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CNN Live Saturday

Government Sources Report Ominous Intercepted al Qaeda Messages

Aired May 18, 2002 - 17:02   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: Let us begin now with the latest details on those intercepted al Qaeda messages warning another terrorist operation is in the works. CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us with that.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka.

U.S. officials describe what they are hearing as troubling enough to generate what one official called a heightened level of concern within the administration.

We are told U.S. intelligence agencies are picking up what they call an increased level of chatter and activity, and one source telling CNN, "the volume," the volume of communications among al Qaeda operatives, this official saying, "has definitely picked up in the last month or so."

This official and others, though, saying this information nonspecific, no specifics as to time, no target, no location. But U.S. officials are saying the pattern that they are seeing is quite similar to the pattern that they saw last Spring and Summer.

That is when U.S. officials were very, very concerned that something big, a big al Qaeda plot, could be in the works. And you'll recall U.S. officials tell us this week all that activity prompted President Bush to ask for an up-to-date briefing on what Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network could be up to and the disclosure this past week, we learned the president given a memo by his CIA briefer in early August and in that memo it was suggested a possibility that al Qaeda could consider hijacking an American plane.

Now Vice President Cheney was up in New York on Thursday giving a speech. During that speech he was warning Democrats not to play politics with any investigation into the pre-9/11 warnings, but during that speech the vice president gave a few comments which seemed to indicate he and other aides are growing increasingly concerned about another terrorist attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The investigation that is undertaken must protect sensitive sources and methods. It must be devoid of leaks and it must avoid sensational and outrageous commentary.

Perhaps most important, an investigation must not interfere with the ongoing efforts to prevent the next attack, because without a doubt a very real threat of another, perhaps more devastating attack, still exists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now one source also saying the credibility of some of this information is questionable. Still, the volume, the chatter, the activity has U.S. officials very concerned. The vice president will be appearing on Sunday interview programs, as will Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser. So Fredricka, we can expect those officials to be asked about these new developments.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kelly Wallace at the White House, thank you very much.

Are U.S. intelligence teams better equipped to intercept or interpret such potential terrorist plots post 9/11? We're joined now by "Time Magazine" correspondent Elaine Shannon. She is joining us from Washington. Thank you for joining us.

ELAINE SHANNON, TIME MAGAZINE: Thank you.

The administration, as Kelly just said, indicates intercepting information such as this new al Qaeda memo information has only picked up since 9/11. Is this an indicator of a more proactive intelligence arm?

SHANNON: They have certainly tried to be, and the story, I've got absolute confirmation of it from my sources -- a lot of chatter, very nonspecific. I think the administration is confirming it because they want to show people what they are up against when they get this flood of warnings.

It is, again, talking about something happening overseas, but if you remember in the pre-9/11 period we got a lot of those and there are now some people who wonder if some of that might have been disinformation to distract us from the coming attack domestically.

WHITFIELD: How much of a concern would it be among administration and intelligence folks, that having so many of these warnings coming at once, particularly now after 9/11, that eventually there may be some complacency, that this might be a "cry wolf" sort of syndrome in the making?

SHANNON: The people I know who work six-and-a-half days a week, about 14-hour days at the FBI, and I am sure the CIA is the same thing, I do not think they are in any danger of getting complacent. Bob Mueller has done a lot to beef up the FBI so that they really look hard at everything, no matter how wispy or remote, and that they share this with the CIA and the NSA and that they are all talking from the same page in real time, not moving paper by courier across town.

They're now on a secure Internet and trying to really get in real time everything, no matter how weird.

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about the revamping of the FBI, the CIA, et cetera. Mueller has made it very clear he wants to hire hundreds more agents, wants to put up a new headquarters of sorts in Washington in order to better handle such intelligence issues such as all of these warnings that come in.

Are we starting to see that already, some of his ideas are already in the making, already working?

SHANNON: Absolutely. Yes. What he's done, it is not a new headquarters but it is a new analytical shop called the Office of Intelligence, that will report directly to the assistant director for counter terrorism. Instead of being way down in the bowels of the thing, it will be run by somebody from probably the CIA, from the intelligence community.

They're hiring academics, people with area studies, linguists, because in the past the analytical shop has been people who didn't have that specialized academic background to do this.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks very much, Elaine Shannon with "Time Magazine." Thanks for joining us.

SHANNON: Thank you.

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