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CNN Live Today
FBI Now Leading Bomb Investigation
Aired August 20, 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: We are going to begin this hour in Iraq, where FBI officials are now leading the investigation into yesterday's devastating bomb attacks at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The greatest urgency at this hour is the search for more victims who may still be behind in the rubble.
For the latest now, let's go to CNN's Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf, who is at the scene, just as she was moments after the bomb went off yesterday.
Hello, Jane.
What have you learned today?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
Well, that search for victims has slowed somewhat. Really what's going on behind us is just a mechanical operation to remove huge blocks of concrete to further the investigation.
Now, they still may find some bodies. There are four people unaccounted for, and they may still, indeed, be in there.
But it was such a huge blast. In fact, the FBI person in charge of it says that the truck was packed with a wide variety of explosives, including mortars.
Now, some of that evidence has been thrown almost across the street here, just a great distance, and they're gathering up those pieces of evidence.
The U.N. is trying to regroup, meanwhile, and figure out what it's going to do next. U.N. employees have been told not to report to work today. Any of them who want to leave the country will be allowed to leave.
And the top U.S. administrator here, L. Paul Bremer, says that the coalition authorities will work with foreign missions here. They have a meeting with the heads of missions -- diplomatic missions, international organizations -- on Friday, to offer their technical assistance on security -- Leon.
HARRIS: Jane, I know it's still very early in the wake of this bomb blast from yesterday, but has there been any clue whatsoever as to which group may be responsible for it? From what we're hearing perhaps three different groups that folks are thinking of. Perhaps al Qaeda coming in. Perhaps the Ansar Al Islam group, that had been in the northern region of Iraq. Or perhaps Saddam Hussein loyalists still there in the country. Any talk at all of who people there might think it would be?
ARRAF: So far, nothing concrete whatsoever, no claim of responsibility. Now, the finger is automatically pointed at an Al Qaeda-linked group. The one in this case is Ansar Al Islam, which had operated loosely linked to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda, of course, is a number of different organizations loosely based and loosely linked, and they have operated in north of Iraq during the war. There had been talk that they were regrouping in Baghdad, but Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator here, who is a counterterrorism specialist and the previous ambassador for counterterrorism, had said that there was no real concrete evidence it could be -- that it may be them or it may be the Fedayeen. It would have to be the Fedayeen being remnants of the former Baath Party fighters.
But it would have to be a group that had access to large amounts of explosives, and that kind of organization ability that would allow them to carry out an attack this planned and this sophisticated -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Jane, I'm being told now that we actually have some video of some new precautions being taken by the British embassy there in Baghdad. I believe that they're putting up their own barricades around the embassy. Barbed wire we're seeing here in these pictures, possibly a wall going up. Have you seen or noted any other precautions like this being taken by other nations that are being represented there in Iraq?
ARRAF: Pretty well everybody reviews their security in the wake of attacks like this. And while everyone had counted, expected on and feared a car bomb, that is one of the biggest dangers here, and that's something that anyone planning security plans for. What you do for that is what the U.N. here did in this case, is build a large wall, a concrete wall around the perimeter, but the cement truck, the suicide bomber that is believed to have breached that security didn't go near that wall. He, in fact, seemed to have gone through an access road.
Now what this attack has shown embassies and other companies planning security is that planning for a car bomb isn't enough. One has to be prepared for something with a massive explosive force of something like this truck, which means you do have to provide a much greater area of security, and you do have to take heightened precautions simply because the scale of what people are prepared to do, evidenced by this attack and the Jordanian embassy bombing is much greater than may have been originally believed -- Leon.
HARRIS: Thank you so much, Jane Arraf, reporting for us this morning, after such a long and long, difficult day there in Baghdad yesterday. Thank you very much, Jane, and nice work to you and the crew out there covering that devastating blast yesterday.
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 August 20, 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: We are going to begin this hour in Iraq, where FBI officials are now leading the investigation into yesterday's devastating bomb attacks at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The greatest urgency at this hour is the search for more victims who may still be behind in the rubble.
For the latest now, let's go to CNN's Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf, who is at the scene, just as she was moments after the bomb went off yesterday.
Hello, Jane.
What have you learned today?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
Well, that search for victims has slowed somewhat. Really what's going on behind us is just a mechanical operation to remove huge blocks of concrete to further the investigation.
Now, they still may find some bodies. There are four people unaccounted for, and they may still, indeed, be in there.
But it was such a huge blast. In fact, the FBI person in charge of it says that the truck was packed with a wide variety of explosives, including mortars.
Now, some of that evidence has been thrown almost across the street here, just a great distance, and they're gathering up those pieces of evidence.
The U.N. is trying to regroup, meanwhile, and figure out what it's going to do next. U.N. employees have been told not to report to work today. Any of them who want to leave the country will be allowed to leave.
And the top U.S. administrator here, L. Paul Bremer, says that the coalition authorities will work with foreign missions here. They have a meeting with the heads of missions -- diplomatic missions, international organizations -- on Friday, to offer their technical assistance on security -- Leon.
HARRIS: Jane, I know it's still very early in the wake of this bomb blast from yesterday, but has there been any clue whatsoever as to which group may be responsible for it? From what we're hearing perhaps three different groups that folks are thinking of. Perhaps al Qaeda coming in. Perhaps the Ansar Al Islam group, that had been in the northern region of Iraq. Or perhaps Saddam Hussein loyalists still there in the country. Any talk at all of who people there might think it would be?
ARRAF: So far, nothing concrete whatsoever, no claim of responsibility. Now, the finger is automatically pointed at an Al Qaeda-linked group. The one in this case is Ansar Al Islam, which had operated loosely linked to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda, of course, is a number of different organizations loosely based and loosely linked, and they have operated in north of Iraq during the war. There had been talk that they were regrouping in Baghdad, but Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator here, who is a counterterrorism specialist and the previous ambassador for counterterrorism, had said that there was no real concrete evidence it could be -- that it may be them or it may be the Fedayeen. It would have to be the Fedayeen being remnants of the former Baath Party fighters.
But it would have to be a group that had access to large amounts of explosives, and that kind of organization ability that would allow them to carry out an attack this planned and this sophisticated -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Jane, I'm being told now that we actually have some video of some new precautions being taken by the British embassy there in Baghdad. I believe that they're putting up their own barricades around the embassy. Barbed wire we're seeing here in these pictures, possibly a wall going up. Have you seen or noted any other precautions like this being taken by other nations that are being represented there in Iraq?
ARRAF: Pretty well everybody reviews their security in the wake of attacks like this. And while everyone had counted, expected on and feared a car bomb, that is one of the biggest dangers here, and that's something that anyone planning security plans for. What you do for that is what the U.N. here did in this case, is build a large wall, a concrete wall around the perimeter, but the cement truck, the suicide bomber that is believed to have breached that security didn't go near that wall. He, in fact, seemed to have gone through an access road.
Now what this attack has shown embassies and other companies planning security is that planning for a car bomb isn't enough. One has to be prepared for something with a massive explosive force of something like this truck, which means you do have to provide a much greater area of security, and you do have to take heightened precautions simply because the scale of what people are prepared to do, evidenced by this attack and the Jordanian embassy bombing is much greater than may have been originally believed -- Leon.
HARRIS: Thank you so much, Jane Arraf, reporting for us this morning, after such a long and long, difficult day there in Baghdad yesterday. Thank you very much, Jane, and nice work to you and the crew out there covering that devastating blast yesterday.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
