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CNN Saturday Morning News
CIA Director Warns al Qaeda in Execution
Aired October 19, 2002 - 08:10 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: Many fronts on the war on terrorism. This past week, we heard from the director of the CIA. He told Congress that the threat condition that the CIA and the intelligence community in general is perceiving is about equal to what they ascertained in the weeks and months prior to the 9/11 attacks. Add to that the incidents in the Pacific Rim.
The question is where do we stand in the war on terrorism?
And for that we turn to CNN security analyst Kelly McCann.
Kelly, al Qaeda is apparently in, what is it, I guess "execution mode" was the term that Mr. Tenet used, the director of the CIA. What does that mean?
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, what it means, Miles, is that we're seeing consistencies with the pre-9/11 normalcy, if you will. We're always looking for anomalies. In other words, you have a steady state and then suddenly you'll see an intensity in communications. You may see some logistics kind of movements. You may see some people moving, etc. So that kind of means they're entering into an execution phase.
Now, what they're about to execute, no one can say.
O'BRIEN: Now, what Mr. Tenet also said was that looking back on it with some hindsight, to that time before 9/11, that while there was all this so-called chatter or whatever you want to call it, there was a maddening lack of detail. Do you suspect this go around if there's a maddening lack of detail there might be a different set of actions, nevertheless?
MCCANN: I think the system has been adjusted. But, in fact, the transformation from information to intelligence will never change. I mean there has to be a process. Now, to the extent that you can affect that process by adding more manpower so you've got people reviewing more information and you can drill down into other sources and methods, that can change.
But the process itself remains unchanged by necessity. So, in fact, if there is a whole, you know, volume of information, we're still going to have to deal with that.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's try to connect some dots, if we will. Let's start in Bali. Does that sound like al Qaeda or Abu Sayyaf there? MCCANN: Well, interestingly, all of these things together, you know, have certainly a fingerprint and people are taking the devices and looking at the kinds of weapons that were used. One interesting aspect of, in Bali, for example, the surgeons in Australia that dealt with the victims had noted in particular that they had never seen burns like that before. I mean these are surgeons who deal with burn victims all the time. So that kind of was a signature of some kind of accelerant or some kind of explosive material or some kind of bomb placement, which was interesting.
O'BRIEN: So implicit in that is some expertise, is what you're talking about?
MCCANN: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MCCANN: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, take it the next step. You know, we're talking about a bomb blast outside the McDonald's in Moscow this morning. I mean every time we see something like this, our tendency these days is to say is that al Qaeda?
MCCANN: Well, sure, because, you know, we want to see -- or don't want to see, but we think we see a bad guy behind every mailbox. In Moscow, you know, obviously the information is not out quite yet, but there's much more historical precedence for mafia type situations where, you know, store owners who have not given the money to the mafia for their support have been bombed.
So we can't really say yet. There's also a precedence, of course, for Chechen rebels having conducted operations.
So, again, as you and I say a lot on the weekends, we've got to wait and see.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes, we do say that a lot.
Let's talk, bring it back to Washington and the sniper. There's a report out that members of Congress, senators in particular, were warned against having a round of golf because al Qaeda might, in fact, be using sharpshooters, snipers, perhaps, to target them. This is coming from someone who was arrested post-9/11 in a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Perhaps a good source, maybe not.
Does this lead you to believe that the sniper attacks we're seeing might in some way be connected to all this big picture we're talking about?
MCCANN: Well, that they have a sniper capability isn't in question. They do. They did that kind of training. But like I said last hour, if you think about, you may want to target somebody, but you might not be able to, because you can't put them at a particular time and place. It would be real difficult to discern a senator or a congressman or a notable person's itinerary because, you know, their staff know to protect that. If you can't be co-located where they are, then you can't engage them. So it's a little bit of a stretch.
Now, the al Qaeda tapes showed them using a rocket to engage an armored vehicle of sorts and showed them role playing that scenario out in one of the tapes that was released, you know, or was taken from Afghanistan. So I think that's where the link is made. Suffice it to say notable people should be, you know, careful.
O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann, who looks at matters relating to security for us. We're not done with you yet, Mr. McCann. Please come back in about an hour and 15 minutes for our reporter's notebook segment. He'll be part of the trio of experts fielding your questions to wam@cnn.com.
Thanks, Kelly.
Appreciate it.
MCCANN: Thanks, Miles.
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 19, 2002 - 08:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Many fronts on the war on terrorism. This past week, we heard from the director of the CIA. He told Congress that the threat condition that the CIA and the intelligence community in general is perceiving is about equal to what they ascertained in the weeks and months prior to the 9/11 attacks. Add to that the incidents in the Pacific Rim.
The question is where do we stand in the war on terrorism?
And for that we turn to CNN security analyst Kelly McCann.
Kelly, al Qaeda is apparently in, what is it, I guess "execution mode" was the term that Mr. Tenet used, the director of the CIA. What does that mean?
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, what it means, Miles, is that we're seeing consistencies with the pre-9/11 normalcy, if you will. We're always looking for anomalies. In other words, you have a steady state and then suddenly you'll see an intensity in communications. You may see some logistics kind of movements. You may see some people moving, etc. So that kind of means they're entering into an execution phase.
Now, what they're about to execute, no one can say.
O'BRIEN: Now, what Mr. Tenet also said was that looking back on it with some hindsight, to that time before 9/11, that while there was all this so-called chatter or whatever you want to call it, there was a maddening lack of detail. Do you suspect this go around if there's a maddening lack of detail there might be a different set of actions, nevertheless?
MCCANN: I think the system has been adjusted. But, in fact, the transformation from information to intelligence will never change. I mean there has to be a process. Now, to the extent that you can affect that process by adding more manpower so you've got people reviewing more information and you can drill down into other sources and methods, that can change.
But the process itself remains unchanged by necessity. So, in fact, if there is a whole, you know, volume of information, we're still going to have to deal with that.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's try to connect some dots, if we will. Let's start in Bali. Does that sound like al Qaeda or Abu Sayyaf there? MCCANN: Well, interestingly, all of these things together, you know, have certainly a fingerprint and people are taking the devices and looking at the kinds of weapons that were used. One interesting aspect of, in Bali, for example, the surgeons in Australia that dealt with the victims had noted in particular that they had never seen burns like that before. I mean these are surgeons who deal with burn victims all the time. So that kind of was a signature of some kind of accelerant or some kind of explosive material or some kind of bomb placement, which was interesting.
O'BRIEN: So implicit in that is some expertise, is what you're talking about?
MCCANN: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
MCCANN: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, take it the next step. You know, we're talking about a bomb blast outside the McDonald's in Moscow this morning. I mean every time we see something like this, our tendency these days is to say is that al Qaeda?
MCCANN: Well, sure, because, you know, we want to see -- or don't want to see, but we think we see a bad guy behind every mailbox. In Moscow, you know, obviously the information is not out quite yet, but there's much more historical precedence for mafia type situations where, you know, store owners who have not given the money to the mafia for their support have been bombed.
So we can't really say yet. There's also a precedence, of course, for Chechen rebels having conducted operations.
So, again, as you and I say a lot on the weekends, we've got to wait and see.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes, we do say that a lot.
Let's talk, bring it back to Washington and the sniper. There's a report out that members of Congress, senators in particular, were warned against having a round of golf because al Qaeda might, in fact, be using sharpshooters, snipers, perhaps, to target them. This is coming from someone who was arrested post-9/11 in a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Perhaps a good source, maybe not.
Does this lead you to believe that the sniper attacks we're seeing might in some way be connected to all this big picture we're talking about?
MCCANN: Well, that they have a sniper capability isn't in question. They do. They did that kind of training. But like I said last hour, if you think about, you may want to target somebody, but you might not be able to, because you can't put them at a particular time and place. It would be real difficult to discern a senator or a congressman or a notable person's itinerary because, you know, their staff know to protect that. If you can't be co-located where they are, then you can't engage them. So it's a little bit of a stretch.
Now, the al Qaeda tapes showed them using a rocket to engage an armored vehicle of sorts and showed them role playing that scenario out in one of the tapes that was released, you know, or was taken from Afghanistan. So I think that's where the link is made. Suffice it to say notable people should be, you know, careful.
O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann, who looks at matters relating to security for us. We're not done with you yet, Mr. McCann. Please come back in about an hour and 15 minutes for our reporter's notebook segment. He'll be part of the trio of experts fielding your questions to wam@cnn.com.
Thanks, Kelly.
Appreciate it.
MCCANN: Thanks, Miles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
