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American Morning
Responding to Terror
Aired May 14, 2003 - 07:03 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: Let's get back to our top story again this morning, Saudi Arabia and the response that may or may not come now. U.S. authorities say the attacks appear to be the work of al Qaeda. They are extremely concerned that more may come.
National security correspondent David Ensor back in D.C. with us.
And many people are wondering, David, whether or not this signals a rebirth for al Qaeda and that network. Good morning there.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bill. Well, it may be that al Qaeda never really died. So, this is not a rebirth, but a continuation.
The officials I spoke to last night and this morning do say that there is a fair amount of intelligence out there suggesting that there may be additional attacks. They are not specific as to which country or place it might occur, but there is concern. That is why you saw that decision by the State Department to pull all nonessential personnel out of Saudi Arabia, and there may be other steps yet to come.
Now, Saudi officials are reportedly saying this morning that they believe that these attacks were organized by an Afghan war veteran named Khalid Muhammad Mussalim al-Juhani (ph), and this is an individual that the U.S. was aware of. He is, in fact, someone who was on one of the videotapes that was captured in Afghanistan during the war there.
Officials here, at least as of late last night, had not been able to confirm that he was involved in these particular attacks, but they'll obviously be looking at closely at that individual and others he may have known.
Some of the -- here he is, al-Juhani (ph), the individual that I spoke of. You may remember the videotape of him kissing a Kalashnikov that was shown on our air many months ago, towards the end of the Afghan war.
So, that will be a lead that will be followed clearly by U.S. and Saudi investigators, as they try to get to the bottom of these attacks.
As you mentioned, U.S. officials are hopeful and so far believe that cooperation has been very good between the two countries. There are, of course, others who will also be interested. There are British and other dead, so other countries will also wish to be involved in the investigation, which is going to be complex. But, again, the first lead suggests it is, indeed, al Qaeda -- Bill.
HEMMER: David Ensor in Washington, we'll talk later today.
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 14, 2003 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back to our top story again this morning, Saudi Arabia and the response that may or may not come now. U.S. authorities say the attacks appear to be the work of al Qaeda. They are extremely concerned that more may come.
National security correspondent David Ensor back in D.C. with us.
And many people are wondering, David, whether or not this signals a rebirth for al Qaeda and that network. Good morning there.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bill. Well, it may be that al Qaeda never really died. So, this is not a rebirth, but a continuation.
The officials I spoke to last night and this morning do say that there is a fair amount of intelligence out there suggesting that there may be additional attacks. They are not specific as to which country or place it might occur, but there is concern. That is why you saw that decision by the State Department to pull all nonessential personnel out of Saudi Arabia, and there may be other steps yet to come.
Now, Saudi officials are reportedly saying this morning that they believe that these attacks were organized by an Afghan war veteran named Khalid Muhammad Mussalim al-Juhani (ph), and this is an individual that the U.S. was aware of. He is, in fact, someone who was on one of the videotapes that was captured in Afghanistan during the war there.
Officials here, at least as of late last night, had not been able to confirm that he was involved in these particular attacks, but they'll obviously be looking at closely at that individual and others he may have known.
Some of the -- here he is, al-Juhani (ph), the individual that I spoke of. You may remember the videotape of him kissing a Kalashnikov that was shown on our air many months ago, towards the end of the Afghan war.
So, that will be a lead that will be followed clearly by U.S. and Saudi investigators, as they try to get to the bottom of these attacks.
As you mentioned, U.S. officials are hopeful and so far believe that cooperation has been very good between the two countries. There are, of course, others who will also be interested. There are British and other dead, so other countries will also wish to be involved in the investigation, which is going to be complex. But, again, the first lead suggests it is, indeed, al Qaeda -- Bill.
HEMMER: David Ensor in Washington, we'll talk later today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
