War on Terrorism to Expand?
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: The end of a phase of the military campaign in Afghanistan might be in sight, but the White House says that could be just the beginning of a much larger war against terrorism worldwide. Joining us is Peter Bergen -- he is CNN's terrorism analyst -- to talk about what countries and what is happening, what could be next. Hi, Peter. Nice to have you join us again.</s>PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Good afternoon, Donna.</s>KELLEY: Where do you think the worst cells are?</s>BERGEN: Well, there are a lot of -- the situation is going to be very different from Afghanistan, which was, of course, the headquarters of the al Qaeda network. Bin Laden has had a lot of supporters in Yemen in the past. He lived in Sudan up until 1996. These are the kind of places that the United States may be looking for other members of al Qaeda. The president himself has said that al Qaeda exists in 60 countries around the world. We have seen arrests in places like Spain and Italy and England. But I think that -- you see here on the map Somalia, Yemen. These are definitely the kinds of places in which bin Laden has had influence in the past. But the governments of places like Yemen are cooperating quite closely now with the United States in terms of the investigation of the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, and also, of course, in terms of rounding up other members of al Qaeda. Just in June in Yemen, 10 members of al Qaeda were arrested with plots to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. Those men were apprehended by Yemeni authorities.</s>KELLEY: Yes, Yemen's president meeting with President Bush, in fact, this week -- they have tried to set up a new terrorism council and try to have better control of the borders. What about Iraq? The president has warned Saddam Hussein: You better let weapons inspectors back in. That is not going too far yet, though. What do you think could happen?</s>BERGEN: Well, it's hard to speculate on that subject. One of things I think that was indicated in the September 11 attacks is that Iraq really does not appear to be involved. I think, if this administration really had a scintilla of evidence that Iraq was involved in some way in the September 11 attacks, Iraq would have been gone after much more quickly. The questions of letting the weapons inspectors in is a separate issue. And there clearly there is an appetite to go after Saddam Hussein if he does not allow those inspectors in. The only indication that any of the Trade Center attackers met with Iraqi intelligence agent was a meeting in Prague last year. But one meeting does not an Iraqi-al Qaeda conspiracy make.</s>KELLEY: Do you think that the terror networks have relocated after the September 11 attacks, or after the bombing started in Afghanistan? Do you think they are in disarray?</s>BERGEN: Well, they must be in some form of disarray. There have been so many arrests around the world. Practically every government in the world is cooperating in some way. You're seeing very enthusiastic cooperation by governments like Jordan, which, during the Gulf War, the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, stood on the sidelines -- and also Yemen itself, a country which was somewhat sympathetic to Saddam Hussein, is taking a very enthusiastic approach to dealing with the terrorism problem. So I think these networks are surely being rolled up one by one.</s>KELLEY: What is the benefit to these countries? Were they intimidated to having these training camps or these cells there, or even financial? Was it money? Did they get money in return for having them there?</s>BERGEN: Well, certainly, in the case of Afghanistan and Sudan, where bin Laden had very big operations, bin Laden was one of the biggest investors in the Sudan and worked very closely with the government on a number of projects, including highways. And the same was true of the Taliban in Afghanistan. He built mosques for them. He also built construction projects. So there was a benefit to those governments in particular.</s>KELLEY: All right, Peter Bergen, our CNN terrorism analyst, nice to have you join us again. We'll talk to you again many more times, I'm sure. Thank you.</s>BERGEN: Thank you.