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CNN Saturday Morning News
Warnings of new Al Qaeda Attacks on Americans
Aired November 22, 2003 - 08:02 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.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with renewed warnings about terrorism. The government's terror alert level remains at yellow, but in a manner of speaking, it has been highlighted in Day-Glo. Specifically, the government is warning that al Qaeda could attack Americans as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to an end.
CNN security analyst Kelly McCann joins us live now this morning with his risk assessment.
So, Kelly, I mean most Americans, you would think all Americans know that there are potential al Qaeda attacks at any time since 9/11.
So what do these new threat warnings really do and how can Americans respond or should they respond?
KELLY MCCANN, SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think there's a couple of important points, the first being that we can't attribute everything to al Qaeda. And it seems that within the last like four months, Andrea, they've been being empowered by a lot of people who are on the media, etc.. Because we're seeing new groups emerge, groups that are using bomb making done by al Qaeda and being motivated by them to create kind of terror in their own region. And then we're also seeing disassociated anger, previously disassociated people who wouldn't be in the intel system be suddenly moved to action specifically during times like Ramadan.
So it is a complex and confusing thing right now. But people should understand that these warnings aren't going to go away. Warnings are not a measure of the success. The fact is that there have not been any other incidents in the U.S. That's much more a better measure of success. Now, overseas is a little bit different.
KOPPEL: Right. Well, as you just said, there have been these recent attacks in Turkey and then, of course, in Saudi Arabia. And intelligence analysts say that it's often now by these second tier guys, these mid level operatives.
What kind of new challenges does that pose for intelligence officials as they try to break up these cells.
MCCANN: It's very, very difficult. I watched Mike Boettcher's report for our network the other day and he was trying to explain it on our network. And he came right out and said this is very, very complicated stuff; very, very complicated funding lines; very, very complicated communications lines; very difficult to track back to those who we can attribute these events to and also to even try to predict what could happen next week. I mean that would be like us trying to predict what the big story is going to be next week, very, very difficult.
But there are a convergence of events that have made these warnings kind of be emphasized. Number one, of course, the closing of Ramadan. Number two, the beginning of Thanksgiving and a very high travel period. And lastly, you know, there's another thing that has -- a regional momentum has been created. If you think about it, Iraq, the al Qaeda kind of network, other terrorist situations have created kind of a momentum that laymen have a difficulty seeing through. They kind of attribute it to one thing. So that in itself becomes a motivator for people who might use terror as a tactic -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: How do you read, Kelly, the latest attack that appears to have been successful on that DHL cargo plane in Baghdad? We've known already for some time that terrorists and insurgents, whatever you want to call them, have gotten their hands on some of these shoulder fired missiles.
Does that mean that the Baghdad International Airport is not going to be open for business to the public any time soon?
MCCANN: Let me go a slightly different direction with you on that. You know, for some time, when we knew that al Qaeda had trained so many people in Afghanistan to use the SA-7 kinds of weapons, there was a lot of concern about what would it do to a cargo plane or what would it do to a jetliner. And there was a lot of discussion that it might, in fact, depending on the distance the missile was fired from, actually go through an engine. But because of the inherit redundancy of many engines, the plane might still be able to maneuver and land.
It wouldn't be the same on a military target, because there's much less air structure to the plane itself, so there'd be more damage.
I take this as kind of a good thing, as a matter of fact, not because of the situation, but because of the performance of the missile against that aircraft and the pilot being able to safely land it.
But I think that you're going to see more man pads, man packable air defense systems used in the country, because we have not destroyed a whole bunch of them Andrea.
KOPPEL: Got you.
Well, on that somewhat upbeat note, Kelly, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks for coming in this morning.
MCCANN: You, as well.
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 22, 2003 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with renewed warnings about terrorism. The government's terror alert level remains at yellow, but in a manner of speaking, it has been highlighted in Day-Glo. Specifically, the government is warning that al Qaeda could attack Americans as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to an end.
CNN security analyst Kelly McCann joins us live now this morning with his risk assessment.
So, Kelly, I mean most Americans, you would think all Americans know that there are potential al Qaeda attacks at any time since 9/11.
So what do these new threat warnings really do and how can Americans respond or should they respond?
KELLY MCCANN, SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think there's a couple of important points, the first being that we can't attribute everything to al Qaeda. And it seems that within the last like four months, Andrea, they've been being empowered by a lot of people who are on the media, etc.. Because we're seeing new groups emerge, groups that are using bomb making done by al Qaeda and being motivated by them to create kind of terror in their own region. And then we're also seeing disassociated anger, previously disassociated people who wouldn't be in the intel system be suddenly moved to action specifically during times like Ramadan.
So it is a complex and confusing thing right now. But people should understand that these warnings aren't going to go away. Warnings are not a measure of the success. The fact is that there have not been any other incidents in the U.S. That's much more a better measure of success. Now, overseas is a little bit different.
KOPPEL: Right. Well, as you just said, there have been these recent attacks in Turkey and then, of course, in Saudi Arabia. And intelligence analysts say that it's often now by these second tier guys, these mid level operatives.
What kind of new challenges does that pose for intelligence officials as they try to break up these cells.
MCCANN: It's very, very difficult. I watched Mike Boettcher's report for our network the other day and he was trying to explain it on our network. And he came right out and said this is very, very complicated stuff; very, very complicated funding lines; very, very complicated communications lines; very difficult to track back to those who we can attribute these events to and also to even try to predict what could happen next week. I mean that would be like us trying to predict what the big story is going to be next week, very, very difficult.
But there are a convergence of events that have made these warnings kind of be emphasized. Number one, of course, the closing of Ramadan. Number two, the beginning of Thanksgiving and a very high travel period. And lastly, you know, there's another thing that has -- a regional momentum has been created. If you think about it, Iraq, the al Qaeda kind of network, other terrorist situations have created kind of a momentum that laymen have a difficulty seeing through. They kind of attribute it to one thing. So that in itself becomes a motivator for people who might use terror as a tactic -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: How do you read, Kelly, the latest attack that appears to have been successful on that DHL cargo plane in Baghdad? We've known already for some time that terrorists and insurgents, whatever you want to call them, have gotten their hands on some of these shoulder fired missiles.
Does that mean that the Baghdad International Airport is not going to be open for business to the public any time soon?
MCCANN: Let me go a slightly different direction with you on that. You know, for some time, when we knew that al Qaeda had trained so many people in Afghanistan to use the SA-7 kinds of weapons, there was a lot of concern about what would it do to a cargo plane or what would it do to a jetliner. And there was a lot of discussion that it might, in fact, depending on the distance the missile was fired from, actually go through an engine. But because of the inherit redundancy of many engines, the plane might still be able to maneuver and land.
It wouldn't be the same on a military target, because there's much less air structure to the plane itself, so there'd be more damage.
I take this as kind of a good thing, as a matter of fact, not because of the situation, but because of the performance of the missile against that aircraft and the pilot being able to safely land it.
But I think that you're going to see more man pads, man packable air defense systems used in the country, because we have not destroyed a whole bunch of them Andrea.
KOPPEL: Got you.
Well, on that somewhat upbeat note, Kelly, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks for coming in this morning.
MCCANN: You, as well.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
