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CNN Live At Daybreak

Knowing the Terrorists: What and Who is Al Qaeda?

Aired October 16, 2001 - 08:24   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Before September 11, most of us had never even heard of the name al Qaeda, even though we've been hearing the name ever since. How much do we really know about this shadowy group? And are there others out there like it?

Well, CNN's terrorism analyst, Peter Bergen, has some answers for us in our new segment called, "Knowing the Terrorists." He's in Washington this morning -- welcome back -- good to see you.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: First of all, Peter, please, if you would, respond to a report in "The New York Times" this morning, which basically says that secret talks took place in Pakistan yesterday between moderates in the Afghan government, who were going to try to negotiate the hand-over of Osama bin Laden if the United States stopped bombing raids for the next two or three days.

I know from the administration's point of view, this is a non- starter, but what do you read into it?

BERGEN: Well, like any movement or organization, Paula, the Taliban is not monolithic, and there have long been moderates who are looking to reach out to the West. That was true three or four years ago and obviously it's still true today.

The gentlemen -- the foreign minister, Mutawakel, who I have actually met on occasion, is somebody who has had quite a lot of contacts with the West in his job as foreign minister. He is the one identified as having these secret talks with the possibility of handing over bin Laden.

So I think it fits into -- it only makes sense that the group is not monolithic, and in fact, it's made up of a number of different sort of factions.

ZAHN: All right, Peter, I want to go backtrack a little, and I know you've covered some of this before. But give us a very brief description on al Qaeda today, and where it's headed next.

BERGEN: Well, al Qaeda is -- you can think of it perhaps as sort of a holding company with wholly owned subsidiaries, if you will. For instance, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. And then, you can also think of it -- there are also other organizations that are a subsidiary within it.

At the top is Osama bin Laden, who is obviously the first among equals. He is the -- and then you have below him the Majlis Al Shura, which is the -- basically the consultative counsel that makes executive decisions.

And then, you have the military commander, Muhammad Atef, who is a former Egyptian police officer who has long been allied to bin Laden.

And then, you have Ayman al-Zawahiri, who, I think, is more important than Atef, probably bin Laden's No. 2, sometimes described as the brains of the operation -- also Egyptian.

And then you have Abu Zubayda, who is described by American and British officials as sort of the chief recruiter to the training camps. If you go to the training camps in Afghanistan, Abu Zubayda is the man you go to to kind of transfer into the camps.

ZAHN: And describe to us how these terrorist cells grow.

BERGEN: Well, I think they grow, because, you know, bin Laden is a well known figure -- sort of underemployed and disaffected. And you go to Afghanistan sometimes with a rather sort of generalized dislike of the West. When you go to these training camps, then you get trained on a variety of different -- supposedly you get some religious training, but you also get some military training. And there are various levels of training. There's some basic military training if you make the cut, you can kind of carry on and get training in high explosives and sort of more sophisticated learning how to manage your cell in a disciplined way -- Paula.

ZAHN: And let's talk a little bit about how many of these active followers of al Qaeda might be in the United States at this hour. We have known that the administration confirmed that possibility many weeks ago.

BERGEN: Well, Ali Mohamed, who is an Egyptian-American who arrived in this country in 1984 was a key member of al Qaeda. And when he made his plea agreement with the U.S. government in October of 2000, he said there were many sleeper al Qaeda agents.

At the time, I thought that was improbable. As it turned out, that was more than probable. There were dozens or perhaps scores of al Qaeda members who had been in the United States for years.

The United States government has arrested hundreds of people suspected of any kind of links. So presumably, they have swept up most of those people. Whether they have or not, it remains to be seen, though.

ZAHN: And also this morning, Peter, there is word that Jordan now claims that it broke up terrorist plans to attack several embassies in that country, including those of the U.S. and Great Britain. Is this a sign that the coalition really is working in terms of sharing intelligence? BERGEN: Well, Paula, Jordan has long been very much on board. Jordan regards al Qaeda as an immense threat to its own government. For instance, around the millennium, you may remember that the Jordanians actually arrested 25 people allegedly linked to bin Laden who were planning to bomb a Radisson hotel in Amman, Jordan, and also planning to bomb tourist sites in Jordan.

So the Jordanian government has had quite a long history of taking a rather aggressive stance towards al Qaeda.

ZAHN: All right, Peter, we will leave it there for this morning and hope to check in with you throughout the week -- thanks so much for your expertise.

BERGEN: Thank you.

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