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CNN Live Saturday
A Look at War on Terrorism
Aired May 17, 2003 - 18:00 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is it a new round of terror from Al Qaeda? That is what authorities in Morocco are trying to figure out. They are detaining, after a string of bombings. We're going to have a lot more of that coming up in the next hour.
Suicide bombers, last night, hit five different locations in Casablanca, Morocco's largest city, 31 people were killed, more than 100 were wounded. And 10 of the attackers died. The attacks came just hours after American and British officials warned that Al Qaeda was poised to strike again.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux says the White House is condemning the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Bush administration condemned the terrorist attacks in Casablanca as despicable.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a statement said, "We deeply appreciate the leadership shown by King Mohamed VI, and the Kingdom of Morocco in the international campaign against terrorism, and the United States of America will continue to stand together with Morocco against this threat to both our nations and all peace-loving people."
U.S. officials say there are no confirmed reports of American casualties or damage to U.S. facilities in Casablanca. Even so, a White House spokesman added, "The U.S. will assist Moroccan officials in finding those responsible."
In fact, U.S. diplomatic security personnel are on the ground already working with Moroccan officials. The State Department says it would be premature to say who was responsible for the attacks or who the terrorists were targeting.
But President Bush, in his weekly radio address, taped before the Moroccan attacks, makes it clear. For the U.S. Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government is taking unprecedented measures to defend the homeland.
And from Pakistan to the Philippines, to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down Al Qaeda killers. MALVEAUX: A well-placed U.S. counter-terrorism official told CNN, while intelligence so far shows no direct link to Al Qaeda, there is a strong suspicion that they were behind the Moroccan bombings. And terrorism experts agree.
PETER BERGEN, TERRORISM ANALYST: Al Qaeda has made it clear since October of last year that they're willing to attack any kind of Western target, and particularly soft targets and economic targets. Morocco is very dependent on tourism. Clearly, these attacks will put a huge damper on that.
MALVEAUX: The attacks come at a time when Morocco and the U.S. are in the final stages of establishing a trade agreement, which would open markets for the North African nation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: But even with the free trade agreement there is some concern that people will be reluctant to travel to or invest in high- risk locations. And these days, determining where the next high-risk location may be has become increasingly difficult.
Anderson?
COOPER: Is the White House or the administration saying anything about new travel restrictions?
MALVEAUX: Well, essentially they're saying check with the State Department. Always be vigilant about where you are, always be careful of your surroundings. But if you have any questions about where you should or should not travel, State Department will put out official warnings as they become warranted.
COOPER: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks very much.
U.S. officials are bracing for more attacks. Al Qaeda operatives are expected to target so-called soft targets. What exactly does that mean? CNN's Chris Plante is at the Pentagon with more -- Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson.
Well, officials I spoke to today do suggest that it certainly looks like the work of Al Qaeda and that they appear to be changing focus a little bit, going after undefended civilians in unexpected places.
CIA Director George Tenet gave the commencement address at Georgetown University today, where he spoke to the students about the challenge facing them in the future.
Well, Mr. Tenet said that the United States would continue to face the threat from terrorism wherever it may be, and that American families and listing victims from the recent terrorists around the world, said that these countries will not idly by and allow these terrorist attacks to take place -- Anderson. COOPER: Chris, we're hearing that another one of Saddam Hussein former henchmen, a pretty important one has been captured, what's the latest on that?
PLANTE: Well, that's right. Another senior member of the regime apparently turned himself in to coalition forces within the last 24 hours. He was No. 10 on the list of the top 55 most wanted. He was also the "Queen of Clubs" in the now famous deck of cards. His name is General Kamal Mustafa Abdullah Sultan al-Tikriti. A significant member of the regime, and U.S. officials hoping that he will be able to provide them with significant information as to the whereabouts of elements of their weapons of mass destruction program.
Anderson.
COOPER: And I also understand there is some new information about Iraq's looted antiquities?
PLANTE: Well, that's right. In fact, some major developments on that, that haven't been getting a lot of attention. It appears that the initial reports were that approximately 170,000 items were looted from the museum there in Baghdad, which was pretty much everything in their inventory.
Now that officials have gone through the process, worked with museum officials there in Baghdad, who as it turns out hid away most of the antiquities from the museum there even before the U.S. forces reached Baghdad. It now looks like there may be as few as 42, that's right, 42. Not 170,000, but 42 items missing from that museum. Still very important, of course, but a lot of international organizations working to find out where those 42 items are. But major shift in that story there, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, it certainly is. I guess, some good news for those who consider this a major story.
Chris, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
PLANTE: Thanks.
COOPER: U.S. intelligence officials are saying this is a scary time, what with the attacks in Morocco, and of course, last week's bombing in Saudi Arabia. There is a lot of chatter out there about another big attack from Al Qaeda. No one is sure when it could happen, of course. CNN's Kelli Arena says intelligence officials believe they know who is behind the bombings in Riyadh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: More U.S. investigators are on the ground in Saudi Arabia. They are there to assist the Saudis in tracking down the people responsible for the attacks in Riyadh. U.S. officials say there is new intelligence suggesting Al Qaeda leader Saif al-Adel, played a major role in those attacks. They also say information suggests that he is in Iran. Investigators say there is increasing evidence that Al Qaeda continues to recruit and plan new attacks, not only overseas but in the United States as well. In the last two months, U.S. officials say, there were at least two arrests of Middle Eastern men suspected of conducting surveillance for Al Qaeda. Officials are keeping their identity secret, but say that they were part of a larger group of Al Qaeda suspects who have been arrested in the United States in recent months.
Kelly Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: All right, with all the suspected terrorist attacks going on, on an international level, how is the U.S. faring with security here at home? Right now the threat level in the U.S. is at yellow, or elevated. Two major tests were held this week in Chicago and Seattle to see how emergency officials would react to another terrorist attack here. CNN's Security Analyst Kelly McCann is in Washington checking out the latest marks on the terrorism report card.
Kelly, good to see you again. First, let's talk briefly about this test. How did it go here in the U.S.?
J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I think it went as well as exercises do, Anderson. You know, I mean, there designed to push the envelope. There were some significant events that were played. There was a crash at Midway Airport that was in the exercise. There was the release of radiological material in Seattle. There was the release of plague in Chicago, the collapse of a four-story building. All within five days, exercised in to locations. So, that really did push the envelope.
Now, what it didn't really push, and what critics are quick to point out, is that the logistics side wasn't exercised as well as it could have been. But you know, it is hard when you're doing exercises to get the level of realism that approaches the real kind of extreme event it you will, what these are based on. '
So, all in all, I think that most are happy with the way the exercise went and well worth $16 million.
COOPER: Well, there could be a lot of after-action reports. I'm not sure how much the public is going to actually learn about the details of those, but we'll try to get as much information as we can when those come out.
Let's move and talk about the latest bombings, not only in Morocco but also in Saudi Arabia. All the earmarks of Al Qaeda, simultaneous attacks, multiple bombings at one time, is this a new face of Al Qaeda?
MCCANN: I think that the players are new of course, but as you and I have spoke about for months, one of the single biggest things that is always present is surveillance on both sides, both the U.S. and its allies surveilling those who would do us harm, and also Al Qaeda conducting surveillance, pretty in-depth surveillance on particular targets. So they can develop a target list, where they'll have the chance of the best success.
Until regions really get their hands around fixed-point surveillance detection and the ability to look at and see pre-incident indicators, they are still missing the mark somewhat.
COOPER: Interesting choice of targets in Morocco, not particularly U.S. targets, but certainly U.S. allies. A Jewish social club or a cultural center, also I believe, a Spanish cultural center, significance there?
MCCANN: Perhaps a message, that if you're allied with the U.S. and other strong allies, like the U.K, then you are at risk as well. Similar to the message sent to the House of Assad, Riyadh. So, very crafty; nothing new there. I mean these are very intelligence people who are waging the war against us. But in fact, there are significant assets in motion right now against them. So, it is in fact, both sides trying to mitigate the other's dynamic actions in this war on terror.
COOPER: I talked Peter Bergen, about this earlier this morning, another CNN analyst, I was interested to hear your perspective. He was saying, in some respects, it is kind of like Al Qaeda shooting themselves in the foot. Basically, a lot of Moroccans killed in this latest bombing. A lot of Saudis killed in the bombings in Saudi Arabia. Not the kind of thing you want to be doing if you're trying to get a groundswell of support in those communities.
MCCANN: In fact, they did kill more Muslims than they did Westerners. And it continues to be the kind of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that no matter what diplomatic actions are taken, no matter what kind of mitigating responses are out there. They are continually going forward on this kind of irreversible approach. And I think that at some point most rational people in the world, Anderson, will back away from that and say, well this simply isn't a tenable situation given a world of cooperation. So, it will be interesting to see.
COOPER: Yes, all right. Do you expect -- I mean, is this thing -- this thing is not anywhere near over. Are you expecting, in the near term, we're talking weeks, to see more attacks?
MCCANN: I think they've got a momentum. And let's not forget, Anderson, that just this week the State Department did issue an alert for truck bombs here in the United States. And what they were giving was signatures such as the delivery of chemicals or the delivery of mixing equipment to personal storage units. The theft of trucks, beefed up suspension, or requests for trucks to get beefed up suspension on those trucks so they could carry heavier loads. The State Department wouldn't issue a warning like that unless we were still in the middle of this.
I think that, like I've said before to you, you don't win a war on terror. You really kind of endure it, sustaining less casualties than the other side.
COOPER: We should also mention this terror threat coming out of Kenya that we've been informed about, by the State Department, pretty significant threat; non-essential personnel being asked to leave, and the like.
All right. So lots to keep our eyes on, Kelly McCann, appreciate you joining us. Thanks.
MCCANN: Good to see you, Anderson.
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 17, 2003 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is it a new round of terror from Al Qaeda? That is what authorities in Morocco are trying to figure out. They are detaining, after a string of bombings. We're going to have a lot more of that coming up in the next hour.
Suicide bombers, last night, hit five different locations in Casablanca, Morocco's largest city, 31 people were killed, more than 100 were wounded. And 10 of the attackers died. The attacks came just hours after American and British officials warned that Al Qaeda was poised to strike again.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux says the White House is condemning the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Bush administration condemned the terrorist attacks in Casablanca as despicable.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a statement said, "We deeply appreciate the leadership shown by King Mohamed VI, and the Kingdom of Morocco in the international campaign against terrorism, and the United States of America will continue to stand together with Morocco against this threat to both our nations and all peace-loving people."
U.S. officials say there are no confirmed reports of American casualties or damage to U.S. facilities in Casablanca. Even so, a White House spokesman added, "The U.S. will assist Moroccan officials in finding those responsible."
In fact, U.S. diplomatic security personnel are on the ground already working with Moroccan officials. The State Department says it would be premature to say who was responsible for the attacks or who the terrorists were targeting.
But President Bush, in his weekly radio address, taped before the Moroccan attacks, makes it clear. For the U.S. Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government is taking unprecedented measures to defend the homeland.
And from Pakistan to the Philippines, to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down Al Qaeda killers. MALVEAUX: A well-placed U.S. counter-terrorism official told CNN, while intelligence so far shows no direct link to Al Qaeda, there is a strong suspicion that they were behind the Moroccan bombings. And terrorism experts agree.
PETER BERGEN, TERRORISM ANALYST: Al Qaeda has made it clear since October of last year that they're willing to attack any kind of Western target, and particularly soft targets and economic targets. Morocco is very dependent on tourism. Clearly, these attacks will put a huge damper on that.
MALVEAUX: The attacks come at a time when Morocco and the U.S. are in the final stages of establishing a trade agreement, which would open markets for the North African nation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: But even with the free trade agreement there is some concern that people will be reluctant to travel to or invest in high- risk locations. And these days, determining where the next high-risk location may be has become increasingly difficult.
Anderson?
COOPER: Is the White House or the administration saying anything about new travel restrictions?
MALVEAUX: Well, essentially they're saying check with the State Department. Always be vigilant about where you are, always be careful of your surroundings. But if you have any questions about where you should or should not travel, State Department will put out official warnings as they become warranted.
COOPER: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks very much.
U.S. officials are bracing for more attacks. Al Qaeda operatives are expected to target so-called soft targets. What exactly does that mean? CNN's Chris Plante is at the Pentagon with more -- Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson.
Well, officials I spoke to today do suggest that it certainly looks like the work of Al Qaeda and that they appear to be changing focus a little bit, going after undefended civilians in unexpected places.
CIA Director George Tenet gave the commencement address at Georgetown University today, where he spoke to the students about the challenge facing them in the future.
Well, Mr. Tenet said that the United States would continue to face the threat from terrorism wherever it may be, and that American families and listing victims from the recent terrorists around the world, said that these countries will not idly by and allow these terrorist attacks to take place -- Anderson. COOPER: Chris, we're hearing that another one of Saddam Hussein former henchmen, a pretty important one has been captured, what's the latest on that?
PLANTE: Well, that's right. Another senior member of the regime apparently turned himself in to coalition forces within the last 24 hours. He was No. 10 on the list of the top 55 most wanted. He was also the "Queen of Clubs" in the now famous deck of cards. His name is General Kamal Mustafa Abdullah Sultan al-Tikriti. A significant member of the regime, and U.S. officials hoping that he will be able to provide them with significant information as to the whereabouts of elements of their weapons of mass destruction program.
Anderson.
COOPER: And I also understand there is some new information about Iraq's looted antiquities?
PLANTE: Well, that's right. In fact, some major developments on that, that haven't been getting a lot of attention. It appears that the initial reports were that approximately 170,000 items were looted from the museum there in Baghdad, which was pretty much everything in their inventory.
Now that officials have gone through the process, worked with museum officials there in Baghdad, who as it turns out hid away most of the antiquities from the museum there even before the U.S. forces reached Baghdad. It now looks like there may be as few as 42, that's right, 42. Not 170,000, but 42 items missing from that museum. Still very important, of course, but a lot of international organizations working to find out where those 42 items are. But major shift in that story there, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, it certainly is. I guess, some good news for those who consider this a major story.
Chris, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
PLANTE: Thanks.
COOPER: U.S. intelligence officials are saying this is a scary time, what with the attacks in Morocco, and of course, last week's bombing in Saudi Arabia. There is a lot of chatter out there about another big attack from Al Qaeda. No one is sure when it could happen, of course. CNN's Kelli Arena says intelligence officials believe they know who is behind the bombings in Riyadh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: More U.S. investigators are on the ground in Saudi Arabia. They are there to assist the Saudis in tracking down the people responsible for the attacks in Riyadh. U.S. officials say there is new intelligence suggesting Al Qaeda leader Saif al-Adel, played a major role in those attacks. They also say information suggests that he is in Iran. Investigators say there is increasing evidence that Al Qaeda continues to recruit and plan new attacks, not only overseas but in the United States as well. In the last two months, U.S. officials say, there were at least two arrests of Middle Eastern men suspected of conducting surveillance for Al Qaeda. Officials are keeping their identity secret, but say that they were part of a larger group of Al Qaeda suspects who have been arrested in the United States in recent months.
Kelly Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: All right, with all the suspected terrorist attacks going on, on an international level, how is the U.S. faring with security here at home? Right now the threat level in the U.S. is at yellow, or elevated. Two major tests were held this week in Chicago and Seattle to see how emergency officials would react to another terrorist attack here. CNN's Security Analyst Kelly McCann is in Washington checking out the latest marks on the terrorism report card.
Kelly, good to see you again. First, let's talk briefly about this test. How did it go here in the U.S.?
J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I think it went as well as exercises do, Anderson. You know, I mean, there designed to push the envelope. There were some significant events that were played. There was a crash at Midway Airport that was in the exercise. There was the release of radiological material in Seattle. There was the release of plague in Chicago, the collapse of a four-story building. All within five days, exercised in to locations. So, that really did push the envelope.
Now, what it didn't really push, and what critics are quick to point out, is that the logistics side wasn't exercised as well as it could have been. But you know, it is hard when you're doing exercises to get the level of realism that approaches the real kind of extreme event it you will, what these are based on. '
So, all in all, I think that most are happy with the way the exercise went and well worth $16 million.
COOPER: Well, there could be a lot of after-action reports. I'm not sure how much the public is going to actually learn about the details of those, but we'll try to get as much information as we can when those come out.
Let's move and talk about the latest bombings, not only in Morocco but also in Saudi Arabia. All the earmarks of Al Qaeda, simultaneous attacks, multiple bombings at one time, is this a new face of Al Qaeda?
MCCANN: I think that the players are new of course, but as you and I have spoke about for months, one of the single biggest things that is always present is surveillance on both sides, both the U.S. and its allies surveilling those who would do us harm, and also Al Qaeda conducting surveillance, pretty in-depth surveillance on particular targets. So they can develop a target list, where they'll have the chance of the best success.
Until regions really get their hands around fixed-point surveillance detection and the ability to look at and see pre-incident indicators, they are still missing the mark somewhat.
COOPER: Interesting choice of targets in Morocco, not particularly U.S. targets, but certainly U.S. allies. A Jewish social club or a cultural center, also I believe, a Spanish cultural center, significance there?
MCCANN: Perhaps a message, that if you're allied with the U.S. and other strong allies, like the U.K, then you are at risk as well. Similar to the message sent to the House of Assad, Riyadh. So, very crafty; nothing new there. I mean these are very intelligence people who are waging the war against us. But in fact, there are significant assets in motion right now against them. So, it is in fact, both sides trying to mitigate the other's dynamic actions in this war on terror.
COOPER: I talked Peter Bergen, about this earlier this morning, another CNN analyst, I was interested to hear your perspective. He was saying, in some respects, it is kind of like Al Qaeda shooting themselves in the foot. Basically, a lot of Moroccans killed in this latest bombing. A lot of Saudis killed in the bombings in Saudi Arabia. Not the kind of thing you want to be doing if you're trying to get a groundswell of support in those communities.
MCCANN: In fact, they did kill more Muslims than they did Westerners. And it continues to be the kind of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that no matter what diplomatic actions are taken, no matter what kind of mitigating responses are out there. They are continually going forward on this kind of irreversible approach. And I think that at some point most rational people in the world, Anderson, will back away from that and say, well this simply isn't a tenable situation given a world of cooperation. So, it will be interesting to see.
COOPER: Yes, all right. Do you expect -- I mean, is this thing -- this thing is not anywhere near over. Are you expecting, in the near term, we're talking weeks, to see more attacks?
MCCANN: I think they've got a momentum. And let's not forget, Anderson, that just this week the State Department did issue an alert for truck bombs here in the United States. And what they were giving was signatures such as the delivery of chemicals or the delivery of mixing equipment to personal storage units. The theft of trucks, beefed up suspension, or requests for trucks to get beefed up suspension on those trucks so they could carry heavier loads. The State Department wouldn't issue a warning like that unless we were still in the middle of this.
I think that, like I've said before to you, you don't win a war on terror. You really kind of endure it, sustaining less casualties than the other side.
COOPER: We should also mention this terror threat coming out of Kenya that we've been informed about, by the State Department, pretty significant threat; non-essential personnel being asked to leave, and the like.
All right. So lots to keep our eyes on, Kelly McCann, appreciate you joining us. Thanks.
MCCANN: Good to see you, Anderson.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
