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American Morning

CIA May Be Involved in Bethlehem Standoff

Aired April 16, 2002 - 08:25   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 CORRESPONDENT: Turning now to the "Big Question" of this hour, is the CIA involved in trying to end the stand-off at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem?

Our national security correspondent David Ensor joins us from Washington with his weekly intelligence brief -- David, it sounds unlikely but the CIA did play a role in Ramallah not so long ago. Are they involved in the Church of the Nativity situation?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, officially, Jack, the spokesman for the CIA won't comment. But other officials privately say that they believe their agency will be involved, may already be involved in trying to mediate this very difficult stand-off. As you mentioned, they did successfully do that in Ramallah when the Palestinian Authority security chief in the West Bank's headquarters was surrounded by the Israelis. They did work out an agreement under which the Palestinians surrendered but with some dignity and only a very few of them ended up in Israeli jails.

So the CIA is very heavy on the ground in the West Bank and it is quite possible, officials say, that it will get involved to try and help out. It has close ties, working relationships with some of the Palestinian security people and, of course, it also has a good working relationship with the Israelis. So that is a possibility -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, let me move you onto these videotapes that were released yesterday featuring Osama bin Laden and one of his top lieutenants. What are you hearing from your sources about the legitimacy, the time these things might have been put together and the value from an intelligence standpoint of what we saw yesterday?

ENSOR: Well, Al-Jazeera, the Arab television station that says it received the tape about a week ago, only released small portions of it. But this one here with Zawahiri talking, the number two man in al Qaeda, bin Laden sitting next to him, is, of course, of considerable interest. And on the tape Zawahiri gets as close as anyone has from al Qaeda so far on tape to admitting that they were behind the September 11 attacks. If there are any doubters in the Muslim world left, and apparently there are some, this may eliminate a few. So in propaganda terms it has that benefit from the Western point of view.

Now this picture here, of course, is, Al Jazeera says, is Ahmed Al Haznawi, one of the 19 hijackers, one of the ones who ended his life in Pennsylvania. And he says it is time to kill Americans in their own homeland on the tape. Very highly produced. You'll notice the background looks a bit like it might be the World Trade Center going down in flames, which, of course, that would have to be after this man's death. Not clear exactly what the picture is, but highly produced, and that is raising some interesting questions, Jack, how, who did the production?

CAFFERTY: Yes, it looks...

ENSOR: Does al Qaeda still have access to, you know, high quality television facilities or did Al Jazeera do this or what?

CAFFERTY: Yes, it looks like it was done in a studio of some kind. It's interesting how the bin Laden clip that we showed before, he doesn't say anything but he does move that left arm, which I remember was a great source of interest to people who were viewing an earlier tape where it appeared that that left arm was immobile. He moves it in this tape, but he doesn't say anything.

What do your sources suggest about that, if anything?

ENSOR: Well, I mean, first of all, their working assumption is that this tape was probably made before the other one. This tape, for various reasons, appears, the working assumption is, at least, to have been made not too long after September 11. So if he's had health problems since then, this tape might not reflect them.

But, yes, it's interesting that he was looking relatively well in this tape and obviously they'll be examining it very closely. They're going to see the full tape, or most of it, at least, on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. They say they're going to put most of it on then.

CAFFERTY: All right, we've got a short piece of sound from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He was asked during his daily news briefing down in Washington yesterday about the timing of the release of this latest piece of tape from bin Laden and let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Maybe they are anxious to inject some more energy into what they're doing. Maybe they're trying to let the world know that the senior people are still alive and well. Maybe they're trying to pretend to the world that they're still alive and well even though they're not. Maybe they're trying to take advantage of the concern about Palestinians in the Arab world by trying to play off that and think that it might benefit their terrorist organization in terms of recruiting or fund raising.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: I wonder, David, if it might something just as simple as wanting the spotlight back on the events of 9/11 in light of all of the attention that's been focused on the events in the Middle East of late, to the exclusion of al Qaeda and the Taliban?

ENSOR: Quite possible, Jack.

One other thing just to quickly note, and that is that I understand that U.S. and Pakistani officials have been in discussions lately. The U.S. perhaps seeking with the Pakistanis to have some additional raids in the border area of Pakistan near Afghanistan. The operating assumption is still that it is in that area, on one side of the border or the other, that Osama bin Laden is to be found -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: Interesting stuff.

David, thanks very much.

David Ensor joining us this morning from Washington.

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