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American Morning

Pentagon Upping Ante in Search for Bin Laden; Bodies of Four Journalists Missing in Afghanistan Recovered

Aired November 20, 2001 - 07:00   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 hunt for Osama bin Laden -- the Pentagon has sent special operations troops to turn him in. But if that doesn't work, maybe cold, hard cash will.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The noose is beginning to narrow. The net is getting tighter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Closing in on the most wanted, the narrowing options facing bin Laden, the Taliban and the al Qaeda terrorists. Also, faces behind the reporting -- four international journalists killed in Afghanistan. We'll look at the dangers of covering war this morning.

Good morning. Welcome. Good to have you all with us this morning. It is Tuesday, November 20. From New York, I'm Paula Zahn.

We are taking up several important questions this hour. Are journalists now becoming targets in this war on terrorism? Then, looking for bin Laden, does the leader of al Qaeda have anywhere to go? And in the troubled Middle East, can politics find a solution?

First, though, let's go straight to the latest headlines. For that, we turn to Bill Hemmer, who's standing by in Atlanta with our war alert -- good morning, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning to you.

The bodies of four journalists killed in Afghanistan have now been identified by their colleagues, an Italian newspaper reporter, an Australian TV cameraman, an Afghan photographer and a Spanish newspaper reporter. Those journalists in a convoy that was ambushed on the road from Jalalabad to Kabul yesterday. A driver who escaped there says the gunmen identified themselves as members of the Taliban.

The word is getting out, broadcast across Afghanistan from a U.S. C-130, a $25 million price tag on the head of terror suspect Osama bin Laden and right now it's up for grabs. The "New York Times" saying the broadcasts and thousands of leaflets that are being dropped urged Afghans to drive out the terrorists. Cash rewards are offered for information on bin Laden and his top lieutenants in the al Qaeda terror network operating there.

U.S. planes got a late start today because of bad weather. But by noon time local time, B-52s were said to be caret bombing the Taliban front lines in the Afghan city of Konduz. The Northern Alliance claiming 1,000 Taliban troops have surrendered there, but that is not verified just yet. Negotiations for a possible Taliban surrender continue in the no man's land between the opposing forces.

Progress is reported on the diplomatic front. U.S. envoy James Dobbins met yesterday with Northern Alliance leaders near Kabul and Dobbins says a meeting of interested parties will be held this week, probably in Berlin, to talk about an interim government for the country of Afghanistan.

Pakistan, the only nation in the world with diplomatic relations with the Taliban and now the Pakistanis have closed the Taliban's consulates in the border towns of Peshawar and Quetta. Two weeks ago, the consulate in Karachi was closed. Now the embassy in Islamabad, the capital city, the only Taliban diplomatic office still open now in Pakistan.

President Bush hosting a traditional Ramadan dinner last night, an iftar (ph), it's called, welcoming Muslim leaders and others to the White House. The dinner breaks the daily fast required from Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. Thanking his guests for support in the war, the president said, and quoting now, "Terrorists have no home in any faith. Evil has no holy days."

Economic front now, investors may be getting some thankful news by the time they sit down to dinner on Thursday afternoon. By then it's possible, and I say possible here, the Dow Jones industrial average may have passed the 10,000 mark once again, the first time since the 5th of September. The Dow gained 109 points yesterday. The Nasdaq finished up about 36 points. Futures trading, though, indicate a lower open this morning.

If you're traveling this Thanksgiving, gas prices have dropped to their lowest holiday level in three year's time. The nationwide average for a gallon of self-serve regular just under $1.20 per gallon, down 4 1/2 cents from two weeks ago. The highest gas prices now in Washington State, Idaho and California, all in the West there. The lowest in Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri and the state of Oklahoma.

Airlines are also saying they are packing them in for the holidays this week, too, good news to see for folks traveling trying to see family members over the Thanksgiving break.

Back to Paula. More news coming up shortly -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Bill.

The Pentagon, as we mentioned a little bit early on, is certainly upping the ante in the search for Osama bin Laden with heavy publicity about the new price on his head, $25 million. Even as more special operations teams hit the ground, a search for the suspected terrorist leader. The Pentagon is hoping that providing a huge financial incentive will prompt Afghans to point the way to his hiding place.

Jamie McIntyre has more on the military and monetary hunt for bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sources say the best U.S. intelligence indicates Osama bin Laden and his protectors are still in Afghanistan, in the vicinity of Kandahar, but on the move.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: To try and think that we have them contained in some sort of a small area I think would be a misunderstanding of the difficulty of the task.

MCINTYRE: U.S. bombing is now concentrating on sealing caves and tunnels used by bin Laden's al Qaeda network, but the Pentagon says it is not conducting a cave by cave search. That would require a much different force than the small, but ever growing number of American special forces now on the ground in Afghanistan. Instead, the U.S. is banking on bounty hunters, lured by a $25 million reward, to give bin Laden up.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I told the American people right from the get go of this effort, it may take a month, it may take a year. Well, however long it takes, we'll succeed.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And as Bill Hemmer reported just a few minutes ago, overnight the bodies of four journalists missing in Afghanistan were recovered and identified. Their deaths have shaken many of the news people who have the very difficult job of covering this war.

CNN's Bill Delaney is in Jalalabad, Pakistan. He joins us by video phone with more on that attack -- good morning, Bill.

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Thank you.

As you said, four journalists now confirmed killed, shot repeatedly (AUDIO GAP) morning on the road between Jalalabad, the eastern provincial capital where I am, and the Afghan capital of Kabul, what's usually a five hour drive. They were killed at about two and a half hours right at the half way point on the way to Kabul.

Now, the bodies were retrieved and brought back by one of the man local commanders here who was able to get to the bodies with his armed men and then bring them back, just a couple of hours ago. It's Tuesday afternoon here in Afghanistan, killings Monday morning. The bodies not brought back here till Tuesday afternoon by this commander, who then handed the bodies over to the Red Cross. They're now in Jalalabad's main hospital, where they will stay overnight, before being driven in a Red Cross convoy the two hour or so drive to the Pakistani border to the (AUDIO GAP) border crossing and on through the Khyber Pass into Pakistan.

Now, the journalists are Harry Burton and Aziz Haidari of Reuters, Maria Grazia Cutuli of the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" and Julio Fuentes, a Spanish journalist for the Spanish newspaper "El Mundo." They were in two lead vehicles of a convoy on that highway not with an armed escort, as many normally use around here. But word had been that that road was probably safe.

Now, the two vehicles got well ahead of their other comrades and colleagues on this journey on the highway, 15 to 20 minutes ahead, we're told, according to some reports, when they were stopped by armed men and pulled out of their cars.

Now, (AUDIO GAP) drivers and an Afghan translator escaped, either by pleading for their lives or simply by reversing and escaping the scene. They were able to warn eight to 13 other journalists in vehicles, eight to 13 vehicles packed with journalists in this convoy to turn back, which may have averted an even more terrible tragedy.

Now, here in eastern Afghanistan, for all intents and purposes, Paula, there is no functioning government. The Taliban gave up power without a fight here last week, but since then the capital of Jalalabad, where I am, has been thronged with thousands of heavily armed fighters attached to various factions here. There are at least four main factions here.

The city has been calm, but it's a very unstable situation. A government -- a governor has been installed but it's not clear who's in charge here.

Now, as for who may have done these killings, a driver, one of the drivers reported they identified themselves as Taliban, but this was also a location well known even for generations as a haven for bandits. Seven journalists now killed in Afghanistan since the fighting intensified here and the U.S. coalition bombing began in the wake of the terror attacks of September 11 -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Bill, I know the details are somewhat murky surrounding the killings of these four journalists, but is the perception among those of you that remain on the ground in Jalalabad that these journalists were specifically targeted and killed because of the work they do?

DELANEY: This highway had been traveled in recent days by hundreds of vehicles. For one reason or another, these gunmen were able to identify this car obviously as a car with non-Afghans in it the they wanted to commandeer. It's not clear to us why they chose this one car, whether they knew there was a larger convoy to come. On the other hand, it could have just been very bad luck. As I say, this is an area, a haven for bandits, and, as I say, hundreds of cars have been passing along this highway in recent days.

So it's difficult to say just why they were chosen and why they were so extraordinarily and tragically unlucky -- Paula. ZAHN: Well, Bill Delaney, there's great concern about all of you that remain on duty over there. Stay safe. Thank you very much for that update.

And there is word this morning that the United Nations is setting up a formal meeting in Berlin for all of the factions interested in sharing power in Afghanistan.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour has talked with the former president, President Rabbani, about a government after the Taliban.

Christiane joins us now from Kabul, the Afghan capital -- so, Christiane, I don't, I know we're not going to play the entire interview, but share with us the highlights of the interview.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the highlight in terms of what's going on right now is that President Rabbani for the first time has said that he is willing to hold the first series of meetings on the political future outside Afghanistan. He had been blamed over the last week or so by the U.N. and other officials who are trying to negotiate the political future, eh had been blamed for slowing it down because he wanted to hold it in Kabul and other factional leaders did not.

Today, he told CNN that they would hold it outside Afghanistan, possibly in Europe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURHANUDDIN RABBANI, FORMER AFGHAN PRESIDENT: We have already accepted the U.N. plan. Of course, I have some suggestions for completing this plan, which I will discuss with the U.N. special envoy after the leadership meeting.

AMANPOUR: What are those proposals you have?

RABBANI: First, I believe that our country must have peace. For this, the decision-making process for peace should be held in Afghanistan. Of course, if it's not possible for some Afghans to come into Afghanistan, we can find another solution. Our first consultations can be somewhere else. But I insist that we must take all the decisions on finalizing the peace process inside Afghanistan.

AMANPOUR: What do you mean by that? Are you prepared to hold a meeting outside Afghanistan to discuss peace?

RABBANI: We can have the first gathering in a foreign country, in Europe. But this gathering will be mostly symbolic, that's all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Rabbani insists that any meaningful decision-making on the final shape of a peace settlement has to take place in Afghanistan. It remains to been whether that's acceptable to the U.N., the U.S. and the other Afghan faction leaders. When we pressed him on whether he was here, because we interviewed him in the presidential palace, to hang onto power, he said no, as I said, I'm here simply to pave the way for the future political settlement. We're here just establishing security.

When I asked him would he step down if the people of Afghanistan chose another leader, he insisted that he would.

On another issue, we asked about who might make up a future government. We asked specifically about the Taliban. He said, of course, the Taliban as a group could not be welcomed in any future government, but individuals who he said had not been accused of committing any crimes would be welcome.

Again, we asked about Osama bin Laden and whether the Northern Alliance had any information on his whereabouts and Rabbani said as far as they know, he is in the Marouf (ph) region of the Kandahar Province, and that is a very mountainous region of Kandahar.

That's all we got today from Rabbani in Kabul -- Paula.

ZAHN: Christiane, I'm just wondering what the reaction there is to the latest U.S. government offer of a $25 million cash reward for any information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden.

AMANPOUR: Well, I haven't actually asked anybody about it today. But you can imagine that people here listen to their radios very carefully. I haven't actually seen any of these leaflets landing on Kabul, but you can also imagine that with the poverty at the level that it is in this country, any such offer like that would be eagerly welcomed. And furthermore, in terms of how people in Kabul felt about and feel about Osama bin Laden and the Arabs who are linked with the al Qaeda network, they simply do not like them. So in Kabul, it's probably a jolly good bet that if the people here could they would turn him over. But, of course, his whereabouts are entirely unknown to the people here.

ZAHN: All right, Christiane Amanpour, thank you for that update.

Joining me on the telephone right now is Victor de la Serna. He lost a colleague. That colleague was among the four killed on their way from Jalalabad to Kabul.

Victor, can you hear me?

VICTOR DE LA SERNA, DEPUTY EDITOR, "EL MUNDO": Yes, I can.

ZAHN: Tell me a little bit about the colleague you lost.

DE LA SERNA: Well, Julio Fuentes was only 42, but already really a veteran foreign correspondent. He had been a journalist since 1980 when he was 21. He was first a photographer and then a writer, and throughout the 1980s and '90s he covered most of the major conflicts in the world for Spanish newspapers and "El Mundo" since we, our newspaper was founded in 1989. he covered the last of the wars in Central America, the Panama invasion, Kuwait and the Gulf War, the Balkans. He was the Western journalist who stayed longest in Sarajevo, in Bosnia during the time when it was submitted to bombing and strafing by the Serbs. And he had also covered Kosovo.

So he was really a veteran and extremely good correspondent. He was usually a roving correspondent going to war zones and he, for a time he was also a correspondent in Russia and in Italy.

ZAHN: And when is the last time you had any contact with him?

DE LA SERNA: We had contact with him the day before yesterday, the day before his death when he sent an outstanding news report on the discovery he made himself of serin nerve gas in an abandoned al Qaeda base some miles south of Jalalabad in Afghanistan.

ZAHN: In light of the fact that seven journalists have now been killed covering this war, is "El Mundo" changing any of the regulations by which reporters will operate in the region?

DE LA SERNA: We are, of course, recommending the greatest prudence, but it's always up to our veteran correspondents to make the final decision, although we are really encouraging them to avoid the unnecessary danger. However, unnecessary danger seems to be a very constant and common situation throughout Afghanistan right now because it's basically large parts of the country are lawless land. There is no structure that has replaced the Taliban structure and violence is really pervasive throughout much of the land.

So we know that this is one of the most dangerous places in the world we've had in the past few years, including covering other wars. This one is one where apparently few rules apply and journalists are really in a very dreadful situation.

ZAHN: And Victor, as you know, the details surrounding the deaths of these four journalists, the latest to be killed, are quite unclear. Bill Delaney in his report just said that there is a belief in one faction that it was simply bandits that killed these four and another report suggests that, in fact, members of the Taliban killed these four.

Do you have any other information or anything that would confirm either of these situations?

DE LA SERNA: No, we don't, actually. I think that Tim Weiner's report in the "New York Times" is the one that identifies most closely the killers with the Taliban. We ourselves don't really know yet if we could really attribute this to Taliban or simply bandits or if there is a hazy line that separates Taliban on the flight with regular bandits. We have another correspondent in the zone, Alfonso Rojo (ph), and he is trying to gather more information. We don't have it yet.

ZAHN: Well, Victor De la Serna, thank you for joining us at this difficult time for your colleagues at the paper. We appreciate your joining us as, at a time when we recognize the great risks that all journalists face over there covering this war.

Again, appreciate your joining us on the telephone this morning.

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