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CNN Sunday Morning

Pakistani Officials Question Two Top al Qaeda Operatives

Aired September 15, 2002 - 07:34   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Pakistani officials say they're questioning two top al Qaeda operatives. While it's not clear who the second men is, Ramzi Binalshibh is one of the men captured in Karachi this week. We've been telling you all about that story. Binalshibh has admitted to playing a role in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. He apparently wanted to be the 20th hijacker and was closely linked to Mohammed Atta.
CNN'S Susan Candiotti has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just before boarding a plane about to be driven into the World Trade Center, hijacker Rawil al Sheri left something behind, a poem, later discovered in his rental car, left at Boston's Logan Airport. In this excerpt obtained by CNN, the poem speaks of heading to the "face of death with our heads held high."

DANNY DEFENBAUGH, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: It wasn't left for his family. It was left for Americans to know the type of dedication and what they have in their soul. This is the damage that we can do without you stopping us.

CANDIOTTI: And nothing stopped the hijackers in the final hours of their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, they're 90 miles an hour in a 65 zone is $270 fine.

CANDIOTTI: Pilot Ziad Jarrah kept his cool when he was pulled over for speeding as he headed to his targeted flight in Newark two days before September 11.

DEFENBAUGH: This is a war for them. It's not just from their mind and their heart. This is in their soul.

CANDIOTTI: Before sunrise on Sunday, September 9, the hijacker who would steer a plane into the World Trade Center began to make his moves. Marwan al-Shehhi checked out of a Deerfield Beach, Florida motel. Its owner later finds discarded 757 flight manuals, a marshal arts book, and aviation maps of the East Coast.

RICHARD SURMA, MOTEL OWNER: Stack of maps about eight to 10 inches high. And they're all new. CANDIOTTI: After returning a rental car, Al-Shehhi shared with fellow hijack pilot Mohammed Atta, al-Shehhi even offers advice to the rental car company.

BRAD WARRICK, CAR RENTAL OWNER: They reminded that the car was overdue for an oil change.

CANDIOTTI: Al-Shehhi flew to Boston, where other hijackers already had checked into motels, apparently staggering their arrivals to avoid suspicion.

The suspected ring leader, Mohammed Atta, flew from Florida to Baltimore, where he spent the day, before flying onto Boston. There, investigators say, Atta hooked up a final time with fellow pilot Al- Shehhi at this hotel. It was the day before the attacks. Atta and Abdullah Aziz Alamari (ph), another hijacker, then drive to Portland, Maine, where they check into a Comfort Inn. At Newark, New Jersey at an airport motel, at least two more hijackers settled in. They would be among those who would take over United flight 93 the next day.

Meantime, some of the terrorists who would commandeer American flight 77 at Dulles to target the Pentagon stay at this motel outside Baltimore.

(on camera): The FBI theorizes Mohammed Atta may have had a final meeting with at least some of those hijackers during his Baltimore stopover. Atta made two wire transfers that day from grocery stores near that Maryland motel.

(voice-over): In those final 48 hours, Atta wired $7,800 overseas. Marwan Al-Shehhi transferred $5400 from a Boston bus terminal. Wahlid Al Shehri, another $5,000. In every case, the money went to the United Arab Emirates. Retired FBI special agent Danny Defenbaugh, who led one of the groups investigating 9/11 says sending back the unused cash is no surprise.

DEFENBAUGH: Why would anyone want to leave it in a country that they hate for someone else to be able to use it? Why not give it back, so that it can be used again for the cause?

CANDIOTTI: Back in Portland, just before going to sleep, a busy night for the hijackers. Atta and Alamari (ph) are photographed at an ATM. A half hour later, they stop at a gas station. Atta, seen on the right. After a few minutes, cameras capture Atta at a local Wal- mart. That same night, in a Boston motel room, at least two hijackers, including Hamza al Gamdi, made final preparations for death.

Cleaning women, sources tell CNN, report the men slept on top of their sheets. They found the bathroom floor "full of body hair and water," and indication investigators say the men had shaved their body hair.

DEFENBAUGH: They many times will take and shave, so that they will have the smoothness to be able to pass one into the after life. CANDIOTTI: Early the next morning, cameras record Atta and Alamari going through airport security in Portland. In his car, Atta leaves behind handwritten rules of engagement. They advise "be calm" and "you are carrying out an action God loves."

Two other copies of the same rules are later found in another hijacker's car at Dulles and at the Pennsylvania crash site. About an hour before the first plane hits the World Trade Center, pilots Atta and Al Shehhi have another chance to talk, apparently another chance to confirm the plot is on.

Sources tell CNN Atta's cell phone received a call from a pay phone at Logan's terminal C, where al Shehhi's United flight 175 was about to follow American flight 11 on their final journey.

Susan Candiotti, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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