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American Morning

Photographs of Landmarks Found in al Qaeda Houses

Aired January 31, 2002 - 08:05   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: This week, Americans heard their president talking in rather blunt terms about the State of the Union. Among other things, we were told tens of thousands of trained terrorists are currently scattered around the world like ticking time bombs waiting to go off in a way that would rival the events of September 11. Documents gathered in Afghanistan, according to the president, including diagrams of American nuclear power plants, dams, national landmarks.

But what is the real and present danger that the American people are facing at this moment? CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now from Washington with more on that -- good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jack.

Well, U.S. officials now tell us that, yes, they have found many photographs of U.S. landmarks and other sites in the U.S. in al Qaeda safe houses across Afghanistan. And that, in fact, is leading to some new concerns about possible future terrorist attacks.

And indeed, one of those photographs was of the Space Needle in Seattle, and this is what the governor of Washington had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GARY LOCKE, WASHINGTON: I want to reassure people in the state of Washington that we have no credible information of any threat of a terrorist attack against the Space Needle or any other facilities in our state of Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: But this morning, Jack, two officials in two agencies of the government, two senior officials tell us that there is an awful lot of concern that another terrorist attack could be in the planning stages. But as always, the problem is no one knows when or where it might occur. One senior intelligence official told us this morning the threat is very real -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: What is Donald Rumsfeld doing today in conjunction with all of this? STARR: Well, the secretary of defense is going to make a speech here in Washington at midday at the National Defense University, and what he wants to talk about is what he calls "transformation." What he is really going to do is lay the groundwork for how the Pentagon is going to spend the $48 billion in additional money that it's asking Congress for, and one of the things he wants to focus on is new intelligence-gathering assets. He is going to draw some parallels and some analogies and explain why this new war in Afghanistan is so different.

And he likes to talk about the fact that in this war, you saw U.S. commandos, U.S. Special Forces riding horseback with Afghan warlords calling in targets from horseback, calling in B-2 bombers in on Taliban targets. So he is going to draw the analogy that we need more intelligence spending money, and we need to think in new and creative ways on how to spend it -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: He may have to have an appropriation for some saddle and bridles, Barbara.

STARR: Pardon me? I'm sorry. We have noise here.

CAFFERTY: Oh, I'm sorry -- saddles and bridles, you were talking about American Special Forces calling in airstrikes from horseback. It's something almost out of a movie, I suppose. But as you point out, it's a different world -- Barbara Starr, live at the Pentagon.

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