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CNN Live Today
For First Time, Al Qaeda Unit Hit Outside Afghanistan
Aired November 05, 2002 - 11:24 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A man suspected of playing a key role in the attack against the USS Cole has been killed in Yemen, along with five other suspects. Intelligence agents apparently had Abu Ali under surveillance for months before firing a lethal hellfire missile at his vehicle yesterday in the Yemeni desert.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor joins us from our Washington bureau with more on this -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Leon, the Bush administration is now confirming that it was indeed a U.S. Missile that fired against this car and killed these six Al-Qaeda individuals, causing this wreckage that you see here, about 100 miles outside of the capital of Yemen. Now, what was used was a CIA-controlled unmanned drone plane that is armed with hellfire missiles. And this shows how they can be used, how they hit targets. The person of most interest, who died in the attack was Abu Ali al-Harthi. He is also known as Qaed Senyan al-Harathi. This is him. He is one of the top 15 leaders of Al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.
He was the head of the organization in Yemen before his death yesterday. And he had been a senior bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. Now, the official confirmation that the U.S. was involved in this attack, that it was the U.S. that attacked this car, came from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in an interview with CNN's Maria Ressa. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEP. SECY. OF DEFENSE: It's a very successful tactical operation, and one hopes each time you get a success like that, not only to have gotten rid of somebody dangerous, but to have imposed changes in their tactics and operations and procedures, and sometimes when people are changing, they expose themselves in new ways. So we've just got to keep the pressure on everywhere we're able to, and we've got to deny the sanctuaries everywhere we're able to, and we've got to put pressure on every government that is giving these people support, to get out of that business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: So a little quiet celebration at the Pentagon and the CIA today, and it does seem clear that this tactic may be used again -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, David, let me ask you about another headline that we're hearing, some word about countries who have secret stockpiles of smallpox virus, and that's now been revealed. What do you know about that?
ENSOR: The Bush administration asked the intelligence community to prepare a report, and this was done last year, and turned over in the spring, saying who in the world might have the smallpox virus, who might have secret stashes of the smallpox virus. The answer that the report from the intelligence community gave to the Bush administration was, that there are four countries that they think have the virus -- Iraq, North Korea, Russia, and France.
Now, they also said in the report that there were clearly -- there was evidence found in Afghanistan that the Al-Qaeda group, and that Osama bin Laden specifically had clearly made some efforts to obtain the virus, that it was not clear that they had any way they could use it. So this has been fueling a debate here in Washington among Bush administration officials as to whether the U.S. should go ahead with a quick vaccination program for as many Americans as possible, or whether to delay it until there are more and better stocks of vaccine. There are all kinds of issues here. It is a debate that's ongoing in this town -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, David Ensor, reporting for us live from Washington.
Thanks, David.
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 November 5, 2002 - 11:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A man suspected of playing a key role in the attack against the USS Cole has been killed in Yemen, along with five other suspects. Intelligence agents apparently had Abu Ali under surveillance for months before firing a lethal hellfire missile at his vehicle yesterday in the Yemeni desert.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor joins us from our Washington bureau with more on this -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Leon, the Bush administration is now confirming that it was indeed a U.S. Missile that fired against this car and killed these six Al-Qaeda individuals, causing this wreckage that you see here, about 100 miles outside of the capital of Yemen. Now, what was used was a CIA-controlled unmanned drone plane that is armed with hellfire missiles. And this shows how they can be used, how they hit targets. The person of most interest, who died in the attack was Abu Ali al-Harthi. He is also known as Qaed Senyan al-Harathi. This is him. He is one of the top 15 leaders of Al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.
He was the head of the organization in Yemen before his death yesterday. And he had been a senior bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. Now, the official confirmation that the U.S. was involved in this attack, that it was the U.S. that attacked this car, came from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in an interview with CNN's Maria Ressa. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEP. SECY. OF DEFENSE: It's a very successful tactical operation, and one hopes each time you get a success like that, not only to have gotten rid of somebody dangerous, but to have imposed changes in their tactics and operations and procedures, and sometimes when people are changing, they expose themselves in new ways. So we've just got to keep the pressure on everywhere we're able to, and we've got to deny the sanctuaries everywhere we're able to, and we've got to put pressure on every government that is giving these people support, to get out of that business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: So a little quiet celebration at the Pentagon and the CIA today, and it does seem clear that this tactic may be used again -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, David, let me ask you about another headline that we're hearing, some word about countries who have secret stockpiles of smallpox virus, and that's now been revealed. What do you know about that?
ENSOR: The Bush administration asked the intelligence community to prepare a report, and this was done last year, and turned over in the spring, saying who in the world might have the smallpox virus, who might have secret stashes of the smallpox virus. The answer that the report from the intelligence community gave to the Bush administration was, that there are four countries that they think have the virus -- Iraq, North Korea, Russia, and France.
Now, they also said in the report that there were clearly -- there was evidence found in Afghanistan that the Al-Qaeda group, and that Osama bin Laden specifically had clearly made some efforts to obtain the virus, that it was not clear that they had any way they could use it. So this has been fueling a debate here in Washington among Bush administration officials as to whether the U.S. should go ahead with a quick vaccination program for as many Americans as possible, or whether to delay it until there are more and better stocks of vaccine. There are all kinds of issues here. It is a debate that's ongoing in this town -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, David Ensor, reporting for us live from Washington.
Thanks, David.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
