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CNN Live Sunday

New Suspected Terrorist Videotape Sparks Concerns Of Secret Signals

Aired December 07, 2003 - 16:16   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, concerns about secret signals, a new suspected terrorist videotape and mounting chatter about a possible attack peaked the interest of intelligence officials. Could al Qaeda be planning something big?
Terrorism expert, Jim Walsh, is here to discuss these latest developments and what it could mean for the overall war on terrorism here at home and overseas. And good to see you. Usually we see you in snowy Boston. You'd be stuck there. But instead, now you're stuck here in Atlanta.

(CROSSTALK)

JIM WALSH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: I'm stuck here, yes. Well, I'm down in Atlanta to honor a high school teacher of mine, George Minger (ph). He's probably one of the reasons I'm sitting here. So I couldn't miss it. I came down, and now I can't leave.

WHITFIELD: Well, I'm glad he's sharing you with us, then. All right. Well, let's talk about these latest threats and how this is kind of reshaping or peaking the interest of intelligence officials.

We just heard in Walter Rodgers' report that perhaps there is an anticipation there might be more attacks in Iraq. Likely from Iraqi guerrillas, but are we also expecting that there may be some foreign terrorists that may be involved in these expected increased attacks?

WALSH: It's a great question, Fredricka, in part because just this week we had a report from an Italian magistrate who issued a study saying that al Qaeda has cells throughout Europe from Norway down to Italy, recruiting members and then sending them to an underground railroad to Iraq. Now, on the ground, U.S. generals are saying they're not finding foreign fighters, they're not finding al Qaeda members. But it appears as if al Qaeda is using the Iraqi war to recruit new members.

WHITFIELD: And we talk about recruiting, not just in Europe, but also Africa is another place in which there had been some patterns or alleged patterns of some recruiting taking place there.

WALSH: Absolutely. Let me -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

WHITFIELD: And so I'm wondering, with places such as Saudi Arabia as well, which has now revealed that it will be listing some suspected terrorists, many of whom are Saudis, how are all of these countries trying to work together to try to avert any potential attack?

WALSH: Well, I think you're right to point not only to Europe, but to northern Africa and Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, where I'm sure there's more intensive recruiting, and especially Saudi Arabia. Because we've had that tape this week, and you'll notice that many of the faces on that tape were hidden. Those are folks who are probably still alive and planning additional operations.

And I think it's certainly gotten the attention of Saudi authorities. If the first attack didn't, and if the second attack didn't, certainly the tape is sort of an announcement, here, we're going after you again. And I think that's bad news, because the Saudi government is probably going to use every measure available to them to go after these guys.

They need to be gone after. But it could be a very ugly and nasty fight between security forces in Saudi Arabia and the terrorists. And who knows what the consequences of that will be.

WHITFIELD: And let's talk about that tape. Some remarkable things. Not only you mentioned the blotted out faces, but instead of this tape being first released on something, say, like Al-Jazeera, which is how we have seen that pattern take place, instead now a Web site. What does this mean about verification, about its authenticity, about being able to understand when this tape may have been dated?

WALSH: Well, it points to a real problem, and it points to a problem that you raised in your initial question about, we have chatter, we have a tape, what does it mean? What are intelligence officials suppose to make of all of this? And I think part of the problem is we used to have a set of indicators.

A videotape usually meant an attack. Increased chatter might have meant an attack. But that was when al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan, when bin Laden could order issues. It was a different type of organization.

Now, two years later, it's spread out. It's a distributed network. We have lots of autonomous cells going off and doing their own thing, and maybe providing videotapes on their own to Web sites.

And so now we don't know quite what to maybe of a videotape. Does it really mean there's going to be an attack or not? Does an increase in chatter mean an attack or not? Our indicators have proven less reliable as we have gone on and on in this battle.

WHITFIELD: OK. Jim Walsh, good to see you. Thanks very much.

WALSH: Great to see you.

WHITFIELD: Glad to have you here.

WALSH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And hopefully you'll make it back to Boston, no problem. WALSH: I hope so.

WHITFIELD: All right. You will.

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





Secret Signals>


Aired December 7, 2003 - 16:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, concerns about secret signals, a new suspected terrorist videotape and mounting chatter about a possible attack peaked the interest of intelligence officials. Could al Qaeda be planning something big?
Terrorism expert, Jim Walsh, is here to discuss these latest developments and what it could mean for the overall war on terrorism here at home and overseas. And good to see you. Usually we see you in snowy Boston. You'd be stuck there. But instead, now you're stuck here in Atlanta.

(CROSSTALK)

JIM WALSH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: I'm stuck here, yes. Well, I'm down in Atlanta to honor a high school teacher of mine, George Minger (ph). He's probably one of the reasons I'm sitting here. So I couldn't miss it. I came down, and now I can't leave.

WHITFIELD: Well, I'm glad he's sharing you with us, then. All right. Well, let's talk about these latest threats and how this is kind of reshaping or peaking the interest of intelligence officials.

We just heard in Walter Rodgers' report that perhaps there is an anticipation there might be more attacks in Iraq. Likely from Iraqi guerrillas, but are we also expecting that there may be some foreign terrorists that may be involved in these expected increased attacks?

WALSH: It's a great question, Fredricka, in part because just this week we had a report from an Italian magistrate who issued a study saying that al Qaeda has cells throughout Europe from Norway down to Italy, recruiting members and then sending them to an underground railroad to Iraq. Now, on the ground, U.S. generals are saying they're not finding foreign fighters, they're not finding al Qaeda members. But it appears as if al Qaeda is using the Iraqi war to recruit new members.

WHITFIELD: And we talk about recruiting, not just in Europe, but also Africa is another place in which there had been some patterns or alleged patterns of some recruiting taking place there.

WALSH: Absolutely. Let me -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

WHITFIELD: And so I'm wondering, with places such as Saudi Arabia as well, which has now revealed that it will be listing some suspected terrorists, many of whom are Saudis, how are all of these countries trying to work together to try to avert any potential attack?

WALSH: Well, I think you're right to point not only to Europe, but to northern Africa and Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, where I'm sure there's more intensive recruiting, and especially Saudi Arabia. Because we've had that tape this week, and you'll notice that many of the faces on that tape were hidden. Those are folks who are probably still alive and planning additional operations.

And I think it's certainly gotten the attention of Saudi authorities. If the first attack didn't, and if the second attack didn't, certainly the tape is sort of an announcement, here, we're going after you again. And I think that's bad news, because the Saudi government is probably going to use every measure available to them to go after these guys.

They need to be gone after. But it could be a very ugly and nasty fight between security forces in Saudi Arabia and the terrorists. And who knows what the consequences of that will be.

WHITFIELD: And let's talk about that tape. Some remarkable things. Not only you mentioned the blotted out faces, but instead of this tape being first released on something, say, like Al-Jazeera, which is how we have seen that pattern take place, instead now a Web site. What does this mean about verification, about its authenticity, about being able to understand when this tape may have been dated?

WALSH: Well, it points to a real problem, and it points to a problem that you raised in your initial question about, we have chatter, we have a tape, what does it mean? What are intelligence officials suppose to make of all of this? And I think part of the problem is we used to have a set of indicators.

A videotape usually meant an attack. Increased chatter might have meant an attack. But that was when al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan, when bin Laden could order issues. It was a different type of organization.

Now, two years later, it's spread out. It's a distributed network. We have lots of autonomous cells going off and doing their own thing, and maybe providing videotapes on their own to Web sites.

And so now we don't know quite what to maybe of a videotape. Does it really mean there's going to be an attack or not? Does an increase in chatter mean an attack or not? Our indicators have proven less reliable as we have gone on and on in this battle.

WHITFIELD: OK. Jim Walsh, good to see you. Thanks very much.

WALSH: Great to see you.

WHITFIELD: Glad to have you here.

WALSH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And hopefully you'll make it back to Boston, no problem. WALSH: I hope so.

WHITFIELD: All right. You will.

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





Secret Signals>