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American Morning

Is Terror Really out of Question in Yesterday's Crash?; Anti- Taliban Forces March into Kabul

Aired November 13, 2001 - 09:06   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: All three New York City area airports temporarily shut down yesterday in response to the crash. Hours late,. flights resumed.

CNN's Ann Kellan are checking on airport security today. She joins us live from John F. Kennedy International Airport.

How much volume do you see here today?

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Actually, Paula, there are long lines here of people waiting in lines to take flights. We also told that even though it's not required, that checked bags are getting more X-rays. There is a machine out here called EDS, explosive detection screening machines. They say they have two of them here. JFK is one of 47 airports using them. They costs about a million dollars each, but the problem is airlines are not using as much they could, because they say the machines are bulky, that they take too long to X-ray bags, and that they register a lot of false-positives, which means that something as innocuous as a fruit cake could trigger off an alarm and make security people have to hand check all these bags.

Now the FAA wants to have regulations that all checked bags be checked by the year 2004, and we here that that is an optimistic hope.

Now the lines are long today, and even though there is some concern about security, people are flying. Are they afraid to fly? We asked a few.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would not fly if I did not think she was safe. She is my utmost concern, but life is an adventure, and you have to live, you have to keep going out, you have to keep doing things, and unfortunately, things happen, but it won't stop me from living.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I brought my mom, and she's a little nervous, yes. I'm a little nervous, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I travel a couple times a month, and I have actually noticed it is a lot better on the East Coast than the West Coast, it seems like, because they're more attuned to what happened here, and a little bit tighter here, but I think in general, the airport security is pretty good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLAN: So even though there is some concern, people are taking the flights and the planes are flying overhead.

Back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks so much. Appreciate that update. And while some of the preliminary evidence indicates that yesterday's plane crash was indeed an accident, some still wonder, is terror really out of the question?

Here to discuss this, former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

RODNEY SLATER, FMR. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Good morning, Paula. Thank you.

ZAHN: So, Mr. Secretary, I wanted to share with you a little of what the spokesperson for the NTSB had to say earlier this morning, basically that Monday's crash, they believe at this hour, was an accident and not sabotage, and he talked a little bit about some of the analysis that has been done from the cockpit voice recorder, and he said there was nothing on the tape that would lead us to believe that it was anything other than an aviation accident. Are you comfortable ruling out the prospect of terrorism at this point?

SLATER: Well, I'm comfortable with investigation as it is ongoing. Clearly, if any evidence is determined to lead to concerns about terrorist attack or threat, then the FBI, working with the NTSB, would follow the lead. But currently, based on the information that has come to the attention of the investigators, the assumption is we are talking about here a mechanical failure.

ZAHN: When you were secretary in Mr. Clinton's administration, were you aware of the problems with General Electric CF-6 engine?

SLATER: Well, the FAA, through the leadership of administrator Jane Garvey, did issue some airworthiness reports as relates to these particular engines, and at the time, we were of the belief what was suggested as a response was addressed.

Now again, the ongoing investigation will give us better sense what actually happened, but it is a fact in the past, some airworthiness directives were issued as related to this particular engine.

ZAHN: Yes, I'm going to quickly reprieve some of those problems it's had in the past. In June, one of those engines partly desinegrated on a flight coming out of Brazil, forcing the pilot to abort his takeoff. In September, two more of those types of engines...

SLATER: I think I've lost you, Paula.

ZAHN: Can you hear me? Mr. Secretary, can you hear me? I don't think -- Mr. Slater, can you hear me?

SLATER: I can now.

ZAHN: Now you can hear me.

SLATER: Yes, I can.

ZAHN: What I was going through was a list of some of the problems that the CF-6 had, of a plane coming out of Brazil, had an aborted takeoff, because an engine partly disintegrated. That was the same problem two more times with a Continental DC-10 plane, again leading to aborted takeoff. And in a third case later that month, and just this past September, one blew apart on a taxiway during maintenance.

GE says that they specifically looked at specific parts of the engine and didn't see any reason to change the design. What should the American public understand about these directives, and companies that have to go back and look at these engines and analyze them.

SLATER: Well, the American public should understand that the directive is a clear challenge to the industry to address a particular concern, and that action is monitored on behalf of the American people by FAA, so you have people who are on top of these kinds of issues.

Again, as relates to the particular question involved here, we are going to learn more from the investigation as to what the likely cause was, the actual cause was, and that will give us sense as to whether or not it related to any of the issues that were addressed through airworthiness directives in the past.

ZAHN: Rodney Slater, former transportation secretary in the Clinton administration, thank you very much for your perspective this morning. Appreciate it.

SLATER: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: We now have to turn again to the dramatic developments in Afghanistan overnight. Anti-Taliban forces marched into the capital of Kabul today after a stunning retreat by the ruling Taliban.

CNN's Matthew Chance is one of the few Western reporters to make it into Kabul. He joins us now live on the phone.

Matthew, what's the latest from there?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, a dramatic turn of events here, as you correctly pointed out. I'm standing overlooking the city of Kabul in the Afghan capital. It's darkness here; the light is shining and lighting up the sky. It's fascinating, because this city just in the early hours of the morning was firmly in control of the Taliban. At the moment, those Taliban forces have completely abandoned it, leaving it open to the forces of the Northern Alliance to enter, and they've certainly been doing that throughout the course of the day.

We've been watching trucks filled with troops move through the streets of central Kabul, crowds of Kabul residents coming out and cheering those troops as they go past, chanting anti-Taliban slogans, and slogans against Pakistan as well, of course, formerly the sponsor of the Taliban.

So it Seems there is joy there and relief, to some extent, perhaps though masking the concern felt by many residents of Kabul that this Northern Alliance is so divided. It may lead to a renewal of the ethnic infighting that so ravaged Kabul in the years before Taliban took over.

Now throughout the course of the day, we've been driving around these streets, trying to get a better picture of what the scene is here. We've seen some quite gruesome images in one particular location. We found a number of bodies in a park, seven or eight we counted, strewn across the grass, thrown into drainage ditches. Local residents were spitting on them and kicking them, very angry, they say. These, they say, were Pakistani members of the Taliban, and hated as such.

Indications also of course that this city wasn't given up completely without a fight. They were killed by the Northern Alliance in firefights as they moved into the city. So some gruesome scenes there. Also some scenes of relief. We've been to a barbershop where number of men, crowds of men, lining up to have their beards shaved off. Of course, it was the big rule of the Taliban men had to grow their beards long. They weren't e even allowed to trim it. So expressions of relieve coming out in that form, people going to barbershops and having their beards shaved off -- Paula.

ZAHN: Matthew, what has been the response of women to this advance by the Northern Alliance?

CHANCE: Well, certainly so far we haven't seen any of them taking off their veils, or burkas, as they're called here, the cloth that cover the whole of their body, that are worn throughout Afghanistan, and particularly in the areas controlled by the Taliban. Traditionally, Kabul has been a more liberal city. The women here have traditionally shown their faces in public. They're often more educated than elsewhere in the country, but as yet, we have not been seeing the kind of throwing away of burkas that we had reports were happening elsewhere in the north of Afghanistan, in Mazar-e Sharif, and to a lesser extent in Herat.

It seems that women here are still weighing out the situation, trying to see who really will be in control in the days ahead before they make any judgment and come down on one side of the fence or the other -- Paula.

ZAHN: The U.S. government obviously wanted the Northern Alliance to wait before it took Kabul. That didn't happen. Now there seems to be a certain expectation that the Northern Alliance will move south to Kandahar. Do you see any signs of that? Or have you talked to soldiers saying that is their goal? CHANCE: Certainly, though, they must have known that it was a very strong possibility. After all, the advance on Kabul was made so much easier by the intensive airstrikes that were coordinated by special forces on the ground, and carried out by of course U.S.-led coalition warplanes, that really hammered the Taliban frontlines, allowing the Northern Alliance to advance to Kabul. The Northern Alliance of course had said that it would stop at those gates, would not enter the city before there was any kind of ethnically broad-based political agreement on the table to bring in all the diverse ethnic groups here in Afghanistan. It is a power-sharing government. Reality though very different. They could not resist the opportunity to take what has been a long time their ultimate military fight.

Just on that other point you mentioned, there are indications as well that Kabul isn't the end of it. We've been seeing troops moving out of Kabul, to the west, to the southwest, perhaps in pursuit of the Taliban forces that have made their way out of the city to the southwest of here toward their stronghold of Kabul. Many in the military of the Northern Alliance say they will pursue their military objectives -- Paula.

ZAHN: Matthew Chance, thanks so much.

We want to come back to you later in the hour. You had told us earlier that a news conference was expected to be held by the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance. We will be coming back to you for that live.

The capture of Taliban by the Northern Alliance was good news to the government of neighboring Pakistan.

CNN's Tom Mintier joins us from Islamabad to tell us why.

Tom, what is the reaction there?

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

The reaction has been basically not very surprised. They knew it was probably going to happen, but not very happy about it. Now it comes as President Pervez Musharraf was on his way back from New York from attending the United Nations meeting. Also his Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar (ph), was with him on the trip. They flew back commercially into Manchester, England, and now they have stopped off on another visit to Turkey and Istanbul, but the basic communications that we have heard here on the ground is that Pakistani government is indeed not happy with the chain of events that occurred overnight in Kabul, with the Northern Alliance troops making their military advance, and basically moving into the city, not staying on the suburbs, as some in Pakistan might have thought would happen.

Now the spokesman for the foreign ministry called for the demilitarization of Kabul, asking that the Northern Alliance troops be told to move back out, and calling on the United Nations to set up a multinational peacekeeping force to move in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AZIZ KHAN, PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER: It is our hope that calm prevails and bloodshed is avoided. Pakistan holds to the view that the Northern Alliance forces must not occupy Kabul. Pakistan would like to see an early return to durable peace and stability to Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: Bloodshed already has been occurring. The United Nations here in Islamabad tonight, reported that 100 Taliban soldiers, young soldiers, were caught by the Northern Alliance in a school and executed. We heard from Stephanie Bunker, the spokesperson for the U.N. here, that there have been some looting and some other atrocities that have been perpetrated, she says, by the Northern Alliance troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE BUNKER, U.N. SPOKESWOMAN: Today, in Mazar, we've had several sources that have corroborated that over 100 Taliban troops, who were young recruits, who were hiding in a school, were killed by Northern Alliance forces on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: It may not be last we hear from United Nations about the situations on the ground. The Pakistani president is due here later tonight, and we might hear in the next few days his reaction, but what we heard from the foreign ministry basically, they did not seem very happy that the Northern Alliance was in Kabul.

ZAHN: Tom, you expressed the Pakistanis very much want some sort of international peacekeeping force brought into Kabul, but the reality is, from our correspondents who have spoken to folks at the U.N. that that could be many, many months before they can make that happen. What is their concerns about what happens this the interim?

MINTIER: I think there is definite concern here in Pakistan of having the Northern Alliance, not just in Kabul, but basically advancing to Torkum (ph), which is the border area along the Khyber Pass. There is a good possibility, and people we have talked to in the foreign ministry say one of the major concerns is that the Northern Alliance, with a vacuum with the Taliban, basically taking to the hills and beginning to fight a guerrilla war, if you will, would advance up to border of Pakistan, and this would increase tensions in the region.

So asking for the United Nations to put a multinational force in, is basically the best thing they could say. One reporter during a press conference asked spokesmen if Pakistan felt betrayed by the United States, because they bombed the Taliban front-line position and allowed this to happen, if you will, and the spokesman basically said, that's too strong a language to use, and I don't think it's appropriate. And so there is concern, there may be anger behind the scenes, but publicly, Pakistan has tried the put the best spin on it they can. They are going to have to wait until this multiethnic government is put into place by the international community, and that is going to have to happen in the next few days, because there is a concern that if there is a vacuum in Afghanistan for too long that it might be filled by the Northern Alliance, and here in Pakistan, that would be seen as bad news -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Tom Mintier, thank you very much for bringing us all those latest developments.

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