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American Morning

Interview With Scott MacLeod

Aired September 08, 2003 - 09:15   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: Want to get to Saudi Arabia right now and the fight against terrorism in that country. This week's "TIME" magazine, a rather revealing look at Saudi Arabia since the attacks back on the 12 of May. Attacks on a Riyadh apartment complex that killed dozens.
In an exclusive interview with the magazine, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia questions whether or not the danger of an Islamic threat to Saudi Arabia may just be the tip of the iceberg. Let's talk about the interview and the piece from "TIME" magazine. Middle East correspondent Scott MacLeod is our guest now live from Cairo, Egypt.

Take us back to May 12. There are some Saudi Arabian officials who believe this is their own Pearl Harbor. What has been the impact of that now four months later?

SCOTT MACLEOD, "TIME" MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've launched a very aggressive campaign, or security campaign against the al Qaeda cells that have been operating inside the kingdom underground. They've arrested some 200 al Qaeda suspects, they've had some 100 security operations against al Qaeda cells, I think 11 or 12, at least, al Qaeda suspects have been killed in these operations, and about 11 Saudi security people.

So, this is clearly a very aggressive, determined effort that we didn't see in quite this scale before May 12, before al Qaeda really launched a campaign inside Saudi Arabia.

HEMMER: You're quoting the U.S. ambassador Robert Jordan in this interview and he frankly does not do a number of interviews publicly. One of the quotes he says, though, "It's sort of like trying to stamp out crab grass. As soon as you stamp out one of them, something springs up somewhere else under a different name."

If that's the case, how does Saudi Arabia gauge progress right now and cutting down terrorists in its own kingdom?

MACLEOD: Well, it's hard to gauge it, really. The Saudis give the impression that they feel that they're getting a handle on this, and that the worst of it is over. In the interview with me Ambassador Jordan said he wasn't sure whether this was the tip of the iceberg, or just the mopping up of the rest of what's there.

It really is a big mystery. It's very hard to tell. There have been a lot of al Qaeda sympathizers in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden, as you know, is Saudi. And so, it really is going to be something we have to watch and see how it plays out over the course of the next year or two.

But, what we've learned since May 12 is that al Qaeda does want to attack inside Saudi Arabia. And as Ambassador Jordan mentioned there's a lot more there than even American officials expected one year ago.

HEMMER: Tell us about the special forces, the training that's undergone there. I know you got a firsthand exclusive look and that was, again, part of this large piece for "TIME" magazine.

What do the Saudi Arabian -- what are they doing right now in terms of trying to shore up their own defenses within the capital city and elsewhere throughout the kingdom?

MACLEOD: Well, it was very interesting that they allowed "TIME" magazine to have access to these kind of terrorist bases. By nature, this is secret work, and Saudi Arabia's one of the more secret countries or governments in the world, probably.

And so it was quite extraordinary that they allowed a "TIME" photographer and myself to visit, actually, the Riyadh bases of two separate counterterrorist organizations. We saw them going through drills, you know, storming houses in mock anti-terror operations, rescuing hostages and hijackings of a bus for example.

And what it told me was two things. One is that they feel that their campaign against terrorism is going well enough that they can invite this kind of scrutiny that they allowed us to have by taking us there.

And it also showed the Saudis really are making an effort since September 11, and especially since May 12, to be more transparent, to be more communicative with the United States and the Western World, to not just do things behind closed doors, but to show us what they're doing. And I think this was also a positive sign that they allowed us to do that.

HEMMER: Scott MacLeod's a Middle East correspondent for "TIME" magazine. Great piece out this week, newsstands today, in fact. Thanks for joining us and sharing part of your story from "TIME" magazine.

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 8, 2003 - 09:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to get to Saudi Arabia right now and the fight against terrorism in that country. This week's "TIME" magazine, a rather revealing look at Saudi Arabia since the attacks back on the 12 of May. Attacks on a Riyadh apartment complex that killed dozens.
In an exclusive interview with the magazine, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia questions whether or not the danger of an Islamic threat to Saudi Arabia may just be the tip of the iceberg. Let's talk about the interview and the piece from "TIME" magazine. Middle East correspondent Scott MacLeod is our guest now live from Cairo, Egypt.

Take us back to May 12. There are some Saudi Arabian officials who believe this is their own Pearl Harbor. What has been the impact of that now four months later?

SCOTT MACLEOD, "TIME" MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've launched a very aggressive campaign, or security campaign against the al Qaeda cells that have been operating inside the kingdom underground. They've arrested some 200 al Qaeda suspects, they've had some 100 security operations against al Qaeda cells, I think 11 or 12, at least, al Qaeda suspects have been killed in these operations, and about 11 Saudi security people.

So, this is clearly a very aggressive, determined effort that we didn't see in quite this scale before May 12, before al Qaeda really launched a campaign inside Saudi Arabia.

HEMMER: You're quoting the U.S. ambassador Robert Jordan in this interview and he frankly does not do a number of interviews publicly. One of the quotes he says, though, "It's sort of like trying to stamp out crab grass. As soon as you stamp out one of them, something springs up somewhere else under a different name."

If that's the case, how does Saudi Arabia gauge progress right now and cutting down terrorists in its own kingdom?

MACLEOD: Well, it's hard to gauge it, really. The Saudis give the impression that they feel that they're getting a handle on this, and that the worst of it is over. In the interview with me Ambassador Jordan said he wasn't sure whether this was the tip of the iceberg, or just the mopping up of the rest of what's there.

It really is a big mystery. It's very hard to tell. There have been a lot of al Qaeda sympathizers in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden, as you know, is Saudi. And so, it really is going to be something we have to watch and see how it plays out over the course of the next year or two.

But, what we've learned since May 12 is that al Qaeda does want to attack inside Saudi Arabia. And as Ambassador Jordan mentioned there's a lot more there than even American officials expected one year ago.

HEMMER: Tell us about the special forces, the training that's undergone there. I know you got a firsthand exclusive look and that was, again, part of this large piece for "TIME" magazine.

What do the Saudi Arabian -- what are they doing right now in terms of trying to shore up their own defenses within the capital city and elsewhere throughout the kingdom?

MACLEOD: Well, it was very interesting that they allowed "TIME" magazine to have access to these kind of terrorist bases. By nature, this is secret work, and Saudi Arabia's one of the more secret countries or governments in the world, probably.

And so it was quite extraordinary that they allowed a "TIME" photographer and myself to visit, actually, the Riyadh bases of two separate counterterrorist organizations. We saw them going through drills, you know, storming houses in mock anti-terror operations, rescuing hostages and hijackings of a bus for example.

And what it told me was two things. One is that they feel that their campaign against terrorism is going well enough that they can invite this kind of scrutiny that they allowed us to have by taking us there.

And it also showed the Saudis really are making an effort since September 11, and especially since May 12, to be more transparent, to be more communicative with the United States and the Western World, to not just do things behind closed doors, but to show us what they're doing. And I think this was also a positive sign that they allowed us to do that.

HEMMER: Scott MacLeod's a Middle East correspondent for "TIME" magazine. Great piece out this week, newsstands today, in fact. Thanks for joining us and sharing part of your story from "TIME" magazine.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com