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CNN Live Today

Terror in Riyadh

Aired May 13, 2003 - 10:01   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: Many other nationalities reported among the dead and wounded there. Powell's declaration that this terror strike bears the marks of Al Qaeda is being echoed by experts in the field. And one of them is CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. He join us now from our Washington bureau.
Good morning, Peter.

Let's start off with this one, if it's not Al Qaeda, who else could it be?

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I mean, the list is very short. There is no other group that carries out these kind of coordinated attacks, multiple targets, suicidal, obviously you know, Al Qaeda -- a spokesman last week was threatening a surprising attack, and this may well be the result of those threats or related to those threats.

So, I don't think that there are a huge number of other groups. There was a group, Saudi Hezbollah, which is believed to be behind an attack in '96 against a military facility, Khobar Towers, an attack that killed 19 American servicemen. Saudi Hezbollah is not necessarily part of Al Qaeda, although it may do business with it, but I don't think there really is an a long list of other groups that could be -- that either have the capability or the motivation to do this.

HARRIS: Is this maybe the type of the iceberg, the first of many to come? As we know, just on May 1, barely over a week and a half ago, the State Department came out and issued a very specific warning. It didn't just say that American interests around the world that perhaps were facing some danger like this, they specifically said American targets in Saudi Arabia.

BERGEN: Right. I mean, will there be others? it's hard to tell. Al Qaeda as a group tends to do spectacular attacks, and all at the same time, rather than sort of smaller attacks over a period of time. When they did the embassy bombings attacks in Africa, that was it, when they did the USS Cole" that was it and 9/11 we hoped that was it as well. I don't anticipate a lot of other attacks. I think they saved up their energies for this one spectacular attack. We're reporting already that there may be as many nine people involved in that attack. And also, there are several targets and so I doubt this is the first of a string of other attacks. I think this is probably one spectacular attack all at the same time.

HARRIS: We know that Al Qaeda has been in the past talking about it being incensed by the U.S. military's presence in Saudi Arabia on their, holy soil, as they said. The word that we've gotten in recent weeks is the Pentagon now planning to pull troops out of there, that word has already come out, been announced. One would think that would actually be lowering pressure in that region. Do you think that's having any effect at all?

BERGEN: A group like Al Qaeda is not really interested in negotiations or compromise, and even though one of their biggest gripes, continued U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, is something the United States is drawing down very, very significantly. Obviously, they don't really want Westerners of any kind in Saudi Arabia. In fact, if you think Al Qaeda's strategy in general, they switch from a strategy of attacking American political, military targets to attacking economic targets. If you look at the Yemen oil tanker that was blown up last year, also the attack on the disco in Indonesia, so I think by attacking Westerners who are obviously supporting the Saudi economy, this is part of their strategy to attack the Saudi economy, and of course that has effects on our economy.

HARRIS: I got to ask you one final question here. If you think about this, is it possible this could have been worse? There was a report coming out last week about now the Saudi government saying that now they were on lookout for some 19 persons, 17 of whom were Saudi. They may be the ones that were responsible for this today.

But we do know that when that word did come out, there was an announcement of the recovery of a cache of some 800 pounds of high level explosives when that word came out last week. If this group is the one responsible, and they had those 800 pounds of explosives last week, this could have actually been worse, could it not?

BERGEN: Well, indeed, and not only the 800 pounds of explosives that you mentioned, Leon, but also there are three or four machine guns recovered, and 55 handmade bombs, so, this particular cache of material that was recovered last week, that was very good that it was taken, seized. Obviously, it was not enough to basically prevent what happened last night.

HARRIS: Peter Bergen in Washington, thank you very much. We'll be getting back you once more information comes in on this story.

Take care, Peter.

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 May 13, 2003 - 10:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Many other nationalities reported among the dead and wounded there. Powell's declaration that this terror strike bears the marks of Al Qaeda is being echoed by experts in the field. And one of them is CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. He join us now from our Washington bureau.
Good morning, Peter.

Let's start off with this one, if it's not Al Qaeda, who else could it be?

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I mean, the list is very short. There is no other group that carries out these kind of coordinated attacks, multiple targets, suicidal, obviously you know, Al Qaeda -- a spokesman last week was threatening a surprising attack, and this may well be the result of those threats or related to those threats.

So, I don't think that there are a huge number of other groups. There was a group, Saudi Hezbollah, which is believed to be behind an attack in '96 against a military facility, Khobar Towers, an attack that killed 19 American servicemen. Saudi Hezbollah is not necessarily part of Al Qaeda, although it may do business with it, but I don't think there really is an a long list of other groups that could be -- that either have the capability or the motivation to do this.

HARRIS: Is this maybe the type of the iceberg, the first of many to come? As we know, just on May 1, barely over a week and a half ago, the State Department came out and issued a very specific warning. It didn't just say that American interests around the world that perhaps were facing some danger like this, they specifically said American targets in Saudi Arabia.

BERGEN: Right. I mean, will there be others? it's hard to tell. Al Qaeda as a group tends to do spectacular attacks, and all at the same time, rather than sort of smaller attacks over a period of time. When they did the embassy bombings attacks in Africa, that was it, when they did the USS Cole" that was it and 9/11 we hoped that was it as well. I don't anticipate a lot of other attacks. I think they saved up their energies for this one spectacular attack. We're reporting already that there may be as many nine people involved in that attack. And also, there are several targets and so I doubt this is the first of a string of other attacks. I think this is probably one spectacular attack all at the same time.

HARRIS: We know that Al Qaeda has been in the past talking about it being incensed by the U.S. military's presence in Saudi Arabia on their, holy soil, as they said. The word that we've gotten in recent weeks is the Pentagon now planning to pull troops out of there, that word has already come out, been announced. One would think that would actually be lowering pressure in that region. Do you think that's having any effect at all?

BERGEN: A group like Al Qaeda is not really interested in negotiations or compromise, and even though one of their biggest gripes, continued U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, is something the United States is drawing down very, very significantly. Obviously, they don't really want Westerners of any kind in Saudi Arabia. In fact, if you think Al Qaeda's strategy in general, they switch from a strategy of attacking American political, military targets to attacking economic targets. If you look at the Yemen oil tanker that was blown up last year, also the attack on the disco in Indonesia, so I think by attacking Westerners who are obviously supporting the Saudi economy, this is part of their strategy to attack the Saudi economy, and of course that has effects on our economy.

HARRIS: I got to ask you one final question here. If you think about this, is it possible this could have been worse? There was a report coming out last week about now the Saudi government saying that now they were on lookout for some 19 persons, 17 of whom were Saudi. They may be the ones that were responsible for this today.

But we do know that when that word did come out, there was an announcement of the recovery of a cache of some 800 pounds of high level explosives when that word came out last week. If this group is the one responsible, and they had those 800 pounds of explosives last week, this could have actually been worse, could it not?

BERGEN: Well, indeed, and not only the 800 pounds of explosives that you mentioned, Leon, but also there are three or four machine guns recovered, and 55 handmade bombs, so, this particular cache of material that was recovered last week, that was very good that it was taken, seized. Obviously, it was not enough to basically prevent what happened last night.

HARRIS: Peter Bergen in Washington, thank you very much. We'll be getting back you once more information comes in on this story.

Take care, Peter.

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