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CNN Saturday Morning News

FBI Yet to Determine if Higazy Used Radio to Guide 9/11 Terrorists

Aired January 12, 2002 - 08:22   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: An Egyptian man held as a material witness in the World Trade Center attacks has now been charged. Abdallah Higazy is charged with lying to the FBI about a handheld aviation radio. Investigators say the radio was found in Higazy's room in a hotel across from the Trade Towers after the attacks.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To find their target, officials say the September 11 hijackers used guidance systems. But did they also have a man on the ground? Prosecutors say Abdallah Higazy was on the 51st floor of the Millennium Hilton Hotel, across from the Trade Center, when the planes hit.

Higazy, like hundreds of others, evacuated, leaving behind his passport, a Koran and, prosecutors say, a pilot radio, a handheld device like this one. Experts say it has a 150 mile range and could possibly be used by someone on the ground to talk to a plane mid- flight.

LEONARD HARRIS, COMMERCIAL PILOT: It's absolutely feasible. He had the capability with a very high frequency radio of the aviation frequencies, 760 channels. He had the capability of communicating with an airliner.

FEYERICK: Higazy has not been charged with terrorism, but with making false statements to FBI agents about the radio. Prosecutors saying Higazy denied, then admitted, owning it, giving three different reasons why the radio was in his hotel room safe. Higazy's lawyer says it's not so.

ROBERT DUNN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He denies and has denied and continues to deny having ownership or anything to do whatsoever with the item in question.

FEYERICK: Higazy arrived in New York August 27, traveling on a student visa with a scholarship to Brooklyn's Polytechnic University, studying computer engineering. Senior law officials do not dispute his lawyer's claim that Higazy did not choose his room, that had only a partial view of the towers. The school put him up at the hotel across from the World Trade Center for 30 days until he could find an apartment.

DUNN: It was not his choice to be there. He was given an itinerary in a packet that was provided by that entity and it included his stay for 30 days at this hotel.

FEYERICK: Higazy served mandatory military service in the Egyptian Air Force. The FBI agent who questioned him says one of Higazy's jobs was to repair air to ground pilot radios. Higazy told the agent he had some expertise in communications and communications devices. According to his lawyer, Higazy studied in the United States for years, saying his father worked for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, D.C., and also possibly for the United Nations.

(on camera): One prosecutor says Higazy could possibly prove to be an important part of the September 11 investigation. But the judge warned that this could also turn out not to be a terrorism case after all. Higazy is in jail, bail denied.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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