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American Morning

One Year Since Start of Afghanistan Bombing

Aired October 07, 2002 - 08:32   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: One year ago today, U.S and British planes began bombing Afghanistan. The massive assault was the start of operation "Enduring Freedom." It came less than a month after the September 11 attacks. But it is an anniversary without celebration. One year later, where are we in that war? What have we accomplished?
And here to look at that, CNN military analyst and former NATO supreme commander, General Wesley Clark.

Nice to see you in person for a change. Welcome.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Nice to be here, Paula, thank you.

ZAHN: First off, let's talk about the significance of this new audiotape that some people are saying is of Osama bin Laden's voice. Here we are a year later, the war on terror continues. No one can prove whether Osama bin Laden is alive or not. And you got folks out there saying that was a tactical blunder on the U.S.'s part not to get him. Was it?

CLARK: Well, I think it's true that it would have been better if we had been able to nab him. To do that, as everyone recognizes now, we would have had to put more U.S. troops on the ground early in that Tora Bora campaign, rather than relying so heavily on the Afghan allies that we had. But on the other hand, we have certainly seen a complete fall-off in the effectiveness of al Qaeda. There have been no more major terrorist attacks. There was one that was attributed to al Qaeda against a synagogue in I think as I recall Tunisia back in April. And there's a lot of chatter on the net, but they appear to be leaderless and adrift.

And the episodic tapes that come out with Osama bin Laden's voice on them, the experts look at it, and they say, well, we don't know if this is Osama bin Laden or not. We have not seen his face. We don't have a body. There is apparently is no information from the families of any of these top people that they have actually been dead. But also we don't quite see, at least as far as has been released to the public, the evidence of the kind of top level coordination that Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri and the rest of them could bring to the terrorist movement. It's gone.

ZAHN: So, does that suggest to you that is he is dead?

CLARK: Well, it says we've done a heck of a good job and it was a really good thing the men and women in the armed forces did, or commander in chief, in going into Afghanistan and carrying the fight to the Taliban and taking away that base area. It's made a big difference.

ZAHN: Although you say we don't seem to be seeing the imprints of the top leadership of al Qaeda right now, the fact remains there are sleeper cells in abundance all over the world.

CLARK: That's right.

ZAHN: Does that show that the war on terror will never get to the core of what this operation is all about?

CLARK: No. I don't think it's quite that bad. But I think over time, we will pick up more and more of these sleeper cells. There will be someone who -- we know Osama bin Laden's son, for example, has been identified as being active. And some people will try to activate these cells. We will be going after them. This will be a two-year, five-year, six-year effort as we strengthen our intelligence communities, work with our allies, put the pressure on, and step by step use law enforcement against them as we've done in Oregon and upstate New York.

ZAHN: The latest polls would suggest that more Americans view al Qaeda as a more dominant threat than Saddam Hussein. Are they right?

CLARK: Well, you cannot neglect the fact that 3,000 people died in this country in the attack from al Qaeda. Saddam Hussein is not an immediate threat to the people of the United States at this point. He's got weapons of mass destruction. He does not have the long-range missiles to strike the United States directly. I guess there is a possibility he could try to smuggle something in. But there has been that possibility for a long time. We know the al Qaeda threat is real and the effort here is to head off a convergence of Saddam's capabilities with the al Qaeda threat.

ZAHN: The president of course makes a pivotal speech tonight on Iraq at a time when the country is debating whether now is the time to go into Iraq. If that decision is made, tell us about the twin track the military will be on when you're trying to continue the war on terror and then an attack on Iraq, if that decision is made?

CLARK: Well, we've got great -- men and women in the armed forces are terrific. We can do both theaters. We've got the combat power to do it; we'll have the commanders looking in two directions, some of them at the top level. Of course, Washington will be looking in two directions. We do need to keep the focus on al Qaeda; we need to stay with the assistance to Hamid Karzai. We've got about 8,000 people there in Afghanistan, plus we've got a lot of intelligence there and special forces there. We don't want to let go of that. We want to keep driving the al Qaeda away and make it difficult for them to reform.

ZAHN: So, you don't see the war on terror being compromised if there is military action in Iraq?

CLARK: I see there are risks in this, and the risks are, first, the divergence of intelligence assets and some distraction from command attention. Secondly, there is the possibility of an adverse reaction not in the Arab governments, but underneath in the Arab street that could supercharge the al Qaeda recruiting machine. It's a matter also of how effectively we do it and how we do it. If we go in very strong, very forceful up front and the war is over quickly, that minimizes the impact. If we go in under U.N. authority, with a lot of allies and especially an Arab coalition behind us, that minimizes the impact in Arab countries. I think it's still open right now to see whether this is in any way a distraction.

ZAHN: General Wesley Clark, great to see you.

CLARK: Great to see you, Paula.

ZAHN: You should stop by more often.

CLARK: Thank you.

ZAHN: Come to the big city. I know you're happy at home in Little Rock, too, but it really is a delight to have you with us in person.

CLARK: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 7, 2002 - 08:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: One year ago today, U.S and British planes began bombing Afghanistan. The massive assault was the start of operation "Enduring Freedom." It came less than a month after the September 11 attacks. But it is an anniversary without celebration. One year later, where are we in that war? What have we accomplished?
And here to look at that, CNN military analyst and former NATO supreme commander, General Wesley Clark.

Nice to see you in person for a change. Welcome.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Nice to be here, Paula, thank you.

ZAHN: First off, let's talk about the significance of this new audiotape that some people are saying is of Osama bin Laden's voice. Here we are a year later, the war on terror continues. No one can prove whether Osama bin Laden is alive or not. And you got folks out there saying that was a tactical blunder on the U.S.'s part not to get him. Was it?

CLARK: Well, I think it's true that it would have been better if we had been able to nab him. To do that, as everyone recognizes now, we would have had to put more U.S. troops on the ground early in that Tora Bora campaign, rather than relying so heavily on the Afghan allies that we had. But on the other hand, we have certainly seen a complete fall-off in the effectiveness of al Qaeda. There have been no more major terrorist attacks. There was one that was attributed to al Qaeda against a synagogue in I think as I recall Tunisia back in April. And there's a lot of chatter on the net, but they appear to be leaderless and adrift.

And the episodic tapes that come out with Osama bin Laden's voice on them, the experts look at it, and they say, well, we don't know if this is Osama bin Laden or not. We have not seen his face. We don't have a body. There is apparently is no information from the families of any of these top people that they have actually been dead. But also we don't quite see, at least as far as has been released to the public, the evidence of the kind of top level coordination that Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri and the rest of them could bring to the terrorist movement. It's gone.

ZAHN: So, does that suggest to you that is he is dead?

CLARK: Well, it says we've done a heck of a good job and it was a really good thing the men and women in the armed forces did, or commander in chief, in going into Afghanistan and carrying the fight to the Taliban and taking away that base area. It's made a big difference.

ZAHN: Although you say we don't seem to be seeing the imprints of the top leadership of al Qaeda right now, the fact remains there are sleeper cells in abundance all over the world.

CLARK: That's right.

ZAHN: Does that show that the war on terror will never get to the core of what this operation is all about?

CLARK: No. I don't think it's quite that bad. But I think over time, we will pick up more and more of these sleeper cells. There will be someone who -- we know Osama bin Laden's son, for example, has been identified as being active. And some people will try to activate these cells. We will be going after them. This will be a two-year, five-year, six-year effort as we strengthen our intelligence communities, work with our allies, put the pressure on, and step by step use law enforcement against them as we've done in Oregon and upstate New York.

ZAHN: The latest polls would suggest that more Americans view al Qaeda as a more dominant threat than Saddam Hussein. Are they right?

CLARK: Well, you cannot neglect the fact that 3,000 people died in this country in the attack from al Qaeda. Saddam Hussein is not an immediate threat to the people of the United States at this point. He's got weapons of mass destruction. He does not have the long-range missiles to strike the United States directly. I guess there is a possibility he could try to smuggle something in. But there has been that possibility for a long time. We know the al Qaeda threat is real and the effort here is to head off a convergence of Saddam's capabilities with the al Qaeda threat.

ZAHN: The president of course makes a pivotal speech tonight on Iraq at a time when the country is debating whether now is the time to go into Iraq. If that decision is made, tell us about the twin track the military will be on when you're trying to continue the war on terror and then an attack on Iraq, if that decision is made?

CLARK: Well, we've got great -- men and women in the armed forces are terrific. We can do both theaters. We've got the combat power to do it; we'll have the commanders looking in two directions, some of them at the top level. Of course, Washington will be looking in two directions. We do need to keep the focus on al Qaeda; we need to stay with the assistance to Hamid Karzai. We've got about 8,000 people there in Afghanistan, plus we've got a lot of intelligence there and special forces there. We don't want to let go of that. We want to keep driving the al Qaeda away and make it difficult for them to reform.

ZAHN: So, you don't see the war on terror being compromised if there is military action in Iraq?

CLARK: I see there are risks in this, and the risks are, first, the divergence of intelligence assets and some distraction from command attention. Secondly, there is the possibility of an adverse reaction not in the Arab governments, but underneath in the Arab street that could supercharge the al Qaeda recruiting machine. It's a matter also of how effectively we do it and how we do it. If we go in very strong, very forceful up front and the war is over quickly, that minimizes the impact. If we go in under U.N. authority, with a lot of allies and especially an Arab coalition behind us, that minimizes the impact in Arab countries. I think it's still open right now to see whether this is in any way a distraction.

ZAHN: General Wesley Clark, great to see you.

CLARK: Great to see you, Paula.

ZAHN: You should stop by more often.

CLARK: Thank you.

ZAHN: Come to the big city. I know you're happy at home in Little Rock, too, but it really is a delight to have you with us in person.

CLARK: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com