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American Morning
Military Working Under Assumption Bin Laden Still in Afghanistan
Aired November 20, 2001 - 07:22 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: Tracking down Osama bin Laden is priority number one and the U.S., of course, is going all out to find him. For the very latest on the manhunt, let's go straight back to Bill Hemmer in Atlanta -- hi, again, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, hello.
The military working under the assumption that Osama bin Laden is still in country, still in Afghanistan. And if he is found, it is possible technology might give the best clue.
Let's bring in retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd from Washington to sort it all out this morning. General, good morning to you again.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: We have some very interesting animation, going to go to it right now, the graphics here that we've constructed to give our viewers a better understanding of what might possibly be happening on the ground. Here we have special operation forces right here on the ground. But if we go way up in space, General, we found a couple satellites, GEOs and LEOs. Which are which?
SHEPPERD: Yes, GEOs, LEOs and HEOs and it doesn't make any difference. The GEOs stand in one place over the earth and provide you communications to relay orders. The LEOs and the HEOs, highly elliptical and low earth orbit, they basically orbit the earth and take pictures and listen for communications and also provide communications in other areas.
HEMMER: Got it. And if we look at this like we're peeling away the layers of an onion, let's consider this on the outside layer. Let's move down one layer more. These are the global hawks. What do they do, General?
SHEPPERD: Yes, this is a reconnaissance platform of long range and long endurance. It can stay up 24 hours, operate over long distances and it looks down from high. It also takes pictures. It also has radar on board.
Now what all these do is this is billions of dollars of layers that enable us to look day and night in all kinds of weather and concentrate on smaller and smaller areas as we're looking for bin Laden and al Qaeda.
HEMMER: Got it. Now the global hawk is unmanned but this is manned, a u2. It can vary its altitude, correct?
SHEPPERD: Indeed. Think of it as 60,000 feet and above. It can operate lower if you want it to, but it's basically a high altitude platform. Same thing. It looks down with photographs. It has other types of sensors on board and it can look with a synthetic aperture radar to take pictures through weather.
HEMMER: Got to peel away another layer here. We have the rivet joint, first of all, flying in, and also the J Star as well. What's the difference?
SHEPPERD: A listening platform in the case of the rivet joint, listens for electronic emissions and locates them. The J Stars looks for moving targets on the ground, moving target indicator, and again, these are just another piece of the puzzle, listening, watching and looking for movement.
HEMMER: All right, further down here we have the AWACs. We're quite familiar with the circular device on the back of this plane. Everybody has heard about the AWACs and its importance in this theater. But further down they would communicate with what a lot of people consider the big dogs, the F-14 and the f18 flying in, General?
SHEPPERD: Yes, F-15 and F-18s shown here and also you can add F- 16s, A-10s, later the AWACs acts as a command and control mechanism. It takes information from the sensors, gets the pilots' eyes and pilots' weapons on the target.
HEMMER: And further down we have the Predator, which, again, is an unmanned aircraft, flies about 15,000 feet. And below that, the AC-130 gunship, nicknamed Spooky, and as we know, General, through researching this, all of the fire comes out of this plane on the left hand side. Quite critical in any operation.
SHEPPERD: Right. Spooky and also specter low light TV, they also can look at infrared on the ground and again, the Predator feeds information about real time intelligence, where it is right now and movement on the ground relays it to the pilots to get ordinance on the targets.
HEMMER: And if we go back to the onion analogy and the very core takes us right back to the special ops performing their function on the ground. And General, as we look at this animation and consider the technology right now, not only in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, but what we have seen and the effectiveness of the air campaign against Taliban forces on the ground. What we just displayed, how critical is that role right now in tracking and finding the Taliban and hitting the target?
SHEPPERD: Absolutely critical in looking for the remaining Taliban and also the al Qaeda and bin Laden. You're looking in a smaller and smaller area and no matter who you are or where you are, you cannot move. You cannot do anything on the surface of the earth without leaving a trail.
The key, however, is you're still looking for a group of around 300 people in the case of bin Laden in a nation of 25 million people in all kinds of weather day and night and it's not an easy task.
HEMMER: Major General Don Shepperd, thank you, sir. Talk to you again next hour.
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