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American Morning
Richard Butler's Analysis of Osama Bin Laden's Weapons
Aired December 12, 2001 - 07:33 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There is word this morning that the American Taliban John Walker has told intelligence officials that al Qaeda is planning another attack on the United States within days. The report in the "Washington Times" says the attack will use biological weapons.
For his view on all this, we turn to Richard Butler, former U.N. chief weapons inspector, now with the Council on Foreign Relations, our ambassador in residence -- good morning.
RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning, Paula.
Is ecanatia golden seal (ph) a biological weapon? If so, I want some. I have -- I have a sore throat.
ZAHN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You believe in Vitamin B, keep on pumping the Vitamin B.
BUTLER: What -- this is an amazing report. We don't know whether it's true or not. But if it's true, I think they're probably talking about anthrax, probably delivered by some aerosol method, you know either in a subway tunnel or through an air conditioning system. Just think like a vacuum cleaner, you've got to have a way of sucking the stuff up from a source, whether it's in a plastic bag or whatever, the anthrax I mean, and distributing it through the air.
ZAHN: And you think Osama bin Laden has the capacity to do this?
BUTLER: We don't know exactly, but I think we'd be crazy to assume otherwise. We know that he was trying to make biological weapons, we know that he was trying to make chemical weapons and indeed get nuclear weapons. This man lived amongst those people and he's saying that by the end of Ramadan, which is next Sunday, something is going to happen. We've got to be vigilant. Biological weapons, that means probably anthrax, and as I said, spread through the air in some way.
ZAHN: What would be his other alternatives that he'd be capable of carrying off?
BUTLER: The al Qaeda?
ZAHN: Yes, smallpox? BUTLER: Well, oh God, don't go there. We don't have evidence that they have access to smallpox. But the main ones are anthrax, botulin antoxin (ph) and possible smallpox or some version of it. But you know anthrax.
ZAHN: I think we need to make it clear, although we haven't...
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: ... gotten official word from the White House this morning,...
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: ... there are people within the administration are quite skeptical of this report...
BUTLER: Oh yes.
ZAHN: ... who don't feel that John Walker had access to the high ranking members of the -- of the Taliban.
Let's move on to a story that equally disturbing and it ran in the "Washington Post," and it now says that two of those Pakistani nuclear scientists...
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: ... that you have talked about before have told investigators they actually conducted long-term discussions with Osama bin Laden about, not only nuclear, chemical weapons, but biological weapons as well.
BUTLER: Yes. Absolutely. This story has gone backwards and forwards, but what we now know something truly serious is that those two scientists whom Pakistan arrested, then let go, and have now rearrested, in the meantime, in the interim period, Pakistan said, oh they just went across the border and talked to Taliban. We now know that they talked to Osama bin Laden for three days about nuclear weapons or a dirty bomb. That's serious (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ZAHN: And you've always maintained that you believe that Osama bin Laden is capable of having some of his people manufacture a dirty bomb.
BUTLER: A dirty bomb, yes. Oh he was out...
ZAHN: You feel that there was evidence to suggest he could get his hands...
BUTLER: Oh yes.
ZAHN: ... on enriched uranium?
BUTLER: He was out in the marketplace over a year ago offering a million dollars for enriched uranium so that's what they wanted to do. And here he was talking to people who made enriched uranium. One of those scientists was in charge of Pakistan's enrichment program.
ZAHN: Need a 20 second answer to this one, reports the Eastern Alliance are offering a new deal to the Taliban fighters, give us Osama bin Laden, give us your other leadership members, we'll let the rest of the Taliban fighters go free. The U.S. is not going to accept that deal.
BUTLER: Nor should we. We should be able to interrogate those Taliban fighters. We need to debrief them, find out where they were, where the other cells are, where Osama bin Laden is if he's still alive, et cetera. No way.
ZAHN: Richard Butler,...
BUTLER: OK.
ZAHN: ... good to have you with us. See you same time, same place tomorrow morning.
BUTLER: Good.
ZAHN: Two thousand milligrams of Vitamin C coming your way.
BUTLER: Good, thank you.
ZAHN: Everybody is -- everybody is in the middle of the flu season here at CNN. Hope you all are feeling better than we are this morning.
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