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CNN Live Sunday

How Good is al Qaeda's Training?

Aired August 25, 2002 - 17:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: ...and other information, so without knowing what the substance was, of course, and what the delivery method would be, then probably not sophisticated, still useful, but not necessarily sophisticated. The big take away there, Fredricka, is that it would be or could be a low impact delivery. In other words, there doesn't necessarily have to be an explosion. There doesn't necessarily have to be a lot of equipment involved. It could be something very, very low impact.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And you can obviously, easily conclude that we are talking about lethal chemicals and substances...

MCCANN: That's correct.

WHITFIELD: ...being mixed here.

MCCANN: That's correct.

WHITFIELD: On the issue of weapons training, even though there are very limited resources, we're seeing that there are to be taken very seriously, is that your view?

MCCANN: Absolutely. Now the weapons handling themselves, if you look at it it's a significantly different standard than you'd find here in the United States. The use of the sighting systems, the way that they have muzzle discipline, both on each other and on the target is not nearly as proficient as U.S. soldiers and marines and sailors are trained to use their weapons. But still it's the intent, isn't it? And if the person has intent, that makes him dangerous.

WHITFIELD: And what about the organization though? I mean, obviously someone is, you know, giving the instructions. Folks are following them so there does seem to be some of, while it's not a sophisticated army, it does seem to be following, you know, their own kind of protocol if you will.

MCCANN: Absolutely. I mean there's tactics, techniques, and procedures. Although they're not sophisticated they have to follow a very discernible pattern which would be in order to attack a motorcade like you just showed on the videotape there, they would have had to have conducted surveillance to put a person at a particular time and place and then they would have had to have executed the thing logistically to be supported and then actually go through the mission. So if you look at it broad stroke you say yes there's a level of planning, and yes they need tactics, techniques, and procedures, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're infallible.

WHITFIELD: The videotapes that we showed this week also show the step-by-step instruction of how to make explosives and detonators. How concerned are you that even though we may have this cache of tapes, obviously these tapes have already been distributed, how concerned are you about the hands that now have a number of these tapes?

MCCANN: Well again, you know, it's outside most people's common knowledge but that kind of information was publicly available. It's lesser so now, of course.

WHITFIELD: But not on detonators, according to a lot of analysts.

MCCANN: It depends on the sophistication of the detonator. If you're talking about electronic detonation, if you're talking about fuse igniters, there's many, many different kinds of ways to ignite an explosive and it depends on whether it's secondary or primary explosives we're talking about.

So again, it goes to sophistication. Let's not forget that, of course, they had access to scientists. They had access to people who were electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, et cetera. So I think there should be an amount of concern, but then still to build some of these sophisticated detonators you'd still need access to materials and that's not quite so easy.

WHITFIELD: We even learned that there is widespread support. We're not just talking about forces within Afghanistan, within the Taliban, but it involves an awful lot of countries and that this net has been cast very wide.

MCCANN: I think that's absolutely correct. I mean if you think about it, just recently there was a man that was arrested in Greece that was involved in killing Brigadier General Stephen Saunders (ph) some years ago, and again some Air Force personnel back to the late '90s. So I mean I think that's indicative of this net being cast for all terrorists, all people who are suspicious and could be involved in supporting al Qaeda or being supported by al Qaeda, which is a good thing.

WHITFIELD: Did it strike you as alarming that also involved in these tapes were the videotape coverage from Al-Jazeera and even CNN of 9/11 terrorist attacks themselves on these tapes, perhaps evidence of, you know, we saw the preparation and now here is the before and here is the result, the after. Is that how you see this culmination of material on these tapes?

MCCANN: Absolutely but it's through the eyes of the beholder. For example, it was not uncommon during the Gulf War or in other wars that we've participated in that when we had effect on target that people would cheer and you know revel in that and that's what we're seeing. It all goes to the eyes of the beholder and I think that it personally, obviously is distressing because we know that there were so many innocent people killed, but of course they're not innocent in the eyes of our attackers. So it's unsettling.

WHITFIELD: Kelly McCann, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

MCCANN: Thanks, Fredricka.

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