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American Morning
What Arrest Means in War on Terror
Aired March 03, 2003 - 05:35 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the arrest of one of al Qaeda's alleged top officials, a lot of people are asking what it means in the war on terror.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor takes up that question.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Khalid Shaikh Mohammed looks the worse for wear in the photos said to show him after his arrest by Pakistani authorities, but before he was handed over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. U.S. officials say they do not use torture as legally defined, but that "all appropriate pressure" will be put on al Qaeda's operations chief to tell what he knows about future plots to attack Americans or others.
The intelligence committee leaders are thrilled by the catch.
REP. PORTER GOSS (R-FL), CHAIRMAN, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE: This is taking out Goebbels as an operative for the German Wehrmacht. This is just extremely important and it's going to lead to other very successful activities very shortly, I'm sure.
ENSOR: The chairman of Senate Intelligence said catching Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Pakistan Saturday is even more useful in terms of stopping future attacks than catching al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, would be.
SEN. PAT ROBERTSON (R-MS), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Osama is more of a figurehead and that doesn't mean that we're not really going after him, but we're taking out the operations command just as fast as we can.
ENSOR: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has been taken, U.S. officials say, to an unnamed third country, not Pakistan and not the U.S., for interrogation, the same approach taken with other top al Qaeda prisoners like Ramzi Binalshibh, caught after a shootout in Karachi and before him, Abu Zubaydah. U.S. officials say all the senior prisoners are cooperating to one degree or another, providing useful information to their interrogators.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Can the American public sleep, rest a little bit easier right now, Senator Rockefeller, with the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: No, because he's only one of hundreds or tens of thousands of al Qaeda who have been trained over the years in Afghanistan in the Madras schools. They're in six of the seven continents and 60 to 70 countries including our own.
ENSOR (on camera): All true, but now, U.S. officials say, al Qaeda will have to worry about which plots Khalid Shaikh Mohammed may have compromised, which other senior leaders he may know something about the whereabouts of. This is, said one senior intelligence official, a huge win in the war on terror.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 March 3, 2003 - 05:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the arrest of one of al Qaeda's alleged top officials, a lot of people are asking what it means in the war on terror.
Our national security correspondent David Ensor takes up that question.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Khalid Shaikh Mohammed looks the worse for wear in the photos said to show him after his arrest by Pakistani authorities, but before he was handed over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. U.S. officials say they do not use torture as legally defined, but that "all appropriate pressure" will be put on al Qaeda's operations chief to tell what he knows about future plots to attack Americans or others.
The intelligence committee leaders are thrilled by the catch.
REP. PORTER GOSS (R-FL), CHAIRMAN, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE: This is taking out Goebbels as an operative for the German Wehrmacht. This is just extremely important and it's going to lead to other very successful activities very shortly, I'm sure.
ENSOR: The chairman of Senate Intelligence said catching Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Pakistan Saturday is even more useful in terms of stopping future attacks than catching al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, would be.
SEN. PAT ROBERTSON (R-MS), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Osama is more of a figurehead and that doesn't mean that we're not really going after him, but we're taking out the operations command just as fast as we can.
ENSOR: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has been taken, U.S. officials say, to an unnamed third country, not Pakistan and not the U.S., for interrogation, the same approach taken with other top al Qaeda prisoners like Ramzi Binalshibh, caught after a shootout in Karachi and before him, Abu Zubaydah. U.S. officials say all the senior prisoners are cooperating to one degree or another, providing useful information to their interrogators.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Can the American public sleep, rest a little bit easier right now, Senator Rockefeller, with the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: No, because he's only one of hundreds or tens of thousands of al Qaeda who have been trained over the years in Afghanistan in the Madras schools. They're in six of the seven continents and 60 to 70 countries including our own.
ENSOR (on camera): All true, but now, U.S. officials say, al Qaeda will have to worry about which plots Khalid Shaikh Mohammed may have compromised, which other senior leaders he may know something about the whereabouts of. This is, said one senior intelligence official, a huge win in the war on terror.
David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
