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CNN Live Saturday

Bush Administration Seeks to End the Rule of Taliban in Afghanistan

Aired September 29, 2001 - 14:01   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I wanted to check in with the White House. There is a White House memo that has emerged today saying the Bush administration would aid those eager to topple Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Our White House correspondent Major Garrett is near Camp David with more on the memo and what President Bush is doing this weekend. Of course, he is up at Camp David.

Major, hello.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello and good afternoon to you, Daryn.

CNN has confirmed the contents of this memorandum prepared for President Bush by key officials of the State Department and the National Security Council. Let me read to you one relevant portion, as it relates to the future of the Taliban regime, at least as the United States government is concerned.

"We do not want to choose who rules Afghanistan, but we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically developing Afghanistan free of terrorism." No explicit word in this memorandum as to who or whom the administration might support, the Northern Alliance or those outside of Afghanistan, possibly the exiled ruling former king of Afghanistan, who has been living in exile for a good long while in Rome.

Just as the United States will support those who seek to bring peace, stability, and an Afghanistan free of terrorism.

As you mentioned, Daryn, the president at the presidential retreat in Camp David. This morning, he convened a meeting of his National Security Council via video conference. The White House released this photograph of the president with his National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet, and his chief of staff, Andrew Card. All the other members of the National Security Council speaking and viewing the President via that video teleconference.

And also in his radio address today, the President told the nation the United States stands with the people of Afghanistan and seeks a broad, international coalition that in his words, would isolate the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States respects the people of Afghanistan. And we are their largest provider of humanitarian aid, but we condemn the Taliban and welcome the support of other nations in isolating that regime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: Also, Daryn, the memorandum that CNN has been told about, there is a particularly interesting passage that talks about and stresses the role that past U.S. governments have played in assisting Muslims against their struggle against either territorial invasion or ethnic cleansing.

Let me read to you another portion of that memo. "Our quarrel is not with Islam or the Afghan people. We have stood with Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo and Kuwait. And we aided Afghans in the liberation struggle against the former Soviet Union. We will support the Afghan people and their future. They deserve peace and stability, freedom from foreign terrorists, and a government that represents all Afghans. We call on others to join us, so we can help Afghans recover and rebuild."

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Major, I want to ask you another question about this memo, where the Bush administration is saying that they would help a movement that wanted to topple the Taliban government. This is different, isn't it, than we've heard from the administration earlier this week, where the President is saying the U.S. is not in the business of nation building?

GARRETT: Yes, it seems to be divergent, at least at one particular definition, nation building. That is to say, being involved in sustained basis with whatever regime or collection of forces might in fact succeed a toppled Taliban regime.

The Bush administration, while in office and while the President as governor was campaigning, took a very dim view of the idea of nation building, the United States getting involved over the long haul in rescuing or changing nations, by sustaining with either diplomatic or economic aid.

But clearly, this memoranda summarizes what the United States government wants to see become of the ruling Taliban. They want to see its ouster. And again, it's very opaque and very vague about exactly whom it would support.

For example, the Pakistani government would have tremendous concerns if the United States specifically and explicitly supported the Northern Alliance, with whom they do not agree. So the administration leaves it open-ended on that point, but clearly it wants to see a new ruling government in Afghanistan, one they say is free of terrorists, which would mean the expulsion and the expelling of all of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda networks members within Afghanistan, and then some form of hybrid government perhaps, that might include Northern Alliance members, might include moderate members of the Taliban regime itself, might include the exiled king.

There's no specificity whatsoever there, but some new form of government that would succeed the Taliban, that would be what the United States government seeks most -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Major Garrett, near Camp David. Major, thank you.

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