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CNN Sunday Morning

French Tanker on Fire Off Yemeni Coast

Aired October 06, 2002 - 09:03   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: Let's get some more details on this developing story in Yemen. A fire, this hour, is raging aboard the French tanker Limburg off the coast Yemen. Let's look at the picture we just got in from the French press agency, Agence France Presse. If we could put that picture up it would be good.
There are conflicting reports about whether it was an accident.

There is the picture that we are talking about.

Here's what we know - we do know this -- clearly that tanker is on fire. The tanker is the Limburg, it is a French vessel. And, as you can see, it is some distance offshore. We're told by some of our sources earlier that was, on the order of, five miles offshore -- we're trying to get that nailed down. But that would certainly fit with the picture you are seeing there.

It happened about 340 miles east of the Port of Aden. That is just, at least, preliminarily the details that we know are beyond refute, and not the subject of some debate.

CNN's Jim Bittermann, joining us from Paris, right now, to give us a sense of who's saying what at this point -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, we just got a communique from the French government. We hope that might clear things up, but in fact, it just sort of added to the confusion. They basically say, it's too early to tell whether this was an accident or terrorist attack. However, French military sources say there is every reason to believe this was a terrorist attack, because a small boat was seen approaching the Lindbergh just shortly before the explosion took place, and French shipping sources -- this was, after all, a French ship owned by French Ship Management, a company out in Brittany. Shipping sources say that the small boat was a small fishing vessel which approached the side of the Lindbergh, just shortly before it blew up.

However, having said all, the Yemeni government is denying that. The Yemeni government, trying to improve its image, has been saying that this was not a terrorist attack, but rather an accident. So investigators will have to determine, exactly, what really did happen.

Earlier, CNN talked to Faris Al-Sanabani of the "Yemeni Observer," and here's how he described events this morning:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FARIS AL-SANABANI, YEMENI OBSERVER: Earlier in the morning, the government received radio from the ship saying that there is fire and there has been an explosion in the ship, and they sent a boat to rescue the people. There is no talks of any criminal or terrorist act at that stage. Later on in the day, the government is now looking into the possibility of a terrorist attack; there is nothing that has been defined. Earlier in the day, the government made the statement that it's not a terrorist attack, but until now, we're still waiting to hear and see what will come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: If this was, in fact, a terrorist attack, Miles, of course, it brings to mind, right away, memories of the USS Cole, which was attacked in a somewhat similar fashion as described by some witness this morning. The Cole, in the Port of Aden, just 350 miles away -- as you mentioned in your lead in -- the Cole was sitting at anchor when a small rubber boat came up to the side of it and blew up, it was laden with explosives and later was pinned on al Qaeda. Seventeen sailors were killed in the incident.

By the way, French shipping sources also say, that fire now is continuing to burn and causing the ship to be in some danger; is in danger of sinking, according to some of the shipping sources we've been able to contact -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: That seems to be almost a foregone conclusion, at this point. What we know is, there is a crew of 25, we're told, on board the tanker. I'm hearing all kinds of conflicting information about their fate.

What are you hearing?

BITTERMANN: Well, there is conflicting information about that. We've heard that all but one has been accounted for and rescued. We've heard other reports there are still 14 people missing of the 25. Other reports that 12 people missing. The French government says that eight of the crewmen are French, and apparently, that the captain did stay on board the vessel to try to fight the fire as the fire was consuming the vessel. Now, whether he's still on board or off, we just don't know -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jim Bittermann in Paris -- thank you very much. We'll check in as soon as more developments become available to us.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is also following the developments in Yemen, let's see if there is any reaction from the administration.

Suzanne Malveaux joins us from Kennebunkport, Maine, where President Bush is spending the weekend. Good morning Suzanne -- what can you tell us?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, while those details are still sketchy, the White House is not really officially commenting, but as you mentioned before, it is following those developments. The president is going to be returning to Washington later today, after a productive week here at the Kennebunkport family estate. It is a critical week for preparing for the president, not only for diplomacy, but also some public relations maneuvering in making his case against Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): President Bush raising big bucks for New Hampshire's republican senatorial candidate, John Sununu; Mr. Bush also raising the stakes for a potential conflict with Iraq. This weekend the president focused on his two top priorities -- fighting for republican candidates and fighting against Saddam Hussein.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We owe this to our children; we owe it to peace. We owe it for a peaceful world to deal with the threats we see. We cannot ignore history. We must not ignore reality.

We must do everything we can to disarm this man before he hurts one single American.

MALVEAUX: At his family's Kennebunkport estate, Mr. Bush is crafting a prime-time message he will deliver Monday night, from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the American people, outlining his case against Saddam. White House aides say, there will be no smoking gun or new policy initiative announced, but rather, the clearest argument yet for the need to force Iraq to disarm.

BUSH: This is a country which, 11 years ago, promised the world they would have no weapons of mass destruction, and yet, for 11 years they have lied, and deceived the world community. This is a country run by one of the most brutal dictators in modern history. Monday night, I will make the case to the country on TV.

MALVEAUX: An important week coming up for Mr. Bush. While the White House is now embolden by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix's pledge to get a new U.N. resolution, calling for a tougher inspections regime, still unresolved whether United Nations Security Council members will authorize using military force.

At the same time, anti-war protests are growing around the world; this weekend, thousands in Italy. Now pressure on the Congress -- both the House and the Senate are likely to vote in the weeks ahead on their own resolutions, giving the president the green light to use force against the Iraqi leader.

SEN. THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: My hope is that we can to do it within a week. My hope is that we can have a very respectful debate. I know that there are Senators who wish to offer alternatives in an amendment. I hope we can accommodate those and, at the end of the day, have a broad coalition -- Republicans and Democrats -- in support of a resolution.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MALVEAUX: Now, the president is downplaying the prospect of the U.S. acting unilaterally. A White House spokesperson is saying the president will tell the American people, the United States will only use military force as a last option. It will do so with allies, if not from the United Nations, then a loose net coalition -- Rudi.

BAKHTIAR: OK, thank you -- Suzanne Malveaux from Kennebunkport, Maine. CNN will be having live coverage of the president's speech from Ohio -- that's tomorrow night -- at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: OK, let's get back to our lead story. This much we know: A French oil tanker, 379,000 gallons of crude oil on board, is on fire, as we speak, off the coast of Yemen. Conflicting information as to whether the reason it is in this state that you see right here, is because of a terrorist attack there -- the result of a small fishing boat, perhaps laden with explosives coming along side -- or was it an accident? That aside, while we give you those caveats, let's we'll talk with our Kelly McCann.

Given the fact that the USS Cole Navy destroyer was the target of attack in October 2000, it has lead us down the road of a little speculation here. I don't think it's too unfair to talk about a few of these things -- is it, Kelly?

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: No, not at all, Miles. I mean, we have to look at this from a practicality standpoint, and also from a practicality standpoint. It's unlikely a double-hulled oil vessel that has crude on board that is not likely to ignite easily was at a simple collision with a fishing vessel -- so something happened. It is reasonable.

O'BRIEN: That's a good point to bring out. Let's take us inside the investigative process here. One of the things I'm sure will be looked at, and might already be the focus of attention -- what about the shipping schedules? Was this a ship on the schedule? How closely held are the schedules this day in age -- that kind of thing.

MCCANN: Well, certainly, in order to target something, there has to be an element of time and place predictability. We just don't have small boats with explosives cutting hulls in the ocean, waiting for this opportunity. So if it was, in fact, an attack, that would be interesting to know if this was a scheduled delivery or pickup of oil, because that would be something the terrorists would want to know.

O'BRIEN: All right, and as far as that goes, unless you have fleet, I guess, of bombing vessels out there, you need to have that kind of information. I'm curious, clearly the awareness has changed since the Cole attack. Would there be, what level of awareness -- and we are talking about military ships -- what level of awareness would there be on something in the Merchant Marines?

MCCAN: First, of course, the American sense of security is significantly different than you find in other places in the world. And although post-9/11 and post-Cole attacks, we certainly had much more interesting repelling boarders and warn-off procedures at sea, et cetera. It is unlikely that a lot of other countries adopted those same procedures. Now certainly, Maritime law alone prohibits proximity that would create a collision. You can get sucked into the wake of a ship that big displacing so much water. So there had to be at least negligence or inattentiveness if you looked at the innocent side of it.

If you look at the malicious side of it, to bring a small vessel into a mid ship -- that's what it looks like from the picture, it's difficult to tell -- to strike in the center, you have to break the wave and you get sucked into the ship's wake. I agree with you, if they didn't know that the ship was coming where would they put the explosives? When would they load the explosives? When that would opportunity exist? And if they didn't know the route, the tack points, how would they intersect with it? So something certainly happened.

O'BRIEN: Let's look at this picture a little longer, Kelly. We heard an earlier report on the distance off to sea. Can you give us -- I was told generally speaking, when the horizon line on a clear day is about six miles off to sea. Where would you put this ship off the shore, just looking at this picture?

MCCANN: You have to remember that it was half full; it was going to pick up oil. The profile is a lot higher, Miles. I would say three to five miles would be a safe guess which puts it outside a target value of spoiling the harbor. I mean, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, if you will. It didn't have the potential to affect other vessels in the harbor. If I was looking at it the from a planning standpoint, that's not the position that I likely would have chosen.

O'BRIEN: On a final note: Clearly, these ships are on the radios all the time, communicating with pilots and so forth, as they pilot themselves into a port. Are those communication frequencies scrambled, digital, or are they easily intercepted with a cheap scanner?

MCCANN: If they are analog, they are easily interceptable. Normally, as a ship approaches port, they go to a more simplistic communication procedure; it is not unlikely it was analog and vulnerable. One other thing that is important to note, as that ship starts to come closer to port, other vessels would meet it -- pilot vehicles, tugs, et cetera. This is clearly outside that range. It would have been literally just two ships or a ship and a boat. It's an interesting situation.

O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann, good insights. Thank you for helping us shed some light on this as we get some more facts on what's happening off the shore of Yemen.

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 October 6, 2002 - 09:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get some more details on this developing story in Yemen. A fire, this hour, is raging aboard the French tanker Limburg off the coast Yemen. Let's look at the picture we just got in from the French press agency, Agence France Presse. If we could put that picture up it would be good.
There are conflicting reports about whether it was an accident.

There is the picture that we are talking about.

Here's what we know - we do know this -- clearly that tanker is on fire. The tanker is the Limburg, it is a French vessel. And, as you can see, it is some distance offshore. We're told by some of our sources earlier that was, on the order of, five miles offshore -- we're trying to get that nailed down. But that would certainly fit with the picture you are seeing there.

It happened about 340 miles east of the Port of Aden. That is just, at least, preliminarily the details that we know are beyond refute, and not the subject of some debate.

CNN's Jim Bittermann, joining us from Paris, right now, to give us a sense of who's saying what at this point -- Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, we just got a communique from the French government. We hope that might clear things up, but in fact, it just sort of added to the confusion. They basically say, it's too early to tell whether this was an accident or terrorist attack. However, French military sources say there is every reason to believe this was a terrorist attack, because a small boat was seen approaching the Lindbergh just shortly before the explosion took place, and French shipping sources -- this was, after all, a French ship owned by French Ship Management, a company out in Brittany. Shipping sources say that the small boat was a small fishing vessel which approached the side of the Lindbergh, just shortly before it blew up.

However, having said all, the Yemeni government is denying that. The Yemeni government, trying to improve its image, has been saying that this was not a terrorist attack, but rather an accident. So investigators will have to determine, exactly, what really did happen.

Earlier, CNN talked to Faris Al-Sanabani of the "Yemeni Observer," and here's how he described events this morning:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FARIS AL-SANABANI, YEMENI OBSERVER: Earlier in the morning, the government received radio from the ship saying that there is fire and there has been an explosion in the ship, and they sent a boat to rescue the people. There is no talks of any criminal or terrorist act at that stage. Later on in the day, the government is now looking into the possibility of a terrorist attack; there is nothing that has been defined. Earlier in the day, the government made the statement that it's not a terrorist attack, but until now, we're still waiting to hear and see what will come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: If this was, in fact, a terrorist attack, Miles, of course, it brings to mind, right away, memories of the USS Cole, which was attacked in a somewhat similar fashion as described by some witness this morning. The Cole, in the Port of Aden, just 350 miles away -- as you mentioned in your lead in -- the Cole was sitting at anchor when a small rubber boat came up to the side of it and blew up, it was laden with explosives and later was pinned on al Qaeda. Seventeen sailors were killed in the incident.

By the way, French shipping sources also say, that fire now is continuing to burn and causing the ship to be in some danger; is in danger of sinking, according to some of the shipping sources we've been able to contact -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: That seems to be almost a foregone conclusion, at this point. What we know is, there is a crew of 25, we're told, on board the tanker. I'm hearing all kinds of conflicting information about their fate.

What are you hearing?

BITTERMANN: Well, there is conflicting information about that. We've heard that all but one has been accounted for and rescued. We've heard other reports there are still 14 people missing of the 25. Other reports that 12 people missing. The French government says that eight of the crewmen are French, and apparently, that the captain did stay on board the vessel to try to fight the fire as the fire was consuming the vessel. Now, whether he's still on board or off, we just don't know -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jim Bittermann in Paris -- thank you very much. We'll check in as soon as more developments become available to us.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is also following the developments in Yemen, let's see if there is any reaction from the administration.

Suzanne Malveaux joins us from Kennebunkport, Maine, where President Bush is spending the weekend. Good morning Suzanne -- what can you tell us?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, while those details are still sketchy, the White House is not really officially commenting, but as you mentioned before, it is following those developments. The president is going to be returning to Washington later today, after a productive week here at the Kennebunkport family estate. It is a critical week for preparing for the president, not only for diplomacy, but also some public relations maneuvering in making his case against Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): President Bush raising big bucks for New Hampshire's republican senatorial candidate, John Sununu; Mr. Bush also raising the stakes for a potential conflict with Iraq. This weekend the president focused on his two top priorities -- fighting for republican candidates and fighting against Saddam Hussein.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We owe this to our children; we owe it to peace. We owe it for a peaceful world to deal with the threats we see. We cannot ignore history. We must not ignore reality.

We must do everything we can to disarm this man before he hurts one single American.

MALVEAUX: At his family's Kennebunkport estate, Mr. Bush is crafting a prime-time message he will deliver Monday night, from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the American people, outlining his case against Saddam. White House aides say, there will be no smoking gun or new policy initiative announced, but rather, the clearest argument yet for the need to force Iraq to disarm.

BUSH: This is a country which, 11 years ago, promised the world they would have no weapons of mass destruction, and yet, for 11 years they have lied, and deceived the world community. This is a country run by one of the most brutal dictators in modern history. Monday night, I will make the case to the country on TV.

MALVEAUX: An important week coming up for Mr. Bush. While the White House is now embolden by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix's pledge to get a new U.N. resolution, calling for a tougher inspections regime, still unresolved whether United Nations Security Council members will authorize using military force.

At the same time, anti-war protests are growing around the world; this weekend, thousands in Italy. Now pressure on the Congress -- both the House and the Senate are likely to vote in the weeks ahead on their own resolutions, giving the president the green light to use force against the Iraqi leader.

SEN. THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: My hope is that we can to do it within a week. My hope is that we can have a very respectful debate. I know that there are Senators who wish to offer alternatives in an amendment. I hope we can accommodate those and, at the end of the day, have a broad coalition -- Republicans and Democrats -- in support of a resolution.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MALVEAUX: Now, the president is downplaying the prospect of the U.S. acting unilaterally. A White House spokesperson is saying the president will tell the American people, the United States will only use military force as a last option. It will do so with allies, if not from the United Nations, then a loose net coalition -- Rudi.

BAKHTIAR: OK, thank you -- Suzanne Malveaux from Kennebunkport, Maine. CNN will be having live coverage of the president's speech from Ohio -- that's tomorrow night -- at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: OK, let's get back to our lead story. This much we know: A French oil tanker, 379,000 gallons of crude oil on board, is on fire, as we speak, off the coast of Yemen. Conflicting information as to whether the reason it is in this state that you see right here, is because of a terrorist attack there -- the result of a small fishing boat, perhaps laden with explosives coming along side -- or was it an accident? That aside, while we give you those caveats, let's we'll talk with our Kelly McCann.

Given the fact that the USS Cole Navy destroyer was the target of attack in October 2000, it has lead us down the road of a little speculation here. I don't think it's too unfair to talk about a few of these things -- is it, Kelly?

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: No, not at all, Miles. I mean, we have to look at this from a practicality standpoint, and also from a practicality standpoint. It's unlikely a double-hulled oil vessel that has crude on board that is not likely to ignite easily was at a simple collision with a fishing vessel -- so something happened. It is reasonable.

O'BRIEN: That's a good point to bring out. Let's take us inside the investigative process here. One of the things I'm sure will be looked at, and might already be the focus of attention -- what about the shipping schedules? Was this a ship on the schedule? How closely held are the schedules this day in age -- that kind of thing.

MCCANN: Well, certainly, in order to target something, there has to be an element of time and place predictability. We just don't have small boats with explosives cutting hulls in the ocean, waiting for this opportunity. So if it was, in fact, an attack, that would be interesting to know if this was a scheduled delivery or pickup of oil, because that would be something the terrorists would want to know.

O'BRIEN: All right, and as far as that goes, unless you have fleet, I guess, of bombing vessels out there, you need to have that kind of information. I'm curious, clearly the awareness has changed since the Cole attack. Would there be, what level of awareness -- and we are talking about military ships -- what level of awareness would there be on something in the Merchant Marines?

MCCAN: First, of course, the American sense of security is significantly different than you find in other places in the world. And although post-9/11 and post-Cole attacks, we certainly had much more interesting repelling boarders and warn-off procedures at sea, et cetera. It is unlikely that a lot of other countries adopted those same procedures. Now certainly, Maritime law alone prohibits proximity that would create a collision. You can get sucked into the wake of a ship that big displacing so much water. So there had to be at least negligence or inattentiveness if you looked at the innocent side of it.

If you look at the malicious side of it, to bring a small vessel into a mid ship -- that's what it looks like from the picture, it's difficult to tell -- to strike in the center, you have to break the wave and you get sucked into the ship's wake. I agree with you, if they didn't know that the ship was coming where would they put the explosives? When would they load the explosives? When that would opportunity exist? And if they didn't know the route, the tack points, how would they intersect with it? So something certainly happened.

O'BRIEN: Let's look at this picture a little longer, Kelly. We heard an earlier report on the distance off to sea. Can you give us -- I was told generally speaking, when the horizon line on a clear day is about six miles off to sea. Where would you put this ship off the shore, just looking at this picture?

MCCANN: You have to remember that it was half full; it was going to pick up oil. The profile is a lot higher, Miles. I would say three to five miles would be a safe guess which puts it outside a target value of spoiling the harbor. I mean, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, if you will. It didn't have the potential to affect other vessels in the harbor. If I was looking at it the from a planning standpoint, that's not the position that I likely would have chosen.

O'BRIEN: On a final note: Clearly, these ships are on the radios all the time, communicating with pilots and so forth, as they pilot themselves into a port. Are those communication frequencies scrambled, digital, or are they easily intercepted with a cheap scanner?

MCCANN: If they are analog, they are easily interceptable. Normally, as a ship approaches port, they go to a more simplistic communication procedure; it is not unlikely it was analog and vulnerable. One other thing that is important to note, as that ship starts to come closer to port, other vessels would meet it -- pilot vehicles, tugs, et cetera. This is clearly outside that range. It would have been literally just two ships or a ship and a boat. It's an interesting situation.

O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann, good insights. Thank you for helping us shed some light on this as we get some more facts on what's happening off the shore of Yemen.

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