Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Voice of Terror
Aired May 22, 2003 - 09:04 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: Terrorism expert Eric Margolis, the contributing foreign editor to "The Sun Media Canada," author of the book "War at the Top of the World" is our guest again today in Toronto.
Eric, thanks for coming back. Good morning to you there.
Listen, what do you make of this? Get on record right now.
ERIC MARGOLIS, CONTRIBUTING FOREIGN EDITOR, "SUN MEDIA CANADA": Bill it's a very serious warning. Whether the tape is authentic or not, it's perfectly consistent with previous statements by Al Qaeda, it's two senior leaders, Osama bin Laden, and Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who we just heard, and it is these warnings and calls to arms are intended, a, to punish the United States for the invasion of Iraq, but even more so, to punish Arab rulers who supported the United States and whom Al Qaeda and other militant Islamic groups call traitors to the Arab world.
HEMMER: Eric, you say whether it's authentic or not. Explain that a bit more for us here. Do you believe it is the real deal, first off?
MARGOLIS: Bill, it has the ring of authenticity, Egyptian accent, the voice maybe different from what we've heard before, but it could be the audio recording.
But I'm still a little bit cautious, because one of the last recordings we heard allegedly of Osama bin Laden, which I said on this show was not authentic, was a counterfeit, in fact turned out after analysis by Swiss voice experts to be a fake, so we also have to be cautious about these tapes.
HEMMER: On that note then, if both of these men are alive, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, why does not Osama bin Laden make this tape and this message?
MARGOLIS: Dr. Zawahiri is really the chief of staff of operations, CEO of Al Qaeda, and he has in the past made pronouncements regarding such operational matters, threats of attacks. So it's not unusual for him to be speaking. Why bin Laden didn't do it, I don't know, except that me may be either under deep cover, or ailing or dead.
HEMMER: Listen, Eric, I think if you know answer to this next question, you should contact the CIA right away, but listen, it was a 15-minute message recorded, it was cut down to about four minutes, played on Al Jazeera yesterday. Did you hear something in there where investigators listened for code words and clues for the possibility of further attacks?
MARGOLIS: No, I didn't. But I'll tell you, I'm not sure that the calls to attacks are being that carefully coordinated centrally by Al Qaeda, where its command post is right now. What's happening is, we're seeing local militant groups and different countries, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, et cetera, taking action, perhaps on their own or to the call of Al Qaeda, not under strict operational control.
HEMMER: Eric Margolis, live in Toronto. Thanks, Eric. We'll talk again.
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 22, 2003 - 09:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Terrorism expert Eric Margolis, the contributing foreign editor to "The Sun Media Canada," author of the book "War at the Top of the World" is our guest again today in Toronto.
Eric, thanks for coming back. Good morning to you there.
Listen, what do you make of this? Get on record right now.
ERIC MARGOLIS, CONTRIBUTING FOREIGN EDITOR, "SUN MEDIA CANADA": Bill it's a very serious warning. Whether the tape is authentic or not, it's perfectly consistent with previous statements by Al Qaeda, it's two senior leaders, Osama bin Laden, and Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who we just heard, and it is these warnings and calls to arms are intended, a, to punish the United States for the invasion of Iraq, but even more so, to punish Arab rulers who supported the United States and whom Al Qaeda and other militant Islamic groups call traitors to the Arab world.
HEMMER: Eric, you say whether it's authentic or not. Explain that a bit more for us here. Do you believe it is the real deal, first off?
MARGOLIS: Bill, it has the ring of authenticity, Egyptian accent, the voice maybe different from what we've heard before, but it could be the audio recording.
But I'm still a little bit cautious, because one of the last recordings we heard allegedly of Osama bin Laden, which I said on this show was not authentic, was a counterfeit, in fact turned out after analysis by Swiss voice experts to be a fake, so we also have to be cautious about these tapes.
HEMMER: On that note then, if both of these men are alive, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, why does not Osama bin Laden make this tape and this message?
MARGOLIS: Dr. Zawahiri is really the chief of staff of operations, CEO of Al Qaeda, and he has in the past made pronouncements regarding such operational matters, threats of attacks. So it's not unusual for him to be speaking. Why bin Laden didn't do it, I don't know, except that me may be either under deep cover, or ailing or dead.
HEMMER: Listen, Eric, I think if you know answer to this next question, you should contact the CIA right away, but listen, it was a 15-minute message recorded, it was cut down to about four minutes, played on Al Jazeera yesterday. Did you hear something in there where investigators listened for code words and clues for the possibility of further attacks?
MARGOLIS: No, I didn't. But I'll tell you, I'm not sure that the calls to attacks are being that carefully coordinated centrally by Al Qaeda, where its command post is right now. What's happening is, we're seeing local militant groups and different countries, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, et cetera, taking action, perhaps on their own or to the call of Al Qaeda, not under strict operational control.
HEMMER: Eric Margolis, live in Toronto. Thanks, Eric. We'll talk again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
