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CNN Live Today

Bin Laden Likely Slipped Out of Tora Bora

Aired April 17, 2002 - 11:12   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have something of military theme going today. We heard the president speak at VMI, Virginia Military Institute, and about 15 minutes or so from now, we expect the daily Pentagon briefing to begin.

For a look ahead at what we might hear about, let's check with our Barbara Starr who is at her post at the Pentagon -- Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. Well, one of the questions Don Rumsfeld is very likely to get is another round of questions about where is Osama bin Laden.

For months now, the U.S. has wondered whether Osama bin Laden was in those mountain caves in Tora Bora last December, just as the U.S. began its air assault. The assessment now is that he was, and he slipped away with the help of local Afghans.

Intelligence officials tell CNN that interrogations of several detainees in those interrogations, they all tell the same story. That bin Laden was at Tora Bora in early December. That he addressed his al Qaeda troops, and he then slipped away with the help of local Afghans. The U.S. is still trying to track bin Laden, of course and the al Qaeda. They are focusing their attention now on this remote southeastern region of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, looking very, very closely at that area.

But on this whole question of whether bin Laden was in Tora Bora, there are still two very important skeptics in the administration, General Tommy Franks, the head of Central Command, and Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld. Sources close to both men say that they still want to see the very hard evidence. They haven't seen it yet, and they are not going to sign up to any conclusions about where bin Laden was until they see that evidence.

We will also hear from Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld shortly on a major military reorganization plan. That's really the purpose of this upcoming press briefing. The secretary is going to announce a new northern command for the U.S. military, and what that means is one senior military officer, a four-star general or admiral, in charge of all homeland defense issues. That means everything from those combat air patrols to defensive U.S. airspace, military support for civil disasters, military support for other kinds of things, such as forest fires or even military support for the Olympics. Sources say this is going to be one of the most major reorganizations the military has seen in decades -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Very interesting, and I would imagine that whoever is named to that post will be working very closely to Tom Ridge, who is supposed to be heading up Homeland Defense from the administration's point of view.

STARR: Exactly. Part of the effort is to have more coordination between the military and the activities they perform in Homeland Defense, and what Governor Ridge's office is doing on the domestic front in Homeland Defense.

KAGAN: We got it. We will look forward to that. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

STARR: Thank you.

KAGAN: Once again, Barbara will be in there asking those tough questions, as she does every day in those Pentagon briefings. It begins in 5 minutes, and you will see that live here on CNN.

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