Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
International Wrap, Eye on World
Aired May 22, 2003 - 06:37 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: Let's talk more terror now. A new al Qaeda tape has surfaced, but is it authentic?
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is with us to sort it all out.
And we just don't know yet.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol, it's very frustrating. We talked about this earlier, this al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's No. 2. According to Al-Jazeera, this is his voice there, this sound yesterday, we were reporting the story.
It's frustrating for two reasons -- one, because we don't know whether it's him or not. You've heard reporting today that the U.S. administration is not at all convinced that it's him. And secondly, just frustrating because, as Colin Powell has made clear very angrily yesterday, the U.S. administration is furious with Al-Jazeera for airing these things in the first place.
But nevertheless, it's there, it's out there. We have to report on this.
COSTELLO: Do we know why Al-Jazeera chose to air this tape?
CLINCH: We don't. You can imagine, and it has been reported, that al Qaeda is very interested in getting this kind of thing out just before Memorial Day holiday. Something that we don't know is why Al-Jazeera chose to put it on their air yesterday.
But in our coverage of this, of these tapes and of the terror level threat being increased, one of the things we've wanted to talk about are lessons we've learned from our coverage in Israel. Reading a lot in the Israeli newspapers this week about all of these years of Israel trying everything militarily, intelligence, security, to stop terrorism, and they haven't been able to do it. It's commonly acknowledged that no matter what you do, it will happen.
Sometimes boiling down to just something very cold-blooded, a story we saw last week. A young 19-year-old Palestinian girl -- it's hard to imagine -- strapped explosives to herself, goes to a restaurant in Israel, tries to blow it up, stopped by a 20-year-old Israeli girl who is working as a bouncer/security -- there's a picture of the Israeli girl there, you can see just working there just as a security guard, a bouncer basically -- stops her going in. She now -- this Israeli girl -- the suicide bomber, of course, dead -- but the Israeli girl is fighting for her life in a hospital in Israel. I'm asking Kelly Wallace, who is in Jerusalem, to do a piece on that story just to illustrate how sometimes these things, despite all of the big issues, boil down to just human beings.
COSTELLO: Definitely so. David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
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 22, 2003 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more terror now. A new al Qaeda tape has surfaced, but is it authentic?
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is with us to sort it all out.
And we just don't know yet.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol, it's very frustrating. We talked about this earlier, this al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's No. 2. According to Al-Jazeera, this is his voice there, this sound yesterday, we were reporting the story.
It's frustrating for two reasons -- one, because we don't know whether it's him or not. You've heard reporting today that the U.S. administration is not at all convinced that it's him. And secondly, just frustrating because, as Colin Powell has made clear very angrily yesterday, the U.S. administration is furious with Al-Jazeera for airing these things in the first place.
But nevertheless, it's there, it's out there. We have to report on this.
COSTELLO: Do we know why Al-Jazeera chose to air this tape?
CLINCH: We don't. You can imagine, and it has been reported, that al Qaeda is very interested in getting this kind of thing out just before Memorial Day holiday. Something that we don't know is why Al-Jazeera chose to put it on their air yesterday.
But in our coverage of this, of these tapes and of the terror level threat being increased, one of the things we've wanted to talk about are lessons we've learned from our coverage in Israel. Reading a lot in the Israeli newspapers this week about all of these years of Israel trying everything militarily, intelligence, security, to stop terrorism, and they haven't been able to do it. It's commonly acknowledged that no matter what you do, it will happen.
Sometimes boiling down to just something very cold-blooded, a story we saw last week. A young 19-year-old Palestinian girl -- it's hard to imagine -- strapped explosives to herself, goes to a restaurant in Israel, tries to blow it up, stopped by a 20-year-old Israeli girl who is working as a bouncer/security -- there's a picture of the Israeli girl there, you can see just working there just as a security guard, a bouncer basically -- stops her going in. She now -- this Israeli girl -- the suicide bomber, of course, dead -- but the Israeli girl is fighting for her life in a hospital in Israel. I'm asking Kelly Wallace, who is in Jerusalem, to do a piece on that story just to illustrate how sometimes these things, despite all of the big issues, boil down to just human beings.
COSTELLO: Definitely so. David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
