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CNN Live At Daybreak
Israel, Lebanese Hezbollah Conclude Prisoner Exchange
Aired January 29, 2004 - 05:33 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: This bombing, as Matthew mentioned, comes as Israel and Hezbollah and take part in an historic prisoner exchange.
For details on that, let's head live to Beirut, Lebanon, and Brent Sadler.
Brent, explain this to our viewers, what this prisoner exchange is.
BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, it's been taking - taking German authorities some three years to mediate what is a very complicated and multifaceted swap of the living and the dead, Arabs and Israelis. And what you're going to see taking place in the next 24 hours or so is hard-driven bargain.
But effectively, it means that Israel, through the Germans, have been negotiating with Hezbollah, a terror organization. This coming on the day of another terror strike against Israelis in Jerusalem. And this whole prisoner exchange has really created some anguished debate in Israel on the wisdom of the government of Ariel Sharon - really, negotiating, if you like - as being said on the ground here, legitimizing the state of -- status of Hezbollah.
So now, the nuts and bolts, three dead Israeli soldiers, captured three years ago in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah, plus one living Israeli, a reserve Israeli Army colonel, called Al-hannan Tannenbum (ph). He was captured by Hezbollah in what was a sting operation, reportedly, overseas. He was taken three years ago. So they go to Israel, three remains and Tannenbaum. In exchange, Hezbollah gets some 23 Lebanese, one of them a very important Hezbollah sheik, Abdul Karrem Abed (ph), held by the Israelis for 10 years. Plus another important member of the Islamic Resistance. Plus others, including Arabs, a handful of Lebanese, a Sudanese and a Moroccan. As well from - on the Israeli side of the border, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will also be released in the coming hours as part of this deal. And you can bet that Hezbollah's leadership here in Beirut will be doing what it can to take credit for this deal, exploiting this as another blow against Israel by Hezbollah. Hezbollah regarded, of course, by the Israeli authorities, as another arm of the terror network that strikes against Israeli civilians.
Back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Brent Sadler, live in Beirut.
And the picture you're looking at right now, if we could show that live shot again, is actually from Israel. This is at a checkpoint, and I believe these are Arab prisoners being released into the Palestinian territories, and this scene is being replayed at several checkpoints through Israel.
Want to bring David Clinch in right now to help us understand more of why this is happening.
DAVID CLINCH, SR. INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol, good morning.
Well, this is actually one of the most interesting aspects of what we're talking about. We're in Beirut covering the Hezbollah side of it. We're watching in Germany as the Israeli IDF bodies are returned to Israel.
But here is an interesting thing. Hezbollah, as part of this deal, insisted that a number of Palestinian prisoners be released. This is one of the most awkward, annoying and embarrassing parts of this deal for the Israelis, because they really have nothing to do with Hezbollah. Hezbollah always keen to link themselves with the Palestinian struggle, and always, obviously, keen to do whatever it can to embarrass and annoy Israel. They're clearing doing that. A number of Israeli-Palestinian - I mean, Palestinian prisoners being taken by the Israelis to the West Bank and to Gaza and released today as part of this deal.
COSTELLO: And an interesting aspect of this - some were saying Hezbollah was losing legitimacy and because Israel has agreed to this, now Hezbollah has new life.
CLINCH: There are all sorts of aspects top this, of who wins and who loses. And we probably won't know for awhile who wins and who loses. And, of course, there's also the wider of question of how all of this plays into the - what - for want of better of a word - is "dead in the water" peace process. There is no real peace process. Even though an American peace envoy was in the region yesterday and the day before talking to all the sides, still no significant progress. And all of this, of course, happening on a day when there's a suicide bombing.
COSTELLO: And many people wondering too why Israel doesn't negotiate with Yasser Arafat but they are negotiating with a terrorist group, Hezbollah.
CLINCH: Right. Israel absolutely never, ever deals with terrorists, except when they deal when they deal with terrorists. And it's hard to know exactly why they're doing this Hezbollah deal. They have their own reasons. They want to get these bodies back of IDF soldiers. That - as with any army, they want to get their dead back. That's very important. It's a very difficult thing for them, but a very important thing.
But again, it's going to be awhile until we see exactly how all of this plays out.
Now, talking about terrorists, the biggest terrorist of them all - you were away yesterday, but we mentioned yesterday morning some new statements by the U.S. military in Afghanistan about their intentions to catch Osama bin Laden within the next year.
Well, we put that too - during the day yesterday - to our Pentagon and security contacts in Washington, and some interesting things came back - turned into something of a lead story for us yesterday. There is information, according to our security and intelligence sources, that Osama bin Laden has been spotted within Afghanistan itself within the last year.
COSTELLO: That just seems unbelievable.
CLINCH: Well, you know, intelligence is, as we've learned with Iraq, only intelligence. So it's not clear how firm they are on that. But they're certainly following into that.
But more importantly, I think, we learned from the Pentagon that they are planning a spring offensive - another offensive, there had been before - but a large-scale spring offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda hold-outs in Afghanistan.
So, within the next couple of months, when the snow melts, we'll be seeing that in Afghanistan.
COSTELLO: All right., David Clinch, many thanks to you.
CLINCH: OK.
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 January 29, 2004 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: This bombing, as Matthew mentioned, comes as Israel and Hezbollah and take part in an historic prisoner exchange.
For details on that, let's head live to Beirut, Lebanon, and Brent Sadler.
Brent, explain this to our viewers, what this prisoner exchange is.
BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, it's been taking - taking German authorities some three years to mediate what is a very complicated and multifaceted swap of the living and the dead, Arabs and Israelis. And what you're going to see taking place in the next 24 hours or so is hard-driven bargain.
But effectively, it means that Israel, through the Germans, have been negotiating with Hezbollah, a terror organization. This coming on the day of another terror strike against Israelis in Jerusalem. And this whole prisoner exchange has really created some anguished debate in Israel on the wisdom of the government of Ariel Sharon - really, negotiating, if you like - as being said on the ground here, legitimizing the state of -- status of Hezbollah.
So now, the nuts and bolts, three dead Israeli soldiers, captured three years ago in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah, plus one living Israeli, a reserve Israeli Army colonel, called Al-hannan Tannenbum (ph). He was captured by Hezbollah in what was a sting operation, reportedly, overseas. He was taken three years ago. So they go to Israel, three remains and Tannenbaum. In exchange, Hezbollah gets some 23 Lebanese, one of them a very important Hezbollah sheik, Abdul Karrem Abed (ph), held by the Israelis for 10 years. Plus another important member of the Islamic Resistance. Plus others, including Arabs, a handful of Lebanese, a Sudanese and a Moroccan. As well from - on the Israeli side of the border, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will also be released in the coming hours as part of this deal. And you can bet that Hezbollah's leadership here in Beirut will be doing what it can to take credit for this deal, exploiting this as another blow against Israel by Hezbollah. Hezbollah regarded, of course, by the Israeli authorities, as another arm of the terror network that strikes against Israeli civilians.
Back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Brent Sadler, live in Beirut.
And the picture you're looking at right now, if we could show that live shot again, is actually from Israel. This is at a checkpoint, and I believe these are Arab prisoners being released into the Palestinian territories, and this scene is being replayed at several checkpoints through Israel.
Want to bring David Clinch in right now to help us understand more of why this is happening.
DAVID CLINCH, SR. INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol, good morning.
Well, this is actually one of the most interesting aspects of what we're talking about. We're in Beirut covering the Hezbollah side of it. We're watching in Germany as the Israeli IDF bodies are returned to Israel.
But here is an interesting thing. Hezbollah, as part of this deal, insisted that a number of Palestinian prisoners be released. This is one of the most awkward, annoying and embarrassing parts of this deal for the Israelis, because they really have nothing to do with Hezbollah. Hezbollah always keen to link themselves with the Palestinian struggle, and always, obviously, keen to do whatever it can to embarrass and annoy Israel. They're clearing doing that. A number of Israeli-Palestinian - I mean, Palestinian prisoners being taken by the Israelis to the West Bank and to Gaza and released today as part of this deal.
COSTELLO: And an interesting aspect of this - some were saying Hezbollah was losing legitimacy and because Israel has agreed to this, now Hezbollah has new life.
CLINCH: There are all sorts of aspects top this, of who wins and who loses. And we probably won't know for awhile who wins and who loses. And, of course, there's also the wider of question of how all of this plays into the - what - for want of better of a word - is "dead in the water" peace process. There is no real peace process. Even though an American peace envoy was in the region yesterday and the day before talking to all the sides, still no significant progress. And all of this, of course, happening on a day when there's a suicide bombing.
COSTELLO: And many people wondering too why Israel doesn't negotiate with Yasser Arafat but they are negotiating with a terrorist group, Hezbollah.
CLINCH: Right. Israel absolutely never, ever deals with terrorists, except when they deal when they deal with terrorists. And it's hard to know exactly why they're doing this Hezbollah deal. They have their own reasons. They want to get these bodies back of IDF soldiers. That - as with any army, they want to get their dead back. That's very important. It's a very difficult thing for them, but a very important thing.
But again, it's going to be awhile until we see exactly how all of this plays out.
Now, talking about terrorists, the biggest terrorist of them all - you were away yesterday, but we mentioned yesterday morning some new statements by the U.S. military in Afghanistan about their intentions to catch Osama bin Laden within the next year.
Well, we put that too - during the day yesterday - to our Pentagon and security contacts in Washington, and some interesting things came back - turned into something of a lead story for us yesterday. There is information, according to our security and intelligence sources, that Osama bin Laden has been spotted within Afghanistan itself within the last year.
COSTELLO: That just seems unbelievable.
CLINCH: Well, you know, intelligence is, as we've learned with Iraq, only intelligence. So it's not clear how firm they are on that. But they're certainly following into that.
But more importantly, I think, we learned from the Pentagon that they are planning a spring offensive - another offensive, there had been before - but a large-scale spring offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda hold-outs in Afghanistan.
So, within the next couple of months, when the snow melts, we'll be seeing that in Afghanistan.
COSTELLO: All right., David Clinch, many thanks to you.
CLINCH: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
