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CNN Live At Daybreak

While Al Qaeda Appears on Run, Some Still Plotting in New Terrorist Cells

Aired August 01, 2002 - 05:04   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More on terrorism now. Our Mike Boettcher has been looking to al Qaeda and just where it is going now.

In this CNN exclusive, he tells us that while al Qaeda appears on the run, some of those trained in the terrorist network are still plotting in new terrorist cells.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An attack on French naval engineers in Karachi, Pakistan. Fourteen are killed. This, say coalition intelligence officials, is a new face of al Qaeda, a collection of what are described as super cells that stretch from North Africa to Southeast Asia. Terrorist groups reverting to smaller, more frequent attacks, while the man al Qaeda leadership works to regroup after months on the run.

ROHAN GUNARATNA, AUTHOR, "INSIDE AL QAEDA": Al Qaeda is not able to mount large scale theatrical operations of the scale of 9/11 today because to mount such operations you need to plan across a number of countries and a large number of operatives are involved.

BOETTCHER: Al Qaeda operatives in coalition custody have told their interrogators that Arabs who trained in bin Laden's Afghanistan camps have returned to their home nations, forming alliances with other extremist groups, super cells and operating on their own without guidance from the men who once trained and directed them.

They are reverting to their training, according to coalition intelligence analysts, using tactics taught in this 11 volume al Qaeda terrorist manual, which CNN was allowed to inspect. This encyclopedia of terror describes multiple methods of murder, using bullets, bombs and poisons, large and small scale tactics designed to cause widespread terror.

Security officials in Morocco have broken one such super cell, which was said to be planning attacks on American and British war ships operating in the Straits of Gibraltar. Intelligence sources tell CNN the cell chose its own targets but got more than $300,000 from a central al Qaeda money source through wire transfers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This attack in Tunisia on this synagogue killed 14 German tourists. Al Qaeda took credit for the attack. Intelligence officials fear more of these small scale attacks on tourist sites, particularly in Europe and Asia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Once again, that exclusive report was from our Mike Boettcher.

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