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American Morning
Officials Say U.N., Jordanian Embassy Bombs Similar
Aired September 05, 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: The FBI is now saying it found similarities between the bombs that were used in the attacks on the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, and now the U.N. headquarters there as well. What does this all say, if anything, about who might be behind these attacks?
From Washington, Colonel Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East intelligence for the Defense Intelligence Agency is with us; also CNN analyst Ken Pollack, director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Good morning, gentlemen, to both of you.
COL. PATRICK LANG, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Good morning.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Colonel, make the connection here. What does it say to you, if anything?
LANG: Well, I think if you look at the variety of methods that use these different bombs, you could easily make the case that there is some connection amongst the bombers. The techniques seem somewhat similar; although in some cases you had people run away rather than be blown up.
But I think there is probably no reason not to think that they're connected. And I think, more importantly, what this shows is that the insurgents have adopted a strategy of trying to attack the underpinnings of pacification, so as to make it impossible to get the situation under control there.
HEMMER: Yes, Ken, what do you think? What's your theory?
POLLACK: Well, certainly I agree with Pat that I think that it looks likely that the two are connected. I would certainly agree with Pat's assessment that this indicates that whoever is behind this is trying to go after the reconstruction program itself to convince Iraqis that nothing is safe, that this is not going to work, to pull all of this stuff apart.
I think that it probably tells us maybe a little bit more about who may have been behind it, but not a whole lot. I think that the fact that the bombs do look like they're connected rules out the possibility that this is some Sunni tribal group or certainly some Shiite tribal group who probably wouldn't have this kind of expertise and wouldn't have this kind of ability to conduct these kind of attacks sequentially.
I don't think it tells us a whole lot more about whether this might be al Qaeda operatives or Saddam loyalists, or maybe the two working in conjunction, but nevertheless, I think that there is something to be said for...
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Ken, do you think -- is al Qaeda too easy the target here to just say it is that group?
POLLACK: Well, it's certainly a definite possibility. I don't think we can rule it out, Bill. We know that there are thousands of foreigners going into Iraq, many of them connected to al Qaeda, for the express purpose of trying to kill Americans. Whether this is al Qaeda or not, it's an open question now.
But I do think that it raises slightly the possibility that this was al Qaeda. We know that they've got these kinds of capabilities. We know that they are interested in attacking these kinds of facilities. And look at the two things that we've now linked up -- the Jordanian embassy and the United Nations headquarters.
HEMMER: Right.
POLLACK: These are two big targets on al Qaeda's list.
You could see Saddam loyalists wanting to go after these targets, but they're a little bit lower down. Al Qaeda has attacked the Jordanian government in the past. They've tried to attack the U.N. in the past.
HEMMER: All right, listen, get back to this whole motivation of fear of trying to get people to turn against the Americans, not help the American cause there. Colonel, if the U.N. takes a role here, how does that strategy change, as you see it right now?
LANG: Well, you know, an insurgency and a counter-insurgency situation like this is always basically a political struggle for control of the population. So, at the present time, what they're trying to do on the other side, no matter how they're divided up -- perhaps the bombers are Islamic terrorists and the people fighting the guerrilla war are essentially Iraqi nationalists -- but what they're trying to do on that side is essentially to dominate the population by fear and prevent them from cooperating with the new government.
If, on the other hand, we manage to construct an international political regime, which sponsors a rapidly-emerging Iraqi government with a unified chain of command under American control underneath it, there is a reasonable chance that you can split off most of the Iraqi people from sympathy to the insurgents.
HEMMER: We will see. Colonel Patrick Lang, thanks. Ken Pollack, thanks as well in D.C.
POLLACK: Thank you, Bill. HEMMER: Appreciate your time 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 September 5, 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: The FBI is now saying it found similarities between the bombs that were used in the attacks on the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, and now the U.N. headquarters there as well. What does this all say, if anything, about who might be behind these attacks?
From Washington, Colonel Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East intelligence for the Defense Intelligence Agency is with us; also CNN analyst Ken Pollack, director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Good morning, gentlemen, to both of you.
COL. PATRICK LANG, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Good morning.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: Colonel, make the connection here. What does it say to you, if anything?
LANG: Well, I think if you look at the variety of methods that use these different bombs, you could easily make the case that there is some connection amongst the bombers. The techniques seem somewhat similar; although in some cases you had people run away rather than be blown up.
But I think there is probably no reason not to think that they're connected. And I think, more importantly, what this shows is that the insurgents have adopted a strategy of trying to attack the underpinnings of pacification, so as to make it impossible to get the situation under control there.
HEMMER: Yes, Ken, what do you think? What's your theory?
POLLACK: Well, certainly I agree with Pat that I think that it looks likely that the two are connected. I would certainly agree with Pat's assessment that this indicates that whoever is behind this is trying to go after the reconstruction program itself to convince Iraqis that nothing is safe, that this is not going to work, to pull all of this stuff apart.
I think that it probably tells us maybe a little bit more about who may have been behind it, but not a whole lot. I think that the fact that the bombs do look like they're connected rules out the possibility that this is some Sunni tribal group or certainly some Shiite tribal group who probably wouldn't have this kind of expertise and wouldn't have this kind of ability to conduct these kind of attacks sequentially.
I don't think it tells us a whole lot more about whether this might be al Qaeda operatives or Saddam loyalists, or maybe the two working in conjunction, but nevertheless, I think that there is something to be said for...
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Ken, do you think -- is al Qaeda too easy the target here to just say it is that group?
POLLACK: Well, it's certainly a definite possibility. I don't think we can rule it out, Bill. We know that there are thousands of foreigners going into Iraq, many of them connected to al Qaeda, for the express purpose of trying to kill Americans. Whether this is al Qaeda or not, it's an open question now.
But I do think that it raises slightly the possibility that this was al Qaeda. We know that they've got these kinds of capabilities. We know that they are interested in attacking these kinds of facilities. And look at the two things that we've now linked up -- the Jordanian embassy and the United Nations headquarters.
HEMMER: Right.
POLLACK: These are two big targets on al Qaeda's list.
You could see Saddam loyalists wanting to go after these targets, but they're a little bit lower down. Al Qaeda has attacked the Jordanian government in the past. They've tried to attack the U.N. in the past.
HEMMER: All right, listen, get back to this whole motivation of fear of trying to get people to turn against the Americans, not help the American cause there. Colonel, if the U.N. takes a role here, how does that strategy change, as you see it right now?
LANG: Well, you know, an insurgency and a counter-insurgency situation like this is always basically a political struggle for control of the population. So, at the present time, what they're trying to do on the other side, no matter how they're divided up -- perhaps the bombers are Islamic terrorists and the people fighting the guerrilla war are essentially Iraqi nationalists -- but what they're trying to do on that side is essentially to dominate the population by fear and prevent them from cooperating with the new government.
If, on the other hand, we manage to construct an international political regime, which sponsors a rapidly-emerging Iraqi government with a unified chain of command under American control underneath it, there is a reasonable chance that you can split off most of the Iraqi people from sympathy to the insurgents.
HEMMER: We will see. Colonel Patrick Lang, thanks. Ken Pollack, thanks as well in D.C.
POLLACK: Thank you, Bill. HEMMER: Appreciate your time 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.
