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CNN Live Today

Tape Shows Portable Terror

Aired August 22, 2002 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN. New videotapes show how al Qaeda has not only learned how to make explosives, but they can distribute it and distribute the knowledge to make that in ways that frighten even seasoned ordinance experts. Now one thing we want to note right now before we get started is that what we are going to show you here is not complete. It is not going to be enough to allow anyone out there to learn how to make a bomb.
Now, this videotape is one of the collections -- one of the tapes in the collection that Nic Robertson brought back with him from Afghanistan, and you know we have been bringing you these exclusive reports from Nic all this week. Now, on the tapes that we look at today, a skilled chemist explains in detail how to make pure TNT. Now, while you can learn the same techniques on the Internet, no other terror group has perfected the ability to make detonators, which is explained on this tape. Even more troubling, the lesson is embedded in a B-grade bang them up movie, and that makes it pretty easy to disguise and distribute these videotapes to al Qaeda members worldwide.

The instructions on the tape match documents that CNN found in a former al Qaeda safe house in Kabul. Documents that CNN reported on four months ago. CNN showed the tapes along with these documents to some of the leading experts, and they suggest this makes al Qaeda's bomb making fully portable, rather than having to make bombs and then cross a border or a checkpoint, these tapes make it easy to build bombs from household materials.

Experts say that the tapes raise plenty of concern about al Qaeda's ability to make explosives.

Joining us now to share his insight into these latest tapes is CNN Terrorism Analyst Peter Bergen. He is in our Washington bureau this morning -- Peter, welcome. Good to have you back with us today.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Hi, Leon.

HARRIS: Let's begin, first of all, with what shocks you the most from these tapes that we are looking at today?

BERGEN: Well, the tapes that we are seeing today are -- they are really instructional tapes, and previous tapes we have seen from al Qaeda have been sort of propaganda videotapes, people sort of shooting off guns, et cetera, et cetera. But these tapes are really sort of classroom tuition tapes, tapes that really show you how to make TNT, tapes that really show you how to shoot a rocket-propelled grenade. And they are meant -- they were not meant for public distribution. They were really meant for the kind of people who graduated to al Qaeda's terrorist training. Not all of al Qaeda members certainly would have received these kinds of tapes. You know, 25,000 people are supposed to have gone through al Qaeda's camps. Only a small minority of them would have graduated to kind of higher training, as we are seeing in these tapes here -- Leon.

HARRIS: Now, we all may be taken with the fact that they are making high explosives, and we may be impressed with the fact that they are making a destructive device there, but is this true, is that what we are hearing now is that the most remarkable fact is that they are making detonators, and not necessarily just the bombs themselves?

BERGEN: Well, I am not really an explosives expert, Leon, but I think that to me, the interesting thing about these tapes are, you know, when you add them up with these documents, you know, the people that have seen these tapes can manufacture their own explosives. We know that Ahmed Ressam, who is an Algerian who was arrested near Seattle in 1999 went through these camps, had this kind of training. He was manufacturing his own high-tech explosives in his motel room in Vancouver. RDX, which is an extremely high-tech explosive. He was able to make that himself. So, if you actually had this kind of tuition, you would be able to really manufacture your own explosives to a degree which is much more than just the normal kind of firecracker kind of stuff.

HARRIS: All right. Now that we have learned that these kind of things are being devised and being brewed up, if you will, with just any kind of material you can buy from a grocery store or a Home Depot somewhere, that really has got to raise a lot of concern about just how portable this technology is.

BERGEN: Well, I think that is right. I mean, you know, I think the fact the Taliban have been removed from Afghanistan, the kinds of training that you are seeing in these tapes here, this was going on in Afghanistan. Those training camps are now, of course, closed. But the question is, how many people went through those camps, and where are they now?

HARRIS: Peter Bergen in Washington. Thank you very much.

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