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American Morning

Terror Threat

Aired February 12, 2003 - 08:30   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: The White House says the audiotape which they believe is from Osama bin Laden proves that Al Qaeda and Iraq are linked, bound by a common hatred. But the voice on the tape also calls Saddam Hussein's government infidels.
Nic Robertson joins us now live from Iraqi capital with this late report.

Good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, I've just been out on the streets here. talking with residents of Baghdad. Most of them haven't actually heard Osama bin Laden's broadcast. It was late at night. Yesterday was a holiday. And of course, it came via satellite television channels, which are banned here in Iraq. The people who had heard something about it, said, look, we don't like Osama bin Laden, we don't have ties to him. They say as well that this is a really bad time for Iraq to have that kind of message. Most people here say they just want peace, and they can see that a message like this inflames the situation.

So the people we talked to really didn't like what they'd heard, and the people we explained it to, the same. They just didn't like it.

There is a peace mission going on at the moment. There is a papal envoy, Cardinal Roger Echer Gorai (ph). He met with the vice president and the deputy prime minister today. He may also yet meet with President Saddam Hussein. Also, U.N. inspectors continuing work left off by the last U.N. mission in the 1990s. They today are going to blow up some mustard gas artillery shells out in the desert, about 140 miles north of Baghdad -- Paula.

ZAHN: Nic Robertson, we're going to leave it there. Thanks for that live report from Baghdad.

ROBERTSON: In 1998, as an ABC News correspondent, John Miller interviewed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Two months later, Al Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Miller is now a special assistant to the police chief in Los Angeles leading the creation of a bureau of homeland security for that city. And John was nice enough to get up for us at the middle of the night to join us from Los Angeles to share his insights about the new terror alert.

John, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

JOHN MILLER, LAPD HOMELAND SECURITY: Good morning, Paula. Good to be here.

ZAHN: I know you've had a chance to listen to this tape and do your own analysis. Is there anything that stands out to you?

MILLER: Well, there's a number of things. First of all, it's always worrisome when bin Laden issues a tape. History has shown that before the embassy bombings, before the attack on the USS Cole, before the attacks in Bali and Mombassa, bin Laden issued tapes. A lot of people in the U.S. government believed the tapes are a foreshadowing of events or perhaps bin Laden's signal to his followers to go ahead. And of course just the mention of encouraging suicide attacks on the tape is disturbing.

ZAHN: You, obviously, interviewed him in 1998 before the rumors were rife that he was seriously ill. What did you think of the tenor of his voice and the timber of it? Did it sound like Osama bin Laden to you?

MILLER: Well, the audio quality on this tape is better than the last tape that was received just before the Mombassa attacks. Of course, we cannot see bin Laden. He used to release videotapes, and now he communicates through audiotapes. That may be because he still looks sick or he was injured in the bombing of Tora Bora, but I think certainly we have to look at the more obvious angle, which is he probably the most wanted, hunted fugitive on the face of the Earth, and whatever he looks like today, whether he shaved his beard, or did something with his hair or dress, he probably doesn't want the U.S. government to see that.

ZAHN: I'm sure you're right about that.

You talk about the most concerning thing that you heard in these tapes were the threat of suicide operations against Americans and Israelis.

Is there anything that the LAPD can do at this point to prevent such an attack?

MILLER: Well, I mean, we've done the things we can do. There is no such thing as total security, and the good news is we're not in possession of any information specifically related to a threat against Los Angeles.

On the other hand, we have sent detective Ralph Morton from our bomb squad to Israel on more than one occasion. He has brought back training on how to locate and detect and try to prevent suicide bombings, something we have not seen in the United States.

But that doesn't mean agencies like the Los Angeles Police Department aren't preparing, at least through training, to deal with that.

ZAHN: Can you give us an idea of some of the more obvious things that have been done that perhaps an L.A. citizen might notice in this new state of alert? MILLER: Well, certainly, it is the mandate of Chief Bratton, who brought me here, to expand the homeland security effort in Los Angeles from the antiterrorist division now to a homeland security bureau, which I'm now in charge of, which encompasses the bomb squad, hazardous materials, the antiterrorist division, and planning and training group we're putting together to work with private industry, and the entertainment industry and the financial community here, really to take a look at hardening targets.

Of course, the attorney general the other day talked about, and so did the FBI and the CIA directors, about softer targets. So we're certainly making a large effort in Los Angeles to make it as difficult as possible for terrorists to work here, but there is no city that will ever be completely safe.

ZAHN: John, finally this morning, as you know, it is very disturbing to most American citizens to be told by their government to stock up on duct tape, and plastic sheets, and water and canned food, and then to be told to just be vigilant and go about living their normal lives. Just a final piece of advice out there to some people who find this highly contradictory.

MILLER: Well, you know, there's an old saying from another time, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. There can be a healthy caution exercised in times like this, but I think we learned after September 11th, 2001 in New York City that all of the concerns that people would panic in the event of a major attack didn't come to fore. In fact, New Yorkers conducted themselves in an incredibly organized and laudable way, and I think as a country, we've learned we can get through just about anything.

So is it time to be worried? Perhaps a little more than it was a week ago, a lot more than it was a couple of years ago. But I think the government and people have shown they can get through just about anything.

ZAHN: Well, thank you so much again for joining us, John. Congratulations on your new job. Great to see you back on television. We miss seeing you on ABC.

MILLER: Thanks for having me. Good to talk to you.

ZAHN: Good luck.

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 February 12, 2003 - 08:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The White House says the audiotape which they believe is from Osama bin Laden proves that Al Qaeda and Iraq are linked, bound by a common hatred. But the voice on the tape also calls Saddam Hussein's government infidels.
Nic Robertson joins us now live from Iraqi capital with this late report.

Good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Well, I've just been out on the streets here. talking with residents of Baghdad. Most of them haven't actually heard Osama bin Laden's broadcast. It was late at night. Yesterday was a holiday. And of course, it came via satellite television channels, which are banned here in Iraq. The people who had heard something about it, said, look, we don't like Osama bin Laden, we don't have ties to him. They say as well that this is a really bad time for Iraq to have that kind of message. Most people here say they just want peace, and they can see that a message like this inflames the situation.

So the people we talked to really didn't like what they'd heard, and the people we explained it to, the same. They just didn't like it.

There is a peace mission going on at the moment. There is a papal envoy, Cardinal Roger Echer Gorai (ph). He met with the vice president and the deputy prime minister today. He may also yet meet with President Saddam Hussein. Also, U.N. inspectors continuing work left off by the last U.N. mission in the 1990s. They today are going to blow up some mustard gas artillery shells out in the desert, about 140 miles north of Baghdad -- Paula.

ZAHN: Nic Robertson, we're going to leave it there. Thanks for that live report from Baghdad.

ROBERTSON: In 1998, as an ABC News correspondent, John Miller interviewed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Two months later, Al Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Miller is now a special assistant to the police chief in Los Angeles leading the creation of a bureau of homeland security for that city. And John was nice enough to get up for us at the middle of the night to join us from Los Angeles to share his insights about the new terror alert.

John, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

JOHN MILLER, LAPD HOMELAND SECURITY: Good morning, Paula. Good to be here.

ZAHN: I know you've had a chance to listen to this tape and do your own analysis. Is there anything that stands out to you?

MILLER: Well, there's a number of things. First of all, it's always worrisome when bin Laden issues a tape. History has shown that before the embassy bombings, before the attack on the USS Cole, before the attacks in Bali and Mombassa, bin Laden issued tapes. A lot of people in the U.S. government believed the tapes are a foreshadowing of events or perhaps bin Laden's signal to his followers to go ahead. And of course just the mention of encouraging suicide attacks on the tape is disturbing.

ZAHN: You, obviously, interviewed him in 1998 before the rumors were rife that he was seriously ill. What did you think of the tenor of his voice and the timber of it? Did it sound like Osama bin Laden to you?

MILLER: Well, the audio quality on this tape is better than the last tape that was received just before the Mombassa attacks. Of course, we cannot see bin Laden. He used to release videotapes, and now he communicates through audiotapes. That may be because he still looks sick or he was injured in the bombing of Tora Bora, but I think certainly we have to look at the more obvious angle, which is he probably the most wanted, hunted fugitive on the face of the Earth, and whatever he looks like today, whether he shaved his beard, or did something with his hair or dress, he probably doesn't want the U.S. government to see that.

ZAHN: I'm sure you're right about that.

You talk about the most concerning thing that you heard in these tapes were the threat of suicide operations against Americans and Israelis.

Is there anything that the LAPD can do at this point to prevent such an attack?

MILLER: Well, I mean, we've done the things we can do. There is no such thing as total security, and the good news is we're not in possession of any information specifically related to a threat against Los Angeles.

On the other hand, we have sent detective Ralph Morton from our bomb squad to Israel on more than one occasion. He has brought back training on how to locate and detect and try to prevent suicide bombings, something we have not seen in the United States.

But that doesn't mean agencies like the Los Angeles Police Department aren't preparing, at least through training, to deal with that.

ZAHN: Can you give us an idea of some of the more obvious things that have been done that perhaps an L.A. citizen might notice in this new state of alert? MILLER: Well, certainly, it is the mandate of Chief Bratton, who brought me here, to expand the homeland security effort in Los Angeles from the antiterrorist division now to a homeland security bureau, which I'm now in charge of, which encompasses the bomb squad, hazardous materials, the antiterrorist division, and planning and training group we're putting together to work with private industry, and the entertainment industry and the financial community here, really to take a look at hardening targets.

Of course, the attorney general the other day talked about, and so did the FBI and the CIA directors, about softer targets. So we're certainly making a large effort in Los Angeles to make it as difficult as possible for terrorists to work here, but there is no city that will ever be completely safe.

ZAHN: John, finally this morning, as you know, it is very disturbing to most American citizens to be told by their government to stock up on duct tape, and plastic sheets, and water and canned food, and then to be told to just be vigilant and go about living their normal lives. Just a final piece of advice out there to some people who find this highly contradictory.

MILLER: Well, you know, there's an old saying from another time, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. There can be a healthy caution exercised in times like this, but I think we learned after September 11th, 2001 in New York City that all of the concerns that people would panic in the event of a major attack didn't come to fore. In fact, New Yorkers conducted themselves in an incredibly organized and laudable way, and I think as a country, we've learned we can get through just about anything.

So is it time to be worried? Perhaps a little more than it was a week ago, a lot more than it was a couple of years ago. But I think the government and people have shown they can get through just about anything.

ZAHN: Well, thank you so much again for joining us, John. Congratulations on your new job. Great to see you back on television. We miss seeing you on ABC.

MILLER: Thanks for having me. Good to talk to you.

ZAHN: Good luck.

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