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CNN Live Today

Osama bin Laden's Network Has Expanding Reach

Aired March 18, 2002 - 12:32   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We do have more on bin Laden at this point. Maria Ressa reports from Manila now the expanding war on terror has revealed that bin Laden's terrorist network extends far and wide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In places like the southern Philippines, Chechnya and Kashmir, Osama bin Laden sent a call to arms that appealed to members of legitimate Muslim separatist movements there.

BENAZIR BHUTTO, FORMER PAKISTAN PRIME MINISTER: He was able to tap different youth in different regions on different issues by pegging it all as a war between Islam and the West. But, in fact, he was damaging the regional conflicts for his own agenda.

RESSA: Regional conflicts tainted by terrorist aims, clearest perhaps in Kashmir. In abandoned safe houses in Afghanistan, investigators have found evidence linking al Qaeda to several of a dozen or so groups which claim to be fighting for Kashmiri independence. Three groups have been linked to the kidnapping of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

In the southern Philippines, the focus is on the MILF, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim separatist group in the country. Recent arrests in the region show the MILF may have been training Islamic fighters from other nations and has allegedly received funding from Osama bin Laden's network. The MILF says that's not a matter of policy and that it is willing to investigate those charges.

EID KABALU, MILF SPOKESMAN: But there are speculations that there might be some, some members of the MILF who might have established links. And that is why we call on the military, the government to again specify, pinpoint this group so that we can conduct a separate investigation or joint investigation.

RESSA: At stake: peace talks scheduled to have started this month, but partly delayed because of these alleged links to al Qaeda. The arrest of this Indonesian, Paturaman Al-Ghozi (ph), gives present- day links to the MILF. Al-Ghozi (ph) is known by a Singapore cell linked to al Qaeda as Mike the bombmaker. Police here say he is an explosives trainer with the MILF. Based on information from him, authorities arrested three other men, one an MILF commander, and confiscated 1.2 tons of explosives slated, say police, for targets in Singapore.

(on camera): According to Pakistan's former prime minister Bhutto, Osama bin Laden was successful in hijacking regional separatist movements to his cause. The question is, to what extent did bin Laden taint these movements, and how are nations now going to deal with these groups' legitimate political goals?

Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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