Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Discussion on Threat From Al Qaeda Operatives Allegedly Working in U.S.

Aired July 12, 2002 - 08:08   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: For more now on the threat from al Qaeda operatives allegedly working within the U.S., as we heard from Kelli Arena, our correspondent from the Justice Department, the FBI is tracking terrorists in several major American cities -- Seattle, Chicago, Detroit among those.

And joining us now to talk more about the possible domestic threat from Washington, CNN security analyst Kelly McCann.

Good morning, Kelly. Welcome.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: So let's talk about what constitutes an operative. The FBI is focused on these guys. Who are they? What are they doing?

MCCANN: That's an interesting question because, in fact, the public is glimpsing now some terminology that can be confusing. For instance, an operative, that connotes support, a logistician, a financier, a planner, someone who facilitates operations. And operator or an operator is a person who has a different skills set, called hard skills, and they would be the shooters themselves who are more tactically trained than support trained.

So, in fact, if they're doing surveillance on the operatives, they're probably developing money lines. They're developing lines of communication, support so they can further exploit them.

ZAHN: Well, explain to us what the profile of an operative would be and how are they able to fit in in the U.S.?

MCCANN: An operative could be someone who's clever or intelligent enough to model what Osama bin Laden put out there, which was to go forward and then become self-sustaining. So, in fact, they may mimic totally legitimate business people who have their own profit center, if you will, in business language, and can then fund operations here. But they would be very unlikely to be the actual doer.

They would only make sure that those tactical people, the people who are tactically proficient are able to eat, to be concealed and covered in the society so they are enabled to do the attack. ZAHN: What do you make of the particular list of cities that are put out? There are some who are saying that this is a selective release of cities, perhaps to take our attention away, maybe, from some other cities where these operators or operatives may be much further into a plan than we think.

MCCANN: Interestingly enough, each one of them has components that make them a lucrative target. For instance, Seattle, if you think about it, it's a porous border between the U.S., the contiguous U.S. and Canada. And then also there's the chance of producing a very environmentally distasteful situation because of the oil trade and the traffic through there. It is a port city, so there's reasons for Seattle.

In Detroit, there's a population there, a high density Muslim population where it could be easier for a person to infiltrate and stay unnoticed.

Chicago, the same.

So each one of them has components that would make them be lucrative targets.

But I think most importantly they have looked at us in three different ways. Number one, is it more impactful to do another attack, for instance, in New York or Washington and show that you are incapable of protecting your population or reach into the heartland and go to Omaha, go to Des Moines, go to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where middle America understands that they're at risk, as well.

Or do they want to just stay with a metropolitan area where there's a high density population for maximum physical impact?

All good questions.

ZAHN: Let's move back to this whole issue of how these operatives are able to fit into what you described as pretty legitimate looking businesses. Are we talking about infiltrating ports, the trucking industry? Give me some specific examples of some of the places where they could effectively do just that and remain pretty hidden.

MCCANN: I think without question the import-export business has got to be high on everybody's list. I know that, for instance, there's only about two to three percent of containers that are checked. And Osama bin Laden made quite a bit of his money importing and exporting, etc. So he had quite a bit of knowledge about how port facilities work.

Then, to mimic that, you could sustain quite a bit of the legal activity and appear to be totally legitimate. Another example would be the kiosks that the FBI rounded up some of the Pakistani people who were running kiosks because, again, not the person in the mall, necessarily, but the person who may own five kiosks in five different malls dealing in precious metals in a basically cash business, something that is easily hidden from the IRS or not accountable. Those would be two good examples.

ZAHN: Kelly, before we let you go, I want you to help me with something. I've been thinking about the release of this information, what the message is that the FBI is sending by confirming it not only to us, but the operatives. I mean obviously they're saying we're onto your game here.

MCCANN: I think, Paula, there's two things. Number one, they're showing exactly what you just said. They're letting the bad guys know you don't know what we're doing, and that's the single biggest vulnerability of al Qaeda. They have no conduit to have intelligence about what we're doing so they're sending a message.

And then also I think terrorism works to make people feel that their government is helpless to protect them.

By doing this, they're telling the American people we're on this. We're -- to the extent possible, we've got man hours and we're efforting to keep you safe.

ZAHN: J. Kelly McCann, as always, nice to have your perspective. Thanks so much for dropping by as you head into the weekend. Appreciate it.

MCCANN: Thanks, Paula.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com