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CNN Live At Daybreak
Knowing the Terrorists: Al Qaeda's Subsidiaries
Aired October 17, 2001 - 08:26 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: We continue with our series called "Knowing the Terrorists."
Joining me from Washington is CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen -- good morning, Peter.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning.
ZAHN: I understand you have come armed with maps today to give us a much better insight as to how the al Qaeda network works. You can take us through those paces now.
BERGEN: OK. Well, this map shows where the locations of Egypt's Islamic Jihad group, which is basically a wholly-owned subsidiary of al Qaeda. There are hundreds of followers of the Jihad group. They are based in Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan...
ZAHN: OK.
BERGEN: ... and the United Kingdom, and that's a very important part of al Qaeda.
ZAHN: I'm sorry, Peter. I was having trouble hearing you. The last part of what you said got clipped.
If you could, move us onto the issue of al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group, and the importance he plays in al Qaeda.
BERGEN: Well, he plays a vital role. He is described as a very smart guy. He's a former surgeon. He founded the Jihad group in 1973, so he's been a professional terrorist or revolutionary for 20 years now or more. He is described as being very influential in bin Laden's thinking, as a man who radicalized bin Laden -- made him more anti-American. And he is slightly older than bin Laden by 10 years, and he plays a vital role in the al Qaeda organization.
ZAHN: Now, he had also played a role in the assassination of Anwar Sadat?
BERGEN: Indeed. He was tried, along with about 300 other people, after Anwar Sadat's assassination. And he didn't play a direct role, but he was regarded as being part of the support network around the assassination. He spent three years in prison following the assassination of Sadat, and after that assassination, he traveled to Pakistan, where in 1987, he met with Osama bin Laden, a very important meeting -- Paula.
ZAHN: All right. And I also wanted you to address this morning the issue of some of these groups that have looser ties to al Qaeda and the importance of them.
BERGEN: Yes. I mean, unlike -- there are certain groups like the Egyptian Jihad group, which is, if you will, a sort of wholly- owned subsidiary of al Qaeda. And then, there are other groups, for instance, Algeria's Armed Islamic group, which will cooperate on occasion with certain, you know, terrorist attacks with al Qaeda, but is not a wholly-owned subsidiary. It's something that will cooperate on occasions.
An example of that is a gentleman named Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested on the Canadian border of the United States in 1999. He was -- he trained in an al Qaeda camp, but he was also somebody who was affiliated with the Algeria's Armed Islamic group.
And he was planning to bomb LAX Airport in the middle of the Christmas tourist season. It would have been a catastrophic bombing. The bombing was averted by a good --by a customs agent on the Canadian border, basically noticing that he was sweating and that it was December, and it was unlikely that somebody would be sweating in December.
So that is an example of a group that will cooperate with al Qaeda, although not a wholly-owned subsidiary.
ZAHN: And in closing this morning, the issue of the Philippines and a man's name we've heard a lot of lately, Abu Sayyaf.
BERGEN: Yes. Well, Abu Sayyaf is group in the Philippines that is something with -- it has links to al Qaeda, but they are much more tenuous. If the Jihad group is a wholly-owned subsidiary and the Algeria's Armed Islamic group is something that will cooperate, Abu Sayyaf is something that has links, but they are -- well, partly because of geography -- the Philippines is a long way from Afghanistan -- is something that will cooperate with al Qaeda on occasion.
For instance, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, a man named Khalifa, financed Abu Sayyaf in the early days . And, in fact, the group is named after an Afghan commander that is very close to bin Laden.
Abu Sayyaf, over the past 10 years, has basically been involved in a lot of kidnappings of tourists, basically an organization, which is devoted to kidnapping tourists and raising money that way -- Paula.
ZAHN: All right. Peter Bergen, thanks so much -- look forward to seeing you again tomorrow as our series continues.
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