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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview With Morris Dees
Aired October 31, 2001 - 07:24 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you a moment ago, there are 16 confirmed cases of anthrax infection in the U.S. now. Anthrax has been detected in six areas along the East Coast, from New York and New Jersey, to D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and heading on down south to Florida. One of the most troubling parts of the anthrax scare is that investigators still don't know who is responsible for unleashing it, and there are many competing theories.
Some say it's part of an international terrorist plot. Others think it might be home grown terrorism. We're going to explore those questions with Morris Dees, an attorney who is the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. And he joins us from Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Dees is an expert on terrorism made here in the U.S.
Mr. Dees, good to have you with us.
MORRIS DEES, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Yes, good morning, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, it's your theory that this is not home grown terrorism and you have several reasons to support it. But just briefly, why does your gut tell you this is something that might be coming from overseas.
DEES: Well, first of all, I don't think anybody should be excluded, domestic terrorist groups, anti-government groups like militias, hate groups, neo-Nazi groups. But I just don't believe that the domestic terrorist groups that we've been tracking for some 20 years in this country are sophisticated enough to pull off this kind of operation. And also I don't think that they were prepared to do this quickly as the first letter that came out only a week after the World Trade Center incident.
They'd have to have done a lot of planning. This to me seems more like some coordinated event that was done by the same people that did the World Trade Center incident.
Something else I think we shouldn't overlook, though, I assume that it's possible that somebody like Theodore Kaczynski, some lone terrorist might be involved. But I don't believe it's an organized hate group in America. That's my feeling.
O'BRIEN: All right, so is it, it isn't possible, then, that there could be some group out there that has been working on something like this and perhaps a plot was close to fruition and saw the September 11 attacks as an opportunity?
DEES: Well, you know, everything's possible. But these groups are not that organized and not that secret. A million dollars reward, I think, would loosen some lips. These groups have a hard time keeping a secret. More, the thing that they're more likely to do are build bombs, something like McVeigh did with his fertilizer bomb. Finely milling anthrax so it can be released into the air in spores, I believe is beyond the capability of most domestic terrorist groups that we've had anything to do with.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the targets for a moment. What do the targets tell you about who might be responsible?
DEES: Well, some say that domestic terrorist groups would probably target like Jewish organizations, even groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, where we've taken them to court. But I don't necessarily buy that because Timothy McVeigh targeted a federal building because he was -- his animus was towards the federal government.
Domestic terrorist groups would, I think, certainly target the same people that have been targeted here, or could do it. But I don't think that's the only telltale thing. I just think it's not likely that we're going to find that it's an organized American hate group or an American anti-government group like a militia group.
O'BRIEN: I assume over the years you have fairly tight security there for filtering through your mail. Have you changed the way you're doing business as it relates to mail as a result of this, based on what you just said?
DEES: Well, you know, we've gotten a -- we get a lot of hate mail because of cases. We just finished one against the Aryan Nations in Idaho and took their compound away from them. And so clearly we get threat letters and we've always taken precautions.
But, you know, our people aren't wearing gas masks. You know, I know this is not my field of expertise, Miles, but the average American is a thousand times or maybe 10,000 times more likely in the next week or the next month to be killed in a car wreck or seriously injured than they would from anthrax. I think it's the fear of the unknown that has people nervous.
O'BRIEN: All right, and picking up on that, I suppose there might be some groups out there that you track that might use this as an opportunity to, for example, engage in some kind of hoax. And talcum powered in an envelope, do you expect to see that?
DEES: Well, that's happening with abortion clinics. They've received a lot of this stuff. I think the groups that we track have taken a little different approach. The neo-Nazi groups are praising these foreign terrorists that blew up the -- flew the plane in the building in the World Trade Center. They're praising them and have made statements. The membership director of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group -- it's a pretty large one with a big Web site -- said that anyone that would fly a plane into a building and kill a bunch of Jews is OK by me.
O'BRIEN: Hmmm, wow.
DEES: We see a lot of that. That's sad.
O'BRIEN: Let me...
DEES: And I -- pardon me. I'm sorry.
O'BRIEN: No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. But we're just about out of time. Let me ask you one more question. Have you ever established any kind of links between these home grown groups which you track and some of these overseas organizations? Do they work in concert ever in the history that you've looked at?
DEES: Oh, yes. They work very much in concert, but not the Muslim groups. Not the ones like Osama bin Laden's groups. The American terrorist groups, in particularly neo-Nazi groups, work in close coordination with particularly German, English, British and European neo-Nazi groups, skinhead groups and those types.
O'BRIEN: Morris Dees is with the Southern Poverty Law Center. He tracks domestic terrorism. Thanks very much for being with us this morning, sir.
DEES: Yes, sir. Thank you.
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