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CNN Reporter Discusses Scope of al Qaeda Seen in Videos
Aired August 23, 2002 - 14:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Nic Robertson joins us now.
Those last images. It is sickening to kind of imagine them sitting, wherever they were sitting, watching that on television. You just imagine them watching those images.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is somewhat chilling. And again, it sort of speaks to the thoroughness in their own eyes of the way that they have dealt with all the issues of training, of explosive makings, of chemicals. They pursued knowledge, and they want to check on every detail of what they do. They want to learn from their mistakes. So they review everything that they do. And this was one of those things.
COOPER: In watching all of the stuff you have been doing this week. I thought back to Khmer Rouge and how they, in Cambodia, documented their cause, how they documented the killings of large numbers, of hundreds of thousands, of people. Why do you think al Qaeda was so obsessed with videotaping everything and keeping these tapes?
ROBERTSON: Well, it appears that they had their own -- that they had their own sense that they wanted to record their own history, that they felt that it was important. Again. like the Khmer Rouge, these organizations believed in what they were doing, that they wanted to keep a record of it. There are very few ways that they can essentially put down markers to show that they have been around. Obviously, September 11 did that. Obviously, the attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania did that. But this is their record, their personal record.
COOPER: And no doubt proud of their international scope. You showed videotapes from Burma, from Eritrea, from Chechnya. They clearly see themselves as a global operation.
ROBERTSON: Absolutely. We had tapes, as well, from Bosnia, from Sudan, from Somalia, from Chad, from Libya, from many, many countries. And that is one of the things that concerns the analysts, that al Qaeda has learned from these organizations, communicates with these organizations. All of the training and sophistication that we have seen this week that al Qaeda has put into all its operations, and the fact that it disseminates that information through the videotape, through CDs, through the computer, has gone out. They believe -- you know, analysts believe that maybe as many as 60 countries al Qaeda has either connections or operative in. The scope and scale of this organization of organizations they have built does have a true global reach. COOPER: Do you think Osama bin Laden is still alive?
ROBERTSON: Coalition intelligent sources that we talked to say they believe he is. They believe he is in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan; that's that area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Pakistani government -- their authority doesn't carry in that area.
COOPER: Right, a pretty lawless region.
ROBERTSON: A pretty lawless region. And it is exactly the kind of place that al Qaeda is going to look to to base itself next. Perhaps that explains why they are still there and they haven't left. They need an area where they can elude and evade government intelligence agencies, coalition forces; it is those kind of countries that they are going to look to to hide in.
COOPER: If he is still alive, it is startling that he can still be in operation. Do you think he is still capable of conducting operations?
ROBERTSON: The way that they operated from Afghanistan before, absolutely not. The coalition forces that have really closed down the large scale operations -- the training camps, the safe houses, the places that they can run and hide and be in large numbers -- that means they can't do their planning for big operations, they can't have sort of stable and free and easy communications in the way they had before. But the fact that the information is out there, the fact that the heads of the organizations are there, the fact that some key operatives are still in place, leaves them posing a very, very big threat. The training that we have seen through the week, some of it has been conducted over the last four years. Where are all those people who have passed through those camps? Maybe 4,000 to 5,000 people, analysts believe, have actually trained and are out there somewhere.
COOPER: And they've probably seen these videotapes already. These videotapes have been around for a long time and have probably been disseminated to these different cell groups throughout the world.
ROBERTSON: Absolutely, to all these other jihadi organizations as well. So it is possible we see materials coming in here from Eritrea or from Burma. What material has gone out to them? What of al Qaeda's knowledge has been imparted to them?
COOPER: Right.
Nic, congratulations. Really great work.
ROBERTSON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
COOPER: Thanks very much.
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