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FBI Team Will Assess Needs for Additional Investigators in Riyadh

Aired May 13, 2003 - 13:03   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is denouncing the attacks as the work of killers whose only faith is hate, and the secretary indicated a team from the FBI is headed to Riyadh to investigate.
Now for more on all this, we turn to CNN's Mike Brooks. He is a former federal law enforcement official.

Mike, let's talk about this FBI team that is being sent, dispatched, from the U.S. to investigate this. What exactly will this team do?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, this team, Kyra, will go over -- this is more of an assessment team than anything else. They will go over and take a look at the scene. You're dealing with three, possibly four potential bombing scenes. And what they will do is go over and decide how many teams they need from the FBI Critical Instant Response Group. They'll work also with the DOD and State Departments to work with the Saudi officials on trying to gain their permission to allow them to let the teams into the country. That has been a problem in the past, and so far, in this particular incident, it's also been a problem from what I'm hearing from sources in Washington, D.C. But they'll assess exactly what they want to do, and try to get the team over there in a timely fashion. Time is of the essence.

PHILLIPS: Mike, let's talk about the security that surrounds these compounds. Is it private security or government security?

BROOKS: Well, these are not government facilities. There was one sign when the vice president -- I should say, the secretary of state was coming out and it said, Compound of the Saudi -- it looked like Saudi Arabian National Guard, an acronym for that, but these apparently, from what we are hearing, are private compounds, and security at these would be private security. So it's not a military base like we saw in Khobar Towers in 1996. It is not an embassy like we saw in 1998 in Nairobi. These seem to be private compounds, and one where there's a lot of damage, was apparently almost like a little -- it had a pavilion, just like a regular town, like you would have here in the United States, but with more security.

PHILLIPS: So what do you think of the timing between Colin Powell's visit and these explosions? How is the FBI going to investigate this, and do they believe there definitely is a link?

BROOKS: Well, right now, they can't say. It's too early in the investigation, Kyra. But what they will do, when they do finally get there, after the assessment team gets there, decides exactly how they're going to go about the investigation. When the initial team gets there, you will have an investigative team and a forensic team. The forensic team will go out to the site, assess what they need there. The investigative team will link up with their Saudi counterparts and any other witnesses, and start from ground zero, from the investigation, look exactly -- everything leading up to it, interview witnesses, just like you would a regular bombing scene, whether here or like they've done many, many times overseas. To say right now that it's linked to the secretary of state's visit, I think would be premature.

PHILLIPS: Well, taking a look at the war on terror, it obviously -- this is a sign that it continues -- it continues on. Do you think these Americans should be living in Saudi right now? Let's talk about how important the role of what they're doing is.

BROOKS: Well, the Americans have been there for quite some time, as well as Brits, French. They work there in the oil industry, some of the Americans working there, in these compounds, are contractors, former U.S. government workers that are now contractors, assisting the Saudi Arabian military, the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the Saudi Arabian government. So they have been there quite some time, and there's numerous -- a lot of Americans, thousands of them, living in Saudi Arabia.

Now, there had been warnings put out to Americans that they could be the subject of a terrorist attack against Americans and American interests in Saudi Arabia, so I'm sure they have taken different, increased precautions. But still, it's a very dangerous place to live, especially in this terrorist climate.

PHILLIPS: Final question. As a former FBI investigator, does the scale of these attacks surprise you?

BROOKS: We've looked at the bombings going all the way back to 1995 at the Saudi Arabian National Guard, where we lost five Americans there, then in 1996 in Khobar Towers where we lost 19. We were lucky to only lose 19, it could have been many more, had it not been for the alertness of an Air Force security guard there that saw the truck backing into that compound. Then we look at the embassy bombing in 1998, Mombasa, USS Cole. A bombing like this does not -- the magnitude does not surprise me whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: Our Mike Brooks. Thanks for your insight, Mike.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Riyadh>


Aired May 13, 2003 - 13:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is denouncing the attacks as the work of killers whose only faith is hate, and the secretary indicated a team from the FBI is headed to Riyadh to investigate.
Now for more on all this, we turn to CNN's Mike Brooks. He is a former federal law enforcement official.

Mike, let's talk about this FBI team that is being sent, dispatched, from the U.S. to investigate this. What exactly will this team do?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, this team, Kyra, will go over -- this is more of an assessment team than anything else. They will go over and take a look at the scene. You're dealing with three, possibly four potential bombing scenes. And what they will do is go over and decide how many teams they need from the FBI Critical Instant Response Group. They'll work also with the DOD and State Departments to work with the Saudi officials on trying to gain their permission to allow them to let the teams into the country. That has been a problem in the past, and so far, in this particular incident, it's also been a problem from what I'm hearing from sources in Washington, D.C. But they'll assess exactly what they want to do, and try to get the team over there in a timely fashion. Time is of the essence.

PHILLIPS: Mike, let's talk about the security that surrounds these compounds. Is it private security or government security?

BROOKS: Well, these are not government facilities. There was one sign when the vice president -- I should say, the secretary of state was coming out and it said, Compound of the Saudi -- it looked like Saudi Arabian National Guard, an acronym for that, but these apparently, from what we are hearing, are private compounds, and security at these would be private security. So it's not a military base like we saw in Khobar Towers in 1996. It is not an embassy like we saw in 1998 in Nairobi. These seem to be private compounds, and one where there's a lot of damage, was apparently almost like a little -- it had a pavilion, just like a regular town, like you would have here in the United States, but with more security.

PHILLIPS: So what do you think of the timing between Colin Powell's visit and these explosions? How is the FBI going to investigate this, and do they believe there definitely is a link?

BROOKS: Well, right now, they can't say. It's too early in the investigation, Kyra. But what they will do, when they do finally get there, after the assessment team gets there, decides exactly how they're going to go about the investigation. When the initial team gets there, you will have an investigative team and a forensic team. The forensic team will go out to the site, assess what they need there. The investigative team will link up with their Saudi counterparts and any other witnesses, and start from ground zero, from the investigation, look exactly -- everything leading up to it, interview witnesses, just like you would a regular bombing scene, whether here or like they've done many, many times overseas. To say right now that it's linked to the secretary of state's visit, I think would be premature.

PHILLIPS: Well, taking a look at the war on terror, it obviously -- this is a sign that it continues -- it continues on. Do you think these Americans should be living in Saudi right now? Let's talk about how important the role of what they're doing is.

BROOKS: Well, the Americans have been there for quite some time, as well as Brits, French. They work there in the oil industry, some of the Americans working there, in these compounds, are contractors, former U.S. government workers that are now contractors, assisting the Saudi Arabian military, the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the Saudi Arabian government. So they have been there quite some time, and there's numerous -- a lot of Americans, thousands of them, living in Saudi Arabia.

Now, there had been warnings put out to Americans that they could be the subject of a terrorist attack against Americans and American interests in Saudi Arabia, so I'm sure they have taken different, increased precautions. But still, it's a very dangerous place to live, especially in this terrorist climate.

PHILLIPS: Final question. As a former FBI investigator, does the scale of these attacks surprise you?

BROOKS: We've looked at the bombings going all the way back to 1995 at the Saudi Arabian National Guard, where we lost five Americans there, then in 1996 in Khobar Towers where we lost 19. We were lucky to only lose 19, it could have been many more, had it not been for the alertness of an Air Force security guard there that saw the truck backing into that compound. Then we look at the embassy bombing in 1998, Mombasa, USS Cole. A bombing like this does not -- the magnitude does not surprise me whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: Our Mike Brooks. Thanks for your insight, Mike.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Riyadh>