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THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: THE POINT: Tracking the Terrorists.
Tonight, startling new allegations: Were Osama bin Laden and his followers planning to take planes like this to the sky to launch a biochemical war?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES LESTER, CROP DUSTER MECHANIC: They wanted to know what capacity of the airplane -- how much would the airplane hold, how much fuel, and how to crank it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll ask a panel of "TIME" magazine correspondents about this latest revelation.
And government agents say this man has links to bin Laden's organization. He says he knowing nothing, and he's been caught up in a blind rush for justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am U.S. citizen. I am a family man. I love this country. I love its people and I care very much for their well being.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, his side of the story.
THE POINT: Tracking the Terrorists.
Now from Washington, Greta Van Susteren.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Where is Osama bin Laden? Afghanistan's Taliban leaders say they don't know, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice don't buy that. Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance says bin Laden's probably in the southern part of the country.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says bin Laden's al Qaeda network must be, in his words, "ripped up and brought to justice."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are hard at work bringing all the information together, intelligence information, law enforcement information; and I think in the near future we'll be able to put out a paper -- a document that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have linking him to this attack but also, remember, he has been linked to earlier attacks against U.S. interests, and he's already indicted for earlier attacks against the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: And a day after speaking by phone with President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the leaders of five Central Asian countries that are near or border Afghanistan. According to Putin's presidential chief of staff, they discussed coordination of action.
Authorities are looking into whether other commercial flights might have been targeted two weeks ago. Sources say the latest suspicions involve knives and a box cutter found on two Delta flights that were grounded after the attacks.
CNN national correspondent Eileen O'Connor joins us with more on that.
Eileen -- knives, box cutters?
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was a knife, according to sources, that was actually found on a flight that left out of Boston -- two knives stuck between seats. It was supposed to leave from Boston, but it was grounded. As you know, many flights were right after the hijackings took place.
VAN SUSTEREN: Was that flight headed to the West Coast, or was that a flight that was shorter?
O'CONNOR: As far as we know. And they have been, in fact, focusing on flights that were long-haul flights. And then the other one had a box cutter on it; this one out of Delta -- a Delta flight out of Atlanta to Brussels. Another long-haul flight, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of the knife, anything significant about them?
O'CONNOR: Well, authorities say that look, you know, they're obviously looking at anything like this because the hijackers were said, by people on cell phones, to have box cutters and knives -- Swiss Army knives. But they also say people carry a lot of things on airplanes that are very unusual, and so they can't definitely rule out the possibility that these were innocent. But clearly it's cause for concern. And they also have, you know, arrested some people off a diverted St. Louis flight that had box cutters, and they are in custody. And sources say they are cooperating.
VAN SUSTEREN: Now, the fact that they found a box cutter on a flight out of Atlanta on Delta seems extraordinarily bizarre and unusual, even if they do find unusual things on airplanes. Were they saying that it was a similar box cutter or anything to tie it to possible hijackers?
O'CONNOR: Well, they don't know exactly what the box cutters looked like, by the hijackers, though they have had some descriptions. Yes, similar; and that's what's caused great concern. And as you know off of snippets of conversation on the Pennsylvania flight, investigators already knew from that hijacker that he had said, after knowing already that those other planes had hit their targets that they had other planes, other targets. So there was already a lot of cause for concern that other planes were targeted.
VAN SUSTEREN: Had passengers already loaded onto the airplane, so the suggestion is that passengers put the box cutter and the knives on the plane, or could it be ground crew?
O'CONNOR: As far as we know -- in that situation, I'm not sure, I'd have to double-check with the sources about whether or not the passengers had actually been loaded onto the plane.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Some of the people arrested in Detroit last week had worked for Sky Chefs -- they would no longer work for Sky Chefs, which services food. Is there a possibility, or are they looking into the fact that the conspiracy expands much larger and it wasn't the hijackers who brought the weapons on these planes, but rather they had been planted there?
O'CONNOR: Yes, and in fact they're taking action. The FAA is actually ordering all the airlines to revalidate everyone that's in their employee -- and that they're employees. And double-checking to make sure that their identity is valid.
And you know, they're also going back over situations that they have thought innocent before; for instance, a burglary in a Rome hotel of an airline pilot -- his uniforms and some I.D.s were stolen month ago -- looking at that again. So they are taking action and reevaluating to make sure that there are no employees who have been helping this network.
VAN SUSTEREN: Possibility of a 20th hijacker, not just 19?
O'CONNOR: There is a possibility and, in fact, they believe they have him in custody...
VAN SUSTEREN: I should say a potential hijacker.
O'CONNOR: Potential hijacker. Very important link, they believe, also to the network in Europe and perhaps back to bin Laden. Zacarias Moussaoui -- he was taken into custody after having received flight training in Norman, Oklahoma. And there was a lot of suspicious material found in his rooms. French authorities already alerted U.S. authorities once they had him in custody, that this was a man who had links to terrorist organizations.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK, thanks very much Eileen O'Connor for joining us this evening. We've seen the gruesome damage the hijackers caused with large commercial planes. The discovery of a crop dusting manual among the belongings of one material witness is fueling new suspicions.
Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Law enforcement sources say the man identified as hijacking suspect Mohammed Atta wanted to buy a crop dusting plane. Sources say he inquired about a loan for one at a Homestead, Florida bank, but walked away before applying.
But what worries authorities is what Atta had in mind. A couple hours' drive to the north of Homestead, crop dusting mechanic James Lester says Atta visited his airstrip not once, but twice. Lester and other workers say as recently as last month there were several visits by men he describes as Middle Eastern looking, all curious about crop dusting.
LESTER: They were out -- several times they were out here. You know, they'd come in and wanted to know what capacity of the airplane -- how much would the airplane hold, how much fuel, and how to crank it.
CANDIOTTI: Other than being annoyed by all the questions, the crop dusters did not think much of it at the time. Then came the terrorist attacks, and a closer look at the arrest of this man: Zacarias Moussaoui. He was jailed last month in Minnesota on immigration charges. The would-be pilot failed to get a license from a school in Oklahoma, then tried another school in Minnesota. That school contacted authorities after Moussaoui offered a large amount of cash to learn only how to fly -- no takeoffs or landings. After the hijackers, the FBI grew alarmed by a crop dusting manual discovered among Moussaoui's belongings.
Back in Florida, mechanic Lester says he has since identified Mohammed Atta as someone who came out to airstrip twice. According to law enforcement sources, the FBI got worried and remains worried. Because of the manual's discovery, a total crop dusting ban was imposed last week, though it has now been modified to keep crop dusters away from metropolitan areas.
REP. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: We now have to look at the potential for a chemical and biological attack. The likelihood of it is not as great as a car bomb or something like what happened last week, but we've got to be ready for it, and we're not ready for it.
CANDIOTTI: Back in Florida, the FBI interviewed crop dusters at this airfield last week. The airstrip now has around-the-clock security. Crop dusters nationwide have been advised to be aware of any suspicious activity.
The FBI has issued this statement: "In an abundance of caution, the FBI has taken a number of steps in reaction to threats received during the course of this investigation."
(on camera): Crop dusters have limited payloads, and fly slowly. The FBI is hoping all this attention will thwart any possible plans for a chemical attack, a notion once unthinkable in America until September 11.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: For more on the different aspects of the investigation into bin Laden and his associates, we thought we'd ask three journalists from "TIME" magazine, whose cover this week reads: "Target: bin Laden."
Tim Padgett is "TIME"'s Miami bureau chief; Joshua Ramo is the magazine's world editor; and correspondent Elaine Shannon is author of "No Heroes: Inside the FBI Counter-Terror Force."
Elaine, first to you. You heard Susan Candiotti's report on the crop dusters. Is that still considered a real and viable threat, or was that just something that was perhaps thought of as might precede the terror we experienced on the 11th?
ELAINE SHANNON, "TIME" CORRESPONDENT: Well, the FBI has told me they didn't find it credible that there was an immediate threat. They didn't find corroboration in terms of buying chemicals, or actually acquiring planes. But because nobody expected what happened to happen, they are issuing all kind of warnings of things that we wouldn't have thought of before. Nobody is blowing anything off this time.
VAN SUSTEREN: Elaine, what about access to biological weapons or chemical weapons; is there any information that the FBI has that bin Laden actually has them, or any of his associates?
SHANNON: Well, I'm not sure about that, and I know that George Tenet, the head of the CIA has been making speeches for a couple of years saying that Osama bin Laden has urged his followers to obtain weapons of mass destruction like chemical or biological weapons. And Tenet has also said that his people in the camps have been training to handle these things, but do they have biological weapons that work, that the bugs are alive and can be disbursed? That, I don't think anyone is sure of.
VAN SUSTEREN: Tim, bring me up to date on the focus of the domestic investigation here in the United States.
TIM PADGETT, "TIME" MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: What they're trying to do at this point is build up to layers above the hijackers themselves, I think, more than anything else. They don't know if the lieutenants and captains who were either financing and directing and coaching these guys were just in Hamburg, Germany for example, or how many of them might be here still in the United States.
I think their main focus right now is probably the money trail. They're trying to find out where money was being wired to and from the hijackers here in Florida and in Texas and in other parts of the country, Maryland, et cetera. And I think, for example, they're hitting on a lot of people who were, it's turning out to be were unwitting accomplices.
For example, this week we investigated a man from Orlando, Florida who was taken into custody. He's a travel agent. He also runs a cash checking and money-wiring storefront shop out of his travel agency. He's Egyptian born, and they feel that he may well have, again unwittingly, helped the hijackers with money transactions, flight purchases, even helping them find particular flights they were looking for.
And this is the sort of money trail right now that they are on to that they hope will bring them to, as I said before, layers of operation above the hijackers themselves.
VAN SUSTEREN: Tim, let me ask you about what I just discussed with Eileen O'Connor, the possibility that there are people on the ground assisting the hijackers. Maybe the hijackers didn't slip through security with the knives, but instead that they had some help from some ground crew or from so co-conspirators on the ground. Are they focusing on that?
PADGETT: Oh, very much so. You know, as we mentioned before, the man that was arrested in Minnesota, the gentleman that was arrested outside of Chicago, the doctor, the radiologist who was taken into custody in Texas -- they're looking at all of these people who might have been facilitating with infrastructure, financing, all kinds of help that these hijackers needed to move around the way that they did, to blend into our communities, to get the flight training and other types of instruction that they needed.
Those people definitely are on the ground and they, in combination with, as I said before, unwitting facilitators and accomplices. People, for example, this gentleman in Orlando, Egyptian born, he was known in Orlando for helping high-profile Saudi clients arrange their trips to Disney World, including some members of the Saudi Royal family. He had a name within the Arab community in Florida. So it's very feasible that the hijackers themselves would have known about this gentleman and would have come to him as a paisan to help them with receiving wired money from people perhaps in Hamburg or in Egyptian jihads.
VAN SUSTEREN: And of course, that's the unwitting part. People may have helped and not intended to.
Josh, take me to the international scene. What's the focus of the investigation internationally?
JOSHUA RAMO, "TIME" WORLD EDITOR: Well Greta, the lesson of September 11 was the sheer drama and size of action that these folks were capable of. The subsequent lessons have been about the scope of it.
As you know, the president said last week that there may be al Qaeda cells operating in as many as 60 different countries. So right now the international investigation is very focused on trying to go country by country and roll up those networks. There may be a lot more terrorist cells in place outside the United States than originally anticipated.
The way that international governments are doing this is that they are going back to some of the terror arrest that were made over the last two, three or four years, and trying to pump those folks to get a sense of the networks that they're pieces of.
It's a very slow, very painstaking process, but it's already revealed a couple of key networks. In Paris, eight people have been arrested, allegedly for planning an attack on the U.S. embassy there using a helicopter.
In London, five or six people have been arrested. And I think you can expect to see more of this internationally, as we begin to understand the sheer scope of this enterprise, and as the authorities internationally start getting the kind of answers to questions that will help them see where al Qaeda really is operating.
VAN SUSTEREN: Josh, you raise an interesting issue though. You have London; you have France; I know there's a lot of action going on in Germany and of course the investigation here in the United States. How are they coordinating among all those countries in an investigation like this?
RAMO: Well, it's very complicated. The FBI is taking a lead role in trying to make sure their information is getting shared aggressively. At the same time, they're making some moves to try and get people who are suspects outside the United States brought to the U.S.
There's a man right now in Toronto who was arrested carrying some fake Yemeni passports with some Arabic instructions sewn inside his clothing, very suspicious. The U.S. is trying to get that guy brought back to the U.S. for questioning.
So it's being driven out of the United States, but at the same time, it's relying very much on local intelligence services to try and isolate the people in various communities internationally who may be a threat, not only to U.S. targets, but also to targets of countries that are aligned with the United States in this war on terror.
VAN SUSTEREN: Elaine, is the United States satisfied with the cooperation it's getting in other countries and the coordination?
SHANNON: Well, they're going to say yes, because what's the alternative? Privately, there has always been friction between the FBI and some countries. They're trying to overcome that and put more people abroad and really build up their rolodexes of buddies who can really be counted on.
Canada, we really need them, and they have an excellent investigative service, but they're much smaller. Our borders is so vast. It's not that they can't -- are reluctant to watch it all, it's just that they can't.
So I think that the world community of investigators is going to have to put aside cultural differences and some legal differences and really share information on a hair trigger, and not wait until something bad happens.
I was surprised to see the investigators in Hamburg coming out with so much information about Mohammed Atta after the fact. I'm sure the FBI would like to have known a bit more about that before the fact. And if they did know about it and they filed it away someplace, I'd like to know that too.
VAN SUSTEREN: And of course not only do we have the complication of the various countries, we do have the military action as well as the criminal investigation.
My thanks tonight to Tim Padgett, Joshua Ramo and Elaine Shannon.
He says he's dedicated his life to doing good, but at least one investigator says this Muslim cleric may be connected to some very evil deeds. I'll talk to him when THE POINT returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Federal agents want to know if a Muslim cleric who lives outside Washington knew about the attacks ahead of time. Sheik Moataz Al-Hallak testified before a grand jury who was investigating the 1998 embassy bombing in East Africa, but he says he's innocent, doesn't even know bin Laden, and is tired of the FBI harassing him. The sheik and his attorney Stanley Cohen join me now.
Sheik, first to you. Why do you think the FBI or the authorities wanted to talk to you last week?
SHEIK MOATAZ AL-HALLAK, CLERIC: I really don't know. I was available to them. They have broken the news in a press conference. They know where I am. And they know the number of my lawyer. And I never heard of him from them. I only heard from people that they spread the word that they are looking for me.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK, let me ask you some quick questions that may help clear this up a little bit: Do you know bin Laden?
AL-HALLAK: I don't know bin Laden; I never met the guy.
VAN SUSTEREN: Have you ever met an associate of his?
AL-HALLAK: I did not meet any of his associates.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know a man named Wadil El Hage who is -- who was convicted in connection with the 1998 bombing in the embassies in Africa?
AL-HALLAK: Mr. Wadil was one of the members of our congregation; and you need to understand my position as the imam of the our mass. It is part of my responsibility to befriend people, to deal with people, to interact with people. And Mr. El Hage was one of those people who regularly came to mass and attended the services. And this is type of relationship that I had with him. And all the allegations regarding my relationship with Mr. El Hage were fully investigated by the grand jury, and I was never charged. I was never arrested. I was never even called to appear before the trial that took place in the Kenya bombing.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did you know he was -- when was getting services, did you know that he was the personal secretary for bin Laden?
AL-HALLAK: I did not know that. I heard later on about that.
VAN SUSTEREN: Stanley, why is your client he -- his names seems to surface quite frequently in these investigations.
STANLEY COHEN, ATTORNEY: Well, I think to a large degree when you learn the lesson of just saying no to the FBI they become very vindictive. This is a case in which the FBI very early on began to focus in Texas for a host of reasons unrelated to my client. When they approached him, when they slandered him, when they infiltrated the mosque, he refused to meet with them.
From that day forward, right up to the last week, he's been harassed by them; he's been slandered; he's been bothered. In fact, last week, as my client indicated to you, they announced to the world the sense that they were looking for him, that -- they leaked information that he had fled to Mexico. And they never bothered to reach out to us at all.
And when I spoke to the FBI and indicated he would not talk to them, but would talk to prosecutors or comply with a subpoena, the assistant director of the FBI in Dallas said, I'm going to get a material witness order and lock him up. I suggest that he go ahead.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me ask, Stanley, you know, he worshiped down in Texas, where some of the hijackers apparently also worshipped. And now the sheik is at Morrill (ph), Maryland -- again, another area where some of the hijackers lived and apparently worshipped. Is that the sort of coincidence, or is that the information that has sort of piqued the interest of the FBI?
COHEN: Well, it may. But the fact of the matter is he was fully investigated two and a half years ago and exonerated of any complicit activity in any crimes. This past week we met with prosecutors. Of interest, for six days we waited for prosecutors to come and speak with him. He voluntary went in; he did it without immunity; he wasn't arrested; he wasn't subpoenaed, and we walked out. To this day nothing else has come to pass.
I suspect most of the problem has arisen because he's one of few people that's dared to stand up to the FBI and say, I know my rights, I'm not going to permit you to harass or intimidate me, although he was gone into the grand jury on three occasions, and as he pointed out, he was not charged or indicted.
VAN SUSTEREN: Sheik, did you know any of the -- or at least alleged hijackers -- the ones -- at least we assume they're hijackers -- who went down in these planes?
AL-HALLAK: No. I was shown pictures. I was shown pictures of -- photos of approximately 19 people. I never recognized any of them.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did you recognize any of their names, or is there anything that was remotely familiar to you?
AL-HALLAK: Not at all. All what I noted that they were kids; and it was very pitiful.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is your opinion of bin Laden, sir?
AL-HALLAK: I'm sorry, I cannot hear.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is your opinion of Osama bin Laden?
AL-HALLAK: I don't know bin Laden. I don't know what he did. I don't know what he did not do. All I know that there are serious allegations about him and serious accusations that are horrible, and these allegations need to be proven. If there is evidence, then justice should be established.
VAN SUSTEREN: What you do make, sir, of thinking among, at least bin Laden's followers that the United States is, quote, "the enemy"?
AL-HALLAK: I cannot speak on behalf of them or justify any of their positions or statements.
VAN SUSTEREN: I take it then you don't endorse it, is that right?
AL-HALLAK: I'm sorry?
VAN SUSTEREN: You don't endorse that, do you?
AL-HALLAK: I'm living here in America. I'm well established in the United States. I have spent the past 15 years in one place, that is Arlington, Texas, serving the Muslim community, serving the Muslim children. And I'm enjoying the freedom that is in this country.
VAN SUSTEREN: Stanley, in the 40 seconds we have left, do you think that the FBI and the authorities are at least complete with your client in this investigation?
COHEN: I would hope so. We answered every question that was asked. In fact, the one question that my client could not answer because he was uncertain, he called home and asked his wife for the answer. We're not going anywhere; he hasn't fled. He wants to do anything and everything in his power to further the investigation. However, he's not going to lie down for the intimidation and the tactics that the FBI have brought against he and the Muslim community in the United States over the last 10 years.
VAN SUSTEREN: And has it gotten at least -- Stanley, you've probably seen a lot of these people. Is it -- I assume it's different today than it was before September 11 from your view? COHEN: We thought it was bad before September 11. It has become so outrageous in this country I'm literally getting dozens of calls from mosques, from individuals and from institutions every day painting a very sorrowful...
VAN SUSTEREN: And I'm sorry Stanley, I've got to cut you off. My thanks tonight to Sheik Moataz Al-Hallak and Stanley Cohen.
AL-HALLAK: Thank you; thank you very much.
COHEN: Thank you.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me know what you think about the efforts to track down terrorists across America and around the world. Send an e- mail to askgreta@CNN.com. That's one word: askgreta.
I'm Greta Van Susteren in Washington. Be sure to join tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, when THE POINT moves to a full hour.
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