Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: We Need To Support War Against Terrorism

Aired September 17, 2001 - 07:18   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now I head to Washington, D.C., where Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state during the Clinton administration, joins us this morning. Thank you very much for being with us. Good to have you along.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: All right, let's start off first with some of the latest developments. We know that Pakistan's top spy and a former ambassador to Afghanistan have personally delivered a demand to the afghan government to turn over Osama bin Laden or face military action from the United States. How do you think the Taleban government will respond to that demand?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think it's very hard to tell how they'll respond. But the fact that the Pakistanis did this is very important. They have been an important link to the Taleban and have given them kind of a sense of security. And the fact that they have gone in and done this, we'll have to see the results. But I do think it's important that they did it and I hope that the Taleban listened to them.

ZAHN: As you know, there is great sensitivity about what kind of phraseology is used. We are told that it is demand and yet Tom Mintier yesterday from Islamabad, Pakistan says over there it is very much perceived as an ultimatum. Which do you think it is?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think to the afghans, to the Taleban, I think it should be something that is made very clear to them that they face a serious threat in terms of military action. I think that, I don't think the words are that important. I think the point here is that action is demanded and everybody is watching and it gives the Taleban one last chance here to join the rest of us in fighting terrorism.

ZAHN: I know earlier on you mentioned the importance of Pakistan getting involved with this. Yesterday I interviewed Dr. Abdullah of the Northern Alliance, who is the leader of the opposition against the Taleban. He is warning America not to trust Pakistan. He says their government is just trying to buy time.

Now, Secretary of State Colin Powell came out after that and said the United States does trust Pakistan. Should the United States trust Pakistan? ALBRIGHT: I think we have to watch everybody that we are asking to work with us in terms of their actions more than their words. I think we have to understand that this is going to be very complicated as it moves out into trying to get support from other countries. And I think that the diplomatic work that is going to be required here will be slow, tedious, difficult and absolutely necessary as each of these countries that have stated their support are going to be using various nuanced words or trying to figure out exactly how to support.

And so Secretary Powell has got a huge job ahead of him and I think everyone should try to be helpful in that regard.

ZAHN: One of the things that Secretary Powell also mentioned yesterday is that an executive order that came down in 1976 under President Ford, which prohibited assassination, is now under review. If executive order is changed in any way, how will that change the diplomacy involved here?

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that if one states that we are now in kind of a war situation in many ways that order doesn't apply anyway. But I think that there needs to be a review of all of this and other countries need to understand that the United States has been attacked on its own territory and that we need to take the appropriate action.

The most important thing here is to keep our eye on the ball and understand that we are involved in a long-term situation where terrorism needs to be dealt with across-the-board and that today is very important psychologically.

We've been talking about the opening of the market. I think it's essential for Americans to invest. We need to invest in America. The rest of the world needs to see us doing that. And this is an important day in that regard, also.

ZAHN: You're talking about the layers and layers of complications involved here and Secretary Rumsfeld said yesterday this is not a campaign that's going to be over in days or months, it will be years. Let's say for a second -- and I hate to deal in hypotheticals, but I think this is a critical question -- when you have the U.S. government calling Osama bin Laden the prime suspect, let's say that the U.S. and its allies are able to find him, bring him to justice or they end up killing him. There are many people out there that say that won't stop this terror. Who else do you have to get?

ALBRIGHT: Well, there clearly are other people involved in this and people have talked about getting the head of the snake and trying to disconnect the dots and make sure that the leader of it, if, indeed, it is Osama bin Laden, sis taken care of. But the bottom line of why everybody's saying it's going to take so long is that there are other people obviously involved in this in different countries, in different places generally. And I think the hardest part about this for all of us is going to be the fact that we will have to have sustained effort, that there won't be just kind of one clear victory, that there has to be an effort by all to keep working on this and that it's a very complicated and long-term prospect, and that's the hard part.

There's a lot of support now, I think, and clearly a great sense of patriotism and we're going to have to try to figure out how to sustain that over a protracted periods of time.

ZAHN: So, what will President Bush and his, leaders of his administration be up against in keeping these coalitions they're presently building intact? I know yesterday someone indicated they really are looking at creating a number of different coalitions.

ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that we're going to base a great deal on existing alliances. I think the fact that NATO came through so strongly in invoking Article 5, which basically says a hit against one is a hit against all, we will go back to traditional friends and allies. And then there will have to be kind of retail diplomacy where Secretary Powell and those who work with him will have to make sure that each of the countries fulfills what they have said privately or publicly to him and it will have to be sustained day after day.

I know that, for instance, during the Kosovo war, I had to talk to my fellow foreign ministers every single day to make sure that the alliances and agreements stayed in place. And so it's very heavy duty retail work.

ZAHN: One final question for you. I was speaking with someone who was with former President Clinton over the weekend have he expressed to her his frustration and expressed to her how perhaps you had gotten within five minutes of actually getting Osama bin Laden. Did you actually get that close to getting him deliver?

ALBRIGHT: Well, we worked very hard on this. Well, Paula, you know, after the embassy bombings, which was my worst day as secretary of state, we worked very hard to try to get him and came close. And I think that it is unbelievably difficult and frustrating. And I think people need to understand that it's not the lack of will that the U.S. has exhibited over time on this, but the difficulty of trying to do this.

And so obviously it's very frustrating and we need to support President Bush and this administration in trying to continue what we started, was the fight against terrorism.

ZAHN: Madeleine Albright, always good to see you. Thank you very much for your perspective this morning. We appreciate it.

ALBRIGHT: Thank you, Paula.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com