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CNN Sunday Morning
Saudi Officials Search for 19 Suspected Terrorists
Aired May 11, 2003 - 07:15 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Saudi officials say they are searching for 19 Islamic militants who may have been planning a massive attack. I want to talk more about this with CNN's Terror Analyst Peter Bergen, who joins us from our Washington bureau this morning.
Peter, thank you for being with us. This sounds like a pretty major case that the Saudis are working on. Tell us what you know about it.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I think it is a major case, Anderson, because these guys had machine guns; they have hundreds of kilos of explosives; they have 50 bombs. It is sort of unusual for the Saudis to publicly announce such a case. The Saudis have gone on to offer rewards for the capture of these people.
And we know since 9/11 there has been a fair amount of activity by al Qaeda in the Saudi Kingdom, an attempt to bring down an American military plane, with a rocket propelled grenade, which was foiled. A number of attacks against certain Westerners, just last week, somebody in Saudi naval uniform shot at a Westerner in Saudi Arabia.
So, al Qaeda exists so some degree in Saudi Arabia. And this is an acknowledgement by the Saudi authorities that there is a problem.
COOPER: Well, now, is it -- the fact that they are being so public about it; that they have put up this reward; that they're talking about the search for these 19 militants. Does it say that something has shifted, either in the Saudi government or in the way that they are dealing with the threat from al Qaeda or other militant groups? Or is it more a response to concerns that -- of public relations concerns? That there is a lot of criticism growing in the United States that Saudis aren't doing enough?
BERGEN: Well, perhaps it could be a little bit of all those things. Certainly, there has been criticism in the United States. The Saudis did take some measures recently to crackdown on the Saudi charities that sometimes have funneled money to terrorists. This could be part of that pattern.
But also, they may have concluded that hiding these things or sort of shoveling under the carpet is actually counterproductive. In the past they have not been very public with these kinds of matters. This does seem to be a healthy departure from that previous tradition.
COOPER: Are they being cooperative, though? I ask this because just a couple of days ago a Saudi consular official was expelled from the United States because he was alleged to have links to terrorist groups. You know, so on the one hand you have that, and on the other hand it sounds like they're being, at least, more open. How cooperative are the Saudis being, overall?
BERGEN: Well, if you talk -- I mean, Saudi officials have said publicly that they have arrested you know, hundreds of people; that they have questioned thousands. I have heard from people inside the U.S. investigation that they characterize the Saudi help post-9/11 into the investigation, as being "despicable" "counterproductive". These kind of things, those are the kind of words that we can say on television.
So, you know, certainly people within the U.S. investigative community actually are saying the Saudis are not being particularly helpful.
COOPER: How much of what the Saudis are doing right now, in terms of hunting down these 19 militants, how much of it is a response to -- I think it was last week, or earlier in the week, the U.S. came forward saying that they expect some sort of -- or they have intelligence about some sort of major threat in Saudi Arabia? Then, it seems if I look at the timeline correctly, then several days later suddenly the Saudis raid this house in Riyadh and find all these weapons. Was this motivated by the U.S., or was this in response to what the U.S. said?
BERGEN: I'm not exactly certain of the answer to that question, but certainly I think you're right about the timeline. I mean, on May 1 the United States makes a unusually strongly worded travel advisory to Saudi Arabia and then these raids come up shortly thereafter. So, these two things may well be related.
COOPER: All right. Peter Bergen, we have to end it there. Appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.
BERGEN: Thank you, Anderson.
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 May 11, 2003 - 07:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Saudi officials say they are searching for 19 Islamic militants who may have been planning a massive attack. I want to talk more about this with CNN's Terror Analyst Peter Bergen, who joins us from our Washington bureau this morning.
Peter, thank you for being with us. This sounds like a pretty major case that the Saudis are working on. Tell us what you know about it.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I think it is a major case, Anderson, because these guys had machine guns; they have hundreds of kilos of explosives; they have 50 bombs. It is sort of unusual for the Saudis to publicly announce such a case. The Saudis have gone on to offer rewards for the capture of these people.
And we know since 9/11 there has been a fair amount of activity by al Qaeda in the Saudi Kingdom, an attempt to bring down an American military plane, with a rocket propelled grenade, which was foiled. A number of attacks against certain Westerners, just last week, somebody in Saudi naval uniform shot at a Westerner in Saudi Arabia.
So, al Qaeda exists so some degree in Saudi Arabia. And this is an acknowledgement by the Saudi authorities that there is a problem.
COOPER: Well, now, is it -- the fact that they are being so public about it; that they have put up this reward; that they're talking about the search for these 19 militants. Does it say that something has shifted, either in the Saudi government or in the way that they are dealing with the threat from al Qaeda or other militant groups? Or is it more a response to concerns that -- of public relations concerns? That there is a lot of criticism growing in the United States that Saudis aren't doing enough?
BERGEN: Well, perhaps it could be a little bit of all those things. Certainly, there has been criticism in the United States. The Saudis did take some measures recently to crackdown on the Saudi charities that sometimes have funneled money to terrorists. This could be part of that pattern.
But also, they may have concluded that hiding these things or sort of shoveling under the carpet is actually counterproductive. In the past they have not been very public with these kinds of matters. This does seem to be a healthy departure from that previous tradition.
COOPER: Are they being cooperative, though? I ask this because just a couple of days ago a Saudi consular official was expelled from the United States because he was alleged to have links to terrorist groups. You know, so on the one hand you have that, and on the other hand it sounds like they're being, at least, more open. How cooperative are the Saudis being, overall?
BERGEN: Well, if you talk -- I mean, Saudi officials have said publicly that they have arrested you know, hundreds of people; that they have questioned thousands. I have heard from people inside the U.S. investigation that they characterize the Saudi help post-9/11 into the investigation, as being "despicable" "counterproductive". These kind of things, those are the kind of words that we can say on television.
So, you know, certainly people within the U.S. investigative community actually are saying the Saudis are not being particularly helpful.
COOPER: How much of what the Saudis are doing right now, in terms of hunting down these 19 militants, how much of it is a response to -- I think it was last week, or earlier in the week, the U.S. came forward saying that they expect some sort of -- or they have intelligence about some sort of major threat in Saudi Arabia? Then, it seems if I look at the timeline correctly, then several days later suddenly the Saudis raid this house in Riyadh and find all these weapons. Was this motivated by the U.S., or was this in response to what the U.S. said?
BERGEN: I'm not exactly certain of the answer to that question, but certainly I think you're right about the timeline. I mean, on May 1 the United States makes a unusually strongly worded travel advisory to Saudi Arabia and then these raids come up shortly thereafter. So, these two things may well be related.
COOPER: All right. Peter Bergen, we have to end it there. Appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.
BERGEN: Thank you, Anderson.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
