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CNN Live Sunday
America's New War: Tracking the Terrorists
Aired September 30, 2001 - 17:19 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We do have some new information. This is coming to us from a source close to the investigation that Mohamed Atta, considered to be one of the leaders of the attacks, was not only wiring money from Florida to the United Arab Emirates, he was also receiving money from that region as well.
And in a separate development we learned that Atta and some other hijackers spent some time right here in Atlanta prior to the attacks. He now is CNN's Art Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A trendy gym near Atlanta where suspected hijackers got in shape to die.
Do you recognize this man?
VALERIE MIDDLEBROOKS, MANAGER, LA FITNESS: Yeah, Mohamed.
HARRIS: Mohamed?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Atta.
HARRIS: Atta?
MIDDLEBROOKS: That's the same guy.
HARRIS: Mohamed Atta -- pilot and suspected hijacker -- believed to have flown the first plane into the World Trade Center.
Valerie Middlebrooks gave Atta and a companion three passes to LA Fitness.
MIDDLEBROOKS: I didn't know his name but, yeah, he was in here with him.
HARRIS: This man?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Yes.
HARRIS: Marwan Al-Shehhi -- another suspected hijacker. CNN has learned he lived in Atlanta for weeks -- possibly months -- before investigators say he crashed the second plane into the World Trade Center. They first rented planes just north of Atlanta in February, started pumping iron here in July.
Was there somebody else with them?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Yeah, there was a third guy -- he was shorter.
HARRIS: A third man?
MIDDLEBROOKS: He gave me the creeps.
HARRIS: Law enforcement sources tell CNN the suspected hijackers spent weeks living in Atlanta's suburbs moving between a chain of bargain motels, keeping low profiles and putting on muscle at this club where FBI agents showed up with mug shots of all 19 suspected hijackers.
Valerie Middlebrooks studied the faces and spotted the same mystery man caught on tape at this ATM machine -- a suspected hijacker with no name until she identified Hani Hanjour -- the pilot investigators say crashed into the Pentagon.
MIDDLEBROOKS: He didn't have facial hair.
HARRIS: Only she remembers no mustache and he had bushier eyebrows. Agents explained the computer imaging likely cut it off. As for Mohamed Atta she said he did all the talking, answering questions with a question and dodging her questions like a pro.
MIDDLEBROOKS: Phone number, address, what he was doing for a workout, where he came from -- everything.
HARRIS: Near the gym -- a flight school. Dispatcher Chrissy Ross wrote Atta's name on this board when two men rented single engine Piper's twice this year. Then after the attack . . .
CHRISSY ROSS, DISPATCHER, ADVANCED AVIATION: I put his name in the computer and I push it and it popped up in off road.
HARRIS: Off road?
ROSS: Off road.
HARRIS: What she did was call the FBI.
ROSS: They came in they just got -- they took everything. They took a copy of our database.
HARRIS: Including the paperwork where Atta listed an address in Hamburg, Germany and a phone number in Florida.
Who is that?
ROSS: That's Mohamed Atta.
HARRIS: You remember him? ROSS: Yeah. I don't remember looking into his eyes. I mean, he smiled. He wasn't that -- like that. He didn't look that mean.
HARRIS: But she now believes evil can hide behind a smile.
ROSS: They had said that they moved here from Florida because they were tired of the flat land and they wanted something different.
HARRIS: Why Atlanta? Was it considered a target? Or as one expert in counter terror suggests a resting place far enough away from the real targets for hijackers to feel safe. Lots of clues but no conclusions. Art Harris, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
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