[Tapper:] There's new evidence that al Qaeda now has a very dangerous weapon, capable of shooting down commercial jets. A how-to manual for using portable surface-to-air missiles has been found in one of the terror group's hideouts. U.S. officials have been worried for years that this would happen. CNN's Brian Todd has more on this chilling discovery Brian.
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] Jake, the numbers bear out why the U.S. officials are so worried about this. The U.S. government says, since the mid-'70s, more than 800 people on commercial flights have been killed after being hit by heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles. Now, with this discovery by the Associated Press, there's a strong indication that al Qaeda is sharpening its skills with those weapons.
[Todd:] It streaks towards the target, striking it in seconds. Fire and fuel spill out of the plane's wing. The aircraft loses hydraulics, but the crew is able to land safely. The instrument of this attack on a DHL cargo jet near Baghdad in November of 2003, a portable surface-to-air missile. A year earlier the only known incident where al Qaeda fired one of those missiles at a passenger set. Two missiles fired at an Israeli plane killed civilians near Mombasa, Kenya, missed their target. Now a discovery that will stir more concern among U.S. officials. The Associated Press reports it's recovered a how-to manual for the use of portable surface-to-air missile inside a building formerly occupied by the al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the African nation of Mali.
[Peter Bergen, Cnn National Security Analyst:] For them, commercial aviation is kind of the most important target, because of its big media effects, large effects on the global economy, business travels.
[Todd:] CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen points out the discovery of that manual doesn't prove that branch of al Qaeda actually has many of those missiles, but he says for years the group has been obsessively looking for them. This al Qaeda video obtained by CNN 12 years ago provided militants with step-by-step instructions on how to use a U.S.-made surface-to- air missile. [on camera]: This will give you a visual of why western officials are so concerned about this threat. At so many airports like here at Reagan National, planes take off and land very close to areas where surface-to-air missiles can be fired. I'm with Peter Pham of the Atlantic Council. He was an advisor to U.S.
[Peter Pham, Atlantic Council:] Well, they're not high-tech weapons. They're weapons developed by the Soviets in the early 1960s. They weigh about 30 pounds. A single individual, they're about the size of a large poster tube. Someone would put it on their shoulder and launch it. It takes a bit of training.
[Todd:] Another tactical advantage for terrorists: while military planes are equipped with counter measures for these heat- seeking missiles, commercial planes are not.
[Bergen:] If you bring down a commercial jet with a surface-to-air missile you basically have to retrofit all these commercial jets with counter measures. And the reason that hasn't happened right now is that it is expensive to do.
[Todd:] So if al Qaeda has got a significant stock of portable surface- to-air missiles, where do they get them? Most likely from Libya during or right after the civil war there. Peter Pharm says Moammar Gadhafi is estimated to have had about 20,000 of these weapons, but he says when western security forces went in and tried to recover them, they only got about 5,000; that experts say Gadhafi's stocks were in fairly poor shape, Jake. So that is one thing we have going for us.
[Tapper:] Right. A few years ago, when I flew to Iraq; when I we flew down and touched down at the Baghdad Airport, it was a corkscrew landing, because pilots and these are commercial flights were so afraid of surface-to-air missiles they didn't want to get out above anywhere other than just the airport.
[Todd:] Exactly right. You have to do that in Baghdad and French forces, in fact, in Mali have had to resort to those tactics, a corkscrew type landing. And to attack rebels on the ground, the French have had to go to high altitude aircraft to tour the rebels, rather than attack helicopters because these missiles have been such a threat to the attack helicopters. And these high altitude planes are not as effective in attacking as attack helicopters when attacking these rebels on the ground. So it's taken away from the French capabilities there.
[Tapper:] All right. Excellent report. Brian Todd, thank you so much. We're going to switch gears pretty drastically in a minute. Next Jeanne Moos takes us to a restaurant where the food arrives by remote control.