Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Officials Say Terrorists Intended To Hijack Airliner, Crash Into Las Vegas

Aired December 26, 2003 - 07:09   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk a little bit about concerns that terrorists intended to hijack an airliner and crash land it into Las Vegas. That's according to a report this morning in the "Washington Post." Well, those concerns led to the cancellation of all Air France flights to and from Los Angeles in the last two days.
With us this morning from Washington to talk more about the security concerns is CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen -- Peter, good morning.

Nice to see you.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Why would investigators look to Paris? Is it because, obviously, the flight path would sort of work with what they've heard about potentially crashing into Las Vegas? Is it because al Qaeda has been known in the past to target flights coming out of Paris? Is it a little bit of both? BERGEN: Well, certainly the latter. I mean there's, Paris, al Qaeda attempted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris, as you probably remember, I'm sure. Richard Reid, the so- called shoe bomber, took a flight from Paris to Miami. Fortunately the shoe device that he had didn't detonate. There has also been an attempt in the early '90s, early to mid-'90s, by a group of Algerians linked to al Qaeda to fly a plane into the Tower Eiffel in Paris, as well.

So obviously Paris is a place which has been the site of attempted al Qaeda operations and, indeed, is a place where al Qaeda has recruited people. There is a large Algerian community in France and there is a very militant group of Algerians called The Armed Islamic Group, which is affiliated with al Qaeda.

So these are all the reasons that investigators may be looking to France, and Paris in particular.

O'BRIEN: And it actually is al Qae -- consistent with al Qaeda's strategy, isn't it, to revisit a target over and over and over until they sort of "get it right," from the al Qaeda perspective? BERGEN: Yes, certainly, as we saw at the World Trade Center attacks in, on 9/11, that also, those buildings were also attacked in 1993. We also saw that in Yemen, where an attack on the USS Cole killed 17 American sailors. But perhaps less well known is the fact that in the same port, in Aden, Yemen, al Qaeda also tried to attack another U.S. warship, the USS Sullivan, the year before the USS Cole attack.

So, yes, there is a pattern that al Qaeda comes back and revisits previous targets.

O'BRIEN: In addition to that, Mexico is also a concern. Is it a concern primarily just because it's a border of our country or is there a certain weakness in security measures in Mexico that would make it more likely that al Qaeda would try to target Mexico and, through Mexico, the United States? BERGEN: I think the fact that it's contiguous with the United States, obviously, has got to be the main point. If you remember, the attempted attack on Los Angeles International Airport at the time of the millennium, the guy who tried to do that was crossing the border from -- actually, from Canada rather than from Mexico.

But clearly al Qaeda has tried to cross from Canada, so why wouldn't they try and cross from Mexico?

O'BRIEN: There are concerns, officials say now, with some of the people who were on the Air France flights. How significant do you think it is that these flights, in fact, were stopped and they were grounded? BERGEN: Well, I think it's still a little unclear about who these people were and what -- obviously there were concerns, as you say. I, more than that, I think, is still not very clear. But the fact is obviously we're in a very different security posture than we would have been, you know, before 9/11 and the fact that there is this kind of alert is, I mean, entirely a good thing in terms of our security. If there had been this kind of alert on September 11, 2001, you know, we wouldn't -- almost wouldn't be having this conversation, I think.

So this, this kind of security alert is obviously, obviously the U.S. government felt it was necessary and they are very careful not to do these alerts as often as they used to because of alert fatigue. In this case, they really felt it was necessary.

O'BRIEN: So you think that the fact that they've done this orange alert now for five days has been critical to really staving off any kind of threat and any kind of attack? BERGEN: I think so. And I don't think, I mean you can never be, you know, you can never be a hundred percent secure, obviously. You know, if you remember, President Reagan very nearly was killed by a deranged Jodie Foster fan in 1981, and he has the best security in the world. So you can't be secure against everything. However, you can make it a little bit harder for the bad guys to try and pull off these kinds of operations.

O'BRIEN: Peter Bergen is a CNN terror analyst.

Peter, thanks.

Nice to see you, as always. BERGEN: Thank you, Soledad.

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




Crash Into Las Vegas>


Aired December 26, 2003 - 07:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk a little bit about concerns that terrorists intended to hijack an airliner and crash land it into Las Vegas. That's according to a report this morning in the "Washington Post." Well, those concerns led to the cancellation of all Air France flights to and from Los Angeles in the last two days.
With us this morning from Washington to talk more about the security concerns is CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen -- Peter, good morning.

Nice to see you.

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Why would investigators look to Paris? Is it because, obviously, the flight path would sort of work with what they've heard about potentially crashing into Las Vegas? Is it because al Qaeda has been known in the past to target flights coming out of Paris? Is it a little bit of both? BERGEN: Well, certainly the latter. I mean there's, Paris, al Qaeda attempted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris, as you probably remember, I'm sure. Richard Reid, the so- called shoe bomber, took a flight from Paris to Miami. Fortunately the shoe device that he had didn't detonate. There has also been an attempt in the early '90s, early to mid-'90s, by a group of Algerians linked to al Qaeda to fly a plane into the Tower Eiffel in Paris, as well.

So obviously Paris is a place which has been the site of attempted al Qaeda operations and, indeed, is a place where al Qaeda has recruited people. There is a large Algerian community in France and there is a very militant group of Algerians called The Armed Islamic Group, which is affiliated with al Qaeda.

So these are all the reasons that investigators may be looking to France, and Paris in particular.

O'BRIEN: And it actually is al Qae -- consistent with al Qaeda's strategy, isn't it, to revisit a target over and over and over until they sort of "get it right," from the al Qaeda perspective? BERGEN: Yes, certainly, as we saw at the World Trade Center attacks in, on 9/11, that also, those buildings were also attacked in 1993. We also saw that in Yemen, where an attack on the USS Cole killed 17 American sailors. But perhaps less well known is the fact that in the same port, in Aden, Yemen, al Qaeda also tried to attack another U.S. warship, the USS Sullivan, the year before the USS Cole attack.

So, yes, there is a pattern that al Qaeda comes back and revisits previous targets.

O'BRIEN: In addition to that, Mexico is also a concern. Is it a concern primarily just because it's a border of our country or is there a certain weakness in security measures in Mexico that would make it more likely that al Qaeda would try to target Mexico and, through Mexico, the United States? BERGEN: I think the fact that it's contiguous with the United States, obviously, has got to be the main point. If you remember, the attempted attack on Los Angeles International Airport at the time of the millennium, the guy who tried to do that was crossing the border from -- actually, from Canada rather than from Mexico.

But clearly al Qaeda has tried to cross from Canada, so why wouldn't they try and cross from Mexico?

O'BRIEN: There are concerns, officials say now, with some of the people who were on the Air France flights. How significant do you think it is that these flights, in fact, were stopped and they were grounded? BERGEN: Well, I think it's still a little unclear about who these people were and what -- obviously there were concerns, as you say. I, more than that, I think, is still not very clear. But the fact is obviously we're in a very different security posture than we would have been, you know, before 9/11 and the fact that there is this kind of alert is, I mean, entirely a good thing in terms of our security. If there had been this kind of alert on September 11, 2001, you know, we wouldn't -- almost wouldn't be having this conversation, I think.

So this, this kind of security alert is obviously, obviously the U.S. government felt it was necessary and they are very careful not to do these alerts as often as they used to because of alert fatigue. In this case, they really felt it was necessary.

O'BRIEN: So you think that the fact that they've done this orange alert now for five days has been critical to really staving off any kind of threat and any kind of attack? BERGEN: I think so. And I don't think, I mean you can never be, you know, you can never be a hundred percent secure, obviously. You know, if you remember, President Reagan very nearly was killed by a deranged Jodie Foster fan in 1981, and he has the best security in the world. So you can't be secure against everything. However, you can make it a little bit harder for the bad guys to try and pull off these kinds of operations.

O'BRIEN: Peter Bergen is a CNN terror analyst.

Peter, thanks.

Nice to see you, as always. BERGEN: Thank you, Soledad.

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




Crash Into Las Vegas>