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American Morning
LIVE REPORT
Aired October 02, 2001 - 09:02 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: For more on diplomatic efforts to build international support, we turn it now to Andrea Koppel at the State Department. Sorry about the confusion, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Not all, Miles, good morning. As CNN reported yesterday, Miles, the Bush administration has begun sending out diplomatic cables -- to a variety of countries overseas. This is going to be done in several batches -- the first batch, going out to the United States' closest allies Great Britain among them, of course, Canada, Australia.
As well, there was a briefing that took place today, over in Brussels at NATO headquarters, which involved the head of the anti- terrorism department here at the State Department, Frank Taylor, who delivered a classified briefing to NATO members, explaining the case that the administration believes it has, that directly links al Qaeda and bin Laden, to the September 11th attacks. Now in the next wave of diplomatic cables, which will be going out to U.S. Embassies -- let's say in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, as well as many NATO countries -- various ambassadors or diplomats from those embassies, will themselves then be laying out the case to their host government.
There is a final batch supposed to go, I'm told to everyone else -- to other countries, presumably, in the Middle East, in Africa, South America, and what not. But as you mentioned, today, a very special briefing was given in Islamabad, by the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, who sat down face-to-face with president of Pakistan, General Pervis Musharraf, to give what the Pakistani general said -- and the Pakistani people really need to hear -- the case, the evidence, the proof that the U.S. has which fingers Osama bin Laden, and the al Qaeda network.
I should say, Miles, that that really is going to be the toughest case -- to convince the Pakistani people -- many of whom are very sympathetic to bin Laden, and to al Qaeda, and believe that he is you know really a hero and that the U.S. claim of linkage between al Queda and the attacks is really an excuse for the west to launch an attack against Islam. So it's going to be very important to hear what President Musharraf has to say, then, to the Pakistani people, if in fact he believes that -- that the case was made.
O'BRIEN: Andrea, lots to consider here -- and one of the things which I'm sure has been on a lot of people's minds there in Foggy Bottom -- is the issue of how much to disclose inevitably as these cables start heading out all across the world, the probably will be leaks, and the possibility of compromising some intelligence assets of the U.S. How difficult was it for them to walk that tightrope?
KOPPEL: Absolutely, that's an extremely relevant point to raise, Miles. That's one of the reasons why it's taken the last couple of weeks for the administration to take the next step -- to deliver, some of the proof that it believes that it has against bin Laden and al Qaeda. For the last couple weeks, you have had people here at the State Department, The Pentagon, within the intelligence community, sifting through -- what I'm told is mounds of evidence, that they have collected fingering al Qaeda and bin Laden.
And much of it of course highly classified, and one of the main concerns was how much you can reveal. They really want to go as close to the threshold as possible making the case, without revealing what's known as sources and methods. In many instances, these are individuals, human beings who've been passing on tips to the United States. And the U.S. wants to make very sure that their identities are protected. In other instances, what you are talking about are spy satellites and other high technology ways they are able to monitor -- whether it is cell phones or communication through the web or computers.
And so they have actually, variations of briefings, that they're going to be giving -- to the closest allies they will be giving more information, because they feel that they can be trusted more. And then, as you go down the line, there will be -- progressively less information, but hopefully enough, the U.S. believes, to make its case against al Qaeda. Miles?
O'BRIEN: CNN's Andrea Koppel at the State Department, thank you very much.
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