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CNN Sunday Morning

Taliban Detainee Provides Info About Seattle-Based Militants

Aired July 14, 2002 - 09:02   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: Now top of the news this hour, more details on the suspected terror threat right here at home. "The Seattle Times" is reporting a British Taliban fighter being held in Guantanamo Bay has provided some crucial information linking a group of Seattle-based militant Muslims and a London mosque that recruits Islamic terrorists.

That report says, in November '99, two men from the London mosque checked out a ranch in Bly, Oregon, as a potential training camp. Some members of the Seattle group were living there at the time, including Semi Osman, a one-time cleric at a now abandoned Seattle mosque. He is in federal custody now facing immigration and weapons charges.

For more insight into potential terror threats at home, let's bring in our security analyst, Kelly McCann, joining us from Washington once again.

Kelly, hit for the cycle today. The third in a triple-header. Thank you for being with us once again, Kelly.

Let's see now -- in all of our focus about training camps for al Qaeda here, could we be overlooking our -- homegrown terrorism among us and the possibility that al Qaeda might be trying to reach out to those groups?

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: That snakehead fish is kind of terrifying. I'm still kind of stuck on that, Miles.

But, yes, certainly, I mean, you know, we do have domestic terrorism going on and have with the ultra-right radical fringe elements, some of the neo-Nazi elements, et cetera, but they were never act -- they never were actualized to the point where the threat became something so significant. It borderline -- it was borderline criminal and -- slash terrorism. It became a reporting issue. Do you report what they did as crime or terrorism?

Now, suddenly, we're looking at specifically crime that supports directed -- directly fairly significant terror -- terrorism incidents. So I think it is a focus that has to change, as many things are changing.

O'BRIEN: All right. So how real is this threat, though? These -- you know, we talk about terrorist camps run by al Qaeda. There are a lot of people who will tell you that there are terrorist camps out there already.

It depends on how you define it, of course, but of these armed encampments where people have claimed they have seceded from the union, for example. How serious is that threat and how much confidence should we all have that we are not overlooking that right now?

MCCANN: Well, earlier this week, "The Washington Post" had published a story that talked about the Sekena (ph) Security Group out of London, which was linked with Al Hamzi (ph). Now they said in that report that there was another training, quote, unquote, "camp" in the South of the United States.

Again, it goes to not really camps, but events. There are other foreign entities that use training spaces here in the U.S. where people can come and, you know, fire a weapon, et cetera, because they can't do it in their own host nation.

But I don't think people should make the leap to think that there's a standing schoolhouse with recurring student population, and hundreds of people are going through these things. I think it would be very exclusive, and I think it would be very isolated incidents because the footprint would be too big.

O'BRIEN: All right. So let's talk a little bit about the implications, if, in fact, al Qaeda was attempting, for example, to put a training camp here. We know that, prior to the war in Afghanistan, there were places pockmarked with al Qaeda training camps.

What would be the advantage to putting a training camp in the U.S.? Wouldn't that just raise more suspicion? It's not exactly a place you can hide in plain view as you could in Afghanistan.

MCCANN: True enough, but you're proximate to your targets. You also would learn a little bit about the culture as you were around this space, wherever it was. You would learn more about the culture of America, Americans, how they go about their daily business, easier to fit in, et cetera, also, of course, the availability of weapons, ammunition, et cetera.

But I don't think that the advantage is so significant that they would do it at risk. It would be better, I think, to train offshore than import your talent, and then they would conduct the event. But, certainly, the FBI, without going too much into like an unpalatable secret police-type of thing, are infiltrating some of the fringe groups.

O'BRIEN: Well, what's your best educated guess then as to how prevalent al Qaeda might be on the ground here in the U.S.? Are we talking dozens, hundreds, thousands of members lying in wait?

MCCANN: Initially after 9/11, the figure 2,000 was kicked around. I've heard it go as low as a hundred the other day, and it depends largely on who you're calling an al Qaeda person and is it an operator or an operative, an operative being person who logistically supports things, maybe does some reconnaissance -- strategic reconnaissance or targeting, getting information, making sure that the operator can actually come in and function as a shooter.

So, when you look at that, the broad stroke different kinds of definitions and what people could or could not be doing, I think it's worthy of concern, but I don't think that there is a bad guy behind every post office box.

O'BRIEN: All right. And just a final thought, though. Is there any doubt in your mind that there are plans in the works for some additional attack on the part of al Qaeda?

MCCANN: I would say no. I don't think that there's any doubt or at all or should be any doubt at all that, if they can, on their time line, as they feel that they can and be successful, we should expect that.

O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann, thanks again. We appreciate you joining us all -- on all three occasions this morning on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

MCCANN: You bet, Miles.

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