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CNN Saturday Morning News
Search for Suspects Extends Beyond U.S. Borders
Aired September 22, 2001 - 09:00 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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities are moving forward with their investigation, and the search for suspects extends far beyond U.S. borders.
CNN's Eileen O'Connor has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): German authorities say it started here, in this Hamburg apartment. Fellow students Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, and Mohamed Atta rooming together, studying together, and allegedly plotting together the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon since 1999.
German authorities say the man they have identified as Binalshibh even took flight training at this Florida school with Atta but was later refused a visa to return for more practice. The man authorities know as Mohamed Atta is presumed dead in the rubble of the Tower One. The others on the run, but now charged with at least 5,000 counts of murder and forming a terrorist organization.
Yet a crucial link is missing, German authorities say, to Osama bin Laden. Top U.S. law enforcement officials touring the devastation in New York say they believe investigators worldwide will be able to find the roots of this organization.
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: Well, you know, the FBI and law enforcement here, other cities around the country, you know, they will not sleep until they're brought to justice.
O'CONNOR: Four people arrested in Great Britain by Scotland Yard, three men and a woman police believe linked to the suspected hijackers.
In France, a roundup of eight people suspected of plotting an attack against U.S. interests in Europe. Sources say the U.S. embassy may have been one of them.
And Friday night, charges filed in Chicago for carrying multiple false Yemeni passports against Nageeb Abdul Jabbar Mohamed al-Hadi, detained in Toronto. His Lufthansa flight to Chicago rerouted on September 11. Al-Hadi was found with two Lufthansa flight uniforms in his checked bags. At least one identification card and paper with Arabic writing and strange numbers sewn into a pants pocket. The biggest manhunt in the world to thwart further attacks and build a case against what the president calls "the prime suspect," the loose-knit terror group al-Qaeda.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: In the words of the president of the United States, "We will bring them to justice, or if that's impossible, we will take justice to them."
O'CONNOR: Proving the case will help build support for the kind of justice the president preparing to serve up.
Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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