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CNN Saturday Morning News

Authorities Investigate Terrorist Attack in Kenya

Aired November 30, 2002 - 07:02   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.


KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll begin this hour near the Kenyan town of Mombasa. You've likely heard about what's happened there, the site, of course, of Thursday's terror bombing and the scene of an international investigation.
Authorities are scouring through the rubble, and there's lots of it, of an Israeli-owned hotel for clues on who's responsible for the attack.

CNN's Catherine Bond joins us now with the latest on the recovery efforts.

A whole lot to go through -- Catherine.

CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There has been quite a lot to -- a lot of clues to look through as well, yes, as you say.

The police appear to have found the detonator to the bomb. I was actually standing next to a Kenyan investigator when he showed an American investigator from the embassy in this region what appeared to be the detonator to the bomb. It looked like a manual detonator running down, a wire running down a metal sort of thin pole, metal wire, to the metal encasement.

They looked at that, they put that in a bag with other samples. This was on Thursday. And they sent them off to the laboratory, and we're waiting to hear from forensics to see what the police have concluded.

Behind me you may be able to see investigators still around the gate of the hotel. There's a couple of Israeli bomb experts who've been working here today with Kenyan investigators. One Kenyan investigator telling us that the real work was due to begin, so he felt he was getting down to the nitty-gritty after a couple of days that a lot of people had traipsed in and out over the site.

OSBORN: Well, Catherine, there's been a lot of reports about eyewitnesses, and that they've been helpful to investigators. I imagine being there on the scene, you're hearing a lot from eyewitnesses as well.

BOND: Yes, we have some very good eyewitness accounts of how the vehicle carrying the suicide bombers drove up and down here for about 20 minutes before it crashed through the barrier, breaking through into the hotel, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) down the front of the hotel reception and exploding. I spoke to one or two people who said they'd seen the three occupants, three young men they described them as. One person who I spoke to said one appeared to be Arab in appearance, that's how he described him, and another of African Arab descent, but he couldn't see the third man in the back of the vehicle because the vehicle had tinted windows.

The police are also getting some leads on that vehicle. It was a green four-wheel-drive vehicle. It had been purchased and brought into the country in Kenya -- to Kenya in 1991, and sold in 1998, and then remained with its owner up to date. They're trying to obviously track down where that owner is and why this particular car was used for this attack.

OSBORN: Absolutely. I wanted to ask you as well about the woman who had an American passport, she and her husband reportedly are now free?

BOND: Yes, they are. An American woman who apparently lived here as a child, whose parents are diplomats in Kenya, returned to Kenya for a nostalgic holiday with her Spanish-speaking husband, and they checked out of a hotel quite close by to here just an hour and a half after the attack. The reception staff phoned the police because they'd been asked to by the police to make a routine call if anybody checked out in a hurry. They checked out, police decided they wanted to question them because they were checking out shortly after the bomb attack happened here.

OSBORN: Yes. Catherine Bond live from Mombasa, thank you very much for a debrief on both the investigation and, of course, the wreckage.

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 30, 2002 - 07:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll begin this hour near the Kenyan town of Mombasa. You've likely heard about what's happened there, the site, of course, of Thursday's terror bombing and the scene of an international investigation.
Authorities are scouring through the rubble, and there's lots of it, of an Israeli-owned hotel for clues on who's responsible for the attack.

CNN's Catherine Bond joins us now with the latest on the recovery efforts.

A whole lot to go through -- Catherine.

CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There has been quite a lot to -- a lot of clues to look through as well, yes, as you say.

The police appear to have found the detonator to the bomb. I was actually standing next to a Kenyan investigator when he showed an American investigator from the embassy in this region what appeared to be the detonator to the bomb. It looked like a manual detonator running down, a wire running down a metal sort of thin pole, metal wire, to the metal encasement.

They looked at that, they put that in a bag with other samples. This was on Thursday. And they sent them off to the laboratory, and we're waiting to hear from forensics to see what the police have concluded.

Behind me you may be able to see investigators still around the gate of the hotel. There's a couple of Israeli bomb experts who've been working here today with Kenyan investigators. One Kenyan investigator telling us that the real work was due to begin, so he felt he was getting down to the nitty-gritty after a couple of days that a lot of people had traipsed in and out over the site.

OSBORN: Well, Catherine, there's been a lot of reports about eyewitnesses, and that they've been helpful to investigators. I imagine being there on the scene, you're hearing a lot from eyewitnesses as well.

BOND: Yes, we have some very good eyewitness accounts of how the vehicle carrying the suicide bombers drove up and down here for about 20 minutes before it crashed through the barrier, breaking through into the hotel, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) down the front of the hotel reception and exploding. I spoke to one or two people who said they'd seen the three occupants, three young men they described them as. One person who I spoke to said one appeared to be Arab in appearance, that's how he described him, and another of African Arab descent, but he couldn't see the third man in the back of the vehicle because the vehicle had tinted windows.

The police are also getting some leads on that vehicle. It was a green four-wheel-drive vehicle. It had been purchased and brought into the country in Kenya -- to Kenya in 1991, and sold in 1998, and then remained with its owner up to date. They're trying to obviously track down where that owner is and why this particular car was used for this attack.

OSBORN: Absolutely. I wanted to ask you as well about the woman who had an American passport, she and her husband reportedly are now free?

BOND: Yes, they are. An American woman who apparently lived here as a child, whose parents are diplomats in Kenya, returned to Kenya for a nostalgic holiday with her Spanish-speaking husband, and they checked out of a hotel quite close by to here just an hour and a half after the attack. The reception staff phoned the police because they'd been asked to by the police to make a routine call if anybody checked out in a hurry. They checked out, police decided they wanted to question them because they were checking out shortly after the bomb attack happened here.

OSBORN: Yes. Catherine Bond live from Mombasa, thank you very much for a debrief on both the investigation and, of course, the wreckage.

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