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Your World Today
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Confesses to 9/11 Attacks and More; Pervez Musharraf Under Fire for Suspending Judge; U.N. Working on new Resolution Against Tehran
Aired March 15, 2007 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: "From A to Z." Terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is said to confess to a long list of terror attacks and plots, including the beheading of a U.S. journalist.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pakistani lawyers object rather violently. A growing row over the nation's chief judge and accusations of misconduct.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's our people. Let's help, you know, families here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Adoption misconceptions. Some say overseas is not always better.
MCEDWARDS: And it's been seen for more than 100 years, but only now have scientists determined it's unique.
It is noon in Washington, 9:00 p.m. in Islamabad.
Hello and welcome to our report broadcast the world.
I'm Colleen McEdwards.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.
From London to Geneva, Baghdad to Berlin, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
MCEDWARDS: Well, the Pentagon says his own words prove his guilt -- "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z."
CLANCY: That's right. U.S. officials saying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of September 11th, has now confessed to that attack, and to many others.
Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr is following the story. She joins us with more details of the reported confession and the attacks that he took credit for.
What did he have to say about Daniel Pearl and the loss of his life?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Jim, his words about the murder of "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002 were perhaps the most disturbing. We want everyone to know that the Bush administration overnight made sure that the Pearl family was aware of the very precise worlds of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, appearing before that military panel at Guantanamo Bay several years ago -- several days ago -- pardon me.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said the following. He said, "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."
Now, of course it had been known to some extent about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's involvement, about that very grisly Internet video showing the murder of Daniel Pearl. But now for the first time, we have the worlds right from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- Jim.
CLANCY: But when you look at the long list of attacks that he carried out, September 11th, that were planned, the ones from Asia, so many different locations, so many different groups that appeared to be involved, how credible is all of this, that one man could have been involved?
STARR: Well, that is what I think we can assume intelligence officials, military officials are still puzzling their way through. In appearing before this military panel, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed offered a list of some 30 attacks, planned attacks, actual attacks, around the world that he said he either had involvement in planning for, organizing, or financing. The list was extensive.
It did start with 9/11. He said he was involved in that from A to Z. Those were his words.
I don't think that's any surprise. Long acknowledged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was a mastermind in the 9/11 situation and a very close associate of Osama bin Laden. But he went on and he talked about his involvement in the 1993 World Trald Center bombing; the involvement with the alleged shoe bomber plot of Richard Reid to blow up airliners; assassination attempts or plots against President Clinton and Pope John Paul II; plans for attacks in California, Chicago and New York; and a number of other very well-known and not so-well known attack plots that he wanted to take responsibility for being involved in.
So, now I think we can assume it's all laid out on the table.
How much was actually known to the intelligence community before from its secret interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, we don't know. But now, at least the American people and other people can log on to the Pentagon Web site, defenselink.mil, and read it all for themselves -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right. Barbara Starr reporting there live from the Pentagon.
We're going to see just how this confession plays in. Obviously, there's going to be questions about how it was obtained. Mohammed just one of 14 terror suspects who were removed from secret CIA prisons there to Guantanamo Bay.
MCEDWARDS: That's right. The U.S. military is now holding hearings to see if they should be declared enemy combatants. If they happens, they can be held indefinitely and then prosecuted by military tribunals.
CLANCY: All right.
Well, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf finds himself in the political hot seat after he suspended the country's chief justice last week. His actions have spawned angry demonstrations, with more that are planned on Friday.
We get details now from Dan Rivers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's not often you see lawyers clashing with riot police. But then it's not often that a country's most senior judge is effectively placed under house arrest, to the fury of lawyers across the land.
CHAUDHRY ABDUL KHALIQ RIND, LAWYER (through translator): The chief justice should be freed, and the Supreme Court, whose job is to give justice to the common man, should be freed from government pressure.
RIVERS: Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was appointed by President Musharraf in 2005, but recently started asserting his judicial independence in a number of cases involving the disappearance of terror suspects and human rights activists. Now Chief Justice Chaudhry has been detained and is due to answer allegations that he misused his power.
The media are barred from the hearing, and the specific allegations haven't yet been made public. It's provoked angry clashes between riot police and lawyers supporting Chaudhry in Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi, with commentators wondering if Musharraf has bitten off more than he can chew.
ZAHID HUSSEIN, JOURNALIST: President Musharraf, by dismissing the chief justice, has triggered a huge political and constitutional crisis. This is unprecedented in Pakistan history that a president has dismissed a chief justice. And it's completely unconstitutional and unlawful.
RIVERS: Critics of Musharraf say he's intimidating the judiciary ahead of crucial elections and a vote in parliament to extend his rule later this year.
Musharraf seized power in a military coup more than seven years ago, and dissent from those in public life is rare. Under the constitution, though, he has to surrender his position as army chief unless he gets support from the supreme court, a body that Chaudhry leads.
Musharraf is thought to be keen to remain in uniform to bolster his standing in the country, but his popularity is waning, with many unhappy at his support for the U.S. war on terror. Chaudhry's hearings will resume today, with the protests in support of him expected to resume across Pakistan, a country suddenly seeming more unstable by the day.
Dan Rivers, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: Six world powers have agreed now on new sanctions that it may try to impose against Iran over its nuclear program. The Iranian president has already said that he doesn't think they will have any effect.
Let's go to Richard Roth, who's at the U.N., for more, where this decision was just made.
Richard, what's this all about?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's keeping the pressure on Iran. More sanctions to come.
The full Security Council may vote, as expected, next week, but the big powers on the Security Council, plus Germany, a nonmember at the current time, have reached an agreement on the key aspects of a new resolution that is going to punish Tehran and President Ahmadinejad for its refusal to stop its uranium enrichment program.
The resolution is a progressive one, said the French prime minister, who we heard juts a short time ago at the U.N. Security Council, outside there after a meeting with the secretary-general. He says it's incremental approach. He says that the Iranians had a choice, that they elected to go in a different direction, not living up to international obligations. And so he says -- France says it's a good approach, the sanctions are not aimed at the Iranian people, they're aimed at the Iranian leadership, and there's strong determination among the Security Council powers.
Key aspects, Colleen, in this draft resolution, a ban on Iranian arms experts, not imports, necessarily; an assets freeze on more individuals than were named in the previous sanctions resolution late last year; sanctions on firms involved in Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile program; and a call on countries to bar new grants and loans.
They had to go in this compromised way, slowly increasing the pressure in order to get China and Russia, who have veto power, to get them on board. There have been, as usual, weeks of discussion and debate. Now they have reached agreement. That's what's important at this stage. A vote likely next week. And as you said, Tehran says this is a piece of paper that can be torn up. Iran has indicated a high-level delegation might attend that meeting when a vote takes place next week -- Colleen.
MCEDWARDS: All right.
Richard Roth.
Thanks a lot, Richard. Appreciate it.
CLANCY: And let's check some of the other stories we are following this day.
(NEWSBREAK)
MCEDWARDS: Well, Angelina Jolie and other celebrities have certainly put international adoptions in the media spotlight.
We hear about them, don't we?
CLANCY: We do. And we also hear form the critics, who say couples that seek to adopt should first look a little bit closer to home.
Alina Cho has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Madonna found her son in Malawi. Meg Ryan went to China. And Angelina Jolie, she's in Vietnam picking up her third adopted child.
The stars make it seem easy. Even glamorous. So many mistakenly believe they have to go overseas to adopt. Not true.
CYNTHIA DIMICELI, ADOPTIVE PARENT: People just don't realize that, how can there be children available for adoption here in the United States?
CHO: Cynthia and Dominic DiMiceli wanted their biological son Joseph to have a sibling. They had trouble conceiving again, so they turned to adoption. They didn't have go far.
DIMICELI: You guys taking a walk?
CHO: They found their son, 4-year-old Michael, in Michigan, adopted him when he was two days old.
DIMICELI: It's our country, it's our people. Let's help, you know, families here.
CHO: Cynthia, now an adoption consultant, says there are many myths about domestic adoptions, mostly that it costs too much and that children aren't available. The truth is, each year American families adopt more than 50,000 children domestically. Only 20,000 from overseas.
AARON BRITVAN, ADOPTION ATTORNEY: If you want to go there for philanthropic purposes to help these children, I say, God bless, they need you. But if you are going over there thinking that there are no children domestically, or what have you, then you are misinformed.
CHO: Aaron Britvan is a long-time adoption attorney and an adoptive father himself. He says it's actually safer to adopt domestically because the child's medical records are readily available. There's also the issue of shady practices overseas. The State Department recently issued a warning about Guatemalan adoptions. Domestic adoptions are often less expensive than adoptions from overseas.
And who can put a price tag on love?
DIMICELI: Michael knew nothing of me but looked at me when I held him. And I looked at him. That was it. I was his mother, and he was my child. And I was going to protect him the rest of my life.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: Well, it has been said that a leopard can't change its spots.
CLANCY: Well, Colleen, don't tell that to the World Wildlife Fund for nature. They have discovered a leopard that is truly unique.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, it is. Now, this cat is called the Clouded Leopard of Borneo. Gosh, you can hardly see it there it's so well camouflaged. Genetic tests by researchers in the U.S. reveal this cat is actually a separate species from its cousins that are found throughout Southeast Asia.
CLANCY: You know, what a fantastic picture of that cat, what a fantastic looking animal. It's just the latest. More than 50 new animals and plants identified in Borneo over -- get this, folks -- just the past one year.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, it's been a treasure trove.
CLANCY: Where have you been hiding, fellow?
MCEDWARDS: Gorgeous.
CLANCY: Up there in the trees.
Well, a dream drive for speed enthusiasts may be coming to an end.
MCEDWARDS: Still ahead here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, the EU tells Germany to slow down.
CLANCY: Also, was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed subjected to controversial interrogation techniques in order to extract that much publicized confession we are hearing about? We'll have some insight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
MCEDWARDS: We are covering the news the world wants to know, and some of the most interesting stories of the day.
This one happened just a short time ago. Five Europeans kidnapped from a remote region in Ethiopia and held captive for almost two weeks, safely back in Britain. Their plane touched down just a little while ago. And they came off that plane, obviously relieved.
This group was abducted in early March. They were released Tuesday in neighboring Eritrea. The group includes three Britons, a French woman and one Anglo Italian. They are all linked to the British Embassy in Ethiopia.
Eight Ethiopians who were abducted along with them are still missing, and there are a lot of concerns for their safety still.
CLANCY: It's one of the few highways in the world without a speed limit. A high octane experience has become a part of German culture, to say the least.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, it sure has. But now the EU is asking Germany to impose a general speed limit on its highways. The EU says it's a measure that's fueled by environmental concerns.
CLANCY: But as our Frederik Pleitgen tells us, for some, it may be ruining the ultimate joyride.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The old German saying goes something like this: liberated roads for free people. Though there are some speed-restricted areas, the autobahn is among the few highway systems in the world with no general speed limit. Something that could change with the EU in the driver's seat.
(on camera): The European Union is asking Germany to impose a general speed limit on its highways. Now, the speed limit would be 130 kilometers an hour. That's about 80 miles an hour. And the rationale behind it is simple -- cars that go slower emit less carbon dioxide.
So today we've gotten ourselves a very fast car, and we're going to find out how much fuel drivers can actually save by going slower.
(voice over): To find out, we have to go fast. Very fast.
The car's fuel consumption rises to almost 20 liters per 100 kilometers, or just over five gallons per 62 miles.
(on camera): Right now, we're doing 230 kilometers an hour. And that's about 140 miles an hour.
Now, at this speed, really, any car would use a lot of fuel. So, right now, what we're going to do is we're going to bring the speed down and see how much fuel we can actually save.
(voice over): Down to 130 kilometers, or 80 miles an hour, the proposed speed limit. The car's fuel consumption is cut almost in half within moments.
We pick up Vana Rie (ph), from the Union for Environmental Protection. He says drivers could cut carbon emissions on the autobahn considerably simply by taking their foot off the gas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The speed limits cut down the CO2 emissions by two or three percent. That is three million tons of CO2. They have an immediate impact. They don't cost anything. And the majority, the vast majority of people in Germany, want it.
PLEITGEN: But some of the drivers we spoke to while in traffic said they were against the general speed limit. "Sometimes I just want to drive the car as fast as it goes," this man says. "I don't think it's a good idea."
"I think not having a speed limit is a cultural thing in Germany," another man says.
The industry says German automakers are against the idea, and politicians are divided on the issue. In the end, pressure from the European Union may force the Germans to downshift their love affair with the automobile.
Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: Well, this is bound to generate a little controversy, I think. So we want to know what you think about this.
CLANCY: Specifically, do you think that the autobahn should, for the first time, have a speed limit?
MCEDWARDS: E-mail us at yourviews@cnn.com. Remember, tell us who you are and where you're writing from. And I guess if you'd be paying for the gas or not.
CLANCY: Yes, that might be good, Colleen.
MCEDWARDS: It might change the answer.
CLANCY: All right.
Things tend to be expensive in the Big Apple.
MCEDWARDS: But how about this, a pizza that goes for, oh, about $1,000? It is actually on the menu at this New York restaurant. CLANCY: Now, the owner says his pizza is worth every single penny of that, with toppings such as caviar, lobster tails, and, well, more caviar. Some people who sample the pizza say it is absolutely delicious.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, it looks good.
CLANCY: I guess that would be -- four slices, $250 a slice.
MCEDWARDS: But is this all a publicity stunt? And wouldn't you rather have your caviar maybe not an a pizza crust? I don't know.
In the old journalistic cliche, we will -- we'll see. That remains to be seen. Time will tell.
CLANCY: Let me tell you, it's getting a lot of press with that one.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, that's right.
Well, one of the world's biggest banana producers has admitted doing business with a terrorist group.
CLANCY: Coming up, we're going to take a closer look at the U.S. government's case against Chiquita Brands International. .
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCEDWARDS: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including the United States.
CLANCY: That's right. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.
MCEDWARDS: And I'm Colleen McEdwards.
Here are some of the top stories we're following for you.
The Pentagon says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to planning the September 11th terror attacks and many others, as well. It says he admitted guilty before a closed door military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. Now in a transcript released Wednesday, Mohammed claimed responsibility for some 30 attacks, including the beheading of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl.
CLANCY: Lawyers in the streets joined by opposition groups all threatening further protests over the decision by Pakistan's president to remove the country's chief justice. President Pervez Musharaf now says he will let the courts decide the top judge's fate. Protesters charged suspending the judge was illegal. President Musharaf says the whole situation is being politicized.
MCEDWARDS: More pressure on Iran and more sanctions in the works for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment. As France's prime minister noted just a moment ago, six nations have just agreed on a package of new penalties, including a wider asset freeze and also ban on arms exports. This could go before the U.N. Security Council for a vote sometime next week.
CLANCY: The World Wildlife Fund for Nature has discovered a leopard that is unique and beautiful. A separate species from its cousins found throughout Southeast Asia, it is known as the Clouded Leopard of Borneo. This is just the latest of more than 50 new animals or plants identified in Borneo over the past year.
MCEDWARDS: Well the banana Chiquita Brands International has admitted now to paying protection money to a notorious terrorist group in Colombia. And now they are in some serious trouble with U.S. authorities who point to illegal payments to other groups, as well.
Now Chiquita says it paid more than a million dollars to a right wing paramilitary group responsible for the killings of thousands of people. But officials say they also made payments to leftist guerrilla groups to areas where Chiquita grew bananas. Now Chiquita says that they made the payments to protect the lives of their employees. Karl Penhaul joins us on broadband from Bogota with more on this -- Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colleen, what Chiquita has admitted is the payment of at least $1.7 million over a period of six years to Colombia's most powerful right wing death squad.
Now as you mentioned, Chiquita said it did that it did that to protect its employees. But some Colombian politicians here familiar with that area of northern Colombia say that the collaboration would have gone much deeper, because, in fact, what the paramilitary death squad commanders said at the time when they were asking the money for Chiquita was that they were going to use that money to drive out communist rebels from banana-growing area.
How did they do that? They did that by attacking the support bases for the guerrillas, the people who they believed supported them, and those include civilians, peasant farmers, leftist politicians, and also union workers.
And what politicians here say is that then made the working environment for Chiquita much more favorable. They could produce more bananas and it was more profitable. Now, that isn't the first time that Chiquita has had dealings with the right wing paramilitary squads.
In 2001, according to a report by the Organization of American States, a ship landed and docked at a Chiquita port facility in northern Colombia. It offloaded 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and almost 3,000 rounds of ammunition. That all ended up in the hands of the right wing paramilitary death squads.
Talking to one of the local politicians who was mayor in that area at the time that these allegations took place; she had this to say about it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLORIA CUARFAS, MAYOR OF APARTADO (through translator): I once said that Colombia's banana crop was stained be blood and that Americans and Europeans were eating bananas that had a history of pain and bloodshed. And today I would say that by all means possible, we must boycott all Colombian bananas and we must sanction Chiquita.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
PENHAUL: What that politician is also asking is that for a much fuller investigation, because Chiquita has admitted it did not pay off the death squads directly, but it channeled money through legal private security companies.
And the legal private security companies at that time were supervised by military commanders, and also by the regional governor. Who was the regional governor in 1997 when those payments began? None other than Alvaro Uribe Velez, the man who is now president of Colombia.
And so, some politicians believe the implications of this case could go much further and that the president himself should be answering questions. He certainly isn't answering them today, though. I talked just a few moments ago to one of his advisors, and he said, so far, the president has no plans to make any statement, Colleen.
MCEDWARDS: You know, Karl, it's sort of hard to believe this is an isolated case. I mean, how much is known about other companies? Is this just all too often the way business is done?
PENHAUL: What we're seeing here now is, according to some of the local Colombian politicians, just the tip of the iceberg.
Already we have seen the administration of the president of Alvaro Uribe involved in what's being called here the parapolitical scandal. That is revelations about senior politicians and their links in setting up right wing death squads who also trafficked cocaine.
Among the politicians that are currently under arrest, currently in jail and being investigated in that scandal are some politicians who are very close to the president himself. So, it's not only companies that are alleged to have financed the creation of these death squads, but also some of the closest politicians closest to the president himself, Colleen.
MCEDWARDS: All right, Karl Penhaul, in Bogota for us. Thanks, Karl - Jim?
CLANCY: Well turning how to Middle East politics. Israel already delivering a swift no to a newly announced Palestinian unity government. Now the United States and the European Unions are taking more of a wait and see attitude on this new government. Even as the Hamas/Fatah coalition is taking shape though, it is facing huge hurdles both inside and outside the Palestinian territories.
Ben Wedeman reports now from the West Bank
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ramallah policeman Abu Ahmed (ph) directs traffic with flare, finesse, and fancy footwork, skills Palestinian politicians tried to hone during protracted, painful negotiations which have finally born fruit.
Prime Minister designate and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh announced Thursday that agreement has been reached on a coalition government.
"We all hope to turn a new page," he declares, "to a new dawn, to a new era. I bring these good tidings to the Palestinian people."
A government including ministers from Hamas and its main factional rival, Fatah, could just might end sporadic factional fighting which has left almost 100 Palestinians dead since last year.
"Hopefully they'll re-establish order," says construction worker Mohammed Hassan (ph). "That's the most important thing."
Equally as important, resumption of international aid, suspended since Hamas, considered to be a terrorist group by the U.S., came to power last spring. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who also leads Fatah, is trying to mend fences with Hamas and revive peace talks with Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wants to deal with this through diplomatic means, through political settlement, and to tell the international community, deliver. We are united, we have one voice, and we are calm, deliver.
WEDEMAN: Delivery of diplomatic ties of international aid may be a problem.
(on camera): The Palestinian national unity government has been months in the making, and now that it appears that its formation is almost certain, Israel is already raining on its parade.
(voice-over): The quartet, the U.S., European Union, Russia and the U.N. has laid down three conditions any Palestinian government must explicitly express: renunciation of violence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel says the new government doesn't make the grade.
MIRI ISEN, ISRAELI SPOKESMAN: We will not recognize, we will not deal with a government that does not openly accept the three international principles. We will not deal with any portions of this government, and we expect the international community to stand firm in continuing not to recognize such a new Palestinian government.
WEDEMAN: On a cold, rainy day in Ramallah, Rabiya Suriya (ph), dispenses sandwiches and politics from his corner shop.
"If Israel's intentions are good," he tells me, "and it wants peace and stability, it will even deal with Satan, not just Hamas or any national unity government."
So now all sides may need even more flare, finesse and fancy political footwork. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Ramallah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: Well still ahead, more on the statement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
CLANCY: And on the techniques that the U.S. may have used in his interrogation. We have a closer look coming up in our "Insight" segment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MCEDWARDS: Welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.
CLANCY: Seen live across more than 200 countries and territories all around the globe.
And returning now to our top story, the reported confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of September 11th. The Pentagon admits that he played the major role planning those terror attacks in the United States, but also dozens of others. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has been following this story. He's in Kabul, Afghanistan and joins us now by broadband. Nic, how is the story being viewed here? Does it surprise you at all?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly illuminates how al Qaeda has worked, and how they used Afghanistan. If you look at what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says what he was involved in, 1994, a planned assassination of President Clinton in the Philippines. That was before al Qaeda came and made a big base in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden initiated that in 1996 when he left Sudan and came here.
And what we see Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claiming that he was involved in here, and there are some people that are skeptical about all these different plans that he says, and operations and successful attacks he says he was involved in, but when al Qaeda had a bigger operating space, when they were able to have their own training camps, and they were able to feel stable enough to group together and plan big operations in the late '90s, those operations, the planning for them became bigger.
The implication that we learned through Khalid Sheikh Mohammed here is that they don't need a big territory to make these plans and operate from. They do better and can be more effective in their own terms when they do have territory the size of Afghanistan, where they can run their own training camps.
And that is what worries a lot of people here right now, because the border area with Pakistan is an area where many intelligence experts believe al Qaeda is getting stronger, that the Taliban is getting stronger there and therefore they're creating this and secure operating environment for themselves where they can plan perhaps some of those big type of attacks again, Jim.
CLANCY: You know, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was seen too as a playboy, a man who took the girls for helicopter rides and saw himself at the best restaurants, drank all kinds of other things.
Are we really to believe all of this? Because he does allude in one part here, and a lot of it was taken out by the CIA, but he does allude to the possibility he was mistreated as this was extracted.
ROBERTSON: He does imply that, and he says, as well, and perhaps this seems counter intuitive for sort of a hardened terrorist, as many people view him, and certainly being involved in 9/11, as he says he was, that's exactly what he would be, he says he is sorry that children were killed, that so many people were killed.
That doesn't really quite fit the mold of a really hardened terrorist. It doesn't perhaps fit the mold of what one would expect Osama bin Laden, or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri to say if they were captured. Certainly, the 9/11 Commission also thought that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was perhaps overstating his involvement. Perhaps he does want to go down in some sort of al Qaeda history as a hero figure, Jim.
CLANCY: All right, Nic Robertson reporting to us live from Afghanistan. As always, Nic, thank you very much.
MCEDWARDS: Well, Mohammed's testimony runs about four pages. Now, that's four pages single spaced. It's quite a document. He was told that he could say whatever he wanted to say, so long as it was relevant. But it is what Mohammed did not say or could not say that has many wondering if he can be believed at all. CNN's Ralista Vassileva has more now in "Insight."
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no one knows for sure what techniques interrogators used to get information out of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In a written statement released by the military tribunal, he does assert that he was abused, but the transcript does not go into any details.
There have been reports thought that Mohammed could have been subjected to water boarding, making suspects truly believe that they are drowning. The prisoner is bound to a board head down, cellophane wrapped around the head and water poured on the face.
And another technique used in the past, and we don't know if it was used on Mohammed, extreme cold. The suspect sits naked in freezing temperatures, doused with water.
And another one, sleep deprivation, where prisoners are forced to stand, hands bound, feet shackles, bright lights shining in their eyes and loud music blaring. Last year, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which outlaws the use of inhumane methods, but it still gives the U.S. president some flexibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This country doesn't torture. We're not going to torture. We will interrogate people we pick up off the battlefield to determine whether or not they've got information that will be helpful to protect the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VASSILEVA: Well despite the president's assertions, critics say torture seems to be growing more acceptable to Americans. They point to a popular TV show that frequently portrays torture in the name of national security. Carol Costello has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Torture as a tool. It's used often, and effectively, in the FOX TV counterterrorism drama "24."
KIEFER SUTHERLAND, ACTOR: Four CCs.
COSTELLO: That's "24's" good guy torturing his own brother. Jack Bauer, the tough, sensitive undercover operative justifies his actions to save America from Islamic extremists who have just detonated a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles.
That the fictional hero would torture is disturbing to Human Rights First. It worries American soldiers want to be like Jack.
(on camera): Why do you suppose a soldier in Iraq would want to be like Jack Bauer?
DAVID DANZIG, HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST: Well, Jack Bauer is very seductive. He's a hero. He is always right. He always wins. He saves the day in the end.
COSTELLO (voice-over): And while that sounds farfetched, Ken Robinson, a national security analyst that served in special operations units, including the CIA, says "24" is becoming a problem.
KEN ROBINSON, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The United States military is concerned about it because they've started receiving evidence that soldiers in the field have been impacted by it down range in Iraq. Utilizing techniques which they have seen on "24," and then taking them into an environment in the interrogation booth.
COSTELLO: FOX declined to talk to us, but one of "24's" co- executive producers in a podcast interview with TVWeek.com.
DAVID FURY, FOX'S 24: One would think that their training would be far more extensive in the real world and that they'd understand that this a heightened reality.
COSTELLO: And from Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who portrays Jack Bauer.
SUTHERLAND: There hasn't been a torture sequence that my character has been involved in that there isn't some kind of negative repercussion, whether it's emotional.
COSTELLO: Still, Danzig's group, and a general from West Point went to meet with "24's" writers to get the show to depict torture in a more realistic way.
To show the audience such tactics don't work, are against the Geneva Convention and hence have consequences.
Danzig is hopeful a change is in the works.
(on camera): As for what the Defense Department says about all of this? Well, we did receive this statement. It says, "Our police is to treat detainees humanely. Our men and women who handle detainee operations are professionals. They understand the difference between a TV show and reality." Carol Costello, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Well the U.S. military now also has clearer instructions on how to handle interrogations. Last year, a new law barred the admission of evidence obtained by cruel and inhumane treatment. Back to you.
CLANCY: Ralitsa, thank you very much for that. Now in a moment, we're going to check your responses to our e-mail question of the day.
MCEDWARDS: We've got a fistful of e-mails here. We want to read them. Should speed limits be eliminated on the German autobahn? Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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MCEDWARDS: Well, for some people there is no greater thrill than being able to sort of stretch the engines legs, as you are going down the road. So what do you think of possible speed limits on some of the world's most liberating highways?
CLANCY: Yes, we've been asking this question. Do you think that the autobahn in Germany should have a speed limit?
MCEDWARDS: Valentin in Hong Kong writes: "The autobahn and its freedom on speeding is the most internationally recognized characteristic of Germany."
Valentin goes on to say: "To take that away would almost be as bad as banning beer consumption in Germany."
CLANCY: Yes, they feel that way in Bavaria, for sure.
David in Leeds says:"I understand the climate issue, but isn't America the first port of call on such issues, not a small E.U. country?"
MCEDWARDS: Wow, trite.
EHT in Hamburg writes: "A speed limit on German highways would save many lives."
CLANCY: And Alejandra in New York City had this to say: "We need cars that don't speed, because we humans are not responsible enough to control the tendencies of going to extremes."
Now the Germans would say, that's not our problem.
MCEDWARDS: That's right. Well, keep sending us your e-mails. Our e-mail address again, yourviews@CNN.com.
CLANCY: We got a lot. I think it's about four to one, though, people, those of you, do not want to see the speed limit imposed on the autobahn in Germany.
MCEDWARDS: Well many politicians don't, either. So it will be interesting to see what happens over there. That's it for now. I'm Colleen McEdwards.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy and this is CNN.
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