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America Strikes Back: Secretary of State Colin Powell Now in India; Anthrax Scare Has Americans Worried
Aired October 16, 2001 - 08:31 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: Secretary of State Colin Powell is now in India, after wrapping up talks in Pakistan with President Musharraf.
CNN's Walter Rodgers joins us live from its capital Islamabad with the very latest.
Walter, good morning.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Paula. Good morning,
Secretary of State Colin Powell's diplomatic mission to Pakistan appears to be more than a little successful. He managed to coax an important public statement out of Pakistan's President Musharraf, a statement of support for the U.S.-led coalition against Osama bin Laden. At news conference, with Secretary Powell, Musharraf said that Pakistan will stand with the United States -- quote -- "for as long as it takes That in the fight against Osama bin Laden."
Of course, Pakistan is a Muslim country, and Mr. Musharraf said he homes it doesn't take too long. Still, it was an important diplomatic victory for Secretary Powell, because both Washington and Islamabad are both keenly sensitive to the pressure on the Muslim streets, an anti-American pressure. Remember, we are only three days from the Islamic prayer day Friday again. That is the traditional day demonstrations. That may also explain some of the Pakistani anxiety about getting this bombing campaign over with quickly. Still, in their joint news conference, President Musharraf and Secretary Powell seemed to try to focus well beyond the end of the bombing campaign and into the stabilization and the future of South Asia.
President Musharraf spoke first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTANI PRESIDENT: We grieve for the innocent victims in Afghanistan. We regret that the government of Afghanistan jeopardized the interests of millions of its own people. Our decision to support the international campaign against terrorism in all its manifestations is based on principles.
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This isn't just a temporary spike in our relationship, but we believe, as a result of the actions taken by Pakistan over the last five weeks, we truly are at the beginning of a strengthened relationship, a relationship that will grow and thrive in the months and years ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RODGERS: Secretary Powell has now moved on to India. That's because there is a wild card in the diplomatic deck here. That wild card is the disputed territory of Kashmir, claimed by both Pakistan and India.
Last night, the Indians fired mortar rounds across the border. Pakistan became very upset. The United States is more than a little concerned about a possible renewed outbreak of fighting between India and Pakistan. Remember, because of that border dispute in Kashmir, there have been three serious wars between India and Pakistan since 1947. Secretary Powell's mission to India is to try to get both sides to stand down on the Kashmir issue, while the United States is focusing on its war against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda -- Paula.
ZAHN: Walter, it would seem that there is another wild card here today, with talks of the moderate members of the Taliban now offering to hand over Osama bin Laden, or at least try to negotiate the release of him to another country, if America quits its bombing raids against Afghanistan. What do you make of that?
RODGERS: Well, of course that is always been the goal of the Center of Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan. They wanted, and tried and have hoped very much to woo away the moderate Taliban elements from supporting Osama bin Laden. The United States was willing to pay them money, and a lot of it, if indeed they would help the U.S. locate Osama bin Laden, but again, one of the wild cards, as you say, in that deck is the fact that some of these moderate Taliban elements want not only money; they want a major role in any future Taliban government. That's a little hard for United States to promise at this time.
The situation is very fluid over there. The Taliban is not monolithic. And everyone, especially the Pakistanis, want to see some moderate elements from the Taliban included in a new Afghan government -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much for that update. Walter Rodgers, appreciate it.
Back here in the United States, an anthrax scare has got Americans worried from one end of the country to the other. Is there a bioterror attack already under way? We begin our coverage in Washington where tours of Capitol Hill have been suspended after anthrax turned up in the offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
Congressional correspondent Kate Snow is on the Hill with more.
Kate, good morning.
KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
The position of the United States Capitol, telling folks this morning who work here that if they would like to get tested, there will be a facility available for that this morning, or if indeed they would like to get some counseling, that is available as well. They are handing out a public safety notice as people enter for the workday today. The public safety notice telling them that in the heart office building, where Senator Daschle's office is, eight floors in that particular corner of the building will be shut down today. It is a precaution they are taking so they can do some further investigation and check out the ventilation system. Some concern that perhaps something hazardous would could have gotten into the airflow in that corner of building.
On Monday, you will recall a woman opened a letter in Senator Daschle's office, yesterday morning, and that letter contained some powder. That powder tested positive in two initial tests for anthrax. They've sent it to a lab for further testing. About 40 or 50 people were inside that office at the time of the letter was opened. They were all examined and preventively given antibiotics. As of last night, no one had exhibited any symptoms of coming down with anthrax, being infected, including the woman who opened that letter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: She is doing very well. She was administered with antibiotics immediately. They are -- they have told us that it is 100 percent successful, and the treatment of exposure. I have talked to her father, as well as to others, who have been -- other family members who have been exposed. And at least to date, I think we can say with unequivocation that there is every reason to be confident that this situation has been contained.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Public tours of the Capitol, as you mentioned, have been suspended. The Capitol Police telling us this morning, that will still be the case today, no more public tours. And also today, Paula, the mail that was suspended yesterday, the mail will still be on suspension; it will not go out to any of the Capitol Hill offices, Senate or House side -- Paula.
ZAHN: Kate thank you so much. See you a little bit later on this morning. A suspicious letter sent to "The New York Times," and reporter Judith Miller showed no signs of anthrax contamination. She appeared on our own LARRY KING LIVE, and talked about the public becoming more alarmed than they should.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDITH MILLER, "NEW YORK TIMES": You always have to worry about the former Soviet scientists, and others who know how to do this, make sure that they don't link up with people like Osama bin Laden, who would like to have such weapons. But I think the fact that this is technically more difficult than people understand is actually another cause for not panicking in this situation. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Dr. Kenneth Alibek was deputy chief of the former Soviet Union's biological weapons program from 1988 to 1992. He is now president of Advanced Biosystems here in the United States. He says our top priority now should be concentrating on treatment, not vaccinations. He joins us now to talk more about anthrax.
Good morning. Thanks for being with us, sir.
DR. KENNETH ALIBEK, PRESIDENT, ADVANCED BIOYSYSTEMS: Good morning.
ZAHN: It would have seemed to me the emphasis is on antibiotics now. I know we had the owner of Bioport, which actually is the only company right now manufacturing the anthrax vaccination. He said it probably will be many years before that is available to the American public. So do we have misplaced priorities here.
ALIBEK: You know, Paula, anthrax is a very complicated infection. In order to understand how to threat anthrax, how to protect our population against anthrax, we need to understand this infection. What I would like to say now, a lot of agencies, companies, institutions, study anthrax, but you know what is striking and surprising are our real understanding of anthrax infection is not complete.
You know, we just recently started studying anthrax, and we have found a lot of striking differences between what we consider real anthrax now and what is real anthrax in fact, and you know in my...
ZAHN: What I wanted to ask before you go further, then should the American public feel confident if they are exposed to at least the skin form of anthrax, and they take an antibiotic, they'll be OK?
ALIBEK: Yes, that is correct. Anthrax has generally three critical manifestations. There is so-called inhalational anthrax, gastrointestinal anthrax, and skin or cutaneous anthrax. Cutaneous anthrax is less lethal. Infectious dose is very low, about 10, 15 spores, but it's treatable using antibiotics.
It is more difficult with gastrointestinal anthrax. It would require much bigger amount of spores to get infected, but at the same time, fatality is much lower in cases of inhalational anthrax.
Inhalational anthrax, unfortunately, is the most lethal form of anthrax.
ZAHN: And do you have any confidence that a medication would ultimately be developed to cure someone who has inhalational anthrax, or will it always be fatal?
ALIBEK: You know, in my opinion, we've got some very interesting directions developed by some companies and some institutions. So what we need to do, we need to develop, we need explain sometime to develop real treatment. You know, when we focus on one, let me say, part of this infection, we make a significant mistake, because there is no magic bullet to treat this infection, and as I said before, this infection is very complex. And you know, in order to find an appropriate treatment, we need to develop a so-called combination treatment for this infection. We've got some ideas, I mean, scientists in United States. And in my opinion we will be able to solve this problem within a year or two.
ZAHN: Dr. Alibek, final word this morning on the concern that some of your former colleagues who worked in, you know, the Soviet Union, some of them in the bioterror program, some in nuclear program, are now unemployed, and could easily be hired by rogue nations to carry out these kind of attacks. Give us some insight into that this morning.
ALIBEK: If I may, Paula, yes, I would agree with this statement. The Soviet Union create a huge number of scientists involved in development manufacturing anthrax biological weapons. But what we need to do -- and of course some of them, could go to Iran or Iraq. But in my opinion, what we've got now here in the United States must be analyzed very carefully, because when we talk about a strain used in this specific case, we talk about a strain, but you know, the problem is not just the strain used in these cases. What we need to understand, a lot of information could be obtained from all the samples. For examples, just analyzing these samples we can say whether or no it's sophisticated terrorist group, whether or not it was done by professionals or amateurs.
For example, you've analyze particle size. Particle form, we can say how this anthrax was manufactured. If we start the stage of development of these spores, we can say if it was done professional or by some amateurs, many, many things, even using a very small amount of -- small amounts of anthrax powder already obtained, we can say much, and we can make some interesting conclusions if we do this work right.
ZAHN: Dr. Alibek, you obviously have vast knowledge, and we appreciate your sharing some of that with us this morning.
Thank you very much for dropping by.
ALIBEK: Thank you. Thank you.
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