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Transcript of Randy Glass on WPTV (NBC) Florida, October 7, 2002
Tonight, questions about a possible connection to the worst day in
American history. Did an admitted con-man turned informant tip
authorities, including a state senator and a U.S. senator, to a threat
against the World Trade Center? News Channel Five's Kathleen Walter is
joining us with the result of a News Channel Five investigation tonight.
Kathleen.
KATHLEEN WALTER: Well, Jim, Randy Glass is a man with a criminal past,
but someone the government trusted enough with very sensitive and
classified intelligence information. There is no dispute he was wired
into international arms dealers and may have heard about terrorist
threats to the United States. What did a local, and a U.S., senator do
with the information he says he passed along?
WALTER: [inaudible] of the unthinkable. Terrorists using airplanes as
deadly weapons to attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. But to
Randy Glass, the idea that terrorists wanted to bring down the Twin
Towers came as no surprise to him.
RANDY GLASS: I felt incredibly uncomfortable, because I knew that
something was going to happen.
WALTER: For more than two years, Glass was caught up in an international
arms deal. An admitted con-man living in Boca Raton, Florida, Glass put
his skills to work for the government, an informant for the FBI and
Florida's Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Glass and other agents posed as
illegal arms dealers, hawking [?] arms purportedly diverted from U.S.
military armories and luring in prospective weapons buyers who might
have been linked to terrorism. His life as a secret agent was chronicled
on tape.
GLASS (TAPE): What would you do?
MOHSSEN (TAPE): I'll kill him! I'll kill you!
Through accused middle man Diaa Mohassen [Mohsen], Glass was introduced
to weapons buyers who said they had connections to Islamic militant
groups, with possible links to Osama bin Laden.
MOHSSAN (TAPE): You know who supplies them with money?
GLASS (TAPE): Who?
MOHSSAN (TAPE): Osama bin Laden.
GLASS (TAPE): That's very nice. Thanks for mentioning that.
GLASS: Americans were the enemy, and that the purpose of attaining these
weapons systems and nuclear materials was to use against Americans.
WALTER: And Glass says threats against Americans didn't end there.
GLASS: I did know that there was a plan of attack on the United States,
and the World Trade Center had been mentioned.
WALTER: But in the summer of 2001, Glass' undercover work came to an
end. Three months before September 11th, he reached out to Florida state
senator Ron Klein, and told him about threats against national security.
Klein says he does not recall any mention of World Trade Center threats.
STATE SEN. RON KLEIN: This is before September 11th and all that. Um,
again it was enough information for me to say I don't know exactly what
to do with this other than to contact one of my federal colleagues.
WALTER: And so state senator Ron Klein contacted the office of Florida
senator Bob Graham, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
WALTER: According to Graham's spokesperson, Jill Greenberg, caseworker
Charlie [inaudible] spoke with Graham last summer prior to September
11th, Glass claiming he had at least six conversations with the
caseworker. And while we have been unable to corroborate the nature of
those conversations, Greenberg confirmed that some of that information
was passed along to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
REPORTER: A few months before September 11th, your office received
information from ATF informant Randy Glass, who also worked on the
terrorism task force, and he also advised your office of terrorist
intentions to bring down the World Trade Center. And this was before
September 11th.
BOB GRAHAM: Mhmm. (Nods.)
REPORTER: Your office tells me it forwarded information from Mr. Glass
to the Intelligence Committee, and my question is: why did no one from
the Committee follow up with Mr. Glass to pursue this?
GRAHAM: Well, because we in turn gave that information to the
appropriate intelligence agency. We are an oversight and legislative
agency. The actual operations of collection of information, interviewing
possible sources, is the responsibility of the FBI if it's a domestic
matter, or the CIA if it's foreign.
WALTER: And according to state senator Klein, three weeks after he made
initial contact with Senator Graham's office in the summer of 2001,
staffers there confirmed to him Glass' information had been passed on to
the intelligence community.
REPORTER: They confirmed to you that they'd sent it on?
KLEIN: (Nods). Yep. Mhmm. They said to me that they had spoken...that
they had processed it through their office and spoken to Randy is I
believe what they said, and processed it.
GRAHAM: I had a concern about that and a dozen other pieces of
information which were emanating in the summer of 2001.
REPORTER: So you did forward Mr. Glass' information along, to who?
GRAHAM: Yep. I cannot say what agency, but the agency that we felt was
the most appropriate one for the nature of the information that he was
providing.
WALTER: Despite his keen insight into the world of terrorists, Randy
Glass says that until recently no one from any intelligence agency had
contacted him. And since our interview with Senator Graham in Boca Raton
last month, his office offered this clarification, that "Mister Glass
didn't provide any information to our office prior to Sept. 11 2001 that
needed to be pursued by intelligence agencies. When I was interviewed in
Boca Raton, I said I did know of this individual and that he had been in
touch with the Intelligence Committee, but I didn't indicate when that
contact had taken place. It was earlier this year, not prior to Sept.
11, 2001."
WALTER: Even though Graham's press aid Jill Greenberg and state Senator
Klein say Glass' information did go to the intelligence community prior
to September 11, 2001, the Senator still maintains that's not the case,
even though that's what he initially told us. Jim.
JIM: Kathleen, a lot of information to digest, but do we know exactly
what information did go to the senator?
WALTER: Well, at the end of the day, we just don't know. We called
Graham's staffer Charlie [inaudible] several times to find out more
about his conversations with Mr. Glass, but he did not return our phone
calls. We are still investigating and hope to have answers in the coming
weeks.
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