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CNN LIVE SATURDAY
Iraq Remains Very Dangerous For Our Troops
Aired September 6, 2003 - 14:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Iraq remains a very dangerous place for American and other coalition forces. Terror expert Jim Walsh, of Harvard University, is with us now from Boston to talk about the attacks that have taken place and the suspicion of whether there has been al Qaeda involvement. Good to see you, Jim.
JIM WALSH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Good to see you, Fredericka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, the recent bombings that have taken place, the recent acts of violence that have taken place against coalition forces in Iraq, do they show the sophistication of any al Qaeda involvement?
WALSH: Well, I think probably yes, at least for some of those attacks. The less sophisticated ones may be local people acting out on their own. But we've had both military commanders on the ground, as well as civilian leadership in Iraq. Paul Bremer and others point to the fact that there is al Qaeda somewhere lurking and perhaps collaborating either with ex Ba'athists, the remnants of the regime, or perhaps with criminal elements or others to launch attacks against American and Western targets.
WHITFIELD: Well, how would they perhaps be able to tell the difference between any anti-occupation forces and any potential members of an organized terrorist group?
WALSH: I think that's an excellent question. I think the data that they would have would be of two kinds. First, they may be able to tell from the nature of the attack itself. In other words, the type of explosive being used, the way the operation is carried out. Are there fingerprints or are there design elements that are similar to other attacks that we've seen elsewhere carried out by al Qaeda?
The second way that they would be able to suspect that is if they got intelligence. That is to say, they've arrested a lot of people in Tikrit and elsewhere, and perhaps through an interrogation process they've been able to find out information that would lead them to conclude that al Qaeda was part of it. But it's certainly plausible and it's consistent with what many of us had expected prior to the war.
Myself and others suggested that if we went to war in Iraq, it would become a lightning rod. It would draw people into Iraq who had grievances against the U.S., al Qaeda included, and that they would use the opportunity of vulnerable Americans in Iraq to be able to take pot shots at us. And that's precisely what's happened. WHITFIELD: And, in fact, we saw and heard from some recent al Qaeda tapes or al Qaeda member tapes, leadership tapes, that that just might happen. That they may infiltrate the borders of Iraq and make their way into the country for various uprisings.
WALSH: Absolutely. The borders around Iraq are large and porous. And we have U.S. forces on the ground in an in an Arab country that really gives al Qaeda and other Jihadists a recruiting bonanza. It allows them to go to little villages and say, look, the infidel is in our territory, they threaten our religious beliefs, they're there for the oil, come and join our cause, look at these pictures of dead Iraqis.
It becomes really a bleeding wound that allows them to get people out of their homes and into the movement. Much as the Soviet-Afghan war did the same thing in the 1980s to help create al Qaeda to begin with.
WHITFIELD: Well, Jim, even if intelligence officials aren't necessarily convinced that al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein have anything to do with one another, it seems that some recent polls demonstrate that an awful lot of Americans do believe that there is a link.
Let's look now at a recent "Washington Post" poll saying, "How likely is it that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11th terror attacks?" Sixty-nine percent saying they believe that there is a connection.
Another poll, "How likely is it that Saddam Hussein has provided assistance to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network?" Eighty-two percent saying they believe it's likely. Is that pretty astounding to you?
WALSH: Well, you put me in a tough position there. I think on most issues, Americans know the facts, they have a good sense, they're able to take in information and make good decisions. In this particular case, this reminds me of some of the polling data where they asked Americans where a country was in Central America, and they ended up picking Africa.
I think this is one of those situations where Americans really don't have the facts. There's virtually no evidence, zero, despite extensive and exhaustive searches, tying Saddam to 9/11. And virtually no evidence tying him to bin Laden. At least until the war started.
WHITFIELD: All right. Jim Walsh, thanks very much. Thanks for joining us from Boston.
WALSH: Thank you, Fredericka.
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