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CNN Live Today

Terror Tapes Received through Afghan Contact

Aired August 23, 2002 - 11:01   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, the tale behind the tapes. Terrorism experts say the collection of al Qaeda tapes obtained by CNN show the group's global reach. We have been reviewing over 60 tapes for you this week as part of our series "Terror on Tape." The videotapes were obtained by our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, and he is with us right here in Atlanta to show us more of what those tapes reveal -- Nic, good morning.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: What can you tell us -- having looked at all these tapes, the big picture of what you take away from?

ROBERTSON: I think the big picture is al Qaeda's global reach, the fact that they have affiliated themselves with a lot of different jihad organizations around the world. On the tapes we see today, we see that they are associated or have material from Burma, from Eritrea, from Sudan, from Somalia, from Uzbekistan, from Bosnia, from Tajikistan, it goes around the world, and experts say maybe as many -- al Qaeda reaches into as many as 60 different countries around the world, but I think, perhaps, over the whole week, the thing that I personally take away from it is an understanding of how dedicated al Qaeda has been, how it continues day after day, week after week, month after month to try and perfect its techniques of terrorism, whether it is in the bomb making, whether it is in the assassinations and hijackings, or whether it is in the chemical testing that it has done, and really, when you put that in the context of what we see today of how they are linked to so many different jihadi organizations around the world, it is an indication of just how far they have spread out all that knowledge, and that is one of the things that concerns the experts.

KAGAN: And as we look at pictures of Osama bin Laden, the feeling I am getting from you, this is much bigger than just capturing Osama bin Laden or figuring out whether he is dead or alive -- yes, dead or alive.

ROBERTSON: Well, certainly, the material we have provides an insight into Osama bin Laden, and what we believe from coalition intelligence sources is that Osama bin Laden is alive, is that he is probably in the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan. That is that area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and it is an area that the Pakistani government doesn't fully control. Its laws, rules, regulations do not carry in the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan, and this is a type of area that al Qaeda feels most comfortable in. The type of area where a government's rules and laws aren't carried out, the type of area where there aren't law enforcement agencies, and these -- now, Afghanistan has been sort of denied to al Qaeda pretty much. These are the type of areas they will gravitate towards.

KAGAN: Let me ask you a question now journalist to journalist, on a personal note. Number one, how did you get these tapes?

ROBERTSON: Well, I was contacted by somebody that I have known for some time in Afghanistan and perhaps one spends a lot of time in a country like Afghanistan, one gets to meet a lot of people, talk with a lot of people, and it was one of those people who I have known for some time, came to our office, the CNN office in Kabul.

He said he had a collection of material that he thought I would be interested in seeing. He offered to show me one tape. I looked at that and it was clear to me straight away that this was something that I wanted to explore further, so we arranged to meet again, and talk again about it.

KAGAN: This, of course, being a huge coup for CNN to have these and to be able to show them and interpret them for the world, but did you ever wonder why us? Why hasn't a government like the U.S. government found these tapes, or perhaps another organization?

ROBERTSON: Well, I think, one of the things that as a journalist you do in a country like Afghanistan is when somebody, like my contact, finds this material, it is very -- it is much easier for them to forward that material to a journalist, perhaps, than a government agency. They might have concerns that they might be associated with that material.

Now, as I have known my contact for some time, clearly I knew that that wasn't the case, but they would have concerns like that. The other thing that hampers government agencies, if you will, is that they have a huge amount of information coming to them from different intelligence sources, what they might describe as white noise, and they have to filter out that white noise for the important and the truthful elements of information that are coming to them, so they -- while we have a few sources, they have a huge number, and they have to work very, very hard to try and filter out the key bits of information, and perhaps that, in some sense, makes our job at a journalist just that little bit easier.

KAGAN: An ongoing theme we have had here all morning, reporters who put themselves in danger, whether it was a reporter in Minneapolis who we talked to last hour, John Zarrella who has been covering hurricanes and other dangerous things. You go to some of the most dangerous places in the world. On this particular assignment, do you worry what this does to your personal safety, or how it raises your profile in the world community, and how that will keep you from doing your job in the future?

ROBERTSON: I think that in the nature of our work as journalists, there are going to be times, perhaps, covering conflicts, those generally the most dangerous times, when there is going to be an element of danger and risk, but we are analyzing that all the time, and we seek to reduce that all the time.

CNN sends us on what we call a hostile environments training course, and that really does prepare us for going out and working in the field and working in some very dangerous and tricky situations, and it teaches you to analyze each situation you go into, and take precautions, and we do try and take precautions. We do look very carefully at what we do, and I will be continuing to do that.

KAGAN: Well, we hope so, and continue to do good work for us here. Nic Robertson.

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