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American Morning

America Strikes Back: U.S. Relying on Support from Coalition Partners in Attacks on Afghanistan

Aired October 10, 2001 - 10:40   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The United States is relying on support from coalition partners in its attacks on Afghanistan. With a look at the coalition and NATO's role in it, we turn now to Lord George Robertson, the NATO Secretary-General, who joins us from Washington. And we would like to welcome our viewers from around the world right now on CNN International.

Lord Robertson, good of to join us, sir.

LORD GEORGE ROBERTSON, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: Pleasure to be with you.

ZAHN: Can you tell us what your chief concern is as you head into meeting with President Bush later today in Washington?

ROBERTSON: I want to make it very clear to President Bush and to those others I will meet in Washington today that we have very proud of NATO to be the very heart of broad coalition against the most evil criminals of our age, and that we intend to standby the United States and its closest allies and friends as part of this great coalition, and we are absolutely committed to doing it, and we are showing now daily in a real in tangible way what NATO means, what NATO unity and solidarity means. And the AWACs planes that will be fully operational over the air of the United States of America Friday of this week are the most visible signal of all of that.

ZAHN: And what other kind of involvement can the rest of the world expect from NATO in a long campaign?

ROBERTSON: Well, NATO is not in the lead here. NATO is a unique option the United States has in the broad coalition that it is putting together to deal with these evil terrorist. And we have been able to give assets, both collective assets and of course the assets of the individual countries as well to the United States and in this campaign. But NATO is still the biggest permanent coalition on the planet, not just 19 countries, but 27 other countries in the partnership for peace, and that network of influence is going to be hugely important in what's going to be a multifaceted campaign, only part of which is going to be military.

ZAHN: There has been a lot of focus in this country on a letter that Secretary Powell describes as routine that was sent to Security Council on Monday, which essentially said that there is a possibility that the United States may have to attack other countries. Has NATO given the U.S. approval to do that?

ROBERTSON: NATO doesn't give the United States approval. It doesn't need to do so. Because the United States is the country that has been attacked. It has a right under the United Nations charter to defend itself. And, of course, it is still looking and investigating all the evidence about of who was behind, who planned. who organized the atrocities of the 11th of September.

Of course the initial evidence points very clearly to Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network. But as the investigation goes on and more information is gained, it may well be that there will other terrorist cells that are clearly identified as being part of that and other countries that may be harboring those terrorist and those terrorist organizations.

ZAHN: So given what you are saying, if you define yourself as not a leader in this fight, are you telling me that NATO would have no control whatsoever about the U.S. Potentially attacking other sites in some of these other countries?

ROBERTSON: Well, the NATO alliance is in full solidarity with the United States in finding and punishing those who were responsible for these terrible atrocities that occurred a month ago tomorrow, and we will continue to be both politically on the side of the United States, and also to be giving the military assistance that would be expected from the United States closest allies, friends and colleagues at this time. We are determined to get at the roots of the organizations that committed the atrocities on the 11th of September. But the information, and the intelligence and the evidence is only slowly being correlated at that time about it.

And clearly, the United States, using measured judgment at this time, wants to make sure that it takes the right decisions, attacks the right targets and get to the very roots of those terrorist cells wherever they are, and in whichever country they are.

ZAHN: Finally this morning, sir, there has also been some concern about how the United Nations and NATO might work together. Some people look back to joint actions in Bosnia and what is described at the dual-key approach, and you know, some don't think effective at all. Some describe as complete fiasco. What is your understanding of how the U.N. and NATO will proceed down the road?

ROBERTSON: Well, the United Nations and NATO have got a very special relationship. After all, NATO is supervising the United Nations biggest peacekeeping operations in the world today, in Bosnia and in Kosovo, and that gives us a unique relationship.

We are also able to help the United Nations with peacekeeping, because the Partnership for Peace, this unique coalition of 46 nations allows us to produce that element of interoperability among armed forces. It allows peacekeepers to operate very quickly in situations around the globe. So we have that relationship. We will maintain that relationship. And the effectiveness of the action to date that has been taken by the United States and the wider international community has been underpinned by the very tough U.N. Security Council resolution that was passed on this subject. After all of the members of the United Nations are equally vulnerable to these evil terrorist and the way in which they are bringing violence to these city centers across the world. It's serving the interest of all members of the United Nation that we catch the people and we deal with the networks.

ZAHN: Lord Robertson, good of you to join us on such busy day, and we'll try to catch up with you after your meeting with President Bush.

Again, thank you for your time, sir.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

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