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CNN BREAKING NEWS
Sources: U.S. Captures Senior Al Qaeda Leader
Aired November 15, 2002 - 14:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: There is always breaking news, it seems, around this hour. There's another story coming to us. We're going to bring in now the story that is about the arrest that has been made. This is one of the top -- not the top 10, but the top 24 al Qaeda.
And for that, we're going to bring in David Ensor to update us on the situation with this particular arrest. This guy has -- what, been in custody for a little while now?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Marty, we're given very few details on this, but officials are confirming that in the last few weeks, they have arrested another key al Qaeda leader, as you say, one of the top two dozen in the organization. They're basically only willing to inform us in the negative, telling us that it is not one of three people that they would obviously very much like to have, Ayman al Zawhiri (ph) or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (ph) or Sa'ad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's (ph) son. Is it not any one of those three, but it is one of the top 24 leaders of al Qaeda and obviously this is a very good get for U.S. intelligence.
This man, whoever he is, joins the likes of Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi bin Al Sheeb and others who are in U.S. custody, who are being questioned over time and who, officials say, have provided useful intelligence. So this is an important breakthrough. We don't know how important yet, since officials are being very circumspect about where, who, when, you know, the details.
SAVIDGE: Right. The very stuff we would love to know at this particular point. But it is crucial in the sense that we've just had this alert come in. It's possible this man or whoever the suspect is, will give us insight as to maybe what to fear or look for.
ENSOR: Well, each time you catch a new, important leader, there's the hope that he may have fresh information. Officials not saying whether that's the case in this particular instance, but that's something they're hoping for, and most Americans probably are as well, Marty.
SAVIDGE: All right. David Ensor. We'll continue to follow that story. Thanks very much.
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