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William Cohen Weighs in on Terror Alerts
Aired August 03, 2004 - 12:13 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.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It's time for one of our regular contributors to join us with his take on the news. Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen joins us now from Washington.
Secretary Cohen, the terror warnings, do you think they have a disruptive effect on al Qaeda? Do you think they will?
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, I think any time you get information, whether it's old information or new information, it certainly can lead to a greater effort to thwart any desires that they have to conduct these kind of terrorist operations.
So I think the access to this information will give them some pause, asking -- or causing them to ask exactly how -- how deep and how wide is the intelligence take on this? How many people have been compromised? Whether they should defer or delay any plans that they might have in contemplation at the moment.
So it's a very important breakthrough, even though it may be old news.
VERJEE: How does the intelligence community, with the information it has, how it's sifting through what has come into its possession, tell if the plots are still active?
COHEN: Well, what they have to do is obviously is go to those individuals who are named in those -- those disks or documents that they discovered, arrest them, interrogate them, find out as much as they can about how far along the plans are.
Was it surveillance only? Was it merely in the preparation? Or were there actual operational plans under way? That can only be brought about through more extensive and thorough examination of the information as they dig through it. It's going through an avalanche of information and getting to the bottom of it requires a good deal of thorough examination.
So it just takes time, and time is of the essence, obviously. But this is what it takes in typical intelligence work.
VERJEE: One intelligence official in the U.S. described it as a treasure trove of information after the arrest of the two suspected al Qaeda people in Pakistan and really allowed them to take a look into al Qaeda's secret communications system.
Knowing -- knowing what you know about intelligence and how it assesses information like that, what are they looking for there?
COHEN: Well, they're obviously looking for methods of communication. How are the terror groups staying in touch with each other? What sort of communication links do they have? What sort of codes do they have? Can they be broken, or have they been broken?
And so they look for any way in which they can to gain even greater access and insight into the method of communication and operations. So that's what the intelligence community is doing right at this moment.
So a treasure trove in the sense we've broken into this window of opportunity to see what they've been doing, what kind of plans, what sort of diagrams, what sort of examinations are they making for what kinds of explosives and tactics?
All of that requires thorough analysis, and then they exploit and try to exploit the method of communications that the terrorist groups employ in order to carry out these covert operations.
VERJEE: Iraqi forces engaged in a firefight in Najaf with Muqtada al- Sadr and his men. What do you think was going on there? There were suggestions also that U.S. coalition was involved, although they denied it.
But with the al-Sadr firefight, were they trying to send him a message or trying to kill him?
COHEN: It's unclear at this moment. I think the United States or the coalition forces are not going to be operating without at least consultation, cooperation with the Iraqi forces. Now, they could if they come under fire, but ordinarily, I think a level of cooperation would be required.
And so it's unclear whether this was something that was initiated by al-Sadr, whether the Iraqi forces, indigenous forces now that are under their own control, or whether it was a combination. I think it remains unclear.
But we're bound to see some of these temporary types of explosions and then confrontations between al-Sadr and the -- and the Iraqi government. But I think for the most part, it has been relatively quiet for the past several months, ever since the interim government took over. But from time to time we may see these kind of eruptions.
VERJEE: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen in Washington, thank you so much.
COHEN: Pleasure, Zain.
END
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Aired August 3, 2004 - 12:13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It's time for one of our regular contributors to join us with his take on the news. Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen joins us now from Washington.
Secretary Cohen, the terror warnings, do you think they have a disruptive effect on al Qaeda? Do you think they will?
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, I think any time you get information, whether it's old information or new information, it certainly can lead to a greater effort to thwart any desires that they have to conduct these kind of terrorist operations.
So I think the access to this information will give them some pause, asking -- or causing them to ask exactly how -- how deep and how wide is the intelligence take on this? How many people have been compromised? Whether they should defer or delay any plans that they might have in contemplation at the moment.
So it's a very important breakthrough, even though it may be old news.
VERJEE: How does the intelligence community, with the information it has, how it's sifting through what has come into its possession, tell if the plots are still active?
COHEN: Well, what they have to do is obviously is go to those individuals who are named in those -- those disks or documents that they discovered, arrest them, interrogate them, find out as much as they can about how far along the plans are.
Was it surveillance only? Was it merely in the preparation? Or were there actual operational plans under way? That can only be brought about through more extensive and thorough examination of the information as they dig through it. It's going through an avalanche of information and getting to the bottom of it requires a good deal of thorough examination.
So it just takes time, and time is of the essence, obviously. But this is what it takes in typical intelligence work.
VERJEE: One intelligence official in the U.S. described it as a treasure trove of information after the arrest of the two suspected al Qaeda people in Pakistan and really allowed them to take a look into al Qaeda's secret communications system.
Knowing -- knowing what you know about intelligence and how it assesses information like that, what are they looking for there?
COHEN: Well, they're obviously looking for methods of communication. How are the terror groups staying in touch with each other? What sort of communication links do they have? What sort of codes do they have? Can they be broken, or have they been broken?
And so they look for any way in which they can to gain even greater access and insight into the method of communication and operations. So that's what the intelligence community is doing right at this moment.
So a treasure trove in the sense we've broken into this window of opportunity to see what they've been doing, what kind of plans, what sort of diagrams, what sort of examinations are they making for what kinds of explosives and tactics?
All of that requires thorough analysis, and then they exploit and try to exploit the method of communications that the terrorist groups employ in order to carry out these covert operations.
VERJEE: Iraqi forces engaged in a firefight in Najaf with Muqtada al- Sadr and his men. What do you think was going on there? There were suggestions also that U.S. coalition was involved, although they denied it.
But with the al-Sadr firefight, were they trying to send him a message or trying to kill him?
COHEN: It's unclear at this moment. I think the United States or the coalition forces are not going to be operating without at least consultation, cooperation with the Iraqi forces. Now, they could if they come under fire, but ordinarily, I think a level of cooperation would be required.
And so it's unclear whether this was something that was initiated by al-Sadr, whether the Iraqi forces, indigenous forces now that are under their own control, or whether it was a combination. I think it remains unclear.
But we're bound to see some of these temporary types of explosions and then confrontations between al-Sadr and the -- and the Iraqi government. But I think for the most part, it has been relatively quiet for the past several months, ever since the interim government took over. But from time to time we may see these kind of eruptions.
VERJEE: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen in Washington, thank you so much.
COHEN: Pleasure, Zain.
END
TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
