American Morning
College student's 'Jihad' plot
A Saudi national, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, of Lubbock, Texas,was arrested Wednesday for allegedly researching and acquiring chemicals to make a bomb, authorities said Thursday. He researched several possible targets, including the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush. along with nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams. CNN's T.J. Holmes and Kiran Chetry speak to CNN contributor and former FBI assistant director, Thomas V. Fuentes about the case.
CORRECTION: When reporting this story, we incorrectly said that all of the 9/11 hijackers from Saudi Arabia entered the United States on student visas. Only one entered the U.S. on a student visa.
For more information, read the 9/11 Commission Report here.
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Ms. Chetry, it is not true that all of the 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. on student visas. Only one did. Unfortunately, misstatements by public officials in the aftermath of 9/11 left the erroneous impression that student visas played a prominent role in 9/11. The truth is that they didn't. The 9/11 Commission Report, as well as State Department and DHS officials, have confirmed this information. We hope you will correct the record on this. As your guest rightly points out, the idea that the immigration or visa system could ferret out the intentions of individuals is fundamentally flawed – "there's really no way to get inside someone's head," he says, and "cocooning" ourselves isn't really an option in today's world. Only smart intelligence and vigilance can effectively combat terrorism, and both seem to have played a role in thwarting this person's activities.