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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview with Bill Daly

Aired May 05, 2002 - 10:04   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the danger that could be as close as your mailbox. U.S. postal officials are urging Midwesterners to be careful after more than a dozen pipe bombs appeared in mailboxes in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. At least six people have been injured in what the FBI describes as a campaign of domestic terrorism. At least some of the bombs are accompanied by anti-government comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEYSAN DUN: To the individual or individuals responsible for this, if they're listening, I would like to say you have gotten our attention. The fact that we have the governor of the State of Nebraska here, the United States Attorney and these various other law enforcement officials I think proves that you have gotten our attention. However, we are not certain we understand your message and we would like to hear from you. We are listening and you do not need to send any more attention-getters because you have our attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: For more on this developing story, we turn to former FBI investigator Bill Daly. He's now Senior Vice President at Control Risk Group, joining us from New York, Bill good to see you.

BILL DALY, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CONTROL RISK GROUP: Good to see you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's - first of all when the FBI says domestic terrorism, obviously we're not privy to all the details here, but how do you suppose they could be so certain at this juncture?

DALY: Well at this point, Miles, the notes have been recovered and there are all the pieces of notes which still have to be pieced together or have been damaged by some of the anti-detonation techniques seem to indicate that it's focused against the U.S. government and for perhaps some of what we're doing perhaps could lead into issues such as anti-government tax issues or some other things that this person or persons have as an interest against the U.S. government. There's no suggestion here that we're talking about anti- government from the standpoint of international terrorism. It appears to be more of a domestic issue.

O'BRIEN: But I guess that takes me back to the question, how would we know? I mean if an international terrorist wanted to do this and sort of mock and hide themselves behind the possibility of being a domestic terrorist, it would be easy to do, wouldn't it?

DALY: Well certainly that guise could always be conjured up, but I think at the end of the day, we'll see that if an international terrorist wanted to get attention, they'd be doing something on a much larger scale, something more focused that on a very sporadic and perhaps unidentified basis to cause mayhem and chaos.

This seems to have some of the earmarks of things that we've seen in the past from some anti-government groups. There have been groups in the past, not necessarily planting bombs but have pointed out anti- government sentiments such like the Free Men in Montana and others. We're not saying that these groups are associated with it. We could be dealing with an ad hoc, a lone terrorist, or a small group of people who would be very difficult to uncover.

O'BRIEN: Well, you mentioned lone terrorist, and of course that makes one think of Theodore Kaczinski, and of course there are parallels here.

DALY: Right.

O'BRIEN: I guess what was different in the case of Kaczinski is he had specific addressees in mind. I suppose right now investigators are trying to see if there's a common thread on these particular mailboxes where these devices were left?

DALY: They'd certainly be looking for anything that suggests any kind of local issues, any of these people who are connected to some common denominators perhaps between the people, perhaps not. They got to be looking at a whole broad spectrum of issues. We also have to realize at this point these bombs have not been sent through the U.S. Mail, different than the unibomber case where they were actually sent and delivered by postal authorities.

So we're looking here at someone who perhaps is going around mailbox to mailbox, you know, dropping them in as they go, and for whatever reason have targeted citizens, where in the letter they're suggesting that they have some anti-government issues. But yes, to answer your question, they will be looking at issues that might connect any one of these people with potentially the bomber.

O'BRIEN: Of course perhaps most ominously was the way the Kaczinski story ended in the sense that it took literally his brother pointing this person out to authorities for the case to be solved. Years and years of investigative effort led to nothing. There's not a lot to go on in these cases, is there?

DALY: No and these notes, you know, don't offer too much in their - as stand alone pieces of information. What we'd be looking for is to get more information much like when the unibomber wanted to publish his manifesto. There was more revealed about the person.

That's why authorities would like to hear more about this from this individual or individuals to know exactly what it is they're about and perhaps that might connect us to some other information they already have in their databases regarding some domestic terrorist groups.

O'BRIEN: Now I have the sense just watching the story unfold perhaps it's because it started on a Friday and it's gone through a weekend that it has been downplayed somewhat by the administration, by the Justice Department specifically. Do you get that sense, and if so, is that the appropriate response right now?

DALY: Well I don't necessarily think it's been a down play. I think that we're looking at this as you know a domestic issue. It's a localized issue. It's nothing that's affecting our, you know, overall status from a security threat level that the Homeland Security Office has put out. So I think when we look at the context and compare it to some of the focus and attention that's been given to the international terrorist issues, this isn't getting perhaps as much in the way of that attention, but I don't think that it's being downplayed or less than what it rightfully deserves.

O'BRIEN: Former G-man Bill Daly joining us from New York, thanks very much. We appreciate your insights in all of this.

DALY: Thanks, Miles.

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