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CNN Sunday Morning

Insight & Input

Aired May 18, 2003 - 09:29   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.


(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government is taking unprecedented measures to defend the homeland. And from Pakistan to the Philippines to the horn of Africa, we're hunting down al Qaeda killers. So far, nearly one half of Al Qaeda's senior operatives have been captured or killed. And we remain on the hunt until they are all brought to justice.

(END AUDIO TAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: All morning long we've been asking for e-mails. We're actually just reading a bunch of them right now. Comments, your questions, your fears, concerns about the war on terror.

ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: And our guests are here to provide you some insight and answer those questions that you e-mail us. Joining us from Washington, CNN White House correspondent, John King, good morning to you, John, and CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. Good morning to you, Peter, and thank you both.

We're going to start with our first e-mailer. And I believe this is Julia from Toronto. And Julia talks about -- she's basically asking the differences here between policies.

She writes, the American people -- how can the president, Bush, and the American people justify the expulsion of the Iraqi leader miles away from their country for security reasons, yet the Israeli Government and its people are often criticized for defending themselves, and asked to be tolerant and negotiate with those that threaten their safety right in their backyard, not across the world.

Who would like to take that?

COOPER: Why don't we go to John King for that.

MEADE: Yes -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is an interesting question, in that the Israelis often are criticized. But not so much by this president. You might even say that, in a sense, President Bush had the same policy when it came to Iraq and when it came to Israeli-Palestinian peace. The president insisted, and there are many critics, but the president insisted that Saddam Hussein had to go for Iraq to be part of a secure Middle East. The president also insisted that Yasser Arafat had to go for there to be an environment in which the Israelis and the Palestinians could negotiate.

This president at has, at times, urged Israeli restraint. But the greatest criticism you hear from the Palestinian and the Arab world is that he has given Prime Minister Sharon, in their view, much too much of a green light to send Israeli troops into the Palestinian territory.

So there is criticism of the Israeli government from time to time, including in political circles here in Washington. But this president, for the most part, has stood very much shoulder to shoulder with Ariel Sharon over the past two plus years.

COOPER: All right. Let's get to the next question. This one from Benny in Tennessee. It's going to go to Peter Bergen. Very simple. Why is Al Qaeda and other groups out killing themselves -- well, grammatical mistake, but why are Al Qaeda and other groups out killing themselves and Americans? Peter?

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I mean, Bin Laden, the ideological leader of Al Qaeda, has been very consistent about why they're killing Americans. It's basically their opposition to American foreign policy.

The principle gripe was the seemingly permanent military presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. That policy is now ending, we're drawing down our troops to a very small number there. Also, American policy in Iraq, American, in their view, too much support for Israel. And also, support for regimes like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, that they deem as not sufficiently Islamic. So it's really, in a nutshell, opposition to American foreign policy.

MEADE: This next person writes, do you think that if there is another attack from Al Qaeda in the United States, that it would be a direct result from the administration failing to get Bin Laden? John King, what can you say about that?

KING: Peter can speak more to the operational details of Al Qaeda. But certainly, the administration says there are plans for more attacks in the United States, that Bin Laden long ago gave orders to his deputies, were he ever to be killed, captured, or simply to disappear from sight, they should continue to carry out strikes.

So, one could make the case that if you get Bin Laden, you might know more about planning and activities, but this White House has argued from day one that it believes that yes, it has captured and killed many of the senior leaders, but that there are trained Al Qaeda operatives around the world, whose mission is to attack the United States or its interests and allies overseas.

COOPER: And we also have another e-mail from Dale, sort of relates to this. Peter, I'm going to toss this to you. What methods are Al Qaeda using to regroup in order to create attacks on the order that we just saw in Riyadh and Casablanca. That's from Dale. BERGEN: Well, you know, picking up on something that John said there, you know, Al Qaeda is an organization, but it's also an ideology. And it's an ideology that -- you know, it's not like millions of people have signed on to the ideology, but clearly thousands of people around the world have.

And one of the methods we're going to see of -- we don't know exactly who did the attacks in Casablanca yet. And it appears that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks in Saudi Arabia. But there are groups perhaps even acting with an Al Qaeda agenda that may not be part of the organization itself. Because it's more than just an organization. To some degree, it's evolved into an ideology.

MEADE: All right. This next one, this person asks, is the more likely that homeland security is preventing another attack on the U.S. soil, or that terrorists haven't made a real effort at attacking the United States since 9/11? John, would you like to take that one?

KING: Robin, officials here at the White House, at the new Department of Homeland Security, at the CIA, and across the government, including state and local police authorities accurate country say that since 9/11, dozens and dozens of at least what they believe to be terrorist threats have been disrupted and broken up.

Just in the past week or so, two believed to be Al Qaeda operatives arrested and taken into custody for what the government says was essentially casing sites for future attacks, looking and planning, trying to find locations. So the government would make the case that the steps taken since the tragedy of September 11, 2001 has helped prevent dozens and dozens of mostly small to medium scale attacks.

COOPER: Peter, also, we have an e-mail for you. This one wanting an update on Osama Bin Laden. What is the latest info on where he is and are we still making that our top priority, to eliminate him?

BERGEN: Anderson, frankly, I think that the number of people who get up in the morning in the U.S. Government with the job of actually trying to capture or pin down where Bin Laden is is probably not that large a number, surprisingly small number.

Where he is, according to U.S. counter-terrorism officials I spoke to recently, they believe that he is almost certainly in the northwest frontier province of Pakistan, on the border there between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There is evidence -- there's certainly no evidence he's dead, and there continues to be some evidence that he's alive. Audio tapes recently referencing the war in Iraq, also audio tapes referencing the attack in Indonesia in October. Certainly, he was alive in the last, let's say, two or three months. And as yet, there's no evidence he's been either captured or killed. So we can only presume, unfortunately, that's that he is alive.

MEADE: And the e-mails just keep coming. This person asks kind of an interesting question, here. Is there a financial connection between President Bush's family and the Saudi royal family keeping Saudi Arabia off the list of terrorist sponsoring countries? And John King gets to answer that one.

KING: Well, Robin, no financial relationship, but this is a criticism that has echoed in this Bush administration and in the first Bush administration. There certainly is a friendship, and an alliance, and allegiance. Both the former President Bush and the current have gone out of their way to praise the Saudis as close friends. Vice president Cheney, both in his role as defense secretary in the first Bush administration, vice president now, and while he was in the private sector in the energy industry, when he was out of government has very close relationships with Saudis. A lot of the advisers to these men have close relationship with the Saudis.

One constant criticism has been that these, the Bush people, the Bush advisers and the Bush family is too close to the Saudis and too reluctant to criticize the Saudis. The White House insists there's no secret deal, if you will, and they also insist that privately, the Saudis are more cooperative than we see in public, but they have pushed the Saudis quite aggressively in the past week or so, since the Riyadh bombings, to do more within their own borders.

COOPER: All right, we're going to have time for one more question. This one going to go to Peter Bergen, from Minnesota. Peter, would you agree, the recent war in Iraq will give rise to an entire new class of terrorists, a more educated and world savvy group?

BERGEN: Yes. I think the war in Iraq certainly was very unpopular in the Muslim world and may act as a recruiting tool, but I don't think it's going to make a huge amount of difference in terms of the number of people recruited to Al Qaeda. I think that group was quite large, substantial before the war. The estimates are that 25,000 people went through Bin Laden's training camps, quite a number of those people have not been captured and unfortunately remain a real threat to American and Western interests.

COOPER: Appreciate your joining us. Peter Bergen and John King, it's a tough thing to do, subject yourself to just freewheeling questions from people all over.

MEADE: You never know what's coming.

COOPER: You never know what's coming. But I appreciate it. You did well. Thank you.

MEADE: Very grateful. Thank you.

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 18, 2003 - 09:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government is taking unprecedented measures to defend the homeland. And from Pakistan to the Philippines to the horn of Africa, we're hunting down al Qaeda killers. So far, nearly one half of Al Qaeda's senior operatives have been captured or killed. And we remain on the hunt until they are all brought to justice.

(END AUDIO TAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: All morning long we've been asking for e-mails. We're actually just reading a bunch of them right now. Comments, your questions, your fears, concerns about the war on terror.

ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: And our guests are here to provide you some insight and answer those questions that you e-mail us. Joining us from Washington, CNN White House correspondent, John King, good morning to you, John, and CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. Good morning to you, Peter, and thank you both.

We're going to start with our first e-mailer. And I believe this is Julia from Toronto. And Julia talks about -- she's basically asking the differences here between policies.

She writes, the American people -- how can the president, Bush, and the American people justify the expulsion of the Iraqi leader miles away from their country for security reasons, yet the Israeli Government and its people are often criticized for defending themselves, and asked to be tolerant and negotiate with those that threaten their safety right in their backyard, not across the world.

Who would like to take that?

COOPER: Why don't we go to John King for that.

MEADE: Yes -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is an interesting question, in that the Israelis often are criticized. But not so much by this president. You might even say that, in a sense, President Bush had the same policy when it came to Iraq and when it came to Israeli-Palestinian peace. The president insisted, and there are many critics, but the president insisted that Saddam Hussein had to go for Iraq to be part of a secure Middle East. The president also insisted that Yasser Arafat had to go for there to be an environment in which the Israelis and the Palestinians could negotiate.

This president at has, at times, urged Israeli restraint. But the greatest criticism you hear from the Palestinian and the Arab world is that he has given Prime Minister Sharon, in their view, much too much of a green light to send Israeli troops into the Palestinian territory.

So there is criticism of the Israeli government from time to time, including in political circles here in Washington. But this president, for the most part, has stood very much shoulder to shoulder with Ariel Sharon over the past two plus years.

COOPER: All right. Let's get to the next question. This one from Benny in Tennessee. It's going to go to Peter Bergen. Very simple. Why is Al Qaeda and other groups out killing themselves -- well, grammatical mistake, but why are Al Qaeda and other groups out killing themselves and Americans? Peter?

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I mean, Bin Laden, the ideological leader of Al Qaeda, has been very consistent about why they're killing Americans. It's basically their opposition to American foreign policy.

The principle gripe was the seemingly permanent military presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. That policy is now ending, we're drawing down our troops to a very small number there. Also, American policy in Iraq, American, in their view, too much support for Israel. And also, support for regimes like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, that they deem as not sufficiently Islamic. So it's really, in a nutshell, opposition to American foreign policy.

MEADE: This next person writes, do you think that if there is another attack from Al Qaeda in the United States, that it would be a direct result from the administration failing to get Bin Laden? John King, what can you say about that?

KING: Peter can speak more to the operational details of Al Qaeda. But certainly, the administration says there are plans for more attacks in the United States, that Bin Laden long ago gave orders to his deputies, were he ever to be killed, captured, or simply to disappear from sight, they should continue to carry out strikes.

So, one could make the case that if you get Bin Laden, you might know more about planning and activities, but this White House has argued from day one that it believes that yes, it has captured and killed many of the senior leaders, but that there are trained Al Qaeda operatives around the world, whose mission is to attack the United States or its interests and allies overseas.

COOPER: And we also have another e-mail from Dale, sort of relates to this. Peter, I'm going to toss this to you. What methods are Al Qaeda using to regroup in order to create attacks on the order that we just saw in Riyadh and Casablanca. That's from Dale. BERGEN: Well, you know, picking up on something that John said there, you know, Al Qaeda is an organization, but it's also an ideology. And it's an ideology that -- you know, it's not like millions of people have signed on to the ideology, but clearly thousands of people around the world have.

And one of the methods we're going to see of -- we don't know exactly who did the attacks in Casablanca yet. And it appears that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks in Saudi Arabia. But there are groups perhaps even acting with an Al Qaeda agenda that may not be part of the organization itself. Because it's more than just an organization. To some degree, it's evolved into an ideology.

MEADE: All right. This next one, this person asks, is the more likely that homeland security is preventing another attack on the U.S. soil, or that terrorists haven't made a real effort at attacking the United States since 9/11? John, would you like to take that one?

KING: Robin, officials here at the White House, at the new Department of Homeland Security, at the CIA, and across the government, including state and local police authorities accurate country say that since 9/11, dozens and dozens of at least what they believe to be terrorist threats have been disrupted and broken up.

Just in the past week or so, two believed to be Al Qaeda operatives arrested and taken into custody for what the government says was essentially casing sites for future attacks, looking and planning, trying to find locations. So the government would make the case that the steps taken since the tragedy of September 11, 2001 has helped prevent dozens and dozens of mostly small to medium scale attacks.

COOPER: Peter, also, we have an e-mail for you. This one wanting an update on Osama Bin Laden. What is the latest info on where he is and are we still making that our top priority, to eliminate him?

BERGEN: Anderson, frankly, I think that the number of people who get up in the morning in the U.S. Government with the job of actually trying to capture or pin down where Bin Laden is is probably not that large a number, surprisingly small number.

Where he is, according to U.S. counter-terrorism officials I spoke to recently, they believe that he is almost certainly in the northwest frontier province of Pakistan, on the border there between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There is evidence -- there's certainly no evidence he's dead, and there continues to be some evidence that he's alive. Audio tapes recently referencing the war in Iraq, also audio tapes referencing the attack in Indonesia in October. Certainly, he was alive in the last, let's say, two or three months. And as yet, there's no evidence he's been either captured or killed. So we can only presume, unfortunately, that's that he is alive.

MEADE: And the e-mails just keep coming. This person asks kind of an interesting question, here. Is there a financial connection between President Bush's family and the Saudi royal family keeping Saudi Arabia off the list of terrorist sponsoring countries? And John King gets to answer that one.

KING: Well, Robin, no financial relationship, but this is a criticism that has echoed in this Bush administration and in the first Bush administration. There certainly is a friendship, and an alliance, and allegiance. Both the former President Bush and the current have gone out of their way to praise the Saudis as close friends. Vice president Cheney, both in his role as defense secretary in the first Bush administration, vice president now, and while he was in the private sector in the energy industry, when he was out of government has very close relationships with Saudis. A lot of the advisers to these men have close relationship with the Saudis.

One constant criticism has been that these, the Bush people, the Bush advisers and the Bush family is too close to the Saudis and too reluctant to criticize the Saudis. The White House insists there's no secret deal, if you will, and they also insist that privately, the Saudis are more cooperative than we see in public, but they have pushed the Saudis quite aggressively in the past week or so, since the Riyadh bombings, to do more within their own borders.

COOPER: All right, we're going to have time for one more question. This one going to go to Peter Bergen, from Minnesota. Peter, would you agree, the recent war in Iraq will give rise to an entire new class of terrorists, a more educated and world savvy group?

BERGEN: Yes. I think the war in Iraq certainly was very unpopular in the Muslim world and may act as a recruiting tool, but I don't think it's going to make a huge amount of difference in terms of the number of people recruited to Al Qaeda. I think that group was quite large, substantial before the war. The estimates are that 25,000 people went through Bin Laden's training camps, quite a number of those people have not been captured and unfortunately remain a real threat to American and Western interests.

COOPER: Appreciate your joining us. Peter Bergen and John King, it's a tough thing to do, subject yourself to just freewheeling questions from people all over.

MEADE: You never know what's coming.

COOPER: You never know what's coming. But I appreciate it. You did well. Thank you.

MEADE: Very grateful. Thank you.

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