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Will Saudis Be Cooperative With Bombing Investigation?

Aired May 13, 2003 - 11:19   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: Now, Mike Brooks, our analyst here, is joining us right now, and Mike was the leader of that first FBI team that was sent to investigate that 1996 bombing at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that Andrea just mentioned.
All right, Mike, let's talk about this. This FBI team that we just now heard or heard a while ago is heading over there. What about that team? What is it that the team is comprised of? What is the first thing that they are going to be doing?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, this team is going over there right now, Leon, and I was talking to some of my sources who said the assessment team going there right now, they are just going to go over and take a look at the crime scenes, see exactly how many teams that they are going to need from the rapid deployment team, from their emergency response teams, from the critical instance response group, that they're going to have to take all their equipment, all the personnel, and get over there. As well as an investigative arm.

When you get on the scene of one of these -- for instance, Khobar Towers -- when we got on the scene, we split up into two teams. You split up into a forensics team, which I was one of the team leaders, and then you also had an investigative team that was going to hook up with the Saudis, hook up with the Air Force officials there, since it was an Air Force base, and start their investigative process while we went out, surveyed the scene to try to find out exactly No. 1, what kind of explosive was used, what kind of bomb was used, the delivery vehicle, and who might be responsible for this, comparing it with other explosive devices that we have seen at other bombing sites. So they're going to basically split up into two teams, and then they are going to go ahead and set up a command post there to coordinate all their efforts on the ground.

HARRIS: We talked about this off-camera a bit. They're actually going to have more information to work with this time around because of what has been learned about al Qaeda and its operations since -- 9/11, even, if you will, because of what we learned through the documents that we have found.

BROOKS: Well, you look at some of the training manuals and some of their explosive school had a beginning, advanced, intermediate explosives school. We have seen some similarities already in some of the other bombings that we have looked at going back to 1995, the OPM Sang (ph) bombing. The Khobar Towers, which we were never able to say, specifically, that it was al Qaeda involved. They believe they may have had some funding. If we believe it was maybe a small group there in Saudi Arabia that was backed by Iran. Then we go to some of the other bombings, the simultaneous bombings in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya in '98. Then you look at Mombasa. Again, same kind of explosive there that they believe was used at the embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Very similar.

HARRIS: But the big question, though, the one that was raised this morning already, at least three or four times by John King and by Andrea Koppel as well, Saudi cooperation. That is the big key here, is it not?

BROOKS: Big key. Early stages of investigation, we got to the crime scene, they were a little hesitant to even let us into the crime scene. We had a problem because we had female agents with us, and they didn't want to let some of the female agents out on there because of Saudi law. But because the crime scene actually was just outside of the U.S. base there in Khobar Towers, but we were able to work through that. But then, during the investigation, we're digging through some of the sand, sifting sand. And then, all of a sudden, the Saudis bring up this piece of axle with a number on it that they apparently had gotten in the early stages. We thought that was a hindrance to our investigation.

On the investigative side of things, they were not being cooperative on letting the FBI agents and the Saudi teams out into the community to do interviews with the Saudi citizens there. They weren't very cooperative, but they worked through some of that. But still, it was some real problems.

HARRIS: But a lot has changed since then, Mike, politically especially. Saudi Arabia had been very concerned about its image here in this country. Do you think that's going to help or hurt?

BROOKS: I think they are concerned about their image, but we go back right now -- talking to some of my sources this morning, had the cooperation been as good as it should be, that assessment team should have left last night, but they were still working on exactly the politics. Because the Saudis are basically saying, It's not your embassy, it is not a military base, we don't need as big a team as you had had in 1996 coming over here. We can handle it with what we have here. Well, that's not true, and the FBI is going to be pushing for that because they want to make sure that they send a full forensic team over there to make sure they do a thorough investigation.

HARRIS: Obviously at the tip of the iceberg.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

HARRIS: Mike Brooks, thank you. Appreciate that insight.

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 - 11:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, Mike Brooks, our analyst here, is joining us right now, and Mike was the leader of that first FBI team that was sent to investigate that 1996 bombing at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that Andrea just mentioned.
All right, Mike, let's talk about this. This FBI team that we just now heard or heard a while ago is heading over there. What about that team? What is it that the team is comprised of? What is the first thing that they are going to be doing?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, this team is going over there right now, Leon, and I was talking to some of my sources who said the assessment team going there right now, they are just going to go over and take a look at the crime scenes, see exactly how many teams that they are going to need from the rapid deployment team, from their emergency response teams, from the critical instance response group, that they're going to have to take all their equipment, all the personnel, and get over there. As well as an investigative arm.

When you get on the scene of one of these -- for instance, Khobar Towers -- when we got on the scene, we split up into two teams. You split up into a forensics team, which I was one of the team leaders, and then you also had an investigative team that was going to hook up with the Saudis, hook up with the Air Force officials there, since it was an Air Force base, and start their investigative process while we went out, surveyed the scene to try to find out exactly No. 1, what kind of explosive was used, what kind of bomb was used, the delivery vehicle, and who might be responsible for this, comparing it with other explosive devices that we have seen at other bombing sites. So they're going to basically split up into two teams, and then they are going to go ahead and set up a command post there to coordinate all their efforts on the ground.

HARRIS: We talked about this off-camera a bit. They're actually going to have more information to work with this time around because of what has been learned about al Qaeda and its operations since -- 9/11, even, if you will, because of what we learned through the documents that we have found.

BROOKS: Well, you look at some of the training manuals and some of their explosive school had a beginning, advanced, intermediate explosives school. We have seen some similarities already in some of the other bombings that we have looked at going back to 1995, the OPM Sang (ph) bombing. The Khobar Towers, which we were never able to say, specifically, that it was al Qaeda involved. They believe they may have had some funding. If we believe it was maybe a small group there in Saudi Arabia that was backed by Iran. Then we go to some of the other bombings, the simultaneous bombings in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya in '98. Then you look at Mombasa. Again, same kind of explosive there that they believe was used at the embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Very similar.

HARRIS: But the big question, though, the one that was raised this morning already, at least three or four times by John King and by Andrea Koppel as well, Saudi cooperation. That is the big key here, is it not?

BROOKS: Big key. Early stages of investigation, we got to the crime scene, they were a little hesitant to even let us into the crime scene. We had a problem because we had female agents with us, and they didn't want to let some of the female agents out on there because of Saudi law. But because the crime scene actually was just outside of the U.S. base there in Khobar Towers, but we were able to work through that. But then, during the investigation, we're digging through some of the sand, sifting sand. And then, all of a sudden, the Saudis bring up this piece of axle with a number on it that they apparently had gotten in the early stages. We thought that was a hindrance to our investigation.

On the investigative side of things, they were not being cooperative on letting the FBI agents and the Saudi teams out into the community to do interviews with the Saudi citizens there. They weren't very cooperative, but they worked through some of that. But still, it was some real problems.

HARRIS: But a lot has changed since then, Mike, politically especially. Saudi Arabia had been very concerned about its image here in this country. Do you think that's going to help or hurt?

BROOKS: I think they are concerned about their image, but we go back right now -- talking to some of my sources this morning, had the cooperation been as good as it should be, that assessment team should have left last night, but they were still working on exactly the politics. Because the Saudis are basically saying, It's not your embassy, it is not a military base, we don't need as big a team as you had had in 1996 coming over here. We can handle it with what we have here. Well, that's not true, and the FBI is going to be pushing for that because they want to make sure that they send a full forensic team over there to make sure they do a thorough investigation.

HARRIS: Obviously at the tip of the iceberg.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

HARRIS: Mike Brooks, thank you. Appreciate that insight.

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