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CNN Live Today
U.S. Lawmakers Urge More Involvement in Afghanistan's Security
Aired July 08, 2002 - 11:29 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: Some U.S. lawmakers are saying the United States should be directly involved directly in Afghanistan's security. This comes after one of country's three vice presidents, Haji Abdul Qadir, was assassinated Saturday in broad daylight in Kabul. He was buried yesterday in Jalalabad, his home province. The assassins escaped, but members of Qadir's security force were immediately arrested for negligence.
Turkey is currently in charge of maintaining law and order in Afghanistan cities and towns. American troops are not actively involved. Out in the countryside, however, it is a very different story. And our Nic Robertson joins us from Bagram air base with more about that. Nic, hello.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's where we've been today, out in the countryside, in the east of Afghanistan. Now, that is the area close to the border with Pakistan, but it is believed Taliban and al Qaeda come and go across the border in and out of Pakistan, in and out of Afghanistan.
We went there today with British wolverine (ph) commanders, and they were putting into place what they called Eagle VCPs. Eagle because they come in by helicopter, VCP for video checkpoint. What they do is they fly up those remote valleys, looking at the roads, those valleys that link Afghanistan into Pakistan. And when they see a vehicle on those roads, they fly down and stop the vehicle very, very quickly. Troops deploy out the back of the helicopter. What they're looking for are weapons, they say only large weapons. Only so many people, they say, have small machine guns. They're not bothered about that. They're looking for mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft type guns, this sort of thing.
But they say what they're really trying to do goes beyond trying to confiscate weapons. What they want to do is to deny that area to the Taliban and to al Qaeda, to stop them using it. And they believe that these random helicopter vehicle checkpoints will do that, because no one can predict where the helicopter will land, which area it will be in. When we were with them today, we covered several hundred miles of border area, flying around in Eastern Afghanistan, and they checked many, many cars in that area -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And what kind of response do these U.S. troops get when they pull people over? Those people look more -- friendlier than if someone got pulled over at a drunk driving stop here in the states. ROBERTSON: For the most part, most people seem to be very friendly towards the troops. Now, what the troops tell us is that, for the most part, people want them to be there. They do want them to help them get rid of Taliban, al Qaeda. They want them to get rid of the -- the heavy weapons around the countryside. So at the moment, they seem to be fairly well accepted.
Some of the soldiers say they recognize, and they've drawn on their experience at working in Northern Ireland, which is where these British troops have developed this tactic of surprise checkpoints. They say in Northern Ireland, back in the 1960s, the situation was the same. The population welcomed them in, but that changed. And they say they fear that happening in Afghanistan, that if they stay too long and impose too long, then they won't become welcome. But that right now, they say they're welcome. They say they haven't seen any Taliban and Al Qaeda, and a few -- and only on one occasion have they actually been shot at, and no one was injured in that incident -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And, Nic, if you know, what's the noise you hear in the background? You're standing at Bagram Air Base. Are those planes firing up?
ROBERTSON: Absolutely. We are so close to the flight line here. Every day and night -- in fact, there's more at night, it seems to be, when you're trying to get sleep, the helicopters are taking off on nighttime missions, the planes are taking off. We were up at 4:30 this morning. The air tanks were taking off. A very, very busy flight line right here.
KAGAN: Nic Robertson, joining us from the very busy flight line at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Thank you very much.
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