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CNN Live At Daybreak
Knowing the Terrorist: Al-Qaeda's Attempts to Acquire Weapons of Mass Destruction
Aired October 19, 2001 - 08:17 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. It's 17 minutes after the hour. CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen joins me now for our regular series called, "Knowing The Terrorist".
Peter is in our Washington bureau this morning. Good morning Peter.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning.
ZAHN: I want to start off by asking you about reports that a key aide to Osama bin Laden has been killed in Afghanistan. Is this someone, Peter, who was actually key to the al Qaeda operation?
BERGEN: Well this -- the name of the man is -- his last name is Almasiri (ph), which means he's Egyptian probably. The -- you know many of the key aides are Egyptian. I'm actually not familiar with this man. He's not Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top adviser. He's not Mohammed Atef, the military command.
If he's an aide, he's certainly a key aide because his name has never surfaced before. He must be probably second tier Paula.
ZAHN: OK and there's another name that keeps on surfacing, Jamal al Fadi. Who's that and why do we need to know about him?
BERGEN: Well he was the key witness in the embassy bombings trial. Yesterday we had the verdict, so we had the sentences in that case. Jamal al Fadi is somebody who can basically outline the facts that Al Qaeda made serious attempts to purchase uranium nuclear material during the early 1990s.
During the -- during the embassy bombing trial, you can see the footage here, he explained that in 1993 he approached a Sudanese military commander and asked about uranium at a cost of $1.5 million. That uranium, he was then shown some uranium, which apparently was from south Africa.
It was never clear if al Qaeda had actually purchased the uranium. Al Fadi was given $10,000 bonus for his efforts. But what it shows Paula, I think is that this group made very serious efforts to acquire bomb grade nuclear material in the early '90s.
ZAHN: All right, let's move onto Mondu Saleen. Who is he? BERGEN: He is a top al Qaeda official and he's also significant because he got -- the U.S. government alleges that he approved the group to go ahead and purchase nuclear components. He is right now -- and he's in Manhattan. He's going to be -- go on trial for stabbing a prison guard. He's also -- regarded as being as part of the U.S. embassy bombings conspiracy.
But again, he goes through this laundry patent of the al Qaeda group making serious efforts to purchase nuclear materials Paula.
ZAHN: Peter, let's talk about the whole range of weapons, that there was a prospect of being used both biological weapons and chemical weapons. In particular, the reports that Muhammed Atta was considered using a crop duster.
What have we learned about that?
BERGEN: Well we know that Muhammed Atta made inquiries to purchase a crop duster and perhaps even made inquiries to get a loan for that from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for that crop duster, which is certainly chutzpah if there ever was.
He -- but it goes -- this goes again to a pattern that looking to acquire biological or chemical weapons or the ability to disperse them. We know from bin Laden's own statements and they are after all the most reliable guide to his actions that he has said it is no crime for us to get biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and it's sort of a religious duty.
And since his words in the past have been very reliable guide to his actual actions, I think we have to take those words fairly seriously Paula.
ZAHN: Need a real quick answer to this one Peter -- the significance of ground troops being in place in Afghanistan. What does that mean to the Taliban?
BERGEN: Well I mean I think the number of troops are still pretty small that have gone in there apparently, and so I mean it's not like we've put in a large number of ground forces and that there's going to be a conventional battle with the Taliban as yet.
ZAHN: Peter BERGEN, thanks so much. See you next week when we join you for our regular segment "Knowing The Terrorist".
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