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Morning News

Secretary of State Albright to Focus on U.S. Embassy Security, Reaffirm Vow to Bring Bombers to Justice

Aired August 7, 2000 - 11:29 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today does mark two year since the deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. Nine people jailed in connection with the attacks have yet to go on trial.

Let's bring in our CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel to look at the story more.

And, Andrea, why the delay? Two years.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, part of the reason is that they are still -- it's very difficult to track down a number of those who were responsible for the bombing.

In fact, later today, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to reaffirm her vow to see that all of those responsible for those terrorist attacks are brought to justice. You mentioned the nine that are in custody right now. The U.S. says there are still eight others who are at large, including the man that the U.S. government believes was the mastermind of those bombings: Osama bin Laden. Secretary Albright is also going to reaffirm her pledge and also honor the memory of the more than 260 people who were killed in those bombings in Tanzania and in Kenya.

Earlier today at U.S. embassies and consulates, and outside the State Department, the U.S. flag was lowered to half-staff. Officials say that the bombings at Kenya and Tanzania were a wake-up call because, previously, those countries were considered to be at low risk for terrorist attacks. Now they say that terrorism is no longer confined to certain countries or certain regions, it is a worldwide threat. In fact, in the two years since the East Africa bombings, they say that every single U.S. embassy -- there are 161 worldwide -- has received some kind of threat.

In her remarks today, Secretary Albright is also going to reaffirm her commitment and the U.S. commitment to upgrading security at embassies around the world. The State Department has made some sort of upgrades at all of its embassies, but 85 percent of them, Daryn, are still vulnerable to attack, and that's because they are not set back far enough from main roads -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, Andrea, what about embassy security? After these bombings, and even before, I think it was the ambassador at the Kenyan embassy who came out and said, this just isn't sufficient. And then we saw the report after the bombing with some incredible suggestions of how to make these buildings and these facilities safer. And yet we were talking tens of millions of dollar, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars, that the U.S. government just said that was not practical, that money wasn't available.

KOPPEL: Well, in fact, the Clinton administration has asked for $1 billion for next fiscal year to try to start building some new embassies. But you're absolutely correct: It costs at least $65 million to build a single embassy. And when you have 85 percent of all U.S. embassies that don't have the proper setback from the road, that's a lot of money.

And so they have a plan over the next 10 to 15 years. The hope is that, if they can get the money from Congress, Daryn, they will be able to build new embassies or buy properties nearby embassies to get that proper setback from the road.

KAGAN: Andrea Koppel at the State Department, thank you, Andrea.

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