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American Morning
'Seeds of Terror'
Aired June 13, 2003 - 07:17 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A little travel warning for you now. Americans should not travel to Indonesia, and those who are there should leave. That warning comes from the State Department today. It says that terrorists may be planning attacks against U.S. interests, including hotels, shopping centers and places of worship; also schools are on that list.
Our Jakarta bureau chief, Maria Ressa, has obtained documents indicating that the terror network has expanded its reach into Southeast Asia, and Maria is joining us from Manila -- hello.
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Daryn.
You know, really, what started our investigations here in Southeast Asia were the 9/11 attacks. That's how long we've been working on it, partly because when I saw the planes crash into the buildings, in the Twin Towers, it was a memory for me. It was a plot discovered by Philippine authorities in 1995, six years before the 9/11 attacks. And as we went back and unraveled a lot of the links, we found out that al Qaeda set its roots in Southeast Asia more than 15 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RESSA (voice-over): In the early 1990s, al Qaeda's operatives sent by Osama bin Laden arrived here, Manila's Red Light District.
A classified intelligence report obtained by CNN says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who would later become a bin Laden lieutenant and the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, visited a low-class bar here in 1994. According to this report, he walked out with a woman whom he asked to secretly deposit money in a bank, which she did. It was the beginning of Osama bin Laden's attempt to export his global jihad.
Southeast Asia made the perfect target. The region had armed Muslim groups full of thousands of veterans in the Afghan war, lax law enforcement and often divided governments. Long before the U.S. was aware of it, al Qaeda had established a base here, co-opting home- grown Muslim groups to wage war against Americans.
CNN obtained this intelligence document, which describes al Qaeda's moves as part of a wider strategy of shifting the base for Osama bin Laden's terrorist operations from the sub-continent to Southeast Asia. Since 1993, every single major al Qaeda plot around the world has been linked to Southeast Asia.
(END VIDEOTAPE) Just this week, officials in Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia announced the arrest of suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah (ph), al Qaeda's network in Southeast Asia. Regional intelligence officials say that they've had the JI cells in Cambodia and Thailand under surveillance for several months now, but it shows you that this problem is like dealing with a many-headed hydra; that as you chop one head off, it's replaced just as easily.
And part of the problem is that the ideology remains. It has taken root, and part of what the seeds of terror will tell you is, is that besides a military solution, a military approach to this problem, there needs to be a way to deal with the ideology of al Qaeda, the ideology that has spread to different parts of the world, and ideology that really, like communism and fascism in the '70s and '80s, has become the battle for our generation.
Back to you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Maria Ressa -- Maria, thank you for that.
Using hundreds of intelligence documents, exclusive footage and access to top-level sources throughout the region, our Jakarta bureau chief, Maria Ressa, who you just saw there, provides this unprecedented look at the past, present and future of terrorism in Southeast Asia. It is "CNN Presents: Seeds of Terror." You can check it out Sunday at 8:00 in the East, and then we play it again, so 8:00 in the West as well.
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 June 13, 2003 - 07:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A little travel warning for you now. Americans should not travel to Indonesia, and those who are there should leave. That warning comes from the State Department today. It says that terrorists may be planning attacks against U.S. interests, including hotels, shopping centers and places of worship; also schools are on that list.
Our Jakarta bureau chief, Maria Ressa, has obtained documents indicating that the terror network has expanded its reach into Southeast Asia, and Maria is joining us from Manila -- hello.
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Daryn.
You know, really, what started our investigations here in Southeast Asia were the 9/11 attacks. That's how long we've been working on it, partly because when I saw the planes crash into the buildings, in the Twin Towers, it was a memory for me. It was a plot discovered by Philippine authorities in 1995, six years before the 9/11 attacks. And as we went back and unraveled a lot of the links, we found out that al Qaeda set its roots in Southeast Asia more than 15 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RESSA (voice-over): In the early 1990s, al Qaeda's operatives sent by Osama bin Laden arrived here, Manila's Red Light District.
A classified intelligence report obtained by CNN says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who would later become a bin Laden lieutenant and the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, visited a low-class bar here in 1994. According to this report, he walked out with a woman whom he asked to secretly deposit money in a bank, which she did. It was the beginning of Osama bin Laden's attempt to export his global jihad.
Southeast Asia made the perfect target. The region had armed Muslim groups full of thousands of veterans in the Afghan war, lax law enforcement and often divided governments. Long before the U.S. was aware of it, al Qaeda had established a base here, co-opting home- grown Muslim groups to wage war against Americans.
CNN obtained this intelligence document, which describes al Qaeda's moves as part of a wider strategy of shifting the base for Osama bin Laden's terrorist operations from the sub-continent to Southeast Asia. Since 1993, every single major al Qaeda plot around the world has been linked to Southeast Asia.
(END VIDEOTAPE) Just this week, officials in Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia announced the arrest of suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah (ph), al Qaeda's network in Southeast Asia. Regional intelligence officials say that they've had the JI cells in Cambodia and Thailand under surveillance for several months now, but it shows you that this problem is like dealing with a many-headed hydra; that as you chop one head off, it's replaced just as easily.
And part of the problem is that the ideology remains. It has taken root, and part of what the seeds of terror will tell you is, is that besides a military solution, a military approach to this problem, there needs to be a way to deal with the ideology of al Qaeda, the ideology that has spread to different parts of the world, and ideology that really, like communism and fascism in the '70s and '80s, has become the battle for our generation.
Back to you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Maria Ressa -- Maria, thank you for that.
Using hundreds of intelligence documents, exclusive footage and access to top-level sources throughout the region, our Jakarta bureau chief, Maria Ressa, who you just saw there, provides this unprecedented look at the past, present and future of terrorism in Southeast Asia. It is "CNN Presents: Seeds of Terror." You can check it out Sunday at 8:00 in the East, and then we play it again, so 8:00 in the West as well.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
