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CNN Sunday Morning
Will bin Laden Ever Be Caught?
Aired December 15, 2002 - 08:27 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The icon of terror is still on the run 15 months after the September 11 terror attacks. The hunt for Osama bin Laden has been costly and frustrating and futile so far.
With more on that and reaction to Jordan's arrests in the assassination of diplomat Laurence Foley, security analyst Kelly McCann joins us live from Washington.
Good morning.
J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: This is good news for Jordan that they managed to arrest these two people. But Jane Arraf just said something interesting. She said that al Qaeda is now targeting soft targets and its aim is at destabilizing countries. Is that strategy working?
MCCANN: Well, it's a common strategy. You know, all terrorist groups take an inferior number, a vastly inferior number, and then destabilize a superpower or a power to make them look like they're incapable of stopping them. So that's kind of a standard tactic. And I think that you're going to see these soft targets be exploited more and more.
As, when they were interviewing these men, they said that, in fact, Mr. Foley was a target of opportunity, which is common language. Maybe they hadn't initially thought of him as a target, but then when they looked at him to consider him for target value, they saw that he didn't vary his routes, that he routinely came out at the same time, that there was construction near his home which would allow them to do surveillance.
So I think diplomatics and businesspeople worldwide from the U.S. who are traveling have got to raise their level of individual protective measures.
COSTELLO: Apparently when these two men confessed to the crime, they said they were connected to al Qaeda and that one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants had paid them $18,000 and supplied them with the weapon. It makes you wonder just how big their monetary and weapons arsenal still is.
MCCANN: Well, you know, what's interesting, Carol, is if you look at the men who carried out the plane incidents here in the U.S., they actually sent money back that they didn't use. So the idea that Osama bin Laden is, you know, a millionaire, a multi-millionaire and he's just being frivolous with his money is not correct. He's frugal and this organization is run frugally. And, in fact, those cells throughout their autonomous operating out in different communities are very much encouraged to fund their own operations through small crimes and through other means.
So it really goes to how intent these people are on targeting us.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. President Bush has just given the CIA the OK to kill terrorist suspects. What exactly does that mean and how does that differ from an assassination?
MCCANN: It's a very, very fine line. Direct action is a military term and what it means is it can be a preemptive strike, and that is allowed in the law of land warfare. Assassination goes to assassinating usually heads of state or it would be like us saying we're going to assassinate Saddam Hussein. That's never been an option nor will it be.
However, those who are in motion and have the means and the intent to kill us, and when we have the intelligence that, in fact, that's what's happening, it becomes a direct action mission, and that's a mission that could be carried out by paramilitaries for the CIA or military special operations units.
So it is a fine line.
COSTELLO: So let me get this straight. You can kill someone on the terrorist list and you can actually plan to kill them, come up with a plan, and that's not an assassination, but if it's targeted at a head of state, it is an assassination?
MCCANN: More or less. And the fine line, Carol, is this. Saddam Hussein has not said, nor do I know that there's been any clear indication that he has said and is moving things to kill us. Kill who? Kill Americans? Kill the president? Kill whatever. But when we have intelligence that shows us that this cell of four men are in motion, they can support it, they have the weapons and their target is X, then it becomes a wholly different thing.
So it's, in some ways it's a semantic issue and in other ways it's an operational issue.
COSTELLO: All right, Kelly McCann, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it, as always.
MCCANN: You bet, Carol.
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 December 15, 2002 - 08:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The icon of terror is still on the run 15 months after the September 11 terror attacks. The hunt for Osama bin Laden has been costly and frustrating and futile so far.
With more on that and reaction to Jordan's arrests in the assassination of diplomat Laurence Foley, security analyst Kelly McCann joins us live from Washington.
Good morning.
J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: This is good news for Jordan that they managed to arrest these two people. But Jane Arraf just said something interesting. She said that al Qaeda is now targeting soft targets and its aim is at destabilizing countries. Is that strategy working?
MCCANN: Well, it's a common strategy. You know, all terrorist groups take an inferior number, a vastly inferior number, and then destabilize a superpower or a power to make them look like they're incapable of stopping them. So that's kind of a standard tactic. And I think that you're going to see these soft targets be exploited more and more.
As, when they were interviewing these men, they said that, in fact, Mr. Foley was a target of opportunity, which is common language. Maybe they hadn't initially thought of him as a target, but then when they looked at him to consider him for target value, they saw that he didn't vary his routes, that he routinely came out at the same time, that there was construction near his home which would allow them to do surveillance.
So I think diplomatics and businesspeople worldwide from the U.S. who are traveling have got to raise their level of individual protective measures.
COSTELLO: Apparently when these two men confessed to the crime, they said they were connected to al Qaeda and that one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants had paid them $18,000 and supplied them with the weapon. It makes you wonder just how big their monetary and weapons arsenal still is.
MCCANN: Well, you know, what's interesting, Carol, is if you look at the men who carried out the plane incidents here in the U.S., they actually sent money back that they didn't use. So the idea that Osama bin Laden is, you know, a millionaire, a multi-millionaire and he's just being frivolous with his money is not correct. He's frugal and this organization is run frugally. And, in fact, those cells throughout their autonomous operating out in different communities are very much encouraged to fund their own operations through small crimes and through other means.
So it really goes to how intent these people are on targeting us.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. President Bush has just given the CIA the OK to kill terrorist suspects. What exactly does that mean and how does that differ from an assassination?
MCCANN: It's a very, very fine line. Direct action is a military term and what it means is it can be a preemptive strike, and that is allowed in the law of land warfare. Assassination goes to assassinating usually heads of state or it would be like us saying we're going to assassinate Saddam Hussein. That's never been an option nor will it be.
However, those who are in motion and have the means and the intent to kill us, and when we have the intelligence that, in fact, that's what's happening, it becomes a direct action mission, and that's a mission that could be carried out by paramilitaries for the CIA or military special operations units.
So it is a fine line.
COSTELLO: So let me get this straight. You can kill someone on the terrorist list and you can actually plan to kill them, come up with a plan, and that's not an assassination, but if it's targeted at a head of state, it is an assassination?
MCCANN: More or less. And the fine line, Carol, is this. Saddam Hussein has not said, nor do I know that there's been any clear indication that he has said and is moving things to kill us. Kill who? Kill Americans? Kill the president? Kill whatever. But when we have intelligence that shows us that this cell of four men are in motion, they can support it, they have the weapons and their target is X, then it becomes a wholly different thing.
So it's, in some ways it's a semantic issue and in other ways it's an operational issue.
COSTELLO: All right, Kelly McCann, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it, as always.
MCCANN: You bet, Carol.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
