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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With James Steinberg

Aired January 12, 2002 - 18:11   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: For more on what is exactly going on there at Camp X-Ray, as it is called, we're going to talk to Jim Steinberg. He's former deputy national security adviser under the Clinton administration. He's joining us from Washington. Thanks for being with us today.

JIM STEINBERG, FRM. DEPUTY NATL. SECURITY ADVISER: Pleasure to be here.

CALLAWAY: You know what is going on over there? We know that they're questioning the prisoners, but what -- I guess you have to ask what after -- what happens after that?

STEINBERG: Well I think they have three objectives here. First they would like to get whatever information they can about some of the higher ups in al Qaeda. A second, they would like to show that there's a price to be paid for the kinds of activities that these people are engaged in. But most important, they want to keep some bad actors off the street right now and they think that these are some of the more serious perpetuators involved both in the Taliban and in the terrorist organizations.

CALLAWAY: You know we heard General Wesley Clark saying earlier, about an hour ago, when we talked to him about the situation going on there, are you saying this is a perfect place because they're close but not too close. What are your -- what are your thoughts on that and could we ever see any of these -- any of these prisoners taken to the U.S.?

STEINBERG: I think it's very unlikely they'll be taken to the United States. The attraction of Guantanamo is because it's not U.S. territory. The U.S. Constitution and the laws don't apply there, so they don't have access to federal courts and the United States and the administration has a pretty free hand on how it's going to handle the subject to the court of public opinion.

CALLAWAY: What about the British citizen now? Word that there is a British citizen among this group here, will there be -- will that prisoner be handled differently than the others?

STEINBERG: I think for many of the prisoners, what the administration most likely would like to do is actually turn them back over to the national -- the countries from where they came and let them prosecute them. So if they can work out arrangements with Britain or Saudi Arabia or Egypt or any of the countries from which they came, that may be the best result of all, so we don't end up having to hold these guys indefinitely.

CALLAWAY: You know you said subject to public opinion, but what kind of rights do these detainees have? What are they -- what law -- international law are they being held under right now?

STEINBERG: They have very few formal rights because the administration is choosing not to treat them as prisoners of war, so they don't have the rights under the conventions, the international agreements that cover prisoners of war. But they do have the sort of general obligation under international human rights law to make sure that basic levels of humane treatment are given to them and that's what the administration claims it's going to do.

CALLAWAY: Mr. Steinberg, how costly is it to run an operation like they're running there at Camp X-Ray?

STEINBERG: It's a very costly operation. Now in the past, we've used Guantanamo as a base to temporarily hold refugees who have tried to come to the United States but don't have the right to come here, and it runs to the tens of millions of dollars a year and it's a very man-powering intensive operation. As you can see, they're using a lot of American soldiers to maintain security there.

CALLAWAY: And quickly, any idea how long they'll be there?

STEINBERG: I think, again, that the key is for the administration is to make sure that these people can't go back out and commit new crimes against the United States. So I think that they will be looking for ways to make sure that either they're not dangerous or if they are, that they'll either be dealt with by the military commissions that we're setting up, or by other countries, from the country that they came from.

CALLAWAY: Jim Steinberg, thank you for your insights today. Thanks for being with us.

STEINBERG: Thank you.

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