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CNN Live Saturday

Did Pakistan Air-Lift Taliban Soldiers Out of Konduz?

Aired November 24, 2001 - 16:04   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.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: There may be thousands of fighters still in and surrounded in Konduz. Today's "New York Times" reports that Pakistan may have air lifted some pro-Taliban fighters out of Afghanistan. And that's leading to strong denials in both Pakistan and in the United States.

For more, we turn to CNN's Brian Nelson at the Pentagon -- Brian.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Jon. The Pentagon is strongly denying reports that Pakistani aircraft had managed to land in the airport in the city of Konduz. These are secondhand reports from the Northern Alliance, who are quoting Taliban leaders. And what they're saying is that five, in the past couple of weeks, five Pakistani planes have managed to land at that rather damaged airport in Konduz and have ferried out the Pakistani forces, who have been fighting alongside the al Qaeda and Taliban troops inside the city of Konduz.

Now the Marine Colonel David Lapan (ph) told me this. And this is a quote: "Absolutely not, there's no truth to it. We control the skies over Afghanistan."

And Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has made is clear about foreign fighters not being allowed out. And it makes no sense to us that we'd allow any aircraft into that area to do what you described. And he said, there's no way any planes could land in that area, anywhere in Afghanistan, particularly in Konduz, without being detected by U.S. surveillance. And he finished by saying everyone seems to like a conspiracy theory.

Now in other news, the military is also watching the surrenders as they're playing out in Konduz and Mazar-e Sharif and elsewhere in Afghanistan. Although they have some uncertainty about how it's all going to play out in the end.

A spokesman for the U.S. central command said that the U.S. military personnel has personnel on the ground right now, monitoring the surrenders in Konduz and Mazar-e Sharif. It's also watching through electronic surveillance means, presumably that means drones and satellites.

But the U.S. is leaving the prisoner issue solely in the hands of the Northern Alliance. Said that spokesman, "We have no idea how that is going to play out." And asked if foreign troops who surrender or who are captured would be interrogated by the U.S. on the ground there in Afghanistan or perhaps might be flown out to more secure camps either in the United States or some third country, he says, "We can't say because we don't know."

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, as we said earlier, said that the U.S. has no interest in being a jailer, It has not the personnel nor the interest in being able to jail and feed thousands of these Taliban prisoners on the ground in Afghanistan. And those positions have been conveyed to the Northern Alliance personally by the General Tommy Franks, the commander of the U.S. central command.

So the situation is so fluid that we're told that the U.S. is not committing itself to anything yet on the ground regarding those prisoners until the dust settles in Afghanistan -- Jon.

MANN: Brian, it's not clear that Washington has a vote in what happens, but has it expressed any opinion at all? Does it want to see the prisoners dealt with in one way rather than another?

NELSON: Well, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld talked about that last week. He was pretty clear about it. He said we either want to see them captured or we want to see them killed. I mean, you can't get any more explicit than that.

MANN: Brian Nelson at the Pentagon. Thanks very much.

NELSON: Thanks.

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