TV: Al Qaeda's New Front/War Without Borders

Wanted to tell all about an intensely interesting program I saw on CBC's the fifth estate a couple of months ago called War Without Borders. It was co-pro'd by the CBC and PBS Frontline, joined by the N.Y. Times in the investigation. www.cbc.ca...

PBS Frontline is airing the program under the title Al Qaeda's New Front, tomorrow @ 9 p.m. EST (check local listings). Well worth watching as it sheds a whole other light on their activities...they are not just focussed on the U.S. http:///www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/press/2306.html


On March 11, 2004 bombs ripped apart commuter trains arriving at Madrid's Atocha Station. Nearly 200 people died, more than 1400 were injured. The day became known in Spain as 3/11.

The moment marked a new battlefront in al-Qaeda's war against the West,
a war in which the enemy is invisible, in which the objective is mass murder. Some experts believe the most pressing terrorist threat to the United States is not suspected Al Qaeda cells at home, but rather the cells perating overseas, especially in Europe.

Correspondent Lowell Bergman teams up with veteran Canadian producer Neil Docherty to examine the effect that Europe's 18 million Muslims have on the ability to fight radical jihadists. One key source is France¹s top anti-terror judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere. But getting an interview with him wasn¹t easy. Bergman tells what happened.


"It was 7:30 on a damp October morning in Paris. The crew had gone ahead to the Hyatt hotel to set up in a room we could use to interview Bruguiere. As we headed for the hotel, Neil warned me that the judge
was mercurial and prone to make snap judgments. Bruguiere had agreed to an interview, but subject to meeting me first over coffee. U.S. law enforcement officials I had talked with were not diplomatic about the famed magistrate's style. They would roll their eyes when recounting how Bruguiere had made sensational assertions about the terrorist threat, accompanied by harsh judgments on the U.S.'s counterterrorism effort.

As Neil and I got out of the cab, we experienced something that happens
now and then -- the subject, Judge Bruguiere himself, was getting out of a black sedan in choreographed unison with us. In his case, a bodyguard
was opening the door. We met and entered the hotel together exchanging
pleasantries.

Bruguiere, without missing a beat, made a right turn on entry into the lobby and a right again into a dimly-lit restaurant. It was no ordinary hotel breakfast room. The subdued lighting revealed the outlines of Parisian businessmen and high-level bureaucrats huddled at tables nestled along the walls. Bruguiere was led by the maitre d' to a round table that was just off center stage. We sat down with him.

'I am much too bizzy,' he started off in his accented English, 'to do an interview for camera this morning.' It was a producer's nightmare.

Neil immediately went into the "Producer's Plea." 'But sir, we have come all this way,' he began. Bruguiere insisted: 'I know, I know, but this morning, it is impossible.' He looked at his watch and continued by explaining all the important meetings that he had to be at almost immediately. 'I am late already!'

It was then that I remembered something one of my sources in the States
had said, 'His deputies are really knowledgeable. See if you can meet with them.'

As that thought occurred to me, Neil explained to him that our crew was already set up. 'In fact, they are just across the hall.' It was true. By some magic the hotel had given us a conference room within 50 feet of the breakfast room. They were ready.

So I joined in with a desperate ploy, 'If you cannot do it, maybe you have a deputy who can. We cannot afford to come back. This is public television in North America and we literally have to raise money to continue this shoot. Is there someone else who can stand in for you?'

Bruguiere¹s head snapped over to my side of the table. 'No, no one speaks for my office but me!'

'Fifteen minutes, please?' I implored. He stood up and announced, 'Let's do it!' Jean-Louis Bruguiere sat down and started talking to the camera for nearly an hour." -- Lowell Bergman

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[edit on 24/1/05 by AlwaysLearning]

[edit on 24/1/05 by AlwaysLearning]

[edit on 24/1/05 by AlwaysLearning]

[edit on 24/1/05 by AlwaysLearning]