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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pakistani Officials Deny Knowledge of Dirty Bomb Suspect

Aired June 11, 2002 - 05:04   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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On this same subject, did Pakistan play a role in the investigation and arrest of the dirty bomb suspect?

CNN's Chris Burns joins us on the phone from Islamabad to take a look at that theory.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well if authorities here on the Pakistani side were involved, it was very, very discrete because up to now so far in the case of Jose Padilla, officials here are saying that they know nothing about the case. It was news to them when we broke it to them last night. Military sources we've contacted here off the record say they know nothing about it. They -- that's what they tell us. U.S. officials here very, very tight lipped.

Now why? Two reasons. One could be that they simply don't know and that the United States kept them out of it. The other is that the -- perhaps the Pakistani authorities want to stay discrete about this.

Let's take a look at the Daniel Pearl case, the U.S. journalist who was kidnapped and killed earlier this year. U.S. agents were very much involved in helping to track down the suspects involved in that, and they are now in trial right now. Omar Saeed Sheikh, among others, they were rounded up because their e-mails were traced by the expertise of the FBI.

President Pervez Musharraf here had cracked down since the beginning of the year, especially on militant groups. But it's a very, very risky business not only in cracking down against the militant groups but against elements within the ISI here, the Inter- Services Agency, and that's their intelligence organization in the government, that had long ties, at least among certain levels, long ties with militants operating not only in Kashmir where we're seeing war jitters over there but also in Afghanistan where they were supported in their fight against the Soviets initially in the 1980s and then of course in the -- during the 1990s supporting the Taliban.

And so very, very murky, very complicated, and apparently the Pakistanis and the Americans don't want to rock the boat any more than they have in trying to track down and go after these militants who are very much in operation here in Pakistan. Look at the terror attacks. Last month the one against the bus that killed a whole -- a bus load of French engineers in Karachi. Look at the church that was attacked here in Islamabad in March that killed an American woman and her daughter.

So keep all that in mind and that is why things remain extremely murky here. War jitters, fear over terror attacks, fear over destabilizing the General Pervez Musharraf's military regime here, that -- put all that together and that is why things are extremely unclear here, Carol.

COSTELLO: Got you, Chris. I guess the best news coming out of this is that the FBI and the CIA managed to work together to get this guy.

BURNS: Well absolutely, and they -- the FBI and other kinds of agents here were given a free hand to operate in Pakistan during the Daniel Pearl case. So it is absolutely no surprise that they had been operating in any sort in this case here in Pakistan. It does appear that -- obviously Pervez Musharraf is very supportive of the war against the Taliban, the war against al Qaeda, against terrorism and that is why there is a -- at least a tolerance for American operations like this here in Pakistan, but again, discreetly.

COSTELLO: Very discreetly. Thank you. Chris Burns reporting live for us from Islamabad this morning, thank you.

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