Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Reporter's Notebook: Progress in the War on Terrorism

Aired December 15, 2001 - 11:32   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to get some inside perspective now on Operation Enduring Freedom. The past week saw some significant development in America's War on Terrorism, both on the military and political fronts.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Here to take some questions in our "Reporter's Notebook" this morning, Kelly Wallace is live at the White House. Jim Clancy with us late in Kabul, and CNN Military Analyst retired Major General Shepperd from Tucson, Arizona joins us live this morning. Hello to everyone, and to Jim we say good evening where it is nightfall there today in Kabul. Ms. Phillips.

PHILLIPS: We're going to go right to it. Thank you, Mr. Hemmer. Right to Jim Clancy, we've got a question that comes from Greg Benner from Chesterfield, South Carolina.

Jim, he wants to know: "Do we have substantial radio intelligence indicating Osama bin Laden in the particular cave complex in which he is suspect of inhabiting at this time?"

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, there isn't any solid indication that he is there, and that is one of the things that the U.S. is really trying to determine. They are monitoring radio traffic.

They are hearing that there are Chechen and Arab fighters there. Some of them have surrendered and they have said that some of the top commanders are trying to leave the area. These would be military commanders, not necessarily the high-level leadership of the al Qaeda organization.

The question is, if Osama bin Laden isn't there in eastern Afghanistan in the Tora Bora region, where might he be? We may not know the answer to that question until they really get up in there, into the fortress area that is said to be crumbling this day.

So the answer to that question is, no there's no intelligence information solidly putting Osama bin Laden there.

HEMMER: Jim, your question kind of goes back to our next e-mail. Al Eckert in Pennsylvania wants to know: "With all the bombs and attacks, it is possible that we did get bin Laden. If we did kill him, how would we know it was him? Are there dental records, fingerprints, et cetera?" To General Shepperd on this, we were talking about DNA a few hours ago, how do you answer that best for Al Eckert in Pennsylvania?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well that's one of the problems. If we hit him with a bunker buster bomb and bury him in a cave or blow him to pieces and never know that he's there, that's one of the mushy outcomes of this that we hope doesn't happen.

On the other hand, if we have a body or body parts, you approach it just like you do an aircraft accident. Generally DNA is the way of exercising that.

Hopefully, it will come out a different way. Hopefully, we'll capture him or hopefully, someone will kill him and know it's him and be able to bring a body.

PHILLIPS: Kelly, we're going to forward this one over to you. This comes from Diane Balcom from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "CNN reporters in Afghanistan, and some from media outlets have discovered documents and other potential evidence in al Qaeda building. Is this evidence being shared with the U.S. government?"

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, my understanding is it is and that it is providing valuable intelligence information to the United States, information about where other al Qaeda operatives could be in and around the world, and also in Afghanistan.

So my understanding is it is being shared with the U.S. and again providing good intelligence. Again, we know that al Qaeda operative don't just exist in Afghanistan, but exist around the world and I believe some of that information is, in fact, leading to arrests of other al Qaeda members. Kyra.

HEMMER: Interesting how she answers that too, because in the early part of this aspect, they were finding documents in certain homes inside of Kabul.

PHILLIPS: And also wondering about the authenticity. Christiane Amanpour found a lot of stuff too. Jim, do you want to jump in on that question?

CLANCY: Well, you know, you look at some of the things that were found there, you have to ask yourself the question, just how valuable is that? A lot of the information that was there is openly available on the Internet.

This almost looked like people had come in, perhaps paid money to be trained as a terrorist, and they were being given all of this information. Yes, it was information about how to make bombs, even nuclear bombs. But you know, having that information and being able to actually go out and do that, two completely separate things.

For some people it really cast doubt on the value of all of that. It does show that they were talking a lot about it, but it doesn't prove that they actually had operatives that were trained with any level of skill and sophistication. HEMMER: All right, by telephone now, Tom is with us in Georgia. Tom, I believe you have a question, military related, possibly for the General.

CALLER: Yes. It is for the General. It's about prisoners of war. It's my understanding that prisoners of war are generally exchanged, given back at the end of a conflict. And since the War on Terrorism is going to be open-ended, it could go on for years, is there any common sense to every releasing any of these guys, especially since their goals are basically just to kill civilians, rather than to take your territory?

SHEPPERD: A lot of those things are being debated vociferously, if you will, in the Pentagon and in other halls of government here in Washington, D.C., trying to decide what we do with prisoners and what the disposition of prisoners will be in the courts, where they will be tried and then the last question is, what do you do after this is all over?

I assume, like other wars, in the end some of them, the lower levels will be released and others will spend a long term in prison and others could even be executed like every war.

PHILLIPS: Kelly, do you want to respond to that one, too?

WALLACE: Well certainly, it is a difficult situation for the United States and especially with the case of John Walker, as we know, the American who was fighting with the Taliban. He was held at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan, and is now being held on a United States ship.

It's a lot of discussion, a lot of questions for the administration about how to handle cases like John Walker, what should happen. Should he be tried in a U.S. criminal court? Should he face any charge at all?

So again, these are ongoing issues, and as we see the administration and U.S. forces take into custody more and more al Qaeda operatives, the administration is forced to sort of come up with solutions about how it's going to deal with these prisoners -- Kyra.

HEMMER: All right, Kelly. We want to go back to Kabul now, and CNN's Jim Clancy. Although you're in Afghanistan, Jim, we have a question here about the Middle East and I know you have spent years in the Middle East, throughout that area.

And the question is from Norman Walker in Farmville, Virginia. He wants to know: "What impact would the escalating violence in the Middle East have on America's War on Terrorism?"

Is this something we're still sorting through right now, Jim, or do we have a firm direction about this?

CLANCY: Well it's certainly going to affect the cooperation of Arab and Muslim states with that War against Terrorism. There have been criticism's voice, that it looks like it's a war against Arab or Muslims, rather than just a war against all terrorism. After all, they're saying that you know, Northern Ireland wasn't brought up. Spain's bask separatists weren't brought up. The war being declared, if you will, on just those fronts that affect them.

Now the Middle East situation right now, the U.S. is seen very clearly as siding with Israel. A lot of people in the region really view what's going on today as Ariel Sharon trying to dismantle Oslow. He never liked it anyway. He's trying to undermine the entire Palestinian Authority.

If that happens, if there's no solution there, if there's no kind of breakthrough, it's going to make the War on Terrorism more difficult.

HEMMER: Indeed it could. To Kelly Wallace at the White House, and certainly they're watching this quite closely, huh Kelly?

WALLACE: They certainly are, and really just repeating Jim's point, you know, just holding sort of the Arab and Muslim coalition together in this War against Terrorism, very critical about how the U.S. handles the Middle East.

Early on you know, Bill, we saw President Bush talking about, very publicly, that his vision down the road would be for Palestinian Statehood. Many believed that was in one way the president expressing his vision, but in another way trying to send the message to Arabs and Muslims around the world to get their support as well in the Middle East, and also in this international war against terror.

So if these Arab and Muslim countries believe the U.S. is siding with Israel and not doing enough, not engaged enough, you could see much more pressure on the U.S. and maybe it could sort of weaken the coalition already against this international terror.

PHILLIPS: General Shepperd, this e-mail coming from Tony in Washington, D.C. He asks: "If bin Laden is not in Tora Bora, how far can we go to get him?"

SHEPPERD: We can go to the end of the earth. If this man is in Pakistan, the Pakistanis I am certain will apprehend him and will turn him over to the United States.

Any nation that harbors him, your next visitor is going to be the United States military or perhaps a 2,000-pound bomb. We're going to pursue him forever. He will never be safe, nor will any of the al Qaeda, nor will any of the people that were in that videotape.

So we are after these people. If they escape now, we'll get them later. You can be sure of that.

HEMMER: Can the B-1 fly to the end of the earth, General?

SHEPPERD: If refueled.

PHILLIPS: It needs refueled. Got you on that one. All right, General. That kind of segues into this question. We should throw this one at Kelly. Keith Fix from Glendale, Arizona asking: "President Bush has said a number of times that this war will take years. Do you think this will get him reelected?"

WALLACE: Well, interesting question there from Keith. You know, definitely the president and we just heard him yesterday, Kyra and Bill, saying you know getting bin Laden will take time. It might happen a month from now. It could take a year.

Senior aides say the president is trying to keep reminding people again that the war in Afghanistan will take time, but also that this is going to go on for many years, and the president as well has said it will go on beyond his presidency. And if he serves another term, beyond that term as well.

Right now, as you both know, the president has a sky-high approval rating, in the high 80s. Obviously things can dramatically change, so it remains to be seen. But right now, he had tremendous support from the American people, and he seems to have tremendous support to take this case beyond Afghanistan to other parts of the world.

HEMMER: All right, Kelly, thank you, back to the telephone. Chris in Arizona, Chris with a question about John Walker, the American in captivity, is that right?

CALLER: Yes. My question is, why would anybody even entertain the notion to treat him any different than any other Taliban fighter? He rose arms against the United States. He's just as guilty as bin Laden himself as far as I'm concerned. Now he's on a ship being well taken care of. The other Taliban fighters are what, locked in containers.

HEMMER: General, I would think that this is one of the issues they're still trying to work through.

SHEPPERD: Yes, the harsh facts are he's a United States citizen and all the allegations by the caller there have yet to be proven.

Reportedly we don't know exactly what his role was with the Taliban. It doesn't make a lot of difference to me. He did take up arms against the United States as far as I'm concerned, but he has to be subjected to a legal process to prove that, and out of that will come his sentence. But this young man is in deep trouble.

PHILLIPS: All right, Major General Donald Shepperd, Jim Clancy in Kabul, and Kelly Wallace at the White House, thank you all so much.

HEMMER: Thank you guys.

PHILLIPS: Great discourse.

WALLACE: Great to be with you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com