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American Morning

Al Qaeda Arrests

Aired September 17, 2002 - 07:14   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Singapore, the government there is saying it has arrested 21 people with links to al Qaeda, most described as members of a radical group looking to attack U.S. targets.
In the last several days, there have been a number of high- profile terror arrests around the world, including six Americans of Yemeni descent from the Buffalo area under arrest now, accused of providing support to al Qaeda and even training, some of them anyway, at an al Qaeda camp in southern Afghanistan.

Also, in neighboring Pakistan, authorities turned over Ramzi Binalshibh to U.S. authorities last Wednesday.

Some analysis now from CNN terrorism analyst, Peter Bergen, who is live in D.C. this morning.

Peter -- good to see you again, and good morning.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERROR ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What are we to make of this, half a dozen in Buffalo, 21 in Singapore, and what some describe as a somewhat "big fish" in Pakistan? How significant are these gains, Peter?

BERGEN: Well, certainly, Ramzi Binalshibh, the arrest in Pakistan, is quite significant. I mean, by his own account to Al- Jazeera television, he described himself as the "operational commander of 9/11." He would have been one of the hijackers, more than I think the 20th hijacker. He would have been one of the lead hijackers if he had got into this country. He applied for a visa three times, was turned down.

But in a very illuminating interview with Al-Jazeera, he explained that the fourth target of Flight 93, which went down in Pennsylvania, was, indeed, the Capitol. There was some debate whether it was the White House or the Capitol.

He also told Al-Jazeera that he was basically the conduit for messages between Mohammed Atta in the United States and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. So, his arrest is quite significant.

If you actually -- Bill, if you think about the 9/11 investigation thus far, actually, there were very few people -- well, no one -- he's really the first person who was captured who actually knows, really, the details of the operation. HEMMER: Yes. I have heard, Peter, two dozen times in the past two days people say how much of a trove of information this man will be. I'm not necessarily convinced of that. It all depends on what he says...

BERGEN: Right.

HEMMER: ... and whether or not what he says is, indeed, the truth, correct?

BERGEN: Well, I mean, he may or -- he may say nothing. You know, we don't know what he's going to say. But if he chooses simply to repeat what he said to Al-Jazeera television to U.S. investigators, that, in itself, would be useful. Because he really laid out in that Al-Jazeera interview a lot of the things that we didn't know about the 9/11 plot.

For instance, I mean, one thing that I thought was very interesting was that they initially thought of attacking American nuclear facilities. They eventually decided not to do that. But there are a lot of things that we still don't know about 9/11 that he could tell American investigators, should he choose to speak, which he may well not.

But going on to the other arrests, the people in Buffalo I think -- you know, obviously they are American citizens, and they're the first arrests of people who -- of a group of people who went to these camps in Afghanistan.

But I think if I was their defense attorney, I think you could make a very reasonable case that these guys may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, in an interview last night on CNN, one of the uncles of these guys said that they were there in these camps in sort of April or May of last year.

Well, in April or May of last year, we weren't at war with the Taliban. This is not the situation that John Walker Lindh had, where he was actually at least in the same -- you know, he was in the situation where he was fighting alongside the Taliban, or at least -- you know, at the same time that the American operations were going on against the Taliban.

We were not at war with the Taliban in the spring of last year, and they could make the case that they were simply in a Taliban training camp. They had no idea that it was a terrorist training camp. And if you were a reasonably good defense attorney, I think you could make that case.

HEMMER: Interesting point. Quickly to southeast Asia and Singapore, then. Are we making less of a deal than we should in terms of the attention we give to the growing situation there?

BERGEN: Well, you know, in December of last year, Bill, you may remember that there was a group arrested in Singapore also, planning to attack the American, British, Israeli and Australian embassies. So, you know, that part of the world is a pretty lively place, as far as al Qaeda is concerned for all sorts of reasons. Indonesia is one of the largest countries in the world, 200 million people and hundreds of islands, an easy place to disappear. And al Qaeda was clearly dispersed to some of these places -- Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

HEMMER: Interesting thoughts. Thank you, Peter -- Peter Bergen in D.C. this morning. We'll talk again.

BERGEN: Good morning.

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






Aired September 17, 2002 - 07:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Singapore, the government there is saying it has arrested 21 people with links to al Qaeda, most described as members of a radical group looking to attack U.S. targets.
In the last several days, there have been a number of high- profile terror arrests around the world, including six Americans of Yemeni descent from the Buffalo area under arrest now, accused of providing support to al Qaeda and even training, some of them anyway, at an al Qaeda camp in southern Afghanistan.

Also, in neighboring Pakistan, authorities turned over Ramzi Binalshibh to U.S. authorities last Wednesday.

Some analysis now from CNN terrorism analyst, Peter Bergen, who is live in D.C. this morning.

Peter -- good to see you again, and good morning.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERROR ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What are we to make of this, half a dozen in Buffalo, 21 in Singapore, and what some describe as a somewhat "big fish" in Pakistan? How significant are these gains, Peter?

BERGEN: Well, certainly, Ramzi Binalshibh, the arrest in Pakistan, is quite significant. I mean, by his own account to Al- Jazeera television, he described himself as the "operational commander of 9/11." He would have been one of the hijackers, more than I think the 20th hijacker. He would have been one of the lead hijackers if he had got into this country. He applied for a visa three times, was turned down.

But in a very illuminating interview with Al-Jazeera, he explained that the fourth target of Flight 93, which went down in Pennsylvania, was, indeed, the Capitol. There was some debate whether it was the White House or the Capitol.

He also told Al-Jazeera that he was basically the conduit for messages between Mohammed Atta in the United States and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. So, his arrest is quite significant.

If you actually -- Bill, if you think about the 9/11 investigation thus far, actually, there were very few people -- well, no one -- he's really the first person who was captured who actually knows, really, the details of the operation. HEMMER: Yes. I have heard, Peter, two dozen times in the past two days people say how much of a trove of information this man will be. I'm not necessarily convinced of that. It all depends on what he says...

BERGEN: Right.

HEMMER: ... and whether or not what he says is, indeed, the truth, correct?

BERGEN: Well, I mean, he may or -- he may say nothing. You know, we don't know what he's going to say. But if he chooses simply to repeat what he said to Al-Jazeera television to U.S. investigators, that, in itself, would be useful. Because he really laid out in that Al-Jazeera interview a lot of the things that we didn't know about the 9/11 plot.

For instance, I mean, one thing that I thought was very interesting was that they initially thought of attacking American nuclear facilities. They eventually decided not to do that. But there are a lot of things that we still don't know about 9/11 that he could tell American investigators, should he choose to speak, which he may well not.

But going on to the other arrests, the people in Buffalo I think -- you know, obviously they are American citizens, and they're the first arrests of people who -- of a group of people who went to these camps in Afghanistan.

But I think if I was their defense attorney, I think you could make a very reasonable case that these guys may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, in an interview last night on CNN, one of the uncles of these guys said that they were there in these camps in sort of April or May of last year.

Well, in April or May of last year, we weren't at war with the Taliban. This is not the situation that John Walker Lindh had, where he was actually at least in the same -- you know, he was in the situation where he was fighting alongside the Taliban, or at least -- you know, at the same time that the American operations were going on against the Taliban.

We were not at war with the Taliban in the spring of last year, and they could make the case that they were simply in a Taliban training camp. They had no idea that it was a terrorist training camp. And if you were a reasonably good defense attorney, I think you could make that case.

HEMMER: Interesting point. Quickly to southeast Asia and Singapore, then. Are we making less of a deal than we should in terms of the attention we give to the growing situation there?

BERGEN: Well, you know, in December of last year, Bill, you may remember that there was a group arrested in Singapore also, planning to attack the American, British, Israeli and Australian embassies. So, you know, that part of the world is a pretty lively place, as far as al Qaeda is concerned for all sorts of reasons. Indonesia is one of the largest countries in the world, 200 million people and hundreds of islands, an easy place to disappear. And al Qaeda was clearly dispersed to some of these places -- Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

HEMMER: Interesting thoughts. Thank you, Peter -- Peter Bergen in D.C. this morning. We'll talk again.

BERGEN: Good morning.

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