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CNN Live Today

Law Enforcement Perspective on Kenya Attacks

Aired November 29, 2002 - 10:05   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: Let's take a closer look now and get some law enforcement perspective. Mike Brooks is a former member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, and now he serves as CNN's law enforcement analyst.
And we're going to tap into your extensive knowledge, because you were actually in Nairobi back in 1998 after the embassy bombing, one of the first people to get in there to examine the evidence there.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYSIS: Yes, I was.

LIN: Eerie coincidences between the two attacks, Mombasa yesterday and 1998?

BROOKS: Very much so. We look at the bombing of the hotel yesterday, Carol, and the bombers attempted to get into the hotel. There is usually a fence around the compounds of a lot of the resorts in Kenya. And they came up to the gate, a guard turned them away. They went outside, rode around in front of the hotel for about 10 minutes, and decided to go ahead and crash through the gates, pulled right up to the front door of the lobby and then detonated the bomb.

Very similar to what we saw in Nairobi in 1998 at the U.S. Embassy there. A truck laden with explosives attempted to go into a side gate at the embassy. They were turned away by guards. They went around to another gate. A guard there put down a heavy arm to keep them from coming in, because what they wanted to do at the time, the inner gate was open, and they wanted to drive the truck down into the basement of the embassy, the garage, and have the embassy implode on itself.

But the truck went through the arm, and then detonated the bomb right just outside the main gate of the embassy, saving a lot of lives. The security guards there did a great job, as we see yesterday, because apparently yesterday, as they were attempting to get in, there were about 160 tourists that were just checking into the hotel. But by the time they did crash through the gate up to the lobby, most of them had checked in and gone about their business in the hotel.

LIN: Right.

BROOKS: So, you know, it's unfortunate the number of deaths, but it could have been much, much worse.

LIN: It could have been much worse. And also, just the hour before, an attempted attack on a charter plane by an Israeli company taking off in flight. They think what the missile that was used was a SA-7?

BROOKS: Right, a SAM-7, which is a shoulder-fired missile, Soviet made, not very sophisticated as compared to the U.S. Stinger missiles and those kinds of things that we see now. They left them there on the scene.

Talking to some experts last evening, they said that from the looks of it, with the plane taking off, the people who were using them probably didn't know what they were doing, or weren't that proficient with that particular kind of shoulder-fired missile.

But we also see similarities, two things simultaneously -- the attack against the jetliner, almost simultaneously, and the attack at the hotel. Go back to 1998, what did we see there? We saw two simultaneous attacks, one in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the other one in Nairobi, Kenya, both truck bombs.

LIN: So, what does that tell you about who is responsible for this attack?

BROOKS: Well, it still is not clear who is responsible for the attack. We have one claim of responsibility, which some people don't think is a credible claim. Other folks are saying that it is al Qaeda. By looking at the method of operation in 1998 and yesterday, it looks like an al Qaeda attack, but again, it's still a little bit too soon to say.

LIN: What is frightening some terrorism analysts is that it could be al Qaeda coordinating in conjunction with Palestinian sympathizers. It could be a lethal combination, especially picking these soft targets, not military or political targets, but tourists in a hotel or passengers on a jet...

BROOKS: Right.

LIN: ... what that might mean in the global fight against terrorism.

BROOKS: Well, we've just seen that recently just in Bali, a soft target at a resort there also and, you know, with devastating effects. And we're liable to see that again. So, you know, again, people going about their business, going on vacation, especially Americans overseas, need to be particularly vigilant when going to areas that they think aren't particularly safe, and to check with the State Department before they go to areas like this to see what kind of travel warnings are out there against Americans in particular parts of the world.

LIN: All right, now, the State Department says it's not changing its travel warnings for Americans, because it is at such a heightened state of alert now.

BROOKS: It is.

LIN: That until they find out who is responsible for these attacks that the terror alert will just simply remain in place, be vigilant, which is exactly what you have been saying.

BROOKS: Yes, absolutely.

LIN: Thank you very much...

BROOKS: All right, Carol, good to be with you, thanks.

LIN: ... Mike Brooks, you too.

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 - 10:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a closer look now and get some law enforcement perspective. Mike Brooks is a former member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, and now he serves as CNN's law enforcement analyst.
And we're going to tap into your extensive knowledge, because you were actually in Nairobi back in 1998 after the embassy bombing, one of the first people to get in there to examine the evidence there.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYSIS: Yes, I was.

LIN: Eerie coincidences between the two attacks, Mombasa yesterday and 1998?

BROOKS: Very much so. We look at the bombing of the hotel yesterday, Carol, and the bombers attempted to get into the hotel. There is usually a fence around the compounds of a lot of the resorts in Kenya. And they came up to the gate, a guard turned them away. They went outside, rode around in front of the hotel for about 10 minutes, and decided to go ahead and crash through the gates, pulled right up to the front door of the lobby and then detonated the bomb.

Very similar to what we saw in Nairobi in 1998 at the U.S. Embassy there. A truck laden with explosives attempted to go into a side gate at the embassy. They were turned away by guards. They went around to another gate. A guard there put down a heavy arm to keep them from coming in, because what they wanted to do at the time, the inner gate was open, and they wanted to drive the truck down into the basement of the embassy, the garage, and have the embassy implode on itself.

But the truck went through the arm, and then detonated the bomb right just outside the main gate of the embassy, saving a lot of lives. The security guards there did a great job, as we see yesterday, because apparently yesterday, as they were attempting to get in, there were about 160 tourists that were just checking into the hotel. But by the time they did crash through the gate up to the lobby, most of them had checked in and gone about their business in the hotel.

LIN: Right.

BROOKS: So, you know, it's unfortunate the number of deaths, but it could have been much, much worse.

LIN: It could have been much worse. And also, just the hour before, an attempted attack on a charter plane by an Israeli company taking off in flight. They think what the missile that was used was a SA-7?

BROOKS: Right, a SAM-7, which is a shoulder-fired missile, Soviet made, not very sophisticated as compared to the U.S. Stinger missiles and those kinds of things that we see now. They left them there on the scene.

Talking to some experts last evening, they said that from the looks of it, with the plane taking off, the people who were using them probably didn't know what they were doing, or weren't that proficient with that particular kind of shoulder-fired missile.

But we also see similarities, two things simultaneously -- the attack against the jetliner, almost simultaneously, and the attack at the hotel. Go back to 1998, what did we see there? We saw two simultaneous attacks, one in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the other one in Nairobi, Kenya, both truck bombs.

LIN: So, what does that tell you about who is responsible for this attack?

BROOKS: Well, it still is not clear who is responsible for the attack. We have one claim of responsibility, which some people don't think is a credible claim. Other folks are saying that it is al Qaeda. By looking at the method of operation in 1998 and yesterday, it looks like an al Qaeda attack, but again, it's still a little bit too soon to say.

LIN: What is frightening some terrorism analysts is that it could be al Qaeda coordinating in conjunction with Palestinian sympathizers. It could be a lethal combination, especially picking these soft targets, not military or political targets, but tourists in a hotel or passengers on a jet...

BROOKS: Right.

LIN: ... what that might mean in the global fight against terrorism.

BROOKS: Well, we've just seen that recently just in Bali, a soft target at a resort there also and, you know, with devastating effects. And we're liable to see that again. So, you know, again, people going about their business, going on vacation, especially Americans overseas, need to be particularly vigilant when going to areas that they think aren't particularly safe, and to check with the State Department before they go to areas like this to see what kind of travel warnings are out there against Americans in particular parts of the world.

LIN: All right, now, the State Department says it's not changing its travel warnings for Americans, because it is at such a heightened state of alert now.

BROOKS: It is.

LIN: That until they find out who is responsible for these attacks that the terror alert will just simply remain in place, be vigilant, which is exactly what you have been saying.

BROOKS: Yes, absolutely.

LIN: Thank you very much...

BROOKS: All right, Carol, good to be with you, thanks.

LIN: ... Mike Brooks, you too.

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