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American Morning

Terror Arrests in London

Aired November 18, 2002 - 08:34   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: Police in Britain think they might have foiled a terrorist plot in the London underground. Three men are under arrest, suspecting of planning to release nerve gas in London's subway. Joining us now to talk about the case is Jason Burke, an expert on Al Qaeda, and the chief reporter for "The Observer" newspaper.
Good to see you, Jason. Thanks so much for joining us.

Before we get to these men and the significance of their arrests, let's talk about the level of alert right now in Great Britain. What can you tell us?

JASON BURKE, "THE OBSERVER": Well, I've come here on the underground, and it's pretty much business as usual. Fairly used in London to terrorist threats, long-term threat from the IRA. It's never really disrupted life in the city, or indeed the country as a whole previously. London, people in the country, are generally used to keeping a vigilant, looking out for bags, all that sort of thing. There is No great panic certainly.

ZAHN: And no great level, you think, of difference in what you are witnessing on the streets than what you've seen before?

BURKE: No, no. I mean, no. There is very rarely any sort of significant presence of police on the British streets. There is nothing out today to indicate an enhanced level of vigilance. There clearly is on the -- on the part of the security authorities, that's what led to the most recent arrests. But in terms of what you see on the streets, in terms of the general sense among the general public, that there is nothing particular -- there is no particular radical change as to -- as I say people are being vigilant, people being very aware, people talking about the threat on the front page of all the papers, and that's obviously going to have an effect.

But in terms of people actually being physically frightened, or changing their routines, the underground is as packed as it ever has been.

ZAHN: Which is interesting to hear, particularly after these arrests of these three North American Muslim men. What have you learned about who these men are?

BURKE: Well, we know very little about them at the moment. We know that two are in their early 30s, one in his 20s. There is an address for one of them in north London, the two others are said to be of no fixed abode, but believed to have been living in east London. There is no indication at the moment of how long they've been in the country. They appear to be, as you said, North African origin. I've been told that they include Chunesian (ph), and Algerian and a Moroccan. That gives us some idea what groups they may be affiliated to usually in these circumstances.

Certainly with individuals who've been picked up before in Britain and charged with terrorist offenses, they've been a part of one of the north Algerian terrorist groups which, itself, is affiliated to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. The links are tenuous. They're not direct, and that is what causes so many problems. One thing I would say that there is some doubt over state of the plans for supposedly gassing the tube, or putting some kind of attack into the tube. That, the British government have been very careful to roll back from that today, saying that it's been overexaggerated by the press, and that though there are broad ideas that may have included an attack of that nature, actually, there was no bomb-making equipment found with the suspects, no -- certainly no chemical or biological weapons, equipment, and that that kind of attack was, as one senior source told me, an aspiration as much as anything, and that's based on intelligence, rather than any practical evidence that they found.

ZAHN: So if the officials believe the press is exaggerating what the threat was and maybe they just had this broad idea of something they were aspiring to do, what is it they were up to?

BURKE: Well, they certainly think they were planning to do something very, very unpleasant, there is no doubt. From what we hear, there was a significant threat and a threat that continues. What the actual specifics of that threat haven't been -- we haven't heard about them. I'm sure the security services have a far better idea.

But at the moment, they are saying they've broken up their terrorist cell in north London, and their are three men that are being charged today being charged under antiterrorist legislation. Actually, the charges relate to the possession of false documents and an intention to cause harm, rather than possession of a bomb or explosives. There is no doubt, you know, that this is a very serious blow to the Islamic extremists in the U.K.

ZAHN: Well, Jason Burke, we appreciate you're trying to set the record straight, because I know that it's very difficult to get information on this from the folks who are investigating it. Again, thank you for dropping by on "AMERICAN MORNING" We appreciate your time today, Jason Burke.

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 November 18, 2002 - 08:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Police in Britain think they might have foiled a terrorist plot in the London underground. Three men are under arrest, suspecting of planning to release nerve gas in London's subway. Joining us now to talk about the case is Jason Burke, an expert on Al Qaeda, and the chief reporter for "The Observer" newspaper.
Good to see you, Jason. Thanks so much for joining us.

Before we get to these men and the significance of their arrests, let's talk about the level of alert right now in Great Britain. What can you tell us?

JASON BURKE, "THE OBSERVER": Well, I've come here on the underground, and it's pretty much business as usual. Fairly used in London to terrorist threats, long-term threat from the IRA. It's never really disrupted life in the city, or indeed the country as a whole previously. London, people in the country, are generally used to keeping a vigilant, looking out for bags, all that sort of thing. There is No great panic certainly.

ZAHN: And no great level, you think, of difference in what you are witnessing on the streets than what you've seen before?

BURKE: No, no. I mean, no. There is very rarely any sort of significant presence of police on the British streets. There is nothing out today to indicate an enhanced level of vigilance. There clearly is on the -- on the part of the security authorities, that's what led to the most recent arrests. But in terms of what you see on the streets, in terms of the general sense among the general public, that there is nothing particular -- there is no particular radical change as to -- as I say people are being vigilant, people being very aware, people talking about the threat on the front page of all the papers, and that's obviously going to have an effect.

But in terms of people actually being physically frightened, or changing their routines, the underground is as packed as it ever has been.

ZAHN: Which is interesting to hear, particularly after these arrests of these three North American Muslim men. What have you learned about who these men are?

BURKE: Well, we know very little about them at the moment. We know that two are in their early 30s, one in his 20s. There is an address for one of them in north London, the two others are said to be of no fixed abode, but believed to have been living in east London. There is no indication at the moment of how long they've been in the country. They appear to be, as you said, North African origin. I've been told that they include Chunesian (ph), and Algerian and a Moroccan. That gives us some idea what groups they may be affiliated to usually in these circumstances.

Certainly with individuals who've been picked up before in Britain and charged with terrorist offenses, they've been a part of one of the north Algerian terrorist groups which, itself, is affiliated to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. The links are tenuous. They're not direct, and that is what causes so many problems. One thing I would say that there is some doubt over state of the plans for supposedly gassing the tube, or putting some kind of attack into the tube. That, the British government have been very careful to roll back from that today, saying that it's been overexaggerated by the press, and that though there are broad ideas that may have included an attack of that nature, actually, there was no bomb-making equipment found with the suspects, no -- certainly no chemical or biological weapons, equipment, and that that kind of attack was, as one senior source told me, an aspiration as much as anything, and that's based on intelligence, rather than any practical evidence that they found.

ZAHN: So if the officials believe the press is exaggerating what the threat was and maybe they just had this broad idea of something they were aspiring to do, what is it they were up to?

BURKE: Well, they certainly think they were planning to do something very, very unpleasant, there is no doubt. From what we hear, there was a significant threat and a threat that continues. What the actual specifics of that threat haven't been -- we haven't heard about them. I'm sure the security services have a far better idea.

But at the moment, they are saying they've broken up their terrorist cell in north London, and their are three men that are being charged today being charged under antiterrorist legislation. Actually, the charges relate to the possession of false documents and an intention to cause harm, rather than possession of a bomb or explosives. There is no doubt, you know, that this is a very serious blow to the Islamic extremists in the U.K.

ZAHN: Well, Jason Burke, we appreciate you're trying to set the record straight, because I know that it's very difficult to get information on this from the folks who are investigating it. Again, thank you for dropping by on "AMERICAN MORNING" We appreciate your time today, Jason Burke.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com