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CNN Saturday Morning News

America's New War: Terrorism Expert Offers His Insights

Aired September 15, 2001 - 11:00   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.
JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Continue the conversation now with Peter Bergen, a CNN terrorism analyst, someone who knows the bin Laden organization quite well. Mr. Bush saying, "if he thinks he can hide, he will be sorely mistaken," and the United States, if it reaches the conclusion -- Mr. Bush said he was the prime suspect -- if the president gets to the next threshold and names him as the suspect and goes after him, easier said than done?

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM EXPERT: Easier said than done for the following reasons, John: Afghanistan is a country of mountains and deserts, where it's pretty easy to hide, and bin Laden has operated in Afghanistan since 1986, so it's a country he knows intimately well. It's a country -- he spent three years inside the country fighting the Soviets, exactly the kind of conventional operation that there might be implicit in some of these statements.

He's not exactly frightened of these kinds of things. The psychology of this man is somebody who rejoices at the possibility of being martyred in the cause of Islam. I think he's going to be a difficult person to intimidate for that reason.

KING: The U.S. government says Mr. bin Laden is a man capable of these terrorist strikes, a man capable of having terrorist cells, can hijack planes and fly them into the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon. But what about on the ground in Afghanistan? If the U.S. troops were deployed there, what does Mr. bin Laden have at his disposal in terms of men and weapons on the ground?

BERGEN: John, I met with him in '97, and this was just for a television interview for CNN, and he had at least a couple of dozen heavily armed men. They had RPGs, grenades, they had submachine guns. These are people who are prepared to die for him, and that was just for a television interview. Obviously, he's going to be much more prepared. He has hundreds, perhaps thousands of followers in Afghanistan. It's going to be a very tricky proposition.

KING: What about the regional balance? Quickly. The Taliban threatening Pakistan if it helps the United States. What is the potential impact of that?

BERGEN: I think Pakistan is in a very, very hard place, because Osama bin Laden is a popular man for a lot of Pakistanis. The Pakistani government is in a very tough situation. They have long been allies of the United States, yet bin Laden is somebody who enjoys a lot of popularity on the street in Pakistan, so I think General Musharraf is going to have a very tough few weeks ahead of him.

KING: We will keep tabs on this as it develops.

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