Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Sunday

Ashcroft Warns the Nation More Terrorist Attacks Are Coming

Aired September 30, 2001 - 15:11   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, now we're going to go ahead and get the latest on the investigation as the picture starts to be painted even more on the 19 suspected hijackers. Our Susan Candiotti has been working hard on the investigation and brings us the latest. Susan?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. Less than three weeks after the terrorist attacks there is no assurance the worst is over. On CNN's "LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said is it is quote "very unlikely that all those who helped the hijackers are detained or their identities known." "The threat of more violence," he says, "still exists."

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: There are threats of explosives, there are threats of - there are all kinds of threats. I think there is a clear and present danger to Americans - not one that should keep us from living our lives but one that should make us alert. We should be active and involved in our business and in our families but we should be alert.

CANDIOTTI: As the FBI continues to track down anyone who may have helped the hijackers arrests are building overseas. More FBI agents moving into Germany to help their counterparts there. And later this week in London another hearing on the U.S.'s request to extradite Lotfi Raissi. British prosecutors say he helped train some of the suspected hijackers in the U.S.

Through his attorney Raissi denies any involvement. The U.S. has charged Raissi with lying to the federal aviation administration on paperwork for a pilot's license.

And in India CNN confirms the FBI is questioning the family of two men detained in the investigation. They were taken off the train in Texas the day of the attacks. The FBI says they carried box cutters, hair dye and a large amount of cash. Authorities in India also say the two also held false passports and sent home to their families more than $58,000 for mostly odd jobs in the U.S.

And so, Daryn, the FBI has a great deal of interest in these two men. So far sources say they are not cooperating.

KAGAN: You and I had a chance yesterday to talk about the money trail. I want to pick up that conversation again. I understand there's information coming in saying that at least with one of the suspected hijackers, Mohamed Atta, that there was money going back and forth very - right up until the final moments.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. You'll recall that we reported earlier that sources say that Mohamed Atta and some of the other suspected hijackers were sending back money in the days before the attacks to a contact in the United Arab Emirates.

Well, now we learn according to a source close to the investigation that money was going the other way as well - that Mohamed Atta was receiving money from that same region - an unspecified amount. However, no one knows exactly why. All kinds of theories...

KAGAN: Sure.

CANDIOTTI: ... but no one knows for sure why.

KAGAN: It seems like the more questions we answer it only makes you have even more questions wondering how this whole thing was put together.

CANDIOTTI: That's right.

KAGAN: Susan Candiotti, thank you.

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