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CNN Live Saturday

Bombin At U.N May Have Been An "Inside" Job

Aired August 23, 2003 - 12:17   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.


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: While the attack that killed at least 22 dealt a set back to humanitarian efforts in Iraq, some observers say it also dealt a blow to the war on terror. Harvey Kushner wrote the "Encyclopedia of Terrorism" and he's with me, now, from West Babylon on Long Island in New York.
Mr. Kushner, thank you so much for being with us, today.

HARVEY KUSHNER, TERRORISM ANALYST: Pleasure, Renay.

MIGUEL: There are reports now, that the U.S. is looking at the possibility of the bombing of the U.N. building in Baghdad was an inside job. How concerned are you about this and -- you know, what does it say about who can be trusted in Baghdad?

KUSHNER: Well, I'm not concerned at all, it is expected, certainly they were operative who are loyal to Saddam Hussein, obviously in the new infrastructure that we're putting together this -- you know, in this region of the world this is something we shouldn't be surprised about, it shouldn't deter us. What concerns me is that more of these types of events will occur in the near future.

MIGUEL: Well, it seems obvious, now, that there are -- there's more than just the former Saddam loyalists to worry about. Paul Bremer has talked about the U.N. -- U -- civil administrator, Paul Bremer, talked about Syria and Iran, letting some foreign fighters come in from there. Al Qaeda is said to be in the region. Do you believe that there's coordination gone on, here, between all of this or are they all acting independently?

KUSHNER: Well, on the one hand, there isn't some sort serious coordination where one person is calling the shots. It's a global war and certainly this is becoming now the hot spot for, whether it's al Qaeda, whether it's Sunni tribesmen, or variety of other individuals to set up shop inside Iraq, because of the instability in the region. So, what we have to face is this very loose configuration of individuals who have taken the new Jihad against the United States and the West to this region of the world.

MIGUEL: Paul Bremer was also talking about plans to boost the border security and -- you know, talking about the trying to stem the ford -- the flood of foreign fighters that are coming in from Syria and Iran. Too little, too late in respect? What do you think about that?

KUSHNER: Well, while it's certainly -- you know, not too late, because our whole future's at stake, we have -- we cannot go out of there as we did from the Lebanon in the '80s. Certainly, we probably need more assets in there, but we also have to put an Iraqi face to the infrastructure. We can't just bring in more military; it will only exacerbate the situation. You need Special Ops people who where trained behind the scenes to do their job, and we can't let the enemy know that we have this type of weakness because they're counting on us putting the tail behind the legs and running out of the region and then you know what will happen then.

MIGUEL: I'm assuming that what will happen, then, is we're going to have a situation similar to Lebanon.

KUSHNER: Exactly.

MIGUEL: The idea here is that Donald Rumsfeld has already said, we're not going to send anymore assets to the region. Are you talking about taking the Special Ops people that are already in place and giving them a new mission, basically, to hunt down these terrorists?

KUSHNER: Absolutely. It means more Special Ops people. We don't need tanks, we need people behind the scenes who we get in there and gather intelligence before these things occur. You know, it's a new type of warfare, it's not the warfare that we saw during initial skirmish. We won that very easily and needless to say, we could take out anybody in that region, but that's not how the fight is going to be taken to us. The fight's going to taken, as it was in the manner which we saw at the United Nations or as we see going on now in Israel and in that region of the world. It's terrorism. It's not standard- type of guerrilla warfare. It's very insidious-type of background- type fighting and so we need Special Ops people on the ground that we trained in this type of battling, not soldiers in uniforms, in tanks.

MIGUEL: Harvey Kushner in a professor and chairman at Criminal Justice Department at Long Island University, the author of the "Encyclopedia of Terrorism," thank you for your time today, we appreciate your insight.

KUSHNER: Pleasure.

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 23, 2003 - 12:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: While the attack that killed at least 22 dealt a set back to humanitarian efforts in Iraq, some observers say it also dealt a blow to the war on terror. Harvey Kushner wrote the "Encyclopedia of Terrorism" and he's with me, now, from West Babylon on Long Island in New York.
Mr. Kushner, thank you so much for being with us, today.

HARVEY KUSHNER, TERRORISM ANALYST: Pleasure, Renay.

MIGUEL: There are reports now, that the U.S. is looking at the possibility of the bombing of the U.N. building in Baghdad was an inside job. How concerned are you about this and -- you know, what does it say about who can be trusted in Baghdad?

KUSHNER: Well, I'm not concerned at all, it is expected, certainly they were operative who are loyal to Saddam Hussein, obviously in the new infrastructure that we're putting together this -- you know, in this region of the world this is something we shouldn't be surprised about, it shouldn't deter us. What concerns me is that more of these types of events will occur in the near future.

MIGUEL: Well, it seems obvious, now, that there are -- there's more than just the former Saddam loyalists to worry about. Paul Bremer has talked about the U.N. -- U -- civil administrator, Paul Bremer, talked about Syria and Iran, letting some foreign fighters come in from there. Al Qaeda is said to be in the region. Do you believe that there's coordination gone on, here, between all of this or are they all acting independently?

KUSHNER: Well, on the one hand, there isn't some sort serious coordination where one person is calling the shots. It's a global war and certainly this is becoming now the hot spot for, whether it's al Qaeda, whether it's Sunni tribesmen, or variety of other individuals to set up shop inside Iraq, because of the instability in the region. So, what we have to face is this very loose configuration of individuals who have taken the new Jihad against the United States and the West to this region of the world.

MIGUEL: Paul Bremer was also talking about plans to boost the border security and -- you know, talking about the trying to stem the ford -- the flood of foreign fighters that are coming in from Syria and Iran. Too little, too late in respect? What do you think about that?

KUSHNER: Well, while it's certainly -- you know, not too late, because our whole future's at stake, we have -- we cannot go out of there as we did from the Lebanon in the '80s. Certainly, we probably need more assets in there, but we also have to put an Iraqi face to the infrastructure. We can't just bring in more military; it will only exacerbate the situation. You need Special Ops people who where trained behind the scenes to do their job, and we can't let the enemy know that we have this type of weakness because they're counting on us putting the tail behind the legs and running out of the region and then you know what will happen then.

MIGUEL: I'm assuming that what will happen, then, is we're going to have a situation similar to Lebanon.

KUSHNER: Exactly.

MIGUEL: The idea here is that Donald Rumsfeld has already said, we're not going to send anymore assets to the region. Are you talking about taking the Special Ops people that are already in place and giving them a new mission, basically, to hunt down these terrorists?

KUSHNER: Absolutely. It means more Special Ops people. We don't need tanks, we need people behind the scenes who we get in there and gather intelligence before these things occur. You know, it's a new type of warfare, it's not the warfare that we saw during initial skirmish. We won that very easily and needless to say, we could take out anybody in that region, but that's not how the fight is going to be taken to us. The fight's going to taken, as it was in the manner which we saw at the United Nations or as we see going on now in Israel and in that region of the world. It's terrorism. It's not standard- type of guerrilla warfare. It's very insidious-type of background- type fighting and so we need Special Ops people on the ground that we trained in this type of battling, not soldiers in uniforms, in tanks.

MIGUEL: Harvey Kushner in a professor and chairman at Criminal Justice Department at Long Island University, the author of the "Encyclopedia of Terrorism," thank you for your time today, we appreciate your insight.

KUSHNER: Pleasure.

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