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American Morning

Senior Bush administration Official Very Troubled By Al Qaeda Tapes

Aired August 19, 2002 - 09:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to continue our look at the Al Qaeda videotapes right now that CNN has obtained. A senior Bush administration official says he is very troubled by the tapes, particularly those dealing with the testing of lethal chemicals.
CNN senior White House correspondent John King is near the southwestern White House this morning. He has got more reaction.

Good morning, John,

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.

Administration officials obviously keeping track of our reporting with some interest. They want to know just what we and know are seeing about operation of Al Qaeda.

You mentioned one senior Bush administration official. I spoke this morning with several others, including a senior White House official, who after watching the videotape, especially the use of this morning including a senior White House official who after watching the videotape, especially the of use of some sort of chemical agent on those dogs, told CNN this -- quote -- "It is disturbing visual confirmation of things we have known and suspected." The senior official went on to say, "From what I have seen, you see the sophistication and urgent desire to develop weapons of mass destruction."

This and another official, though, also making a case that it is just because of this, proof and suspicion that Al Qaeda trying to develop such weapons training for things like assassinations that the U.S. military operation continue months later in Afghanistan, not only destroying the camps, but as Matthew Chance noted with you in the 7:00 hour, coming in sometime in protective suits, going back and revisiting these camps, looking for chemicals, looking for any sort of nerve agents, and U.S. official say that is why there is a great imperative in U.S. military and U.S. allies to prevent Al Qaeda from developing bases, and camps and training labs in other countries.

U.S. officials say that Al Qaeda can no longer stage such operations and such training in Afghanistan. The urgent focus now is learning more about what they did do in Afghanistan in the past, as we are going through the tapes, and trying to prevent this from happening anywhere else.

Again, that is why U.S. officials says that war on terrorism goes well beyond Afghanistan -- Paula.

ZAHN: Nic Robertson characterized what he saw on the tape. He has looked at 64 of them, close to I think 150 hours, and he said it is his belief that Al Qaeda represents even a bigger threat than was believed before. And I think from when you are saying, administration officials would agree with that now.

What does this do? Just further confirm in their minds that this war on terror must go on?

KING: I think they would answer that question with a yes and a no. They would say, yes, Al Qaeda is more sophisticated by the day. They are learning more, including through our reporting this weekend, and throughout this week of exactly what kind of training was done. How sophisticated was program to develop weapons of mass destruction?

As we have heard from the very beginning, U.S. official believe there are at least remnants of Al Qaeda in some 60 countries around the world. How many of those training videos reach those people, these training videos. So the administration still trying to get a handle on that.

But the administration is adamant in drawing this line. They say no longer can Al Qaeda conducts its operations and stage its operations so freely with the support of a government like it had from the Taliban in Afghanistan. That is why you see efforts in Yemen, efforts in South Philippines, efforts elsewhere to keep Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups from developing any new base of operations. That is one of priorities of this administration. They believe Al Qaeda has been mostly dismantled in Afghanistan, still some concerns in Pakistan, but the top U.S. priority is to prevent Al Qaeda from regrouping somewhere else.

Thank you so much, John. Appreciate it. Hope you are enjoying your time in Texas there.

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