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CNN Live Today
Analysis of Al Qaeda Training Tapes
Aired August 21, 2002 - 12:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, back to those Al Qaeda tapes CNN has obtained. We've been showing them to you all week, and now we want to take a closer look. So let's bring in our military analyst retired Brigadier General David Grange. He joins us from our Chicago bureau.
Good afternoon, general. Thanks for joining us.
BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good afternoon.
LIN: When you take a look at -- especially today's videotapes, what I see there is textbook training. Mike Boettcher has said it is textbook, U.S. doctrine that is being practiced out in those fields. So are they, in effect, an Al Qaeda Camp Lejeune in Afghanistan?
GRANGE: Well, some of the training is pretty good. Some is just average. There is a lot of infantry training, that level, basic clearing of buildings, demolitions, and then there is some sophisticated training, for instance, of assassinations and hostage taking, which you see here in this tape, employing motorcycles and automobiles as a means to quickly grab someone and then leave the scene of the crime.
LIN: What other strong points do you see this video, for example?
GRANGE: Well, one thing to be careful of, when you see tape that's set up and performed as well as they are right now, that may their 20th rehearsal. In other words, Arab countries, usually their military is a lot of rote training. It's repetitious, time after time after time. They are very innovative and resourceful on using training areas and obtaining materials, but the actual training regimen is very much step by step.
LIN: And do they really effectively replicate real life circumstances. For example, in one of the training tapes, it was supposed to replicate a Western urban area, but really, all you saw were rocks and tape.
LIN: Yes, that's what I was trying to explain about innovativeness. It was probably an urban setting, in a compound in the city. But again, they don't have the resources to do that, so they use mud and stone huts and go through the motions of the different teams. For instance, a supporting team, an assault team, a demolition team, a medical recovery team, et cetera. So they actually go through the steps that they would in a more sophisticated environment, but they do the best they can where they train. LIN: You see a variety of circumstances, but perhaps not necessarily a variety techniques. It's primarily offensive maneuvers, and not defensive. So what does that tell but their capabilities at the time?
GRANGE: Well, just like any terrorist organization or insertion group, they are an offensive organization. They are not -- the only defense they would use is to escape, To protect their facility or their hideouts. They are made to organize -- they train for offensive operations, like kidnapping and assassinations.
LIN: Given that these tapes are what now, about four years old, how worried are you that their level of sophistication has sense increased?
GRANGE: Not worried, but I'm sure they have increased, because they've learned from their mistakes, they learned from other people who may have helped them. One question I always think about, looking at these tapes, is who trained the original trainers? Did they attend schools in friendly countries, learn how do some of this stuff? Did they break away from organizations? do We have rogue commercial organizations train their cadre that they now use to train others, the rank and file. That would be interesting to trace that.
LIN: General, would you agree with what our Mike Boettcher has been reporting? He is speculating that the trainers may have come from the original Mujahedeen, who was trained by the United States in the war in Afghanistan, when they were fighting against Russia.
GRANGE: Well, we now for a fact surface-to-air missiles, we were involved in the training, for stingers, for example, the stinger weapon system and the mujahedeen. But I would say probably attained training capability, techniques from all over the world.
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Brigadier General David Grange, for joining us with the analysis of those tapes.
GRANGE: My pleasure.
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