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CNN Live Today

Administration Holds Judgment on al Qaeda Tape

Aired June 24, 2002 - 12:44   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: The Bush administration is downplaying the significance of a tape from an al Qaeda representative. On that tape, aired by Al-Jazeera television, the spokesman says Osama bin Laden is alive and planning more attacks.

For more, we turn to Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Barbara, what is the latest from there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.

Well, yes, the tape played on Al-Jazeera television in the Persian Gulf over the weekend. Administration officials say, however, they have no way to authenticate the veracity, the truthfulness of the tape. On the tape, the audiotape, there is a man who says he is the spokesman for the al Qaeda. He says that Osama bin Laden and one of his top lieutenants, Ayman Al-Zawahri, are both alive and well, and that 98 percent, he says, of the al Qaeda leadership is still alive, well, intact, and that more attacks are being planned.

Now, administration officials says none of this really changes their calculation, their method of dealing with the war on terrorism. They say that, as long as they have no specific evidence that Osama bin Laden is dead, their working assumption is that bin Laden is alive, probably in Afghanistan, moving across the Afghan-Pakistan border -- no evidence that any of this is true, one way or the other. But they have to have the working assumption that he is alive and that more attacks are always possible, until they get absolute proof and evidence that he is dead, which they don't have.

Senior administration officials do tell CNN that, so far this year, there are no confirmed contacts with bin Laden, no confirmed videotapes made this year, no confirmed radio intercepts, cell phone calls, no confirmed sightings. So, at the moment, it is still as uncertain as ever as to where he may be -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara, switching gears just for a moment, I am told you have update on the violated D.C. airspace stories. You've been reporting a couple incidents in the past few weeks.

STARR: Right.

Of course, last week, that small plane flew close to the White House, causing a lot of concern, a lot of questions about the security of airspace around the nation's capital and around the White House. Well, what we have learned is that, on Friday, there were two more violations of this restricted airspace around Washington, D.C.

Two more small planes accidentally -- they were not a threat. It was an accident. They drifted into this restricted airspace, which is about 15 miles around the nation's capital, an altitude of 18,000 feet, that small planes are not supposed to fly through without special permission. Military planes were not scrambled in these two cases. They were not considered threats. But it does underscore that there is a lot of continuing anxiety around Washington about the whole airspace situation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Barbara Starr from the Pentagon, thank you.

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