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America Strikes Back: Anti-American Protests Escalate in Pakistan; Following the Al-Qaeda Money Trail; Making Sure Charitable Contributions Get to People Who Deserve It

Aired October 15, 2001 - 08:33   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: We move now To Pakistan, where Muslim militants outraged at U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan have escalated their anti-American protests.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Islamabad with that part of the story -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The important thing today is that Secretary of State Colin Powell is due here soon. It will be the first high-level visit by an American official since this crisis began. And Colin Powell is likely to be heartened by something very important that Yasser Arafat said earlier today in a press conference broadcast on CNN. For the first time, he came out and publicly disassociated himself from the Palestinian issue that Al Qaeda and bin Laden have been using as justification for their attacks on the United States and elsewhere.

What he said was, "Our cause is a just cause, and there can be" -- quote -- "no mix between our just cause, and objectives and methods that are unjust, such as terrorist acts and the killing of civilians, like what happened in the United States.

Furthermore, he said, this is the position of the Arab world and the whole of the Muslim world. He again reiterated that fighting terrorism is not a war on Islam. Very, very important message to the world, as Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden continue to use the Palestinian cause as justification for these terrorist attacks, and very important ahead of Colin Powell's visit, where he will be trying to allay mounting concerns in Pakistan about the effects of this war on Afghanistan and about the idea of whether it is a war on terrorism or a war on Islam. So this is a very important message from Yasser Arafat ahead of this visit.

Colin Powell will be discussing to the Pakistanis prognosis for this campaign. They want to know how long it will continue. It has, again, continued in Afghanistan for a second week today. There have been, according to eyewitnesses, attacks around Kabul, around Jalalabad, Kandahar. Eyewitnesses report that this is the heaviest daytime aerial bombardment that they have recorded since this air campaign began about a week ago. Also, Colin Powell will be talking to the Pakistanis about many things, but especially about the future political arrangement for Afghanistan. I know there has been talk about former Afghan king Zahir Shah (ph), leading an interim broad- based coalition.

Well, Zahir Shah has sent a delegation here to Pakistan, been talking to Pakistani foreign minister, and may talk to Colin Powell, or U.S. officials on this trip into this region. And of course Pakistan concerned that there be no vacuum left in Afghanistan in a post-Taliban Afghanistan -- Paula.

ZAHN: Christiane, thanks so much for that update.

We move across the border now to northern Afghanistan.

CNN's Matthew Chance is covering the frontline from the section of the country now held by the Taliban opposition group the Northern Alliance.

He joins us live -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Paula.

That's right, renewed U.S.-led airstrikes across Afghanistan, sounds like Jalalabad, also on capital of Kabul. Meanwhile, it has been quite quiet here on the Northern Alliance frontline, north of the capital of Kabul.

Let's take a look, though, at the nightscope images that we managed to record for you last night, that's Sunday night, Monday morning local time. You see the flashes lighting up the skies over Kabul. It's difficult for us to confirm from our vantage point exactly what was hit and what was not.

I can tell you, though, witnesses have said that a telephone exchange in Kabul was taken out. It could have been one of the last ways the people of Kabul could communicate with the outside world. And notice the sporadic antiaircraft fire from the Taliban positions. North of the capital, in the Northern Alliance-controlled areas, where I'm standing right now, I can tell you it's been very quiet on that frontline. No sign of an advance by the opposition forces deeper into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, no sign of an advance on to the capital Kabul. They say they have a plan to do that ultimately. They say that is the ultimate prize, but political leaders appear to be acknowledging that there will be difficult decisions to be made before any order is given to advance on Kabul.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, N. ALLIANCE FOREIGN MINISTER: We are like 40 kilometers north of Kabul, and the issue of Kabul is one of political as well as military importance for us, and also, as far as the situation in Afghanistan as a whole is concerned. Moving towards Kabul will need a political decision, as well as a military circumstances.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHANCE: Well, post Taliban of course one of the big international concerns is that Afghanistan is not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the kind of ethnic, factional fighting that ravaged this country since the end of the Soviet invasion in 1989. A lot of diplomatic efforts under way to try to find a political solution.

Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Matthew Chance, thanks so much. The shift in winds highly obvious this morning, as you are just about three weeks from winter there in Afghanistan.

Let's get an update now on the investigation into the funding for the suspected terrorists.

Our own Allan Dodds Frank has been following the money trail portion of investigation. He joins us now from New York.

Allan, there have been some new reports about the role of Saudi Arabia in this investigation. How critical is the kingdom to investigation of the money trail? And are they going to cooperate?

ALLAN DODDS FRANK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good questions. The kingdom is all important. It is of course, the source of bin Laden's money originally, and what the kingdom of Saudi Arabia does also influences what the other kingdoms in the Middle East do.

There are two issues here: one, getting accurate information from them; and, two, once it is obtained, having the kingdom's act on that information. So far the official U.S. treasury line that is they are pleased with the Saudi's cooperation, but in fact, unless something happened over this weekend, not one nickel has been frozen in Saudi Arabia -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well, let's for starters, talk about some of those names that we saw surface on that government list that came out on Friday night.

How vivid an example is that of any Saudi role in all of this?

FRANK: Well, one of the names on the list is a man named Yassin Al Quadi (ph). Now, my sources in the government tell me that the foundation he ran funneled at least, at least $3 million to Osama bin Laden in the form of contributions from wealthy Saudi businessmen. Now as a former member of National Security Council staff who is in charge of looking for bin Laden's money once told me issue here is, what have the main elements? That is almost a euphemism for the royal family and those around the family. What have they contributed to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden?

This gentleman ran this operation through a foundation, and his brother runs another big foundation, which is not yet on the list, but it may soon be added -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well, it's interesting, because we had Seymour Hirsch (ph) on this morning breaking a story with similar information about how corrupt the Saudi royal family is, and he said over a period of time, it is believed that hundreds of millions of dollars have been pumped from the Saudi royal family into these various terrorist networks.

FRANK: I'm sure that that is accurate, at least according to the people who've been talking to me. One of the main ways Osama bin Laden has been raising money, according to my sources, is essentially a protection racket, and so these wealthy businessmen, and sometimes even governments, my sources believe, have been paying off Al Qaeda through these relief organizations that purport to be helping Afghan refugees in order to have the trouble erupt elsewhere rather than right at home -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Allan Dodds Frank, thank you very much for your perspective this morning.

We are going to move to another story now. Nearly one billion dollars has been raised through charitable groups for the victims of the terrorist attacks, much of it with no strings attached.

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer wants to make sure the money gets to the people who deserve it. He joins me now.

Good of you to join us.

ELIOT SPITZER, N.Y. ATTORNEY GENERAL: My pleasure.

ZAHN: I got to tell you, it is so hard to understand how you can have a billion dollars sitting there, and 90 percent of it has gone unclaimed. What kind of a mess is this?

SPITZER: Well, the good news that is it has been a tremendous show of generosity on the part of American public, and that we have seen the tragedy, and the American public has said, here, here is a contribution, and the organizations, from the United Way, the Red Cross, down to kids on a corner selling cookies, have raised a billion dollars.

Now the issue is, how do we organize it? How do we use it in a way that will wise, so we will make sure that it is equitable, that we reach all the people who need help, that we do it with some so that we honor public trust, because really, a billion dollars of public money has been given to these privates organizations. That is the effort we're trying to organize.

Again, the charities will make the decisions, but we want rational decisions that are equitable, that reach all the people who need to be helped.

ZAHN: Yes, but at the same time, you have a much broader group of people affected by this tragedy than everybody first thought. You've got people who can't go back to their apartments, they can't go to work, and then you've got of course the victims's families who are left at home with no wage earnings.

SPITZER: Precisely we have a range of needs. The first needs of course those who are the immediate physical victims of the crime. Their immediate health needs need to be met, housing, food, shelter. We also have economic needs, people who have lost apartments. The small guy, the janitor, who lost a job, who can't make his health insurance payments, those needs as well have to be met. That is why the spectrum of needs that is enormous needs to be viewed in some entire way, some total mechanism needs to be set up so we can view all the needs and establish a way to spend money in a rational mechanism.

ZAHN: Yes, but you've got people out there who are desperate right now. How can you speed up this process?

SPITZER: Absolutely. What we are trying to do is basically say there are short-term needs. The Red Cross, FEMA is meeting those. We are saying to charities, we have to somehow get together to organize a mechanism to spend the money in a rational way to reach needs of those who need shelter, who need health insurance, who need job training, need to pay for their kids's education. The entire range of feeds has to be met. That is precisely why we are trying to set up some sort of overarching mechanism to say, let us be rational in the way we spend this billion dollars.

ZAHN: And you are being given a lot of credit this morning for creating a Web site that might clear up some of the confusion involved with the layers and layers of bureaucracy people have to get involved in.

SPITZER: We are doing our best. Again, it isn't a matter of credits. It's a matter of saying, we have needs, we have a billion dollars, how do you we make sure the money goes to those who have the specific needs? How do we make sure that those who control how the money will be spent, the charities, understand what those needs are and don't forget people.

You know, the senior executives at these companies probably will do fine. The outpouring of generosity for the firefighters, the policemen, absolutely justified. They have loads of money. How about the cook? How about the chef? How about the janitor? The guys at the lower end of the totem pole who might be forgotten, we want to make sure there is a mechanism to reach everybody.

ZAHN: By same token, though, people who have worked very hard to send money to the Red Cross and these other charitable organizations are saying, get this money out, and they think it's weird that the Red Cross is running ads for people to come and get this money, and then you hear reports of people going to get the money, and I'm not just saying, Red Cross in particular, and they are told they got to go to six or seven different people before they can qualify for any of this stuff.

SPITZER: We are trying to set up a centralized mechanism for people, one-stop shopping, as it were.

I mean, on the other hand, I would say this, the charities are doing a stupendous job. This has been a tragedy of unique portions. Obviously, nobody has dealt with this before. The Red Cross, FEMA, the United Way have stepped in, done a wonderful job. I think we have to give them credit. And I would say patience is a necessary commodity here. We don't want to spend all the money in the first month or two months. The needs will continue over many months.

They are still spending money in Oklahoma City to deal with victims's needs out there. That was years ago, so I think we have to understand that the billion dollars, if we want to spend it rationally and make sense, sometimes to hold back and not spend at all in the first two months. There will be needs, whether it is health care, job retraining, housing, that will continue for many, many months, so patience is an important thing to keep in mind here.

ZAHN: And once again, we need to honor the generosity of the American public out there, who've worked very hard to pump this money into these various funds.

Elliot Spitzer, thank you for joining us this morning, and good luck.

SPITZER: Thank you.

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