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CNN Saturday Morning News
Attack by Drone Successful, Controversial
Aired November 09, 2002 - 07:24 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. government says an attack on suspected al Qaeda members in Yemen this week by a CIA drone aircraft was highly successful. It's also turning out to be highly controversial.
CNN security analyst Kelly McCann joins us now from Washington for some military insight. Good morning, Kelly.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Hey, listen, you know, if we hadn't had this election thing going on last week, this story would have been so huge. Tell me a little bit about where you think this takes the war on terror, what new phase with this attack by the Predator drone?
MCCANN: Some interesting stuff. I mean, it shows that our presence in Yemen, which has, you know, been known for quite some time, and the ability to put somebody at a particular time in place in order to have a Predator up there and loiter and then look-down, shoot-down capability really demonstrates how aggressive we're getting in the war on terrorism.
So I think it's a good step.
SAN MIGUEL: Tell me what assets are needed. I mean, you have to have a lot of intelligence on the ground to have this kind of thing take place, right?
MCCANN: Absolutely. There has to be human intelligence, and that, of course, is coupled with signals intelligence, intercepting communications, communications intelligence, what they call all-source fusion. In other words, you take all methods and then fuse it once you've collated it, becomes intelligence, and then you act that you find that it's actionable and you act on it.
SAN MIGUEL: You know, the idea after September 11 the Bush administration and President Bush wanted the gloves to come off in act, in activities involved terrorism, so they did sign this order that would allow for this kind of thing to take place.
But an American was among those (UNINTELLIGIBLE) six suspected al Qaeda killed in Yemen. Amnesty International has already registered a complaint about this. Will this be a big problem, this kind of tactic?
MCCANN: Oh, I don't think that it's any problem at all. I mean, Amnesty International may have a problem with it, but I think that everybody now, the "Post" is reporting this morning, "The Washington Post," that in fact Durwich (ph) was linked to the Lackawanna cell, in fact, may have been the ringleader and cultured the domestic cell by encouraging the other people in Lackawanna to go to Pakistan and then took them personally, perhaps, to Afghanistan.
So although they may have a problem with it, I don't think that it's a shared problem by us.
SAN MIGUEL: And the idea, that, let's talk about that American connection there with the one -- the American that was killed in the Yemen attack, the idea that the Lackawanna cell was busted, and then we have this activity. So what kind of information is being learned by the authorities to lead to these kinds of events?
MCCANN: Well, I think that very important that selectively shows who is -- who goes beyond the rabble-rousing and actually goes to the actionable phase is surfacing.
You know, we can't think that in fact this guy was just hitchhiking out in the middle of the Yemeni desert and was picked up. So, I mean, I understand concern. However, there was no peripheral damage in that other innocents were not put at risk, et cetera.
So nobody takes life, you know, anything other than very seriously. So in order to do a mission like that, believe me, they've -- they're acting on information they feel is almost guaranteed.
SAN MIGUEL: The day after the Yemen strike, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers went before the Brooking's institution, said the war in Afghanistan was faltering, that al Qaeda was able to adapt quicker to the U.S. military's strategies rather than the other way around.
I mean, I mean, I -- what -- it would seem to me the Yemen attack would kind of refute that in part, but what do you think?
MCCANN: Well, you know, there is a principle of war and how it mutates. In other words, you've got a regular or conventional force, the U.S., operating against an irregular force. Clearly the advantage is on the irregulars because they're more mobile, they're more -- they can change (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tactical doctrine very quickly. A conventional force doesn't.
The other thing is, is that we're moving from the kind of tactical phase of that to nation building, to peacekeeping, to that kind of infrastructure support that is always a follow-on operation in war. That is troublesome, because you've got warlords who are involved with, you know, secular activities that basically support themselves. You get the opium trade coming back in, which is, you know, significant.
So there are some significant problems. I understand that, you know, the perception might be a stall in tactics, or a stall in the application of force. But I think they are moving forward on some other fronts. SAN MIGUEL: The idea, though, that that -- you know, we would be -- if the idea is to kind of deemphasize the military aspects of the war in Afghanistan and focus on those nation-building activities, as you called them, we would be actually going after in some of -- in some instances the warlords that were actually helping, that were part of the Northern Alliance, that were helping the U.S. during the war.
MCCANN: That's what makes it so troublesome. I mean, we don't very much understand the way that their culture works, because it is very complex, the Loya Jerga system, the way that the tribal warlords. You know, you can't expect someone who's had power in the region through his family to suddenly give it up and say, OK, I'm not going to do that any more, nor am I going to make any money on opium, which is our family's business.
So there are things we have to understand about the way life is conducted over there that we're working towards.
SAN MIGUEL: And also, taking Richard Myers' sentiments and applying that to the homeland security arena, what are your thoughts there?
MCCANN: Homeland, we've got to do some more work. Obviously the bill is stalled, and there are people who have big problems with the bill the way it's written and this homeland security department. I mean, there's overlaps, there's going to be difficulty in breaking some rice bowls and creating new ones.
So I think that we've got problems with containers coming here to the U.S. I think still a very small percentage of them is checked. And we've also got problems with our borders. So we need to do more work here domestically.
SAN MIGUEL: CNN security analyst Kelly McCann, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
MCCANN: Thanks, Renay.
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 November 9, 2002 - 07:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. government says an attack on suspected al Qaeda members in Yemen this week by a CIA drone aircraft was highly successful. It's also turning out to be highly controversial.
CNN security analyst Kelly McCann joins us now from Washington for some military insight. Good morning, Kelly.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Hey, listen, you know, if we hadn't had this election thing going on last week, this story would have been so huge. Tell me a little bit about where you think this takes the war on terror, what new phase with this attack by the Predator drone?
MCCANN: Some interesting stuff. I mean, it shows that our presence in Yemen, which has, you know, been known for quite some time, and the ability to put somebody at a particular time in place in order to have a Predator up there and loiter and then look-down, shoot-down capability really demonstrates how aggressive we're getting in the war on terrorism.
So I think it's a good step.
SAN MIGUEL: Tell me what assets are needed. I mean, you have to have a lot of intelligence on the ground to have this kind of thing take place, right?
MCCANN: Absolutely. There has to be human intelligence, and that, of course, is coupled with signals intelligence, intercepting communications, communications intelligence, what they call all-source fusion. In other words, you take all methods and then fuse it once you've collated it, becomes intelligence, and then you act that you find that it's actionable and you act on it.
SAN MIGUEL: You know, the idea after September 11 the Bush administration and President Bush wanted the gloves to come off in act, in activities involved terrorism, so they did sign this order that would allow for this kind of thing to take place.
But an American was among those (UNINTELLIGIBLE) six suspected al Qaeda killed in Yemen. Amnesty International has already registered a complaint about this. Will this be a big problem, this kind of tactic?
MCCANN: Oh, I don't think that it's any problem at all. I mean, Amnesty International may have a problem with it, but I think that everybody now, the "Post" is reporting this morning, "The Washington Post," that in fact Durwich (ph) was linked to the Lackawanna cell, in fact, may have been the ringleader and cultured the domestic cell by encouraging the other people in Lackawanna to go to Pakistan and then took them personally, perhaps, to Afghanistan.
So although they may have a problem with it, I don't think that it's a shared problem by us.
SAN MIGUEL: And the idea, that, let's talk about that American connection there with the one -- the American that was killed in the Yemen attack, the idea that the Lackawanna cell was busted, and then we have this activity. So what kind of information is being learned by the authorities to lead to these kinds of events?
MCCANN: Well, I think that very important that selectively shows who is -- who goes beyond the rabble-rousing and actually goes to the actionable phase is surfacing.
You know, we can't think that in fact this guy was just hitchhiking out in the middle of the Yemeni desert and was picked up. So, I mean, I understand concern. However, there was no peripheral damage in that other innocents were not put at risk, et cetera.
So nobody takes life, you know, anything other than very seriously. So in order to do a mission like that, believe me, they've -- they're acting on information they feel is almost guaranteed.
SAN MIGUEL: The day after the Yemen strike, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers went before the Brooking's institution, said the war in Afghanistan was faltering, that al Qaeda was able to adapt quicker to the U.S. military's strategies rather than the other way around.
I mean, I mean, I -- what -- it would seem to me the Yemen attack would kind of refute that in part, but what do you think?
MCCANN: Well, you know, there is a principle of war and how it mutates. In other words, you've got a regular or conventional force, the U.S., operating against an irregular force. Clearly the advantage is on the irregulars because they're more mobile, they're more -- they can change (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tactical doctrine very quickly. A conventional force doesn't.
The other thing is, is that we're moving from the kind of tactical phase of that to nation building, to peacekeeping, to that kind of infrastructure support that is always a follow-on operation in war. That is troublesome, because you've got warlords who are involved with, you know, secular activities that basically support themselves. You get the opium trade coming back in, which is, you know, significant.
So there are some significant problems. I understand that, you know, the perception might be a stall in tactics, or a stall in the application of force. But I think they are moving forward on some other fronts. SAN MIGUEL: The idea, though, that that -- you know, we would be -- if the idea is to kind of deemphasize the military aspects of the war in Afghanistan and focus on those nation-building activities, as you called them, we would be actually going after in some of -- in some instances the warlords that were actually helping, that were part of the Northern Alliance, that were helping the U.S. during the war.
MCCANN: That's what makes it so troublesome. I mean, we don't very much understand the way that their culture works, because it is very complex, the Loya Jerga system, the way that the tribal warlords. You know, you can't expect someone who's had power in the region through his family to suddenly give it up and say, OK, I'm not going to do that any more, nor am I going to make any money on opium, which is our family's business.
So there are things we have to understand about the way life is conducted over there that we're working towards.
SAN MIGUEL: And also, taking Richard Myers' sentiments and applying that to the homeland security arena, what are your thoughts there?
MCCANN: Homeland, we've got to do some more work. Obviously the bill is stalled, and there are people who have big problems with the bill the way it's written and this homeland security department. I mean, there's overlaps, there's going to be difficulty in breaking some rice bowls and creating new ones.
So I think that we've got problems with containers coming here to the U.S. I think still a very small percentage of them is checked. And we've also got problems with our borders. So we need to do more work here domestically.
SAN MIGUEL: CNN security analyst Kelly McCann, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
MCCANN: Thanks, Renay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
