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CNN Live Today

Rumsfeld to Head to India, Pakistan

Aired May 30, 2002 - 14:02   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, an urgent new round of U.S. diplomacy, aimed at heading off war between two long-time enemies with nuclear weapons. CNN's Jamie McIntyre brings us up to date from the Pentagon. Looks like the secretary of defense needs to go and cool down some temperatures over there, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the latest heavy hitter from the Bush administration to head over to India and Pakistan to try to lower the tensions, get both sides to step back from the brink of confrontation. That announcement today from the White House that it would be sending Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld next week. Rumsfeld today talked to reporters, and he was very hesitant to talk about what leverage the United States might have with Pakistan and India, but he did point out that U.S. enjoys good relations with both countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The United States, as I say, has a good relationship with each of those two countries. It has been a set of relationships that has been improving over time, and we -- our hope and efforts will be aimed to see that it continues to improve with each of those countries, and that they stand down from the tensions that exist today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Now, Rumsfeld will be departing next week for meetings at NATO headquarters, the regular defense ministerial meetings. He'll stop off at Great Britain on the way over for consultations in London. Presumably, India and Pakistan will be high on the agenda of all those talks. And then, later in the week, he's scheduled to go both to New Delhi and Islamabad to meet with officials there. So, no promises here, just another attempt by the United States to continue the dialogue between those two countries, especially since they don't appear to be talking directly to each other -- Carol.

LIN: Jamie, you broke some big news this morning about the possibility that al Qaeda might have been trying to use shoulder-fired missiles against U.S. forces and possibly targeting U.S. aircraft. More on that?

MCINTYRE: Yeah, we don't want to overstate this threat because it's just one of many alerts that the FBI has been putting out to be vigilant for possible terrorist activity, but this one grows out of a missile tube, expanded missile tube that was found outside the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. CNN was the first to report that story.

Now, it turns out that an FBI advisory that is being circulated is warnings that that may have been an attempt to shoot down a plane and may be linked to al Qaeda. Now, the FBI warning is specific, though, in saying that the FBI possesses no information indicating that al Qaeda is planning to use Stinger missiles or any type of portable anti-aircraft weapons against commercial aircraft in the United States.

But the FBI document also says that a subsequent investigation of the incident in Saudi Arabia, quote, "suggests that the discovery is likely related to al Qaeda targeting efforts against U.S.-led forces in the Arabian Peninsula. And because of that, the FBI says, because of al Qaeda's demonstrated intent to target U.S. airline industry because of its access to these kinds of portable missiles that are available on the black market and because of this particular incident in Saudi Arabia, as a cautionary note the FBI is alerting law enforcement, transportation agencies, pretty much everybody in the U.S. government, just to be aware that this may be another tactic used by al Qaeda terrorists -- Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre with a lot from the Pentagon.

So, joining us now with more on the potential threat posed by al Qaeda missiles, if indeed they have any, is CNN national correspondent Bob Franken -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is very little doubt that they have them. This has been a concern of people who have been in the anti-terrorism field long before September 11. The irony is that the large bulk of these may have been provided to some of the people whop have them today back in the '80s by the United States, by the Central Intelligence Agency, which at the time was helping secretly the mujahideen in Afghanistan fight the infidels then, the Russians. And in the process of doing that, the United States provided to the mujahideen some of the Stinger missiles of that era. They were used, as a matter of fact, quite effectively against the Russians.

Well, of course, many of those mujahideen of that period became fighting a different infidel in their minds, and that would be the United States. And there's little doubt that they've gotten into the hands of people who were associated with al Qaeda. There are missiles that were left littered by the hundreds in Afghanistan as events happened over there.

Also, another variation was the Russian SA-7. It was the Russian version of the same shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile -- not quite as accurate as the Stinger even then, the SA-7, but it was one that is still rattling around the world today, and as a matter of fact, it was the one that was found outside the air base in Saudi Arabia. Now, this is a missile that has caused fear throughout the world, and it is one that the United States is very concerned about, the one that was found outside Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Had some scorch marks on it, and that is what is causing people to now suggest that maybe its design was to be used to shoot down one of those U.S. jets that flies in and out of that air base all the time.

There's some limitations; many of them these missiles have. Number one, they don't have that great a range. They only shoot about 13,000 feet in the air, so their biggest fear would be that they would be shot at planes if they were taking off or landing at airports. They would looking for people who would have one of these shoulder- carried -- look like bazookas -- on the ground near the airport. That's just one of the things.

Also, they are designed for military aircraft. Commercial aircraft have different kinds of engines. They wouldn't be so vulnerable, but it's possible that one of these could be used against them.

We have to state, again, this is a long-standing concern of people in the anti-terror field. Nobody is saying that there is an imminent danger, just that people have to be on the look-out -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Bob Franken, thank you very much.

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