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American Morning
Analysis of Terror Attacks in Riyadh
Aired May 13, 2003 - 07:06 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Our terrorism analyst now. Peter Bergen has studied al Qaeda for several years. Peter is our guest now live in D.C. to talk about more on these attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Does it smell like al Qaeda to you, Peter?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: No question about it. Simultaneous attacks, they went into these compounds with shooting, which they did in the embassy bombing attacks in '98. Then the bombs went off. Also there is some indication that there may have been initial explosions to bring people out and then another explosion to perhaps kill more people. This also happened in the U.S. Embassy attacks in Africa.
Al Qaeda itself said last week in an interview, one of al Qaeda's spokesmen, in an Arabic magazine published in London that they were planning more attacks. And clearly, this is one of those attacks. There's just an absence of other groups that would be capable of carrying out these coordinated attacks, Bill.
HEMMER: Yes, you say this is a major embarrassment for the Saudis. How so?
BERGEN: Well, I mean, I think this action speaks for itself. I mean, you've got Secretary Powell arriving in the country. This attack happened. Prince Nayif, the minister of the interior, just last week said that al Qaeda was weak or perhaps nonexistent in Saudi Arabia. Well, this is their answer.
I think the Saudis have consistently downplayed the fact that al Qaeda exists in their country to such a large degree. For obvious reasons they don't want to admit it. But when you have 15 of the hijackers were Saudi, isn't it kind of odd, Bill, that we haven't had any person extradited from Saudi Arabia who might have been a confederate in the 9/11 attacks? We have had people extradited from Pakistan who were part of the 9/11 plot. We've also seen in Germany the Germans putting on trial people involved in the 9/11 plot. But none of this has happened in Saudi Arabia.
For some -- you know, Bill, one of the interesting things, reports indicate that the largest category of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are Saudi. Clearly, al Qaeda is a group that has benefited from Saudi money. You know Osama bin Laden is a Saudi. In fact, Riyadh is his hometown, where these explosions happened.
This is a Saudi operation to a large degree, and I think this is a huge wake-up call for the Saudis to really get very, very serious about clamping down. They have done some things in the past; for instance, trying to crack down on Saudi charities that may be funneling money to al Qaeda. They say that they've arrested hundreds of people and they've questioned thousands more. But clearly that was not enough to prevent this kind of attack.
And I think this is the moment where the Saudis will finally say, we have to get very serious about this. Because don't forget, Bill, not only is this politically damaging for them, this is also potentially economically damaging, because the workers at these compounds, many of them work in the oil business, obviously the main export of Saudi Arabia.
So, I think on all sorts of fronts this is terrible news for all of the victims of this attack, but I think this is also very bad news for the Saudis, unless they are seen to really cooperate with an American investigation.
HEMMER: Peter, also relative to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and their strong disdain for U.S. military presence in the Saudi Arabian peninsula, several weeks ago the U.S. announced that about 5,000 military personnel were coming out of Saudi Arabia to go to other Persian Gulf countries. Do we know -- have we been able to gauge the reaction inside of that country to this move and this announcement by the U.S.?
BERGEN: Well, Saudi Arabia is not somewhere where there is, you know, a tremendous free press that we can gauge people's feelings on these kinds of subjects. There hasn't been polling on this. But I would imagine that most Saudis are probably readily happy about the American presence being drawn down. It's been an irritant. You know, it was Osama bin Laden's main plank. His first political demand was the expulsion of American troops from Saudi Arabia.
You know, now, there is -- with the end of the war in Iraq, there's really no particular reason to keep those troops there, particularly since places like Qatar are, you know, very enthusiastic about having American troops in their countries, whereas clearly there is resentment of them in Saudi Arabia.
But, you know, interestingly, last week, as you mentioned, we announced -- the United States announced that we're drawing down our presence in Saudi Arabia to really just perhaps a few hundred people. But still, obviously, that's not enough for al Qaeda. And in fact, they have, you know, obviously taken that war now to American civilians and other Europeans living in Saudi Arabia, obviously a softer target than a military target.
HEMMER: Peter Bergen live in D.C. Thanks, Peter. We'll talk again.
BERGEN: Thank you.
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 May 13, 2003 - 07:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Our terrorism analyst now. Peter Bergen has studied al Qaeda for several years. Peter is our guest now live in D.C. to talk about more on these attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Does it smell like al Qaeda to you, Peter?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: No question about it. Simultaneous attacks, they went into these compounds with shooting, which they did in the embassy bombing attacks in '98. Then the bombs went off. Also there is some indication that there may have been initial explosions to bring people out and then another explosion to perhaps kill more people. This also happened in the U.S. Embassy attacks in Africa.
Al Qaeda itself said last week in an interview, one of al Qaeda's spokesmen, in an Arabic magazine published in London that they were planning more attacks. And clearly, this is one of those attacks. There's just an absence of other groups that would be capable of carrying out these coordinated attacks, Bill.
HEMMER: Yes, you say this is a major embarrassment for the Saudis. How so?
BERGEN: Well, I mean, I think this action speaks for itself. I mean, you've got Secretary Powell arriving in the country. This attack happened. Prince Nayif, the minister of the interior, just last week said that al Qaeda was weak or perhaps nonexistent in Saudi Arabia. Well, this is their answer.
I think the Saudis have consistently downplayed the fact that al Qaeda exists in their country to such a large degree. For obvious reasons they don't want to admit it. But when you have 15 of the hijackers were Saudi, isn't it kind of odd, Bill, that we haven't had any person extradited from Saudi Arabia who might have been a confederate in the 9/11 attacks? We have had people extradited from Pakistan who were part of the 9/11 plot. We've also seen in Germany the Germans putting on trial people involved in the 9/11 plot. But none of this has happened in Saudi Arabia.
For some -- you know, Bill, one of the interesting things, reports indicate that the largest category of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are Saudi. Clearly, al Qaeda is a group that has benefited from Saudi money. You know Osama bin Laden is a Saudi. In fact, Riyadh is his hometown, where these explosions happened.
This is a Saudi operation to a large degree, and I think this is a huge wake-up call for the Saudis to really get very, very serious about clamping down. They have done some things in the past; for instance, trying to crack down on Saudi charities that may be funneling money to al Qaeda. They say that they've arrested hundreds of people and they've questioned thousands more. But clearly that was not enough to prevent this kind of attack.
And I think this is the moment where the Saudis will finally say, we have to get very serious about this. Because don't forget, Bill, not only is this politically damaging for them, this is also potentially economically damaging, because the workers at these compounds, many of them work in the oil business, obviously the main export of Saudi Arabia.
So, I think on all sorts of fronts this is terrible news for all of the victims of this attack, but I think this is also very bad news for the Saudis, unless they are seen to really cooperate with an American investigation.
HEMMER: Peter, also relative to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and their strong disdain for U.S. military presence in the Saudi Arabian peninsula, several weeks ago the U.S. announced that about 5,000 military personnel were coming out of Saudi Arabia to go to other Persian Gulf countries. Do we know -- have we been able to gauge the reaction inside of that country to this move and this announcement by the U.S.?
BERGEN: Well, Saudi Arabia is not somewhere where there is, you know, a tremendous free press that we can gauge people's feelings on these kinds of subjects. There hasn't been polling on this. But I would imagine that most Saudis are probably readily happy about the American presence being drawn down. It's been an irritant. You know, it was Osama bin Laden's main plank. His first political demand was the expulsion of American troops from Saudi Arabia.
You know, now, there is -- with the end of the war in Iraq, there's really no particular reason to keep those troops there, particularly since places like Qatar are, you know, very enthusiastic about having American troops in their countries, whereas clearly there is resentment of them in Saudi Arabia.
But, you know, interestingly, last week, as you mentioned, we announced -- the United States announced that we're drawing down our presence in Saudi Arabia to really just perhaps a few hundred people. But still, obviously, that's not enough for al Qaeda. And in fact, they have, you know, obviously taken that war now to American civilians and other Europeans living in Saudi Arabia, obviously a softer target than a military target.
HEMMER: Peter Bergen live in D.C. Thanks, Peter. We'll talk again.
BERGEN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
