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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S., Coalition Forces Attack al Qaeda

Aired March 04, 2002 - 06:01   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: U.S., Afghan, and coalition forces are pressing ahead today with the attack on al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

For an update, we go to CNN's Brian Palmer. He's in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Hello again, Brian.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Kyra. Right behind me is the Bagram Air Base, which is being used by the U.S. military. Roughly over my right shoulder is the -- is the runway. Now we've been told by the U.S. military that at least a portion of the air operations here, the airplanes and the helicopters we see leaving and coming into the base are being used in the ongoing attack in Paktia Province -- the attack against the dug-in al Qaeda and Taliban forces that have apparently regrouped in that area.

We were told several hours ago by the Afghan Defense Ministry and by U.S. Central Command that that attack was continuing. So it started Friday, today is Monday, Afghanistan time it's about midday. We got -- we have initial reports from Afghanistan's official news agency, the Baktar (ph) information agency that the coalition forces, the U.S., Afghan and international forces have pulled back for the moment to allow bombers to come in and hit their targets, but we have no -- we have no secondary confirmation about that.

Now we've also been told by the U.S. military that this is a truly a coalition operation. You have your U.S. forces, Afghan troops, but also troops from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, and Norway. I want to see if I left anyone out -- I did not. We're not entirely sure what roles all of these different nations are playing, but they apparently are playing a role in this operation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, many are playing a peacekeeping role. Brian Palmer from Bagram, Afghanistan. Thank you so much.

U.S. officials are confirming they received intelligence about a potential terrorist attack in the U.S., but after an investigation officials determined the information wasn't credible. The plot centered on efforts last October to smuggle a stolen Russian nuclear weapon into the U.S., probably in New York. That story was first reported in "Time" Magazine. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELAINE SHANNON, TIME MAGAZINE: They got some intelligence information from a human source that somehow some terrorists, and they didn't know whether it was al Qaeda or not had gotten hold of a Soviet warhead and were bringing it into the port of New York, probably by container ship, and so there's a huge scramble.

The other piece of it was that there was a bit of information and a Russian general had remarked that they had lost a warhead or couldn't account for something. There was a big scramble run up -- run on down, but they didn't find it obviously. New York is OK, but it shows you how seriously they take even a wisp of information these days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The perceived threat is one reason President Bush set up a shadow government outside Washington. That government would keep federal operations running in case of a catastrophic terrorist attack.

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