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CNN Live Saturday

Twenty al Qaeda, Taliban Detainees Spend First Full Day in Cuba

Aired January 12, 2002 - 17:14   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Twenty al Qaeda and Taliban detainees are spending their first full day at the detention center in Cuba. The Associated Press is reporting that one of the war captains at what's become known now as Camp X-Ray is a British citizen. A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office says that officials are still trying to confirm his identity. The detainees arrived at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba yesterday and the head of security for the detention center says that they spent a calm and peaceful first night in their accommodations, which are six by eight- foot chain-link cells.

To talk a little bit more about the detainees and the other military developments that we've seen over the last 24 hours, we welcome former NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark, who is joining us again from Little Rock, Arkansas. Thanks for being with us today.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Can you explain to us a little bit about what's going on there in Cuba with this so-called Camp X-Ray now, what kind of process it is, where they will no next.

CLARK: Well the detainees are under very heavy security at Camp X-Ray, but the location is such that they're accessible to many different elements of the United States government -- not only the Department of Defense, but the FBI and many other federal agencies who may have intelligence leads that they want to follow up on will be able to come to these detainees, talk to them, and they'll be able to be persuaded, hopefully by offers of assistance and other -- and other means to cooperate with the United States. So this is -- this is the right way to put them in the environment where we can extract information.

CALLAWAY: And if they indeed, as you said, be the right place, close but not too close, being in Cuba, but what happens next?

CLARK: Well I think that remains to be determined. Their legal status is indeterminate and some are probably eventually going to be returned to the countries they originated from. Others may be charged. Military tribunals are still a possibility for some or all of these people. It's just not clear, but what's important right now and it may be a many-months process, get the information from them.

CALLAWAY: Let's go back a little bit to what we were hearing Jonathan talk about from the Pentagon on this area of the coast region of eastern Afghanistan. They're just not letting up on that region. U.S. bombs falling there again. A complex set of caves there, and we're hearing some reports of regrouping, which is what obviously sends the bombs back into that region. Can we expect that to continue?

CLARK: I think we have to be looking, and I'm sure we are, at every al Qaeda camp that's been occupied in the past. Because what we've done is we've broken up al Qaeda and there are individuals and small groups of men who are moving across these mountains. They're looking to reform. They're looking for support and sustainment and leadership and they're naturally going to gravitate back to where they know the logistic sources were.

At the same time, we're out on the ground with Special Forces with some locals in the area and we're targeting these facilities and so, we probably got people on the high ground watching this camp every single day and when they see movement in it, or when they see a new cave opening, or when they see some indication of occupation, then they bring in the bombers again and they strike again.

CALLAWAY: Moving over now to Kandahar, and the Marines moving out, the Army moving in, does this signify a big change in what the role of the U.S. military will be there?

CLARK: Not really. This is just a redeployment for logistic reasons as much as anything else Catherine. The ...

CALLAWAY: Explain that, general. I hate to interrupt, but what do you mean by -- explain what you mean by that.

CLARK: Well the marine packages that go out, normally go out for about six months, and the advantage of the marines is they're on a ship, they're there and if they have to go in, they've got their own lift, their own helicopters to get the men on the ground. That's what happened in Kandahar in the first place. The army troops are going to go in there. They've got about the same capabilities, but they'll be able to stay there longer.

They'll probably be there for six months and then they'll be replaced by other army troops operating, no doubt, from the 101st Airborne Division base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. So it's a logistics rather than an operational matter I would say.

CALLAWAY: General, I have to ask as our last question here, where are we in this war going on in Afghanistan? How far are we from leaving this region and moving on?

CLARK: I think we're going to be in this region some time Catherine. I think you're asking the right question because what we have to understand is we've accomplished the first phase of the objective. We've really broken up the Taliban. We've taken away the opportunity for an organized base for al Qaeda in the region. But we've got to stay here now and drive out the last remnants. We've got to make sure there's no possibility of a threat reemerging, and as the president said, we've go to help Hamid Karzai establish a stable government in Afghanistan, so it can't revert again to a source of international terrorism. That's going to take a longer-term commitment.

CALLAWAY: So where we are is we're not done yet.

CLARK: Not at all. Not at all.

CALLAWAY: All right, General Wesley Clark, thank you for being with us once again.

CLARK: Thank you.

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