J$P Instant Transcript! Ambassador Marc Ginsberg on the New York subway terror alert.

From Fox News Live, October 7 2005:

MARTHA MacCALLUM [FOX NEWS]: Joining me now is Marc Ginsberg, former US Ambassador to Morocco and a Fox News foreign affairs analyst. Ambassador, always good to have you with us. Thanks for coming back again today.

AMBASSADOR MARC GINSBERG: Sure, Martha.

MacCALLUM: I know that you've looked into this a bit yourself. Tell us what you've found out about how there might have been a communications breakdown or even some information that was withheld in this story.

GINSBERG: Martha, Fox News has learned that during the last couple of weeks, there had been a flurry of increased intelligence chatter derived from Iraq, directly to the British intelligence services, about continuing efforts to plot and plan attacks on major transportation systems in the United States. In the wake of the British subway bombings, there had been clear efforts on the part of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, with the connivance of the Syrian government, to take Al Qaeda, to facilitate Al Qaeda operatives to serve as mules to transport explosives back through Europe for possible pre positioning, back to hit the United States. Although there is no direct evidence at this point in time that direct operatives were able to be located either in the United States or in Great Britain or in Europe to launch these attacks.

MacCALLUM: Marc, that sounds to me like plenty of reason to be concerned. And it also goes back to what Tony Blair was saying about Hezbollah and about the tactics that were used in London. And that he was concerned about similar other bombings. So where do we get this sort of breakdown where this is not a credible threat, doing on between the DHS and between the original sources who got this information?

GINSBERG: Part of the reason is, is that the New York Police counter-terrorism unit is far more effective than the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence operatives, in being able to trace and maintain information direct links to those operatives and intelligence services in Great Britain, who are continuing to monitor the post London subway bombings. And while DHS may have, and frankly somewhat absurdly, discounted the intelligence information, they failed to draw the correct matrix between what New York counter-terrorism operatives have been able to continuously glean from their counterparts in Great Britain.

MacCALLUM: I find that fascinating. If you're telling me that the DHS is downplaying this threat because of sort of ego, or because somebody went around them with their own intelligence, is that what you're saying?

GINSBERG: No, I'm just saying that the information coming out of Iraq, which is in effect disseminated by the Pentagon and by the National Security Agency and the National Security Service to the FBI, is one track of information. But the New York Police authorities and the counter-terorrism unit have other multiple sources of information that tended to corroborate the belief that the New York subway system indeed was a target of attack. And DHS has blinders in effect, is focused too exclusively on the information coming out of direct interrogation of what took place south of Baghdad, as Bret Baier just reported, and not taking into account the continuous stream of intelligence reports that the New York authorities are receiving from their own intelligence sources in Europe.

MacCALLUM: Marc, can you shed any light, and you may not be able to share this with us, but on the specific bombers or the people that they're looking at who they think were interested in pulling off a plot like this, and where they might be now?

GINSBERG: No. Part of the problem here is that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is trying not only to become the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, but indeed continuously able to feed trained operatives, that is Al Qaeda operatives, into Europe. His own network, which has largely remained intact despite efforts by European counter-terrorism experts to break it up, is one of the sources of the explosives that were provided to the bombers that indeed committed the bombings in the British capitol.

MacCALLUM: I can't help but think as you're saying all this about the President's speech the other day, and how he was trying to explain the link between Iraq and the terrorist situation that exists there now under Zarqawi, and how it relates to the global war on terror.

GINSBERG: Well indeed, I think that whatever you may think of the President's policies, the speech was right on the mark insofar as the direct links. The problem here is that we still haven't cut off the head of Al Qaeda, that continuously tries to in effect direct the operations based on this so-called 15 page letter from Zawahiri directly to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi . It was quite clear that those who may have tried to discount Al Qaeda's abilities to continuously direct information and to direct orders to the field are incorrect. And indeed, if anything, you can accuse Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi of not following instructions by his leaders.

MacCALLUM: Right. Zawahiri in that letter also expressed some dismay at having their capabilities somewhat undercut, that they literally have lost Afghanistan. What do you think now about their capabilities in terms of pulling things off in other cities?

GINSBERG: I think the network of franchise Al Qaeda operatives remains regrettably intact in Europe and Southeast Asia. And while indeed Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi may have taken the lead in Iraq, there are plenty of other second-generation terrorists that are streaming into Iraq courtesy of Syria, courtesy of other Arab countries, that are not only planning to attack Americans in Iraq but also being trained to attack European and Southeast Asian targets as well.

MacCALLUM: All right, Ambassador Marc Ginsberg thank you. Always good to talk to you.