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American Morning

09/11 Investigation

Aired February 03, 2004 - 09:16   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An Orlando Customs inspector is being credited with helping save a Washington target from destruction shun on September 11, 2001. The plane, believed to headed toward either the White House or the capitol, ultimately crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It had one few hijacker onboard than the three other planes that were involved on that day.
Jose Melendez-Perez turned away a young Saudi man at the Orlando, Florida airport five weeks before 9/11. That man, Mohammed Al-Khatami (ph), is now being held as a suspected terrorist at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Jose Melendez-Perez joins us this morning for an exclusive interview from Orlando.

Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.

JOSE MELENDEZ-PEREZ, U.S. CUSTOMS OFFICER: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: You have said the man you denied entry to, the man many people believe was indeed the 20th hijacker, gave you the chills. What was it about him that disturbed you so much?

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, the way that he conducted himself through the interview. The way that he look at me when I first make eye contact with him. And he was very, very well-dressed. He seemed like he was a military person, or a person that had received some military training.

O'BRIEN: And yet he had no credit cards on him, his story didn't seem to fit. What was it about what he was telling you as the interview process went on for some 90 minutes that didn't seem to jibe in your mind?

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, for example, first example, he stated that he didn't have a return ticket. When I asked him about it, he stated that he didn't know where he was going, what part of the United States. And this is very strange because people come into visit, they know where they're going after they finish their vacation.

No. 2, he didn't have a reservation. He didn't speak English. All the interview was done through the interpreter.

And then when I encountered with some other question, he stated that somebody was waiting for him. When I say, can I have the name of this person? He said no, nobody's waiting for me. And then his friend was supposed to make all the arrangements for his departure, and his friend only was the one who knew where he was going. So this seems to not be plausible. I mean, a person coming on vacation normally know where they going, and also his friend was supposed to be here in three or four days, and he was coming in for six days. So that didn't make any sense, that he was going to wait for somebody for three or four days when he was coming only for a six day vacation.

O'BRIEN: It seems so bizarre, that I know even the interpreter said to you, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Do you think that your catching this was intuition, or do you think that there was something in your training -- and you've been in the business a long time -- that helped you really realize that this person was not right?

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, the training was important, my training in the military for 26 1/2 years, and also with Legacy (ph) INS.

But I think that the really first instinct was just that sixth sense that something wasn't right, that the guy was hiding something, that the guy was coming to do harm in some way. I didn't know which way. My first belief, impression, when he said he didn't have a return ticket was that he was a hit man. Normally hitmen doesn't know where he's going, because if he get caught, he doesn't have anything to bargain with. So that was my first impression after seeing the way that he was behaving, the way that he was getting upset every time I changed the line of questioning and continued questioning the same thing that he was answering over and over and over.

O'BRIEN: Did you have any concerns about the fact that he was a Saudi national? I know there had been some issues in the past about the aggressive questioning of Saudis.

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Not really. My behavior at my work is always I treat everybody the same, with respect. My concern was that didn't make any difference where he was coming from, what nationality. My concern was that I thought something was wrong.

O'BRIEN: Do you think the other hijackers might not have been allowed in if the other interrogators had been as aggressive and maybe had a sixth sense, as you had? You have said that you would not have allowed Muhammad Atta into this country, because of similar issues; his story and his visas just didn't make sense.

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, that would be hard to say, because, in fact, we don't know the facts. We don't know what was presented to the inspectors. So I can tell them which way -- what they used to base their decision on, and that would be very, you know, professional to assume that something was wrong at that time, because we have to have the facts.

I personally feel that the inspectors that did these inspections for these persons, if they knew or they thought that person were not admissible, they would have denied entry. So I really can't tell that.

O'BRIEN: Jose Melendez-Perez joining us this morning. You're getting a lot of credit as being a hero who may have saved a lot of people.

Thanks for being with us. We appreciate hearing from you this morning.

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Thank you.

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 February 3, 2004 - 09:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An Orlando Customs inspector is being credited with helping save a Washington target from destruction shun on September 11, 2001. The plane, believed to headed toward either the White House or the capitol, ultimately crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It had one few hijacker onboard than the three other planes that were involved on that day.
Jose Melendez-Perez turned away a young Saudi man at the Orlando, Florida airport five weeks before 9/11. That man, Mohammed Al-Khatami (ph), is now being held as a suspected terrorist at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Jose Melendez-Perez joins us this morning for an exclusive interview from Orlando.

Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.

JOSE MELENDEZ-PEREZ, U.S. CUSTOMS OFFICER: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: You have said the man you denied entry to, the man many people believe was indeed the 20th hijacker, gave you the chills. What was it about him that disturbed you so much?

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, the way that he conducted himself through the interview. The way that he look at me when I first make eye contact with him. And he was very, very well-dressed. He seemed like he was a military person, or a person that had received some military training.

O'BRIEN: And yet he had no credit cards on him, his story didn't seem to fit. What was it about what he was telling you as the interview process went on for some 90 minutes that didn't seem to jibe in your mind?

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, for example, first example, he stated that he didn't have a return ticket. When I asked him about it, he stated that he didn't know where he was going, what part of the United States. And this is very strange because people come into visit, they know where they're going after they finish their vacation.

No. 2, he didn't have a reservation. He didn't speak English. All the interview was done through the interpreter.

And then when I encountered with some other question, he stated that somebody was waiting for him. When I say, can I have the name of this person? He said no, nobody's waiting for me. And then his friend was supposed to make all the arrangements for his departure, and his friend only was the one who knew where he was going. So this seems to not be plausible. I mean, a person coming on vacation normally know where they going, and also his friend was supposed to be here in three or four days, and he was coming in for six days. So that didn't make any sense, that he was going to wait for somebody for three or four days when he was coming only for a six day vacation.

O'BRIEN: It seems so bizarre, that I know even the interpreter said to you, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Do you think that your catching this was intuition, or do you think that there was something in your training -- and you've been in the business a long time -- that helped you really realize that this person was not right?

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, the training was important, my training in the military for 26 1/2 years, and also with Legacy (ph) INS.

But I think that the really first instinct was just that sixth sense that something wasn't right, that the guy was hiding something, that the guy was coming to do harm in some way. I didn't know which way. My first belief, impression, when he said he didn't have a return ticket was that he was a hit man. Normally hitmen doesn't know where he's going, because if he get caught, he doesn't have anything to bargain with. So that was my first impression after seeing the way that he was behaving, the way that he was getting upset every time I changed the line of questioning and continued questioning the same thing that he was answering over and over and over.

O'BRIEN: Did you have any concerns about the fact that he was a Saudi national? I know there had been some issues in the past about the aggressive questioning of Saudis.

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Not really. My behavior at my work is always I treat everybody the same, with respect. My concern was that didn't make any difference where he was coming from, what nationality. My concern was that I thought something was wrong.

O'BRIEN: Do you think the other hijackers might not have been allowed in if the other interrogators had been as aggressive and maybe had a sixth sense, as you had? You have said that you would not have allowed Muhammad Atta into this country, because of similar issues; his story and his visas just didn't make sense.

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Well, that would be hard to say, because, in fact, we don't know the facts. We don't know what was presented to the inspectors. So I can tell them which way -- what they used to base their decision on, and that would be very, you know, professional to assume that something was wrong at that time, because we have to have the facts.

I personally feel that the inspectors that did these inspections for these persons, if they knew or they thought that person were not admissible, they would have denied entry. So I really can't tell that.

O'BRIEN: Jose Melendez-Perez joining us this morning. You're getting a lot of credit as being a hero who may have saved a lot of people.

Thanks for being with us. We appreciate hearing from you this morning.

MELENDEZ-PEREZ: Thank you.

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