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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Clint Van Zandt

Aired October 06, 2002 - 18:02   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.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Al-Jazeera Television Network has released an audiotape it says is a message to the American people from Osama bin Laden. The voice, purported to be bin Laden says in part: "I want to explain to the American people why we attacked New York and Washington. I'm inviting you to understand the message of my attack against New York and D.C., which came as an answer to your crimes. If we follow the act of these criminal bandits at the White House, the Jewish agents who are preparing to attack the Islamic world and dividing it up, without you opposing them, one would think that you don't understand the attacks at all."
Well, CNN's Octavia Nasr joins us now by phone from Qatar. Octavia, what is the word there in terms of how authentic this tape really is?

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Al-Jazeera is reporting that this is Osama bin Laden. Now whether it is Osama bin Laden or not, CNN doesn't have any confirmation if the voice on that tape is indeed the leader of the al Qaeda.

Now what we do know at this point is that Al-Jazeera obtained this tape. It's a two-minute tape and a direct message to the American people. It has a beginning and a middle and an end very clear, very short which is unusual of the previous Osama bin Laden tapes that used to run anywhere between 30 to 45 to even (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So, as you said, the tape starts with what Al- Jazeera dubs as Osama bin Laden extending two invitations to the American people.

The first is to join Islam, the religion of compassion and justice as he calls it and the second invitation is to try and understand why he personally attacked New York and Washington and he says it's a direct reaction to previous crimes committed by Americans against his people.

LIN: Octavia, how did Al-Jazeera actually get the tape? Did somebody deliver it to them? Did they have to go pick it up?

NASR: They are not saying. They're just saying that the tape was delivered to them. This is not unusual really. Very rarely do we know how Al-Jazeera obtained the tapes. They usually don't disclose that kind of information and they certainly didn't share that information with their viewers today.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Octavia Nasr reporting by telephone from Doha, Qatar. Well, if the tape proves authentic and Osama bin Laden is still alive, what does that mean for the U.S. led war on terrorism and how can officials actually prove that the tape is actually from bin Laden? Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, joins us now from Washington.

CLINT VAN ZANDT, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Hi, Carol.

LIN: Clint, very interesting development today, don't you think?

VAN ZANDT: Yes, it is but you know there's two issues here. There's the dating of the tape and then there is determining authenticity. As your correspondent suggested, we're used to bin Laden giving us these long rambling diatribes where we have this short little sport of tape here. There is nothing in the tape to suggest that it couldn't have been generated say on September 12, 2001 for one.

Two, had it been a longer tape, maybe there was some reference to a date and you and I and your listening audience would have known it was a year ago, and once we determine that if we can we still have the issue of authenticity. And, Carol, this is a very time consuming process. This is taking tapes we have of bin Laden, of his voice.

Now we can do a lot of things by computer, but a lot of times it's just a man or a woman with a good set of ears who's used to doing something like this. We call it voice print analysis, who is going to sit down and listen to words and phrases and in the old hand method, write their opinion if they think it's the same person or not.

LIN: Well, that's pretty subjective. I mean the quality of the tape isn't really that good. It's actually kind of fuzzy so is that going to interfere?

VAN ZANDT: Yes, well you know again we get an issue where it may have been a second, third, fourth generation. It may have been a copy. We have to look and see if there's been things spliced together. We have to look and see if the tape really ended there or if there's a hesitation like the speaker was going to continue and it was cut off. So there is a lot of things to be gained but what we know right now is that there is nothing that says that tape is not 13, 14 months old.

LIN: So, are you saying that we may not be able to conclusively determine whether Osama bin Laden is actually still alive today?

VAN ZANDT: From this tape absolutely not, from the translation that you have so far, even if we suggest that it appears to be him, and this will be shaky at best to say it appears to be him. We still can't say anything about the dating. You know this is something that we've been looking for for a long time.

Bin Laden if you're still out there, stand up you know. Show us a picture of you with a copy of the, you know, New York Daily News dated Sunday of this year and we'll believe it's you. Otherwise, you know, we've got a voice. We just don't know whose it is right now.

LIN: Why do you think this tape was released today?

VAN ZANDT: Well, you know, we have been asking for proof for information. I think there has been a lot of people within the United States, I know the FBI for example has suggested their opinion that bin Laden may not be alive, that he may either be bombed in the bottom of a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. So it's going to be an interesting determination whether al Qaeda released the tape or whether the ultimate source that you got it from has been sitting on this for a couple...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... kept up the pressure on Iraq.

LIN: Sorry, we lost Clint Van Zandt. Clint Van Zandt, are you still there? All right, obviously somebody pressed the wrong button there in the control room, too bad. We'll try to get Clint a little bit later if we can.

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 6, 2002 - 18:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Al-Jazeera Television Network has released an audiotape it says is a message to the American people from Osama bin Laden. The voice, purported to be bin Laden says in part: "I want to explain to the American people why we attacked New York and Washington. I'm inviting you to understand the message of my attack against New York and D.C., which came as an answer to your crimes. If we follow the act of these criminal bandits at the White House, the Jewish agents who are preparing to attack the Islamic world and dividing it up, without you opposing them, one would think that you don't understand the attacks at all."
Well, CNN's Octavia Nasr joins us now by phone from Qatar. Octavia, what is the word there in terms of how authentic this tape really is?

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Al-Jazeera is reporting that this is Osama bin Laden. Now whether it is Osama bin Laden or not, CNN doesn't have any confirmation if the voice on that tape is indeed the leader of the al Qaeda.

Now what we do know at this point is that Al-Jazeera obtained this tape. It's a two-minute tape and a direct message to the American people. It has a beginning and a middle and an end very clear, very short which is unusual of the previous Osama bin Laden tapes that used to run anywhere between 30 to 45 to even (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So, as you said, the tape starts with what Al- Jazeera dubs as Osama bin Laden extending two invitations to the American people.

The first is to join Islam, the religion of compassion and justice as he calls it and the second invitation is to try and understand why he personally attacked New York and Washington and he says it's a direct reaction to previous crimes committed by Americans against his people.

LIN: Octavia, how did Al-Jazeera actually get the tape? Did somebody deliver it to them? Did they have to go pick it up?

NASR: They are not saying. They're just saying that the tape was delivered to them. This is not unusual really. Very rarely do we know how Al-Jazeera obtained the tapes. They usually don't disclose that kind of information and they certainly didn't share that information with their viewers today.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Octavia Nasr reporting by telephone from Doha, Qatar. Well, if the tape proves authentic and Osama bin Laden is still alive, what does that mean for the U.S. led war on terrorism and how can officials actually prove that the tape is actually from bin Laden? Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, joins us now from Washington.

CLINT VAN ZANDT, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Hi, Carol.

LIN: Clint, very interesting development today, don't you think?

VAN ZANDT: Yes, it is but you know there's two issues here. There's the dating of the tape and then there is determining authenticity. As your correspondent suggested, we're used to bin Laden giving us these long rambling diatribes where we have this short little sport of tape here. There is nothing in the tape to suggest that it couldn't have been generated say on September 12, 2001 for one.

Two, had it been a longer tape, maybe there was some reference to a date and you and I and your listening audience would have known it was a year ago, and once we determine that if we can we still have the issue of authenticity. And, Carol, this is a very time consuming process. This is taking tapes we have of bin Laden, of his voice.

Now we can do a lot of things by computer, but a lot of times it's just a man or a woman with a good set of ears who's used to doing something like this. We call it voice print analysis, who is going to sit down and listen to words and phrases and in the old hand method, write their opinion if they think it's the same person or not.

LIN: Well, that's pretty subjective. I mean the quality of the tape isn't really that good. It's actually kind of fuzzy so is that going to interfere?

VAN ZANDT: Yes, well you know again we get an issue where it may have been a second, third, fourth generation. It may have been a copy. We have to look and see if there's been things spliced together. We have to look and see if the tape really ended there or if there's a hesitation like the speaker was going to continue and it was cut off. So there is a lot of things to be gained but what we know right now is that there is nothing that says that tape is not 13, 14 months old.

LIN: So, are you saying that we may not be able to conclusively determine whether Osama bin Laden is actually still alive today?

VAN ZANDT: From this tape absolutely not, from the translation that you have so far, even if we suggest that it appears to be him, and this will be shaky at best to say it appears to be him. We still can't say anything about the dating. You know this is something that we've been looking for for a long time.

Bin Laden if you're still out there, stand up you know. Show us a picture of you with a copy of the, you know, New York Daily News dated Sunday of this year and we'll believe it's you. Otherwise, you know, we've got a voice. We just don't know whose it is right now.

LIN: Why do you think this tape was released today?

VAN ZANDT: Well, you know, we have been asking for proof for information. I think there has been a lot of people within the United States, I know the FBI for example has suggested their opinion that bin Laden may not be alive, that he may either be bombed in the bottom of a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. So it's going to be an interesting determination whether al Qaeda released the tape or whether the ultimate source that you got it from has been sitting on this for a couple...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... kept up the pressure on Iraq.

LIN: Sorry, we lost Clint Van Zandt. Clint Van Zandt, are you still there? All right, obviously somebody pressed the wrong button there in the control room, too bad. We'll try to get Clint a little bit later if we can.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com