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CNN Live At Daybreak
Hunt for Osama Bin Laden Intensifying
Aired February 26, 2004 - 06:29 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is official -- the hunt for Osama bin Laden is intensifying. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in Afghanistan this morning and he has confirmed Pakistan's military is trying to root out bin Laden.
Let's go in depth now.
We've placed a wake up call to Eric Haney, a founding member of Delta Force, a top secret force used to combat terrorism.
Good morning to you.
SGT. MAJOR. ERIC HANEY (RET.): And good morning.
COSTELLO: Eric, the military in Pakistan has arrested 25 people in recent days.
Is this a sign of better intelligence?
HANEY: Well, they are starting to move. And, yes, the intelligence takes quite a while to develop, because the area that we're looking at and are concerned for the remnants of al Qaeda when they fled Afghanistan was into those border areas of Pakistan, which is known as the tribal areas. And that's a place that the government of Pakistan has had very little reach.
COSTELLO: But they seem to be doing that now. They've arrested these 25 people.
Do we know who they are?
HANEY: Oh, I don't know who they are. It could well be the usual suspects. But in this case, remember, also, that Musharraf has suffered several very, very close assassination attempts within the last two months.
COSTELLO: And I know that there are CIA operatives helping the Pakistani military over the border into Pakistan.
Can you expound on that for us?
HANEY: Well, we do. We have had and are developing and have continued to develop a close intelligence relationship with Pakistan. Now, we also have to realize there's some great difficulty in that in that Pakistan formerly had recognized the Taliban regime. And there are many, large numbers of great sympathizers of that organization, of the Taliban and al Qaeda, within the intelligence and the military services of the nation of Pakistan. So we've been having to walk a fine line there and determine who are, who is loyal to the Musharraf organization and that government, who will collaborate with the United States and who those may be who would funnel intelligence back to the opposition.
COSTELLO: Oh, and that's got to be a hard thing to determine.
You know, from what I understood, the Pakistani military is doing a sort of a grid search in the mountains along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
Will this sort of strategy work?
HANEY: It does, indeed. It works for several things. It causes movement of any of the remnants of al Qaeda. It will help take away the sanctuary that they've enjoyed since the collapse of the Taliban regime and since the change of government in Afghanistan, because they've been able to exist there with relatively safe impunity up until this time.
COSTELLO: So want to take a few guesses now.
When will they get Osama bin Laden?
HANEY: I'm going to tell you what I believe. And I'm not privy to the intelligence that our nation has. I believe the man is dead.
COSTELLO: Really? Why?
HANEY: Oh, that, it would take us 30 minutes to go into that. But I do believe he's dead. There's a possibility, a great possibility, he's not. But even should he be alive, our government, both Rumsfeld and our intelligence chiefs and the field commanders have said bin Laden is no longer effective. What we're going after are those remnants of al Qaeda that are trying to destabilize the new government in Afghanistan, that are trying to perpetuate the assassinations against Musharraf and that are always there plotting future operations in an area that provides them sanctuary. And we're just going to go in and clean that area out.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Interesting.
Thank you so much for joining us on DAYBREAK.
And we should mention that Major Eric Haney has a new book out. It's called "Inside Delta Force," and it's for sale now in bookstores. And it's an interesting book and I'm sure in it you will find his reasons for thinking that Osama bin Laden is dead.
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 February 26, 2004 - 06:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is official -- the hunt for Osama bin Laden is intensifying. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in Afghanistan this morning and he has confirmed Pakistan's military is trying to root out bin Laden.
Let's go in depth now.
We've placed a wake up call to Eric Haney, a founding member of Delta Force, a top secret force used to combat terrorism.
Good morning to you.
SGT. MAJOR. ERIC HANEY (RET.): And good morning.
COSTELLO: Eric, the military in Pakistan has arrested 25 people in recent days.
Is this a sign of better intelligence?
HANEY: Well, they are starting to move. And, yes, the intelligence takes quite a while to develop, because the area that we're looking at and are concerned for the remnants of al Qaeda when they fled Afghanistan was into those border areas of Pakistan, which is known as the tribal areas. And that's a place that the government of Pakistan has had very little reach.
COSTELLO: But they seem to be doing that now. They've arrested these 25 people.
Do we know who they are?
HANEY: Oh, I don't know who they are. It could well be the usual suspects. But in this case, remember, also, that Musharraf has suffered several very, very close assassination attempts within the last two months.
COSTELLO: And I know that there are CIA operatives helping the Pakistani military over the border into Pakistan.
Can you expound on that for us?
HANEY: Well, we do. We have had and are developing and have continued to develop a close intelligence relationship with Pakistan. Now, we also have to realize there's some great difficulty in that in that Pakistan formerly had recognized the Taliban regime. And there are many, large numbers of great sympathizers of that organization, of the Taliban and al Qaeda, within the intelligence and the military services of the nation of Pakistan. So we've been having to walk a fine line there and determine who are, who is loyal to the Musharraf organization and that government, who will collaborate with the United States and who those may be who would funnel intelligence back to the opposition.
COSTELLO: Oh, and that's got to be a hard thing to determine.
You know, from what I understood, the Pakistani military is doing a sort of a grid search in the mountains along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
Will this sort of strategy work?
HANEY: It does, indeed. It works for several things. It causes movement of any of the remnants of al Qaeda. It will help take away the sanctuary that they've enjoyed since the collapse of the Taliban regime and since the change of government in Afghanistan, because they've been able to exist there with relatively safe impunity up until this time.
COSTELLO: So want to take a few guesses now.
When will they get Osama bin Laden?
HANEY: I'm going to tell you what I believe. And I'm not privy to the intelligence that our nation has. I believe the man is dead.
COSTELLO: Really? Why?
HANEY: Oh, that, it would take us 30 minutes to go into that. But I do believe he's dead. There's a possibility, a great possibility, he's not. But even should he be alive, our government, both Rumsfeld and our intelligence chiefs and the field commanders have said bin Laden is no longer effective. What we're going after are those remnants of al Qaeda that are trying to destabilize the new government in Afghanistan, that are trying to perpetuate the assassinations against Musharraf and that are always there plotting future operations in an area that provides them sanctuary. And we're just going to go in and clean that area out.
COSTELLO: Interesting. Interesting.
Thank you so much for joining us on DAYBREAK.
And we should mention that Major Eric Haney has a new book out. It's called "Inside Delta Force," and it's for sale now in bookstores. And it's an interesting book and I'm sure in it you will find his reasons for thinking that Osama bin Laden is dead.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
