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American Morning

All Signs Point to Al Qaeda

Aired November 10, 2003 - 08:06   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: All signs point to the deadly Riyadh car bombing as being the work of al Qaeda again in Saudi Arabia. That from U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who says the terror group right now is trying to oust the Saudi royal family. The Saudis are on high alert for the possibility of yet another terrorist attack, which security officials say could come at any time.
Nic Robertson reporting from Riyadh by way of video phone on this Monday afternoon, where it's the afternoon there -- Nic, hello.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

Good afternoon from here.

Good morning to you, Bill.

Certainly, we are told by officials here, that the ruling Saudi royal family recognizes and believes that it is the object of these attacks, that it is an effort to unseat its rule of power over Saudi Arabia and that they say, the royal family here says that absolutely they will continue this fight against al Qaeda here in what they call a sort of domestic version of international al Qaeda. They will continue their fight against al Qaeda here right to the end. And they say that they believe that they can do that effectively.

They even say that at this time, they think they really have the terror group not on the ropes, so to speak, at this time, but under pressure. That is because they are aware that there is a potential, a very real potential, they think, for another attack very soon. That is because of intelligence information. And for that reason, the government here feels that it has the al Qaeda elements here under some form of pressure, because it has some idea of what or at least when they may attack next -- Bill.

HEMMER: Nic Robertson, video phone in Riyadh.

Nic, thanks for that.

A question now, why are the Saudis the targets of terror?

We're joined from Orlando, Florida, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen is back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Peter, good morning to you.

Thanks for coming back here.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Bill. HEMMER: This attack really runs the list of victims from everywhere -- Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Pakistan, Romania, the list continues. What do terrorists gain by an attack like this in Saudi Arabia?

BERGEN: Well, I think, you know, Bill, it's an attack in Riyadh, obviously, the capital. It is a sign, a way of saying that the Saudi regime is not fully in control even of its own capital. We saw on May 12 another devastating attack similar to this. was, that was really Saudi's 9/11. For them, that was a big wake up call. They hadn't really been cracking down on al Qaeda until that point. They had not really been cooperating in the 9/11 investigation.

After May 12, we've seen something quite different, really an attempt to go after al Qaeda inside the kingdom. But obviously, even with the arrests of hundreds of militants, they're still capable of doing the sort of thing we saw this weekend. And obviously there is intelligence indicating that there may be more similar attacks.

HEMMER: You set up an excellent premise based on the past six months about the attacks back there in May and what has happened since then. But at this point, knowing what happened Saturday night, how do they effectively respond?

BERGEN: How do the Saudis respond?

HEMMER: Exactly.

BERGEN: Well, I think more of the same. I mean they've arrested, the figure is 600 militants, that they've used in the past. They're obviously going to keep going. But I think there are two problems. One is there obviously is quite a significant opposition movement inside the kingdom. Secondly, I think that some of the people -- we're seeing a push and a pull towards Iraq. A number of these Saudi militants, because of the crack down inside the Saudi kingdom, are going to Iraq. Not only are they attracted by the fact that there are U.S. soldiers over there as targets, but also this crackdown has been pretty heavy by the Saudi authorities.

But obviously not sufficient because they're still capable of pulling off what we saw on the weekend.

HEMMER: What are your -- what's your response to Senator Joe Biden from Sunday, when he was talking with Wolf Blitzer about turning it up another click, he said, to crack down on the funding? Do they respond to this now or does it take another attack and another one after that to get movement?

BERGEN: Well, you know, they've been, obviously, they've going to be burying their heads in the sand on the al Qaeda problem for some time. They're in a sort of catch-22. You know, the Saudi royal family are the custodians of the holy places of Mecca and Medina. And so they are, in a way -- if, by cracking down on the religious extremists, it puts them in a rather difficult position because they're supposed to uphold the Wahabi religion, which is the religion, the state religion of Saudi Arabia, obviously. So for a long time they chose not to crack down.

Senator Biden's comment about turning it up a click, I think, makes a lot of sense. But even if you cut down on all the funding, at the end of the day this is not entirely about money because you can't get people to commit suicide in these attacks because of money. Obviously there's something more here.

They really believe that this is a fight against the forces of evil, the West. They also identify the royal family as part of the problem. They regard the royal family as just being too Western. Osama bin Laden, obviously, the sort of ideological leader of the movement and the leader of al Qaeda itself, has repeatedly called for the overthrow of the royal family. And I think we're seeing protests in the streets of Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh recently, hundreds of people taking to the streets. Now we're seeing these attacks inside the kingdom.

There's been a debate within al Qaeda about whether these attacks make sense. Obviously, they have decided that they do make sense, even though this is the source of their funding, as you pointed out, and also sort of one of their most important bases.

They are prepared to take this fight to the Saudi -- right to the heart of the Saudi kingdom and I think we can expect more of the same, unfortunately.

HEMMER: The number earlier today was 17 dead. We expect that number, we're told, anyway, could go higher.

Peter Bergen in Orlando, thanks.

BERGEN: Thank you.

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 November 10, 2003 - 08:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All signs point to the deadly Riyadh car bombing as being the work of al Qaeda again in Saudi Arabia. That from U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who says the terror group right now is trying to oust the Saudi royal family. The Saudis are on high alert for the possibility of yet another terrorist attack, which security officials say could come at any time.
Nic Robertson reporting from Riyadh by way of video phone on this Monday afternoon, where it's the afternoon there -- Nic, hello.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.

Good afternoon from here.

Good morning to you, Bill.

Certainly, we are told by officials here, that the ruling Saudi royal family recognizes and believes that it is the object of these attacks, that it is an effort to unseat its rule of power over Saudi Arabia and that they say, the royal family here says that absolutely they will continue this fight against al Qaeda here in what they call a sort of domestic version of international al Qaeda. They will continue their fight against al Qaeda here right to the end. And they say that they believe that they can do that effectively.

They even say that at this time, they think they really have the terror group not on the ropes, so to speak, at this time, but under pressure. That is because they are aware that there is a potential, a very real potential, they think, for another attack very soon. That is because of intelligence information. And for that reason, the government here feels that it has the al Qaeda elements here under some form of pressure, because it has some idea of what or at least when they may attack next -- Bill.

HEMMER: Nic Robertson, video phone in Riyadh.

Nic, thanks for that.

A question now, why are the Saudis the targets of terror?

We're joined from Orlando, Florida, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen is back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING -- Peter, good morning to you.

Thanks for coming back here.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Bill. HEMMER: This attack really runs the list of victims from everywhere -- Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Pakistan, Romania, the list continues. What do terrorists gain by an attack like this in Saudi Arabia?

BERGEN: Well, I think, you know, Bill, it's an attack in Riyadh, obviously, the capital. It is a sign, a way of saying that the Saudi regime is not fully in control even of its own capital. We saw on May 12 another devastating attack similar to this. was, that was really Saudi's 9/11. For them, that was a big wake up call. They hadn't really been cracking down on al Qaeda until that point. They had not really been cooperating in the 9/11 investigation.

After May 12, we've seen something quite different, really an attempt to go after al Qaeda inside the kingdom. But obviously, even with the arrests of hundreds of militants, they're still capable of doing the sort of thing we saw this weekend. And obviously there is intelligence indicating that there may be more similar attacks.

HEMMER: You set up an excellent premise based on the past six months about the attacks back there in May and what has happened since then. But at this point, knowing what happened Saturday night, how do they effectively respond?

BERGEN: How do the Saudis respond?

HEMMER: Exactly.

BERGEN: Well, I think more of the same. I mean they've arrested, the figure is 600 militants, that they've used in the past. They're obviously going to keep going. But I think there are two problems. One is there obviously is quite a significant opposition movement inside the kingdom. Secondly, I think that some of the people -- we're seeing a push and a pull towards Iraq. A number of these Saudi militants, because of the crack down inside the Saudi kingdom, are going to Iraq. Not only are they attracted by the fact that there are U.S. soldiers over there as targets, but also this crackdown has been pretty heavy by the Saudi authorities.

But obviously not sufficient because they're still capable of pulling off what we saw on the weekend.

HEMMER: What are your -- what's your response to Senator Joe Biden from Sunday, when he was talking with Wolf Blitzer about turning it up another click, he said, to crack down on the funding? Do they respond to this now or does it take another attack and another one after that to get movement?

BERGEN: Well, you know, they've been, obviously, they've going to be burying their heads in the sand on the al Qaeda problem for some time. They're in a sort of catch-22. You know, the Saudi royal family are the custodians of the holy places of Mecca and Medina. And so they are, in a way -- if, by cracking down on the religious extremists, it puts them in a rather difficult position because they're supposed to uphold the Wahabi religion, which is the religion, the state religion of Saudi Arabia, obviously. So for a long time they chose not to crack down.

Senator Biden's comment about turning it up a click, I think, makes a lot of sense. But even if you cut down on all the funding, at the end of the day this is not entirely about money because you can't get people to commit suicide in these attacks because of money. Obviously there's something more here.

They really believe that this is a fight against the forces of evil, the West. They also identify the royal family as part of the problem. They regard the royal family as just being too Western. Osama bin Laden, obviously, the sort of ideological leader of the movement and the leader of al Qaeda itself, has repeatedly called for the overthrow of the royal family. And I think we're seeing protests in the streets of Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh recently, hundreds of people taking to the streets. Now we're seeing these attacks inside the kingdom.

There's been a debate within al Qaeda about whether these attacks make sense. Obviously, they have decided that they do make sense, even though this is the source of their funding, as you pointed out, and also sort of one of their most important bases.

They are prepared to take this fight to the Saudi -- right to the heart of the Saudi kingdom and I think we can expect more of the same, unfortunately.

HEMMER: The number earlier today was 17 dead. We expect that number, we're told, anyway, could go higher.

Peter Bergen in Orlando, thanks.

BERGEN: Thank you.

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