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FBI, CIA Warn of Terrorist Attacks
Aired October 18, 2002 - 13:12 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: America's top security officials say al Qaeda is back up and running, poised to attack. U.S. interests at home and abroad are the targets. The directors of the FBI and the CIA offered that assessment yesterday before a joint congressional intelligence committee.
More on the terror threats from our National Security Correspondent David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it was ominous language -- in particular, from the CIA director, George Tenet. Just to review the bidding, he said it is serious, al Qaeda has reconstituted, they're coming after us, they want to execute attacks.
Now, why is the U.S. intelligence community so worried? Take the bombing today of a bus in the Philippines. Officials say they're not suggesting that al Qaeda is behind that, but they do have a lot of intelligence evidence that there may be attacks planned in the Philippines by al Qaeda-affiliated groups.
Take the recent attack against U.S. Marines in Kuwait, where several were injured, at least one was killed. That caused a good deal of concern, and that is believed to have been associated with al Qaeda.
Take the attack on a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The tanker that's now believed was hit by a small boat loaded with explosives, much the same kind of attack as the USS Cole, and you heard al Qaeda officials in various statements taking credit for that, or associating themselves with that attack.
And then there was the horrible, massive blast in Bali that killed hundreds. Tourists at a favorite watering hole of tourists in Southeast Asia.
So there has been a lot going on. A lot of it considered to be affiliated with al Qaeda. Then of course, there were the tapes that came out recently of the Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al Qaeda and of Osama bin Laden himself, warning that there are going to be additional attacks, calling on their supporters to go after economic targets in particular.
Now, those tapes were taken by U.S. intelligence officials back to some of the senior al Qaeda prisoners that they have in hand.
They then listened to what they had to say, and some of what they said increased the level of worry on the part of U.S. officials.
That worry has been transmitted, obviously, to the homeland security people, to Governor Tom Ridge and to the White House. There's no decision at this point to raise the threat level from yellow to orange, but a memo has gone out, we are told, to state and local law enforcement officials and to some key officials at key parts of the infrastructure in this country, asking them to take some measures to increase the security of this nation against terrorism. Not quite going to code orange, but to increase the level above, yellow. So we're kind of at yellow-plus at this point -- Carol.
LIN: David, though it feels very defensive. I mean, when you take a look at the sheer number of attacks that have been going on, I have to wonder, what is the intelligence community going to do to prevent these attacks from happening in the first place? Are they any further along in that area?
ENSOR: Well, the important thing is good intelligence, and they do feel that they are getting a lot of good intelligence. Going into Afghanistan and capturing a lot of senior al Qaeda people has made a big difference in that regard, but they are also pressing, both intelligence officials and Bush administration officials, pressing the Congress to pass the Homeland Security Act. It doesn't look like it's going to pass in this Congress. A lot of officials say that's a big mistake, that we're leaving ourselves vulnerable in this country to further attacks, and that the government is not correctly organized to deal with them -- Carol.
LIN: All right. Thank you very much. David Ensor with the latest on this developing story on the error threat.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 18, 2002 - 13:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: America's top security officials say al Qaeda is back up and running, poised to attack. U.S. interests at home and abroad are the targets. The directors of the FBI and the CIA offered that assessment yesterday before a joint congressional intelligence committee.
More on the terror threats from our National Security Correspondent David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it was ominous language -- in particular, from the CIA director, George Tenet. Just to review the bidding, he said it is serious, al Qaeda has reconstituted, they're coming after us, they want to execute attacks.
Now, why is the U.S. intelligence community so worried? Take the bombing today of a bus in the Philippines. Officials say they're not suggesting that al Qaeda is behind that, but they do have a lot of intelligence evidence that there may be attacks planned in the Philippines by al Qaeda-affiliated groups.
Take the recent attack against U.S. Marines in Kuwait, where several were injured, at least one was killed. That caused a good deal of concern, and that is believed to have been associated with al Qaeda.
Take the attack on a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The tanker that's now believed was hit by a small boat loaded with explosives, much the same kind of attack as the USS Cole, and you heard al Qaeda officials in various statements taking credit for that, or associating themselves with that attack.
And then there was the horrible, massive blast in Bali that killed hundreds. Tourists at a favorite watering hole of tourists in Southeast Asia.
So there has been a lot going on. A lot of it considered to be affiliated with al Qaeda. Then of course, there were the tapes that came out recently of the Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al Qaeda and of Osama bin Laden himself, warning that there are going to be additional attacks, calling on their supporters to go after economic targets in particular.
Now, those tapes were taken by U.S. intelligence officials back to some of the senior al Qaeda prisoners that they have in hand.
They then listened to what they had to say, and some of what they said increased the level of worry on the part of U.S. officials.
That worry has been transmitted, obviously, to the homeland security people, to Governor Tom Ridge and to the White House. There's no decision at this point to raise the threat level from yellow to orange, but a memo has gone out, we are told, to state and local law enforcement officials and to some key officials at key parts of the infrastructure in this country, asking them to take some measures to increase the security of this nation against terrorism. Not quite going to code orange, but to increase the level above, yellow. So we're kind of at yellow-plus at this point -- Carol.
LIN: David, though it feels very defensive. I mean, when you take a look at the sheer number of attacks that have been going on, I have to wonder, what is the intelligence community going to do to prevent these attacks from happening in the first place? Are they any further along in that area?
ENSOR: Well, the important thing is good intelligence, and they do feel that they are getting a lot of good intelligence. Going into Afghanistan and capturing a lot of senior al Qaeda people has made a big difference in that regard, but they are also pressing, both intelligence officials and Bush administration officials, pressing the Congress to pass the Homeland Security Act. It doesn't look like it's going to pass in this Congress. A lot of officials say that's a big mistake, that we're leaving ourselves vulnerable in this country to further attacks, and that the government is not correctly organized to deal with them -- Carol.
LIN: All right. Thank you very much. David Ensor with the latest on this developing story on the error threat.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
