Mike Boettcher: Al Qaeda, organized crime and cash

CNN's Mike Boettcher

(CNN) -- Amid indications that al Qaeda sleeper cells are operating inside the United States, a new report from the United Nations says that despite efforts to stop the flow of money, al Qaeda still has plenty of financial resources.

CNN Correspondent Mike Boettcher and CNN's Daryn Kagan discussed how the so-called sleeper cells operate, and how they get their money.

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and talk money first. It seems like day after day, we hear about this account or that account that has been frozen, trying to shut off the money line to al Qaeda. And yet, they're still getting money. Where is it coming from?

BOETTCHER: Well, there are many different sources. Let me give you an example of the kind of money that's floating around there.

There was a Moroccan cell that was broken up that was going to attack ships, U.S. and British warships, in the Straits of Gibraltar. They got $300,000 wired to them via Western Union from sources in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Now, where is the money coming from? Well, we've been told most of the [assets of] charities that are alleged to have supported al Qaeda have been frozen or are being monitored.

But my sources, who are coalition counterintelligence officials, tell me there is growing evidence that al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are beginning to work hand-in-hand with international criminal organizations that move drug money, that deal in black-market diamonds, and in other aspects of the criminal world. And in that way, the two groups are coming together. They have a common interest to move large amounts of money, and that could be one way they're getting that big amount.

KAGAN: And that also would make it more difficult for officials to try to shut down those channels of money, since you just can't go and freeze a bank account like that.

BOETTCHER: Well, absolutely. It's very difficult. If you see the difficulty that the U.S. has had in its war on drugs in trying to shut down the drug money in Colombia, for example, it's a very difficult thing to do.

KAGAN: I want to talk about what happened in the Detroit area this week. A group of men, young men, many of them associated with Detroit Metro Airport, were arrested -- serious charges against them. What do we know about them and what they allegedly were planning to do?

BOETTCHER: They're alleged to have been plotting attacks against a U.S. air base, Incirlik, in Turkey; also, a hospital in Amman, Jordan. And when their apartment was searched shortly after September 11, there were videotapes found, surveillance videos, they believe, of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and the MGM Grand Hotel out in Las Vegas.

In the indictment, they do not say that this group is al Qaeda, but it matches exactl what I've been told about how al Qaeda operatives are operating now. There are al Qaeda veterans from Afghanistan who have gone back to their home countries in the world, or to other countries like the United States, and have set up these so-called super cells. And I was told not to expect to see them wearing al Qaeda name tags, or having no identity, no connection to al Qaeda.

These groups will operate with different names, and just because it doesn't say "al Qaeda" doesn't mean they're not part of a global terrorism network, which it is alleged this group was.

KAGAN: All right. If they don't have al Qaeda labels across their forehead, what was it that drew officials to be interested in them?

BOETTCHER: It was the search of that apartment after 9/11, where they were, across the country, looking for leads, and there has been much work done on the evidence after that. A connection with a man in Chicago was mentioned, who was named in the indictment, named Abdella only. And it is believed that they were getting orders, and Abdella was getting communications somewhere from Europe.

And it should be interesting to follow this case and the German case, in terms that occurred yesterday to the indictment of a man named Mr. El Motassadeq. It is believed that he was responsible for a lot for the money flowing through the Hamburg cell, which was responsible for the 9-11 attack. The Detroit case and that case combined should give us some real insights about how al Qaeda cells operate.

KAGAN: Yes, and just real quickly, on the German case, as they track how, what happened on 9-11 was planned, going back to 1999. What else will officials be able to learn, besides putting together an interesting and troubling timeline?

BOETTCHER: I think if you go to the past you're going to get a good look at what's going on in the future in terms of how the cells are operating. And there is a current threat that officials are on the lookout for now around the world, but certainly as we head to 9-11, the radar is up all around the world.

But there is information out there about planned attacks, and these intelligence operatives and counterterrorism experts around the world are really chasing this right now.

So going back and looking at how the Hamburg cell operated, and how the Detroit cell operated, should give some clues on how to find the way these al Qaeda cells are communicating now, and how they're getting their money, and those are the two key things in trying to track the cells.