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The Killing of Bin Laden; What's Next for Al Qaeda?

Aired May 02, 2011 - 14:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You have been listening for about 50 minutes to the White House briefing. John Brennan, just a couple of highlights to tell you about John Brennan, the counterterrorism adviser to the president said that if they had the opportunity to take Osama Bin Laden alive they would have, but clearly they did not.

And another thing that was interesting is the build-up of the confidence once they started to learn they had the man. First they knew that the injured man looked like Osama Bin Laden and then certainly they did the facial recognition technology and then they did the DNA testing just today.

So they are confident they had their man and they talked about how it felt to announce that to the world we got him. And as far as the release of the photographs of Osama Bin Laden, they are not sure if that will be released.

In the meantime, I can tell you that in the meantime, Osama Bin Laden had taken lives well before September 11th. Certainly well before the attacks in 2001, and a year prior al Qaeda bombed the "USS Cole" in 2000 killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 more.

And joining us is now is the ship's commander, Kirk Lippold who was aboard when it was attacked. Commander, thank you for coming on the show today. What do you think that the death of Bin Laden means for your crew and the families of those killed back in 2000?

COMMANDER KIRK LIPPOLD, USN (RET.), FORMER USS COLE COMMANDER: I think that both the crew and the families are very proud and happy this has happened. It is a source of vindication that the United States will be relentless in pursuing those who threaten our nation and kill our citizens.

And that we will bring them to justice. This serves as a measure of justice for those families, but even with that said, it was tempered by the fact that my crew lost loved ones.

My crew lost shipmates and friends, and that is going to give them a little bit of pause to remember them and the loss that all of us suffered.

KAYE: When you first heard that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, what did you think it would mean for the morale of all of the soldiers in the Army and the Navy and the Marines? LIPPOLD: Well I think that as you saw the cameras going around, I think that morale was boosted by this. It was a major blow to the head of al Qaeda. He served as the head.

So to take out the head even though it does not cripple the organization and we do face threats from al Qaeda, the reality of it is that this is a major blow for freedom and the justice that we so dearly deserved.

KAYE: And I understand that you have actually taken part in some of these, in some of the burials at sea similar to how they may have buried Osama Bin Laden, and what can you tell us about that process, and what takes place this is?

LIPPOLD: It is a very formal and very respectful ceremony having participated in them and actually conducted them. When they bring the body on board, it is always treated with respect.

There is always an honor guard held over the body, and we do follow the religion custom of whatever the individual is that is being buried, and when we bury them at sea, we do it with respect.

KAYE: So, there would have been honors for Osama Bin Laden, do you believe?

LIPPOLD: I doubt that. I think that he was treated in accordance with the Muslim tradition, but I doubt that there were honors accorded to his body, and I can't imagine that occurring.

But I'm sure that he was brought on board, treated respectfully, after all it is an individual, and we are going to send them to their final resting place, but nonetheless, I doubt that we rendered in honors whatsoever.

KAYE: Are you concerned at all that al Qaeda may strike in response to this?

LIPPOLD: There's no doubt in my mind that al Qaeda right now is planning to conduct, and probably speed up several operations that had been in the planning phase. They are going to strike. It is just going to be a matter of when and how hard.

Given that we have disrupted several intelligence and disrupted several plots in the past, hopefully we will get the tips and the indicators to do that again. We have to be able to use these intelligence resources.

Obviously, this operation was years in the making to be able to take those small shreds of evidence to use them to build an intelligence picture that finally allowed this president to be able to make that final decision to say, we have what we need for intelligence.

We're confirm that this is the individual we are after, and we have the military resources and capability in place to be able to conduct a successful operation, and ultimately the president signed off, and they executed a very successful mission that went of virtually flawlessly from the word we are getting.

KAYE: All right. Commander, thank you very much, and we appreciate your insight. And this is a very important day for you. Thank you.

LIPPOLD: Thank you.

KAYE: And as we told you that Osama Bin Laden -- thank you. We have been telling you that Osama Bin Laden is dead, killed by U.S. Navy SEALS in a raid in Pakistan.

The big question now is of course what impact does Bin Laden's death have on the terrorist group that he created and of course, that group is al Qaeda.

Joining us to talk about this is Steve Cole. He's the president of the New America Foundation and a contributor for the "New Yorker" magazine. He is also the author of "Ghost Wars, the Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and the Bin Laden, an Arabian Family in the American Century."

Thanks for joining us. Tell me do you think that al Qaeda will be as deadly as it was now with Bin Laden gone?

STEVE COLL, PRESIDENT, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: In the long run, no. Al Qaeda was already in decline. It had lost popularity in the Muslim society steadily over the last few years, but part of its resilience was reflected in the resilience of Osama Bin Laden's success in eluding capture and his ability to continue to speak to his followers and sympathizers about the kind of war that he imagined he was leading.

I think after his passing, it is unlikely that any leader would emerge with the same kind of myths and sort of spiritual presence and credibility that he had among those who followed him. And so, I do believe it will accelerate the decline of al Qaeda, which in many ways was already under way.

However, as the previous speaker pointed out, this is a resilient military organization, and a small number of people can do a lot of damage to this world and so I am not suggesting that the threat that al Qaeda poses is going to go away any time soon.

KAYE: I'm curious how much of a role he still played this the day-to-day operations. Do you have any insight on that?

COLL: Well, nobody really knows. Obviously, there's not a lot of evidence about that. We know that he obviously had some contact with the followers because he was able to get the messages out so regularly.

His history even before he was under the kind of pressure that sent him into hiding was to operate more as a chairman of the board than as a chief operating officer. So he was more likely to receive proposals for attacks, targets and plans and to say yes to this or no to that.

I would imagine that even hiding in Pakistan he was still able occasionally to pass judgment about directions, should we go after the mainland United States, what's our strategy in Europe and perhaps he authorized particular plots.

But obviously the visibility into his role was dim because nobody was able to even locate him for a number of years.

KAYE: And just real quick here, because we have 30 seconds left, how much do you think that the Pakistani government knew about bin laden's whereabouts in Pakistan?

COLL: Well, I think the circumstances of his capture raise the question. He was in a town that is dominated by the Pakistan army and the home he was in for apparently years at a time was in close proximity to Pakistan's Westpoint. I think that the questions are going to persist.

KAYE: All right, we appreciate your insight as always. Thank you.

Our coverage continues now with Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper. They will be here right after this very quick break.

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