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American Morning

Interview with Judith Miller

Aired June 17, 2002 - 07:08   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: Now to the war on terror on this Monday morning. The FBI is on the scene in Pakistan still investigating that deadly bombing outside the American Consulate in Karachi. The attack killed a dozen, all Pakistani we are told. U.S. officials believe al Qaeda terrorists are behind the attack, which would confirm that the organization is still alive and still well.

"The New York Times" reporting that mid-level al Qaeda operatives are working with Islamic extremists around the world, forming new alliances and creating a major threat to the United States.

Let's talk more about it with a senior writer from "The New York Times," Judith Miller, our guest on this Monday morning -- good morning to you.

JUDITH MILLER, "NEW YORK TIMES": Good morning.

HEMMER: We are going to put up a list of seven names here. I think about one percent of the people even watching this show even will recognize or identify these names here. As we look at them, who is the most important from this list of seven faces?

MILLER: Well, I think clearly the person that we have been focused on most recently is Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. He is the person on the left of your screen there. He is a Kuwaiti. He is someone who emerged on our intelligence scope back in the 1998 embassy bombings, in which more than 200 people were killed.

These are, in general, mid-level people, Bill, who have now emerged into the hierarchy, the really senior leadership of al Qaeda, now that the guys we have known and not loved are dead or in custody or unknown. And they kind of taken over in charge of operations, and that's why they are the new threat. They are the new al Qaeda.

HEMMER: In reading your article last evening, it struck me, it's not just so important to find out who they are, but where they are.

MILLER: Exactly.

HEMMER: Does the U.S. know?

MILLER: Well, in some cases, the U.S. has ideas, but oftentimes, no. And that's why I think the U.S. government felt a little bit willing to publicize their photographs, put up these names, let people know that the U.S. government is looking for them.

HEMMER: With Abu Zubaydah in custody, with Osama bin Laden on the run, possibly dead, with other top leaders of al Qaeda, as you referred to, can these people operate and function without that central leadership?

MILLER: Well, they can, because al Qaeda was always a bit of a hybrid. That is there were two kinds of operations. There were top down operations that were ordered by Osama and his immediate lieutenants. And then there were others, like these men, who were in the field, who were operatives, who were ready to pick up the slack, and who are trained, who have had experience, in things like the embassy bombing, in Manila when they wanted to blow up 12 airliners simultaneously. These are experienced guys, but not quite the top level. That's the new al Qaeda.

HEMMER: I lifted a sentence from your article: "The FBI and CIA have concluded the war in Afghanistan might have complicated efforts by dispersing potential attackers across a wider geographical area." True, but it is much harder, one would concede, to operate an organization like this when you are on the run. True or not?

MILLER: I think so. Definitely. I mean, these guys simply do not have the cache, both internally within Islamic circles. They do have experience, but they are not the kind of shura council, the consultative council of al Qaeda, and they operate in a much more hostile environment now. The countries in which they may be hiding have by and large joined the American war on terrorism.

So as Donald Rumsfeld never ceases to tell us, this is going to be a long struggle. We are now in kind of phase two of this struggle.

HEMMER: Go back to Pakistan on Friday. You watched this bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. Go back a month before to the Sheraton Hotel, French engineers. I think about a dozen were killed in the month of May. In March in Islamabad, you have the church bombing, five dead, including two Americans.

MILLER: Right.

HEMMER: When I see this series of events, I start thinking about 1996 Khobar Towers...

MILLER: Right.

HEMMER: ... 1998, East Africa and the U.S. embassies, 2000 and the USS Cole. How concerned are U.S. authorities right now with the pattern that appears to be developing in the past three or four months?

MILLER: That is precisely what is worrying the government right now, this kind of steady escalation, attack after attack after attack, and also what they call the chatter on the phones and the Internet that the U.S. government has been picking up and monitoring. There is a pattern to this. And obviously, what Washington is very concerned about is another catastrophic attack of some kind similar to September 11, or using a weapon of mass destruction. That is a chemical, a biological or a nuclear weapon. And it would be difficult for guys at this level to pull of that kind of attack, but you cannot rule it out. And that's what has the administration so spooked right now.

HEMMER: We want to go to a different story quickly, and only 30 seconds we have left. Another newspaper, "The Washington Post" reporting over the weekend that President Bush has given the CIA essentially a green light to go in and topple Saddam Hussein. What more can you add to that story about the potential for that strategy?

MILLER: Well, I think that this is part of a gradual shift that we have seen in the administration towards what we call a preemptive doctrine. That is doing something to a terrorist group or an evil state before they do it to us. This would have been unthinkable, Bill, only a decade ago. But now, with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, I think the administration is really arguing that you can't wait for somebody to strike in the United States.

HEMMER: One has to go on the offensive...

MILLER: Yes.

HEMMER: ... was the suggestion we heard at the West Point speech not too long ago.

MILLER: Exactly, but that is going to be very controversial among American allies. Working with allies to stop a problem, as we have been with Russia and China, is not the same as acting militarily, and I think that the administration will really have its hands full explaining this policy, both to the American people and to our allies, which are already concerned about what they see as unilateralism.

HEMMER: Come back and we'll pick up on it more, OK?

MILLER: Thank you.

HEMMER: Always a pleasure.

MILLER: Thank you.

HEMMER: Judith Miller from "The New York Times."

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