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American Morning
Special Forces Arriving in Yemen
Aired September 19, 2002 - 07:24 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: Hundreds of U.S. Special Forces are arriving in Northeast Africa, preparing for a covert mission against al Qaeda terrorists believed to be hiding in Yemen. An amphibious assault ship, the Belleau Wood, is also in the region. Some analysts say this way the operation is being put together could be a sign of things to come if there is a war with Iraq.
CNN military analyst Gen. David Grange joins us now from Chicago.
Good morning.
GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Good morning.
ZAHN: What do you think this means?
GRANGE: It's putting forces in the right place that has operational reach in case actual intelligence is available where they can strike. And so this is near a hotbed of activity both in Africa and in the Arabian Peninsula.
ZAHN: Now, we know the U.S. inserted some 100 U.S. Green Berets earlier this year. Can one assume that they would be used in any action in cooperation with the Yemen government?
GRANGE: Possibly in cooperation, but that force basically went in to train counter-terrorist elements of the Yemeni Army. It's not really a direct action, special operations type unit. They would not be involved, I don't think.
ZAHN: We know that they've trained some 40 snipers. But there has been criticism that this training didn't make all that much difference, that little progress has been made and although the CIA has offered intelligence and the FBI has given them very specific information on members of al Qaeda, it's really not going anywhere.
GRANGE: Well, the problem you have in Yemen, the same in the Republic of Georgia and other places, a lot of the people that we train, we only go up to a rudimentary level. We're not going to train people to a level that our people are trained.
And second, their military is penetrated by infiltrators that are sympathizers of al Qaeda or other terrorist groups. And so you have an issue there of who you can trust.
ZAHN: So do you see Yemen potentially becoming the next big front in the war on terror? GRANGE: I don't know if it'll be, it won't be a big front, but it'll definitely be an area that, I think, information will become available of targets that will have to be taken down quickly in order to take these fleeting targets out. So between that area of Sudan- Somalia-Yemen, it's a very good place to be positioned to continue the war on terrorism.
ZAHN: Help us better understand what role special ops might play, and if they do play a significant role, does this mean the war on terror becomes much more secretive?
GRANGE: Well, it's going to be secretive to the extent that special operations relies on surprise. It's smaller elements. They're usually going into areas where they're outnumbered. So they need to have surprise. It's a lot of times a prerequisite before you do the assault.
So, yes, it'll be more covert type actions. Probably we'd hear about it after the fact.
ZAHN: David Grange, we're going to have to leave it there this morning because we continue to follow what is going on in the Middle East.
Thanks so much for your time this morning. Appreciate it.
GRANGE: My pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 19, 2002 - 07:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Hundreds of U.S. Special Forces are arriving in Northeast Africa, preparing for a covert mission against al Qaeda terrorists believed to be hiding in Yemen. An amphibious assault ship, the Belleau Wood, is also in the region. Some analysts say this way the operation is being put together could be a sign of things to come if there is a war with Iraq.
CNN military analyst Gen. David Grange joins us now from Chicago.
Good morning.
GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Good morning.
ZAHN: What do you think this means?
GRANGE: It's putting forces in the right place that has operational reach in case actual intelligence is available where they can strike. And so this is near a hotbed of activity both in Africa and in the Arabian Peninsula.
ZAHN: Now, we know the U.S. inserted some 100 U.S. Green Berets earlier this year. Can one assume that they would be used in any action in cooperation with the Yemen government?
GRANGE: Possibly in cooperation, but that force basically went in to train counter-terrorist elements of the Yemeni Army. It's not really a direct action, special operations type unit. They would not be involved, I don't think.
ZAHN: We know that they've trained some 40 snipers. But there has been criticism that this training didn't make all that much difference, that little progress has been made and although the CIA has offered intelligence and the FBI has given them very specific information on members of al Qaeda, it's really not going anywhere.
GRANGE: Well, the problem you have in Yemen, the same in the Republic of Georgia and other places, a lot of the people that we train, we only go up to a rudimentary level. We're not going to train people to a level that our people are trained.
And second, their military is penetrated by infiltrators that are sympathizers of al Qaeda or other terrorist groups. And so you have an issue there of who you can trust.
ZAHN: So do you see Yemen potentially becoming the next big front in the war on terror? GRANGE: I don't know if it'll be, it won't be a big front, but it'll definitely be an area that, I think, information will become available of targets that will have to be taken down quickly in order to take these fleeting targets out. So between that area of Sudan- Somalia-Yemen, it's a very good place to be positioned to continue the war on terrorism.
ZAHN: Help us better understand what role special ops might play, and if they do play a significant role, does this mean the war on terror becomes much more secretive?
GRANGE: Well, it's going to be secretive to the extent that special operations relies on surprise. It's smaller elements. They're usually going into areas where they're outnumbered. So they need to have surprise. It's a lot of times a prerequisite before you do the assault.
So, yes, it'll be more covert type actions. Probably we'd hear about it after the fact.
ZAHN: David Grange, we're going to have to leave it there this morning because we continue to follow what is going on in the Middle East.
Thanks so much for your time this morning. Appreciate it.
GRANGE: My pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
