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CNN Sunday Morning
Al Qaeda Leader May Have Plotted to Kill Pope
Aired November 10, 2002 - 11:16 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got some news coming in now from the Philippines. Apparently, an al Qaeda chief has actually plotted to kill the pope. CNN's Maria Ressa is doing reporting on this out of Jakarta today.
Maria, what do you know about this?
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, I actually covered this plot in 1995. The mastermind that was -- who was working with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who is now the military -- the head of the military committee of al Qaeda. His nephew, Ramzi Yousef, was the man who was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
In 1995, both these men were in the Philippines. They plotted to assassinate the pope. A freak apartment fire foiled that plot, but they also had several plots, then including a plot to assassinate former President Bill Clinton. And also one that was inside the laptop computer that was used by this cell, it was a plot to hijack commercial planes and ram them into buildings in the United States like the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and the CIA headquarters, something that intelligence officials in the region as well as U.S. intelligence officials now believe is the blueprint for the September 11 attacks -- Carol.
LIN: All right, do you know -- is there a sense of how far along this plot actually was?
RESSA: Well, what was interesting is that they did -- they had the plot set up and it would have been carried out along with a plot to bomb 11 commercial planes, 11 American airlines. It was supposed to be 48 hours of terror, is what they called it. It would have killed more than 4,000 people. That freak apartment fire foiled it.
This is significant because Khalid Sheikh Mohammed basically used the time from 1995 until today to build the al Qaeda network in Southeast Asia. He's had an active hand in the funding, the growth and the selection of the plots al Qaeda has used, also, helping in the birth of extremist groups here, including the one now suspected of being behind the Bali bombings on October 12.
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Maria Ressa. A lot more coming out of the investigations there in Manila and Jakarta.
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 November 10, 2002 - 11:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got some news coming in now from the Philippines. Apparently, an al Qaeda chief has actually plotted to kill the pope. CNN's Maria Ressa is doing reporting on this out of Jakarta today.
Maria, what do you know about this?
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, I actually covered this plot in 1995. The mastermind that was -- who was working with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who is now the military -- the head of the military committee of al Qaeda. His nephew, Ramzi Yousef, was the man who was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
In 1995, both these men were in the Philippines. They plotted to assassinate the pope. A freak apartment fire foiled that plot, but they also had several plots, then including a plot to assassinate former President Bill Clinton. And also one that was inside the laptop computer that was used by this cell, it was a plot to hijack commercial planes and ram them into buildings in the United States like the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and the CIA headquarters, something that intelligence officials in the region as well as U.S. intelligence officials now believe is the blueprint for the September 11 attacks -- Carol.
LIN: All right, do you know -- is there a sense of how far along this plot actually was?
RESSA: Well, what was interesting is that they did -- they had the plot set up and it would have been carried out along with a plot to bomb 11 commercial planes, 11 American airlines. It was supposed to be 48 hours of terror, is what they called it. It would have killed more than 4,000 people. That freak apartment fire foiled it.
This is significant because Khalid Sheikh Mohammed basically used the time from 1995 until today to build the al Qaeda network in Southeast Asia. He's had an active hand in the funding, the growth and the selection of the plots al Qaeda has used, also, helping in the birth of extremist groups here, including the one now suspected of being behind the Bali bombings on October 12.
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Maria Ressa. A lot more coming out of the investigations there in Manila and Jakarta.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
