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CNN Live Today

Interview With Ben Venzke

Aired April 25, 2002 - 13:38   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: Captured al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah is talking to U.S. interrogators, but the interrogators and investigators do not know what to believe.

Last week, Zubaydah told intelligence officials of a possible terrorist plot against banks in the northeastern part of the U.S. Now he reportedly says a shopping center or mall could be the next target. What to believe? Ben Venzke is CEO of IntelCenter, a consulting firm specializing in terrorism assessment. He is live with us in Washington. Ben, good afternoon to you. Good to see you.

BEN VENZKE, CEO, INTELCENTER: Good afternoon.

HEMMER: Do you believe anything that is being reported right now or is this to you all old news?

VENZKE: Well, and that's -- you hit it right on the head. If we look at the statements about hitting financial institutions and other things like that, for anybody that's been tracking the statements by bin Laden or al Qaeda, this has been one of their top priority targets since the beginning, because as we saw in the last video a few weeks ago, the value that bin Laden sees from it in terms of an economic impact.

Shopping malls, those types of things, that's a little different. And it's something that we unfortunately might begin to run into as their infrastructure comes under increased pressure.

HEMMER: What about banks, though, Ben? Is that new too?

VENZKE: Well, not banks in the sense of say, for instance, the Federal Reserve or extended even to like the stock exchange. Your local bank branch, that I would class more in with say a shopping mall or a shopping center, that type of target. It is more in line with the kinds of attacks that we see in Israel, where they are not large scale, they are an individual suicide bomber, maybe two suicide bombers, or a device that's left. It's designed to cause casualties and you see many of them over a period of time.

HEMMER: You know, Ben, that brings us to the underlying problem here. And that is in these interrogations, what do you believe and what do you not believe? Why are people talking, why are people not talking? It must be an extremely difficult challenge right now to try and read between the lines here and figure out what is true and what is not. The net effect then, I believe, based on what I'm hearing from people across the country is that the impact is felt again in terms of terror as U.S. citizens once again have this stuff on their minds. Fair assessment?

VENZKE: True. It's an extremely difficult and complex intellectual chess game. And you have got a lot of pressure on you because a lot of people want answers. There is no question Zubaydah has a lot of valuable information. He is a key figure. He is not going to know it all, but he is going to know key parts that we want to know.

We also need to keep in mind, if they want to sew additional seeds of discomfort and fear, they don't have do it through somebody that's captured. But Zubaydah and anybody else that's being held by the United States or other countries, their sole currency right now is the information they have. Everything else is stripped away. So they are going to use that to their best possible advantage, which isn't always necessary trying to save their own life. A lot of these people are very firmly committed and dedicated to the cause. So they could use it to confuse things and to stretch the process out.

HEMMER: And, Ben, I was in Kandahar for a month back in December and January at the height really of the number of detainees being held there, well over 400 at one point. It seemed to me that even though the interrogations continued on a 24-hour basis in some cases, it was difficult to know how much useful information the American investigators were getting. Have you been able to tell or ascertain indeed how much is being given that we can actually use?

VENZKE: Well, the key problem here is the volume of the information. You know, there is that initial point where you are doing the interrogation that you collect the information. And if it is something that's critical, that is immediately escalated up to the point that it gets explored and checked right away.

But the large volume of the information, it takes time to go through. So there might even be more valuable bits that we have but we don't even know it because it is sitting in the stack.

HEMMER: Quickly here, why even talk at all if you are a detainee?

VENZKE: Well, you know, there is a number of different philosophies. Sometimes you sit there, you never say a thing. A lot of people will engage in conversation, talk about the obvious, but they won't necessary reveal something that's a secret unless they are trying to maybe mislead.

HEMMER: Thank you, Ben. Ben Venzke, CEO of IntelCenter there in D.C. Thank you for talking with us. Much appreciated there.

VENZKE: Thanks.

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