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CNN Live Today
Worldwide Travel Caution
Aired November 29, 2002 - 11:05 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go overseas to the investigation of the deadly hotel bombing in Kenya. Police have rounded up a dozen people for questioning in the suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel, and also investigating a failed missile attack on an Israeli charter plane.
CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us live from Mombasa, Kenya with the latest from the scene -- Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, that's right, twelve people have been brought in for questioning by the authorities this evening. A Kenyan police official quoted as saying that 11 of those 12 are non-Kenyans; only one of them is Kenyan.
And we're hearing from U.S. Diplomatic sources that the two individuals who checked into a hotel not far from here and now being held by the police, they checked in with American passports. We're hearing from U.S. diplomatic sources that those two American individuals may soon be released.
Now, meanwhile, the investigation goes on. Today, Israeli investigators, along with Kenyan and American officials, were sifting through the debris behind me at the Paradise Hotel, looking for some sort of clue about who could be behind this bombing.
Now according to some reports, the investigators found a box with a wire in it, some people suggesting that that could be the detonator used to blow up the green, four-wheel drive car driven by three individuals and described as the suicide bombers.
Now, meanwhile, also today, around 250 Israelis were evacuated from Mombasa by the Israeli Air Force, and also they're looking this incident whereby two shoulder-launched missiles were fired from on an Israeli 757, a charter aircraft that was taking off from Mombasa airport.
Now this afternoon, one of our producers was out in that area, and she spoke with some scrap metal workers there, who say they heard the sound of the missiles being fired. They saw the smoke. They saw the vehicle, a white, four-wheel drive car, on a road right next to the airport.
They believed, but did not see, they believed they saw rather that missiles were fired from there. Now interestingly, however, they said that despite the fact they were there, that they saw the missiles being fired, that the investigators have not had the time to come and speak with them -- Carol. LIN: Ben, any credible claims of responsibility yet?
WEDEMAN: None whatsoever. The only real claim coming out was received by Asmanada (ph), a television station in Beirut, Lebanon. That's the station that's affiliated to Hezbollah. That was from the army of Palestinian. However, that is a group that is until now, no one has ever heard of. They said that the attack was to commemorate the anniversary in 1947 of the U.N. resolution that led to the partition of Palestine, but by and large, that claim has not been given much credence. And at the moment, many suspicions are going in the direction of Al Qaeda -- Carol.
LIN: Thank you very much, Ben Wedeman, reporting live in Mombasa.
In light of the attacks in Kenya, the State Department is expected to update travel caution for Americans. CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel has some fresh information on that live from the State Department.
Hi, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
That's right, CNN has learned that in about about-face, the State Department will, in fact, update its worldwide travel caution to all Americans. This is an alert that's been in effect for a number of years now, advising Americans as to where there are global terrorist threats. We were told yesterday they didn't need to update it because it was strong enough. Today, I'm told, they've decided to add the attacks in Mombasa to this worldwide travel caution.
Now, having said that, that doesn't mean, according to the State Department, that Americans who might be in Kenya should leave. This really is more than anything else just a formality, in case people perhaps haven't been following the news, that they would be able to see in one place, in a worldwide travel alert as to what attacks may have happened, what attacks may have been planned, so that they can be on guard.
As we know and as CNN reported yesterday, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi did send a couple of security officers to Mombasa to try to help out Kenyan and Israeli investigators there on the ground. We also know that Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush both issued very strong statements condemning the attacks, not only the ones in Kenya, but also the ones in Israel.
Now, obviously, since 1998, the U.S. has had Kenya and terrorism matched together. Back in August of 1998, there were those two U.S. embassies in East Africa, one of them in Nairobi, the other in Tanzania, that were attacked the U.S. claims by Al Qaeda, by Osama bin Laden, and so the U.S. since that time, Carol, has given over $3 million in aid to Kenya to try to help it combat terrorism, to train some of their officials to deal with that, as well as recently as this month, they were given another traunch (ph) of about $750,000 to try to help them beef up security in their airports -- Carol.. LIN: Andrea, is there a greater sense now at the State Department that terrorist will be targeting tourists, specifically Western tourists, now?
WEDEMAN: Absolutely, and that really has been the case dating back a number of weeks to the Bali attack in which a couple hundred, about 180 mostly Australians were killed by terrorists. The U.S. still isn't entirely sure if Al Qaeda was behind that attack.
But you've had any number of small attacks. There was one in Morocco, there was another one in Pakistan that targeted a Catholic Church.
That actually is the new m.o., say investigators, or I should say intelligence officials, that Al Qaeda has adopted, and those who are sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, or those who are just anti-Western, that they, instead of going for the big bang, had been trying to go for really small, easier targets, and the softer the target, the better, and what soft target is there other than a tourist site. There are schools, there are all kinds of things.
And so this is a real concern to U.S. investigators and, obviously, to countries that survive on -- thanks to tourism dollars.
LIN: Thank you very much, Andrea Koppel, reporting live at the State Department.
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 29, 2002 - 11:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go overseas to the investigation of the deadly hotel bombing in Kenya. Police have rounded up a dozen people for questioning in the suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel, and also investigating a failed missile attack on an Israeli charter plane.
CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us live from Mombasa, Kenya with the latest from the scene -- Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, that's right, twelve people have been brought in for questioning by the authorities this evening. A Kenyan police official quoted as saying that 11 of those 12 are non-Kenyans; only one of them is Kenyan.
And we're hearing from U.S. Diplomatic sources that the two individuals who checked into a hotel not far from here and now being held by the police, they checked in with American passports. We're hearing from U.S. diplomatic sources that those two American individuals may soon be released.
Now, meanwhile, the investigation goes on. Today, Israeli investigators, along with Kenyan and American officials, were sifting through the debris behind me at the Paradise Hotel, looking for some sort of clue about who could be behind this bombing.
Now according to some reports, the investigators found a box with a wire in it, some people suggesting that that could be the detonator used to blow up the green, four-wheel drive car driven by three individuals and described as the suicide bombers.
Now, meanwhile, also today, around 250 Israelis were evacuated from Mombasa by the Israeli Air Force, and also they're looking this incident whereby two shoulder-launched missiles were fired from on an Israeli 757, a charter aircraft that was taking off from Mombasa airport.
Now this afternoon, one of our producers was out in that area, and she spoke with some scrap metal workers there, who say they heard the sound of the missiles being fired. They saw the smoke. They saw the vehicle, a white, four-wheel drive car, on a road right next to the airport.
They believed, but did not see, they believed they saw rather that missiles were fired from there. Now interestingly, however, they said that despite the fact they were there, that they saw the missiles being fired, that the investigators have not had the time to come and speak with them -- Carol. LIN: Ben, any credible claims of responsibility yet?
WEDEMAN: None whatsoever. The only real claim coming out was received by Asmanada (ph), a television station in Beirut, Lebanon. That's the station that's affiliated to Hezbollah. That was from the army of Palestinian. However, that is a group that is until now, no one has ever heard of. They said that the attack was to commemorate the anniversary in 1947 of the U.N. resolution that led to the partition of Palestine, but by and large, that claim has not been given much credence. And at the moment, many suspicions are going in the direction of Al Qaeda -- Carol.
LIN: Thank you very much, Ben Wedeman, reporting live in Mombasa.
In light of the attacks in Kenya, the State Department is expected to update travel caution for Americans. CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel has some fresh information on that live from the State Department.
Hi, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
That's right, CNN has learned that in about about-face, the State Department will, in fact, update its worldwide travel caution to all Americans. This is an alert that's been in effect for a number of years now, advising Americans as to where there are global terrorist threats. We were told yesterday they didn't need to update it because it was strong enough. Today, I'm told, they've decided to add the attacks in Mombasa to this worldwide travel caution.
Now, having said that, that doesn't mean, according to the State Department, that Americans who might be in Kenya should leave. This really is more than anything else just a formality, in case people perhaps haven't been following the news, that they would be able to see in one place, in a worldwide travel alert as to what attacks may have happened, what attacks may have been planned, so that they can be on guard.
As we know and as CNN reported yesterday, the U.S. embassy in Nairobi did send a couple of security officers to Mombasa to try to help out Kenyan and Israeli investigators there on the ground. We also know that Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush both issued very strong statements condemning the attacks, not only the ones in Kenya, but also the ones in Israel.
Now, obviously, since 1998, the U.S. has had Kenya and terrorism matched together. Back in August of 1998, there were those two U.S. embassies in East Africa, one of them in Nairobi, the other in Tanzania, that were attacked the U.S. claims by Al Qaeda, by Osama bin Laden, and so the U.S. since that time, Carol, has given over $3 million in aid to Kenya to try to help it combat terrorism, to train some of their officials to deal with that, as well as recently as this month, they were given another traunch (ph) of about $750,000 to try to help them beef up security in their airports -- Carol.. LIN: Andrea, is there a greater sense now at the State Department that terrorist will be targeting tourists, specifically Western tourists, now?
WEDEMAN: Absolutely, and that really has been the case dating back a number of weeks to the Bali attack in which a couple hundred, about 180 mostly Australians were killed by terrorists. The U.S. still isn't entirely sure if Al Qaeda was behind that attack.
But you've had any number of small attacks. There was one in Morocco, there was another one in Pakistan that targeted a Catholic Church.
That actually is the new m.o., say investigators, or I should say intelligence officials, that Al Qaeda has adopted, and those who are sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, or those who are just anti-Western, that they, instead of going for the big bang, had been trying to go for really small, easier targets, and the softer the target, the better, and what soft target is there other than a tourist site. There are schools, there are all kinds of things.
And so this is a real concern to U.S. investigators and, obviously, to countries that survive on -- thanks to tourism dollars.
LIN: Thank you very much, Andrea Koppel, reporting live at the State Department.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
