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American Morning
Hiding Al Qaeda?
Aired September 03, 2002 - 09:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There is word this morning that Al Qaeda is golden, at least when it comes to finances. "The Washington Post" reporting the terror group and the Taliban have been quietly smuggling large quantities of gold out of Pakistan and into Sudan. U.S. officials say it is a strong indicator the group still has access to financial reserves. And as Israeli newspaper reports nearly 200 Al Qaeda operatives have taken refuge in Lebanon, with Syria's blessing, settling in a large Palestinian refugee camp. That report says commanders are among those in hiding. But U.S. officials are said to be skeptical about these reports.
Other countries, including Iraq and Iran, have also been suspected of harboring Al Qaeda terrorists.
Eric Margolis, terrorism expert and author of "The War at the Top of the World" is back with us today from Paris.
Bonjour, Eric. Welcome.
ERIC MARGOLIS, CNN TERRORISM EXPERT: Bonjour, Paula, from beautiful Paris.
ZAHN: You lucky guy. Let's move on to substance of this "Washington Post" report. How significant is it that they are been able to move gold out of Pakistan into Sudan?
MARGOLIS: Paula, the amounts of money are not large by Western standards. Most of it is in sums of less than $10,000 dollars, pocket money really. So it's easy to move the money and almost impossible to stop it, and the Al Qaeda operations are done by ideological people who do not cost that much money. So I don't think we should focus overly on the money trail, though there is no doubt they have gotten money out of Afghanistan.
ZAHN: But its' hard to completely disregard this, Eric, because a lot of people are saying that this clearly confirms fact the fact that Sudan has re-emerged as a financial center for the operations of these cells.
MARGOLIS: Well, the Al Qaeda has scattered. It was always a small organization. It seems to have scattered. It's gone back to its roots in Egypt. Disturbingly, we're finding more and more elements of Al Qaeda in North Africa, particularly in Algeria, and Morocco, and to a lesser degree Tunisia, where they had not before. And they have spread over the entire world. The American military operations in Afghanistan scattered them to four winds, and that's why we're having so much trouble locating and finding them. ZAHN: Let's talk about what's going on in Syria right now. How significant is this report by this Israeli newspaper that you've got Al Qaeda operatives living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon with Syria's permission?
MARGOLIS: Well, I look at that with a bit of cynicism, perhaps because I am in France, the home of cynicism. But the Israelis are still smarting from having been driven out of Lebanon, by the Hezbollah guerrillas. They would dearly like revenge on Hezbollah. And for many months, the Israelis have been spreading stories that the Hezbollah are linked to Al Qaeda. I do not believe them.
There have never really been any solid links between these two groups. In fact, they have been antagonistically. Hezbollah or Shiite. The Al Qaeda are mainly Sunni Muslims. There was no love lost. The Syrian regime, which sort of sits over Hezbollah, was a violent enemy of Islamic fundamentalists, killed about 20,000 of them back in the 1980s, and has been wages a war against them.
For Al Qaeda, the two worst Arab rulers are -- were President Assad in Syria, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, whom they call tyrants. So I really discount links. There may be a few people, but we are not seeing new hotbed of Al Qaeda.
ZAHN: And another thing you discount are numbers that our administration uses to talk about strength of Al Qaeda. But the fact remains, obviously, our administration is composed that they pose some sort a threat to U.S. citizens. What's your analysis of that today? As scattered as they are, how big of a threat are they?
MARGOLIS: We have great confusion, Paula, as to who is at Al Qaeda and who isn't. The U.S. government originally lumped Taliban, Al Qaeda, plus about 20 other Muslim Islamic groups in Afghanistan together, and they still are done so in the news. So it is hard to find out who we're talking about. There are other militant group which have done surfacing and in fact expanding who are not Al Qaeda, but who are similarly minded. This is the dangerous things, these people are popping up faster than we can keep track of them. We have not established direct links between some Mideastern and Al Qaeda groups in Afghanistan, but we know that militant groups are forming to attack U.S. citizens and property, particularly abroad. Very, very concerning.
ZAHN: We are going to have to leave it there today. Eric Margolis, as always, good to see you. Enjoy Paris.
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