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CNN Sunday Morning

What Should Be Done About al Qaeda?

Aired June 23, 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: Concerns -- let's now look deeper into homeland security and these new threats. For that, we turn to Kelly McCann, our CNN security analyst. Once again with us, third appearance this morning. Kelly, good to see you.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Miles.

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) today. We appreciate it. The administration says this whole Al Jazeera al Qaeda spokesman thing doesn't amount to much. I agree. Do you?

MCCANN: I absolutely agree. And, in fact, if we were to, you know, engage in rejoinders, I would suggest that they understand that whole military organizations here in the U.S. are dedicated to finite terminal tactics in non-permissive environments. That's a mouthful, but what that means is...

O'BRIEN: Yeah, yeah.

MCCANN: You know, push ...

O'BRIEN: Give us a definition of that one, Kelly.

MCCANN: Direct action. Basically, what it means is the long arm of the U.S. pushed to the point where they seem to be anxious to push us. If I were an al Qaeda guy, I might want to have people start testing, taste testing my food, sleeping with one eye open, and certainly not answering my own door, because they're pushing it to a point that sooner or later, direct action is going to have to be engaged. And I think you'll see some amazing capability.

O'BRIEN: Well, give us a sense, then, of how this might play out. Give us a little scenario, if you will. Perhaps fanciful, but maybe, as you say, could play out.

MCCANN: In a strategic sense, Miles, if you think about it, the single biggest vulnerability that al Qaeda has is they have no conduit to get any strategic or tactical intelligence on what the U.S. is doing. They have no conduit at all. So in order to mitigate the ability to focus en masse, suggesting all manner of threats, all times, in all places, is, or could be, an effective way to fragment a capability. In order to steer that in a different direction, and, then, become the actor and make them react, significant events with global reach, carefully coordinated, could create a situation where they are totally on the defensive and running for cover ...

O'BRIEN: All right ...

MCCANN: ... which I think ...

O'BRIEN: Give me some specifics, though. How would this work? I'm, you got, you've whetted my curiosity here.

MCCANN: I'm glad I've done that. The key is is that, in fact, we know where many of these guys are, and, in fact, we are all over them with signals, intelligence and comment, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we're watching who they meet with, et cetera. And they're aware of that, I'm sure, because it is the U.S.

Given that and valued against, is it more valuable to let them, perhaps, do an attack or see if they have any other contacts or kill them? I mean, at some point, given the situation they won't negotiate because they're not a state, and they wouldn't negotiate anyway. We can't infiltrate them because it's a very cloistered kind of thing, and they seem to be on this imminent attack approach. Well, given that set of circumstances, what else should we do, be the community punching bag? I don't think so. And I think that, given those conditions, they're going to see some alarming things happen.

O'BRIEN: Is it quite possible that some of what you're laying out here is actually under way, as we speak? We're just not hearing about it just yet, and maybe never will hear about it?

MCCANN: All of those things. You know, post-Church Committee with the Ford administration, there were some rules laid on direct action where you could do some things, you could do other things. Then, it became more important to send out mobile training teams who would train host nations to do a particular mission that would be -- seem to be unpalatable.

However, they don't share the same level of motivation that we do in the U.S. We are the ones that are directly under attack. And, in fact, they may say, I don't want to get sucked into this as a nation. So if you put all of that together, it almost charts a kind of certain thing to happen, if they run their mouth and if they keep doing and are anxious to do what they say, which is kill innocent Americans.

O'BRIEN: So what you're talking about, though, is assassinations, right?

MCCANN: Yes. Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: And ...

MCCANN: And for people to shy away from that, or push away from that and say, no, there's a discussion, there's a resolution by entering into diplomacy. With who? You can only negotiate with someone who agrees to talk back, which they are not.

O'BRIEN: So there is a green light, then, to pull the trigger? MCCANN: Oh, I, no, I don't think there's a green light yet. I'm saying that, in fact, it probably will be imminent. Now, when and how, who knows? But I think that sooner or later everybody's going to be up to here with this, and then you're going to see some things happen.

O'BRIEN: All right. So Osama Bin Laden, you said earlier, you don't, you don't care about his ...

MCCANN: No.

O'BRIEN: ... disposition. Dead, alive, ill, hiding, doesn't matter?

MCCANN: He will not come out and shoot anybody. He is not going to fly a plane. He's not going to drive a gasoline tanker. He's going to fund and he's going to try to manipulate the network. If we dismember the network by either killing them or incarcerating them, he has nobody to empower. So, in fact, he becomes a figurehead.

We said earlier, Miles, and you know this, to not vilify one person. There are felons in Maryland we can't find, let alone find a tall, skinny man halfway around the world. So that was a big challenge. In the view of 1.3 billion Muslims, if you don't do that, you've failed, which diminishes your stature globally.

O'BRIEN: So we've got to -- the U.S. needs to do that, then?

MCCANN: I think we're efforting to that, because we don't want to go back on our word. And the truth is, sooner or later, we will determine what happened there. They are not going to be anxious to tell us because he's got that martyrdom status. That's the motivator for all those people who have this bent. So it will be a question mark until we know for sure, through DNA, dead body or something, that this is what happened.

O'BRIEN: And, just quickly, if he is, in fact, dead, does his money live on? I mean, has he set up a nice estate plan for al Qaeda?

MCCANN: I think his network lives on. He is a very intelligent businessman. And he did his homework. He set this thing up to survive, you know, his demise, if that should happen, and other key members. So I think that, yes, it is a bigger problem than him.

O'BRIEN: All right. Kelly McCann, offering an interview that almost sounds like a treatment for a spy novel. Maybe you should go pen it right now, Kelly. Thank you. Thank you very much. It may play out in reality. We appreciate your insights, as always.

MCCANN: Thanks, Miles.

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