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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK
'Seeds of Terror': Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia
Aired June 13, 2003 - 05:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: For more than a decade, al Qaeda has had a presence in Southeast Asia. The development of the terror group in that region is the theme of this weekend's "CNN PRESENTS."
CNN's Jakarta bureau chief Maria Ressa did the enterprise reporting for "Seeds of Terror." Here's a preview for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): In the early 1990s, al Qaeda's operatives, sent by Osama bin Laden, arrived here, Manila's red light district. A classified intelligence report obtained by CNN says Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who would later become a bin Laden lieutenant and the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, visited a low class bar here in 1994. According to this report, he walked out with a woman whom he asked to secretly deposit money in a bank, which she did. It was the beginning of Osama bin Laden's attempt to export his global jihad.
Southeast Asia made the perfect target. The region had armed Muslim groups full of thousands of veterans of the Afghan war, lax law enforcement and often divided governments. Long before the U.S. was aware of it, al Qaeda had established a base here, co-opting homegrown Muslim groups to wage war against Americans.
CNN obtained this intelligence document which describes al Qaeda's moves as part of a wider strategy of shifting the base for Osama bin Laden's terrorist operations from the subcontinent to Southeast Asia. Since 1993, every single major al Qaeda plot around the world has been linked to Southeast Asia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And you can watch "Seeds of Terror" in its entirety Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
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