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CNN Live At Daybreak

Al Qaeda Operates on World Wide Web

Aired December 16, 2002 - 05:35   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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the threat from al Qaeda, Jordan, one of the closest Mideast allies of the United States, now says al Qaeda has set up terror cells there. On Saturday, Jordan arrested two al Qaeda operatives it says shot and killed a U.S. diplomat back in October. Till now, Jordan had resisted acknowledging that al Qaeda was operating there, but Jordan's information minister adds most if not all al Qaeda members operating in Jordan have been arrested.
The terrorist organization is, of course, posing a new threat to the United States and that's the focus of our latest series.

CNN's Mike Boettcher reports the new al Qaeda operates on the World Wide Web.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ocean City, Maryland, where America unwound this summer. Some sun and fun to escape the shadow of terrorism. Ocean City, of all places, a new front in the war on the new al Qaeda.

(on camera): So this is where you work, huh?

JOHN MESSNER (ph): Yes.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): It's where John Messner commands a keyboard as he tracks the group through cyberspace. Messner is an Internet entrepreneur, runs an Internet service provider and several adult Web sites. But since 9/11, he discovered something else on the Internet, al Qaeda.

MESSNER: I know the Internet so I made it my business at that time to do anything and everything I could within my power to disrupt the communication on the terrorists' part on the Internet, just jam it, just do anything I could.

BOETTCHER: The most visible face of the new al Qaeda has been this Web site. It first popped up in February and has been on and off the Web since then. It's called Al-Neda, The Call, run ostensibly by a group called the Institute for Research and Islamic Studies. But it carries communiques in the name of al Qaeda and claims credit for terrorist attacks.

(on camera): You had hijacked it, basically?

MESSNER: Right. BOETTCHER: And they didn't know that you actually had their site?

MESSNER: Right.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): From his couch in Ocean City, Maryland, he was able to bring some of al Qaeda's operations to a halt for a few days this summer by hijacking their Web site, posting his own decoy and running traces on all the computer traffic.

MESSNER: These are all hostile message boards. What I got was a virtual who's who of every hostile message board and Web site on the Internet.

BOETTCHER: Messner tried to interest the FBI, but made little headway. Now, a number of intelligence agencies are searching for al Qaeda in cyberspace.

(on camera): Al Qaeda on the Internet, fighting a cyber war, it's just one of the ways the group has remade itself after 9/11 and after the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan took away its operating bases.

(voice-over): Terrorism expert Peter Bergen uses a computer metaphor to describe the new al Qaeda.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I call it al Qaeda 2.0 because it's a group that is much more virtual than its previous existence. I mean before it had a physical headquarters, training camps. These are gone.

BOETTCHER: The new al Qaeda, this al Qaeda 2.0, is more than a Web site and the plans to put it in place began even before 9/11, as hundreds of al Qaeda fighters slipped out of Afghanistan and moved around the world to places like Yemen.

Rohan Gunaratna is the author of "Inside al Qaeda."

ROHAN GUNARATNA, AUTHOR, "INSIDE AL QAEDA": Before the U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in October, 2001, already al Qaeda has had decentralized.

BOETTCHER: Several hundred at least slipped through the most guarded and well known route east into Pakistan, where sources say al Qaeda members have found ready sanctuary. But many fled through two secret back doors, west to Iran, according to CNN sources, facilitated by Iran's radical Revolutionary Guard. Some remain there. Some moved on, to Lebanon. Others dispersed east and west, destinations unknown.

Another back door opened south. Approximately 1,000 al Qaeda operatives using false identification made their way from Afghanistan to the tiny Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles and the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros, where they again dispersed east and west.

By March, the new al Qaeda began to regroup, the high command somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and a second tier group reorganized into regional commands. GUNARATNA: We are seeing that al Qaeda dispatching some of its key operatives into Southeast Asia, into the Middle East, into the Caucuses, into the Horn of Africa. So that they could conduct their operations using those regions as their main staging areas.

BOETTCHER: The new marching orders from Osama bin Laden, work with local groups, form super cells, attack local targets, soft ones with an economic value, focus on America and its allies, especially tourist sites. BERGEN: If I was running a McDonald's in Pakistan right now, I'd be very concerned, or any kind of obvious symbol of the United States, Kentucky Fried, American Express, because when the leadership say the same things, attack American economic targets, those statements have been a very reliable guide to what actually happens next.

BOETTCHER: But there have been setbacks. Planned attacks against U.S. and British ships in the Strait of Gibraltar were thwarted after a Moroccan cell was exposed. The head of the Persian Gulf military command was captured. A missile attack killed a man said to be al Qaeda's leader in Yemen.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The only way to treat them is what they are, international killers. And the only way to find them is to be patient and steadfast and hunt 'em down. And the United States of America is doing just that.

BOETTCHER: But al Qaeda has achieved successes, all over the world. In Tunisia, where a synagogue was bombed in April and at least 18 were killed, including German tourists. In Karachi in May, French military engineers were killed when a bus was bombed. An attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait and a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. In Bali, almost 200 died when a nightclub was attacked. In Kenya, an Israeli owned hotel was bombed, missiles shot at an Israeli charter just missed the plane.

Each time it had the propaganda victory or a new threat, al Qaeda uses the Internet to spread the word. BERGEN: It's a way they take credit for operations at this point and it's a way they communicate.

BOETTCHER: Including this proof of life from Osama bin Laden in November, warning of worse to come.

OSAMA BIN LADEN: (THROUGH TRANSLATOR) Just as you kill, you will get killed. And just as you shell, you will get shelled. Await then what will dismay you.

BOETTCHER: Within two days of its first airing on Al Jazeera, bin Laden's audio recording was posted on the Al-Neda Web site and just so the message was clear, this time al Qaeda posted its own English translation. The real message? Osama bin Laden is still alive and to stop al Qaeda he has to be found.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That report from CNN's Mike Boettcher.

Tomorrow, Mike will take a closer look at the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

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 December 16, 2002 - 05:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the threat from al Qaeda, Jordan, one of the closest Mideast allies of the United States, now says al Qaeda has set up terror cells there. On Saturday, Jordan arrested two al Qaeda operatives it says shot and killed a U.S. diplomat back in October. Till now, Jordan had resisted acknowledging that al Qaeda was operating there, but Jordan's information minister adds most if not all al Qaeda members operating in Jordan have been arrested.
The terrorist organization is, of course, posing a new threat to the United States and that's the focus of our latest series.

CNN's Mike Boettcher reports the new al Qaeda operates on the World Wide Web.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ocean City, Maryland, where America unwound this summer. Some sun and fun to escape the shadow of terrorism. Ocean City, of all places, a new front in the war on the new al Qaeda.

(on camera): So this is where you work, huh?

JOHN MESSNER (ph): Yes.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): It's where John Messner commands a keyboard as he tracks the group through cyberspace. Messner is an Internet entrepreneur, runs an Internet service provider and several adult Web sites. But since 9/11, he discovered something else on the Internet, al Qaeda.

MESSNER: I know the Internet so I made it my business at that time to do anything and everything I could within my power to disrupt the communication on the terrorists' part on the Internet, just jam it, just do anything I could.

BOETTCHER: The most visible face of the new al Qaeda has been this Web site. It first popped up in February and has been on and off the Web since then. It's called Al-Neda, The Call, run ostensibly by a group called the Institute for Research and Islamic Studies. But it carries communiques in the name of al Qaeda and claims credit for terrorist attacks.

(on camera): You had hijacked it, basically?

MESSNER: Right. BOETTCHER: And they didn't know that you actually had their site?

MESSNER: Right.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): From his couch in Ocean City, Maryland, he was able to bring some of al Qaeda's operations to a halt for a few days this summer by hijacking their Web site, posting his own decoy and running traces on all the computer traffic.

MESSNER: These are all hostile message boards. What I got was a virtual who's who of every hostile message board and Web site on the Internet.

BOETTCHER: Messner tried to interest the FBI, but made little headway. Now, a number of intelligence agencies are searching for al Qaeda in cyberspace.

(on camera): Al Qaeda on the Internet, fighting a cyber war, it's just one of the ways the group has remade itself after 9/11 and after the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan took away its operating bases.

(voice-over): Terrorism expert Peter Bergen uses a computer metaphor to describe the new al Qaeda.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I call it al Qaeda 2.0 because it's a group that is much more virtual than its previous existence. I mean before it had a physical headquarters, training camps. These are gone.

BOETTCHER: The new al Qaeda, this al Qaeda 2.0, is more than a Web site and the plans to put it in place began even before 9/11, as hundreds of al Qaeda fighters slipped out of Afghanistan and moved around the world to places like Yemen.

Rohan Gunaratna is the author of "Inside al Qaeda."

ROHAN GUNARATNA, AUTHOR, "INSIDE AL QAEDA": Before the U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in October, 2001, already al Qaeda has had decentralized.

BOETTCHER: Several hundred at least slipped through the most guarded and well known route east into Pakistan, where sources say al Qaeda members have found ready sanctuary. But many fled through two secret back doors, west to Iran, according to CNN sources, facilitated by Iran's radical Revolutionary Guard. Some remain there. Some moved on, to Lebanon. Others dispersed east and west, destinations unknown.

Another back door opened south. Approximately 1,000 al Qaeda operatives using false identification made their way from Afghanistan to the tiny Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles and the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros, where they again dispersed east and west.

By March, the new al Qaeda began to regroup, the high command somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and a second tier group reorganized into regional commands. GUNARATNA: We are seeing that al Qaeda dispatching some of its key operatives into Southeast Asia, into the Middle East, into the Caucuses, into the Horn of Africa. So that they could conduct their operations using those regions as their main staging areas.

BOETTCHER: The new marching orders from Osama bin Laden, work with local groups, form super cells, attack local targets, soft ones with an economic value, focus on America and its allies, especially tourist sites. BERGEN: If I was running a McDonald's in Pakistan right now, I'd be very concerned, or any kind of obvious symbol of the United States, Kentucky Fried, American Express, because when the leadership say the same things, attack American economic targets, those statements have been a very reliable guide to what actually happens next.

BOETTCHER: But there have been setbacks. Planned attacks against U.S. and British ships in the Strait of Gibraltar were thwarted after a Moroccan cell was exposed. The head of the Persian Gulf military command was captured. A missile attack killed a man said to be al Qaeda's leader in Yemen.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The only way to treat them is what they are, international killers. And the only way to find them is to be patient and steadfast and hunt 'em down. And the United States of America is doing just that.

BOETTCHER: But al Qaeda has achieved successes, all over the world. In Tunisia, where a synagogue was bombed in April and at least 18 were killed, including German tourists. In Karachi in May, French military engineers were killed when a bus was bombed. An attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait and a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. In Bali, almost 200 died when a nightclub was attacked. In Kenya, an Israeli owned hotel was bombed, missiles shot at an Israeli charter just missed the plane.

Each time it had the propaganda victory or a new threat, al Qaeda uses the Internet to spread the word. BERGEN: It's a way they take credit for operations at this point and it's a way they communicate.

BOETTCHER: Including this proof of life from Osama bin Laden in November, warning of worse to come.

OSAMA BIN LADEN: (THROUGH TRANSLATOR) Just as you kill, you will get killed. And just as you shell, you will get shelled. Await then what will dismay you.

BOETTCHER: Within two days of its first airing on Al Jazeera, bin Laden's audio recording was posted on the Al-Neda Web site and just so the message was clear, this time al Qaeda posted its own English translation. The real message? Osama bin Laden is still alive and to stop al Qaeda he has to be found.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That report from CNN's Mike Boettcher.

Tomorrow, Mike will take a closer look at the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

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