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American Morning
Terror Trail of al Qaeda
Aired March 05, 2003 - 07:08 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: Could the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed lead to more terror suspects? About a dozen names discovered during the arrest of al Qaeda's operations chief match those of people already under U.S. surveillance -- that's according to government officials. Hundreds of more names were found in a computer that was seized.
Let's check in with David Ensor, who is standing by in Washington with the very latest on all of that.
Good morning -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, there is a massive crosschecking process going on. Counterterrorism officials around the government comparing the list of names that they got out of the laptop computer that belonged to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, his cell phones and his notebooks with the information they already have.
And as you just mentioned, so far late yesterday they were saying they found about 12 names that were -- about a dozen names or so that were people they were already watching inside the United States.
Now, there are hundreds of names, Paula, so the belief is that there may be others. There may even be the names of other al Qaeda operatives inside the United States that the U.S. didnt know about until now.
So, there's a lot of intelligence effort going on right now and law enforcement effort, and this is the major treasure trove of intelligence. It's being mined as fast as possible -- Paula.
ZAHN: And, David, what is the level of concern there about any potential attacks for retribution purposes?
ENSOR: Well, the general view of intelligence officials I speak to is that al Qaeda will strike when it can, when it's ready, that it doesn't do so because there's a war in Iraq or because some particular operative has been captured. It does so when it can. That tends to be their view.
At the same time, if there are sleeper cells in the United States that know that the U.S. is on their trail and want to do something, go out with a bang, they may try to make small, low-level attacks. The likelihood of a large, well-organized attack in retribution for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is, in the view of officials I speak to, rather a low possibility -- Paula.
ZAHN: And finally this morning, how much more optimistic are officials about finding Osama bin Laden?
ENSOR: Well, obviously finding Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is a huge step along the way. They know that he was in touch. They have confirmed to me that he was in touch with Osama bin Laden numerous times post-9/11. They're not willing to say whether he's been in touch with Osama bin Laden in recent times, in recent weeks.
Still, clearly this is one of the topics they'll be trying to get things out of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on. He is apparently talking, Paula. We understand that for a long time he was simply reciting the Quran. But he is now giving some answers to questions, though not much useful intelligence to this point -- Paula.
ZAHN: David Ensor, thanks so much.
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 5, 2003 - 07:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Could the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed lead to more terror suspects? About a dozen names discovered during the arrest of al Qaeda's operations chief match those of people already under U.S. surveillance -- that's according to government officials. Hundreds of more names were found in a computer that was seized.
Let's check in with David Ensor, who is standing by in Washington with the very latest on all of that.
Good morning -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, there is a massive crosschecking process going on. Counterterrorism officials around the government comparing the list of names that they got out of the laptop computer that belonged to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, his cell phones and his notebooks with the information they already have.
And as you just mentioned, so far late yesterday they were saying they found about 12 names that were -- about a dozen names or so that were people they were already watching inside the United States.
Now, there are hundreds of names, Paula, so the belief is that there may be others. There may even be the names of other al Qaeda operatives inside the United States that the U.S. didnt know about until now.
So, there's a lot of intelligence effort going on right now and law enforcement effort, and this is the major treasure trove of intelligence. It's being mined as fast as possible -- Paula.
ZAHN: And, David, what is the level of concern there about any potential attacks for retribution purposes?
ENSOR: Well, the general view of intelligence officials I speak to is that al Qaeda will strike when it can, when it's ready, that it doesn't do so because there's a war in Iraq or because some particular operative has been captured. It does so when it can. That tends to be their view.
At the same time, if there are sleeper cells in the United States that know that the U.S. is on their trail and want to do something, go out with a bang, they may try to make small, low-level attacks. The likelihood of a large, well-organized attack in retribution for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is, in the view of officials I speak to, rather a low possibility -- Paula.
ZAHN: And finally this morning, how much more optimistic are officials about finding Osama bin Laden?
ENSOR: Well, obviously finding Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is a huge step along the way. They know that he was in touch. They have confirmed to me that he was in touch with Osama bin Laden numerous times post-9/11. They're not willing to say whether he's been in touch with Osama bin Laden in recent times, in recent weeks.
Still, clearly this is one of the topics they'll be trying to get things out of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on. He is apparently talking, Paula. We understand that for a long time he was simply reciting the Quran. But he is now giving some answers to questions, though not much useful intelligence to this point -- Paula.
ZAHN: David Ensor, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
