the evidence is inconclusive, but that's the questions raised by the report.

HEMMER: Michael, listen, I'm running out of time here. Bob Graham, we've been quoting him a lot today -- yesterday on "Meet the Press," he said -- I'm quoting now -- "There is a significance presence of Al Qaeda in the U.S. It's a number capable of carrying out major actions against the people of the United States. In a word or two, how many of the 14 are still around, do we know?

ISIKOFF: Oh, I mean the 14, I mean the numbers that Graham are referring to go well beyond the 14. But we don't know. The fact is the government doesn't have a good handle on it. You can hear all sorts of estimates. So this is, again, one of the unclear yet to be uncovered.

HEMMER: Bottom line is these guys were not loners when they arrived here in the Unites States.

ISIKOFF: They were not loners, that's right. That's the conclusion of the report.

HEMMER: Michael, thanks. We'll see you again. Michael Isikoff from "Newsweek."

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 July 28, 2003 - 08:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also in this country, the threat of terror in the U.S. Last week's 9/11 report is raising new concerns about the possibility of future attacks. It is now known that the hijackers had significant contact with at least 14 other people here in the U.S., some of whom were targets of FBI probes. Who are they? Do they still pose a threat today?
Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek" magazine live in D.C. back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Nice to see you, Michael. Good morning to you on a Monday.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF, "NEWSWEEK" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Of the 14 then, who's considered the most suspicious, who's considered the most dangerous? Do we know?

ISIKOFF: Hard to say. Because we haven't seen all the evidence. As you know, some of it has been redacted in the congressional report released last week, and that sort of famous 28 pages that has been deleted.

But we do know about some of the figures. Probably number one is this man Omar Al Balubi (ph), the Saudi who sort of met the hijackers, Khalid Amadar (ph) and Nawaf Al Hazmi (ph), shortly after they came into the country, sort of claimed to have just overheard them speaking Arabic at a local restaurant, and then decided to befriend them, took them to San Diego, set them up an apartment, fronted them their first two month's rent. He was widely suspected of being the advance man for the hijackers.

In fact, in our new issue of "Newsweek," we quote a former FBI official who oversaw the investigation of Omar Al Balubi as saying that the FBI agents at the time, in the weeks and months after 9/11, believed that he definitely had knowledge of the plot, and that his meeting with the hijackers was not a coincidence; it was planned ahead of time.

He was picked up in England, because he had already left the country, was interrogated, and then let go. The FBI has consistently said he was let go, because there was just not enough evidence to charge him with a crime, to bring him back to the United States. We report in this week's issue, that one of the things in the classified section of the report is that the Saudi government had intervened with the British government, and pushed for Balubi's release from Britain, and he is now back in Saudi Arabia.

HEMMER: What does that say, then, about the Saudi government and their connections possibly to this country?

ISIKOFF: Well, we don't know. This is one of the mysteries. Balubi is the mystery man of September 11th. He could be the key to a whole other layer of the 9/11 plot that has yet to be uncovered. Or this could be a case of a misfire by the congressional committee, and they're aiming fire at an innocent man. But he's clearly now put on the spotlight. He's living openly back in Saudi Arabia, giving interviews, press interviews, professing his innocence.

As you may know, Senator Chuck Schumer over the weekend wrote a letter asking the White House to request the Saudi Arabian government to turn Balubi back over to the United States so he could be held as a material witness and further questioned about his -- whether or not he had a role in September 11th.

But if he did, if he did, it could be quite significant, because, as the report makes clear, he was widely suspected also of being a Saudi government agent. In fact, he went for a meeting at the Saudi consulate directly before his first encounter with the hijackers.

Another thing we report in this week's issue is that some people believed in the U.S. government that he may have met with a particular consular official in the Islamic affairs section, Fayad Al Fanari (ph), who was stripped of his diplomatic visa and barred entry into the United States earlier this year, reportedly because of possible ties to terrorism.

So all that suggests that there may be, and this is one of the things the report raises, a cadre of people working inside the Saudi government, mostly in the Islamic affairs sections, who have sympathies for bin Laden, and they have been working for the hijackers. It's unclear, the evidence is inconclusive, but that's the questions raised by the report.

HEMMER: Michael, listen, I'm running out of time here. Bob Graham, we've been quoting him a lot today -- yesterday on "Meet the Press," he said -- I'm quoting now -- "There is a significance presence of Al Qaeda in the U.S. It's a number capable of carrying out major actions against the people of the United States. In a word or two, how many of the 14 are still around, do we know?

ISIKOFF: Oh, I mean the 14, I mean the numbers that Graham are referring to go well beyond the 14. But we don't know. The fact is the government doesn't have a good handle on it. You can hear all sorts of estimates. So this is, again, one of the unclear yet to be uncovered.

HEMMER: Bottom line is these guys were not loners when they arrived here in the Unites States.

ISIKOFF: They were not loners, that's right. That's the conclusion of the report.

HEMMER: Michael, thanks. We'll see you again. Michael Isikoff from "Newsweek."

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