Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Cheney Warns There Could be More Attacks on U.S. Citizens; Northern Alliance Trading More Shots with Taliban Forces

Aired October 26, 2001 - 05:00   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, one of the U.S. government's most secure buildings is sealed after trace amounts of anthrax are discovered in its mailroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A group like al Qaeda cannot be held back in deterrence or reasoned with by diplomats. For this reason, the war against terror will not end in a treaty. There will be no summit meeting, no negotiations with terrorists. The conflict can only end with their complete and permanent destruction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Dick Cheney leaves little doubt about the course of military action against the Taliban.

HARRIS: The birthplace of bin Laden caught in the middle of the conflict. We'll focus on Saudi Arabia and its precarious role in the war against terrorism.

KAGAN: And training for a life of martyrdom.

HARRIS: Good morning. It is Friday, October 26, 2001 and from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Leon Harris.

KAGAN: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Happy Friday to you.

HARRIS: Same to you.

KAGAN: Thank you so much. I'm Daryn Kagan. Thanks for joining us.

HARRIS: All right, let's get right to the latest developments in the war against terrorism this morning.

KAGAN: In just a few hours, President Bush will sign into law sweeping anti-terrorism legislation. The Justice Department says federal agents are ready to immediately implement their expanded authority. HARRIS: Anthrax turns up in a mailroom at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. This Institute doesn't care for patients. The building is about three miles away from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

KAGAN: Still causing concern in the nation's capital. Also, traces of anthrax have been found in a mailroom receiving room at the CIA. The building is separate from the spy agency's main headquarters. Officials say the amount of anthrax is what they call medically insignificant. The building will be closed until more testing and cleaning can be done.

HARRIS: U.S.-led air strikes intensified overnight as the Northern Alliance battled Taliban forces on the ground. Missiles hit targets near Kabul, Bagram Air Force Base and Mazir-i-Sharif. In a speech yesterday to Republican governors, Vice President Dick Cheney says that the air strikes are only the beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: On the military front in this war, we've entered a new stage. The air campaign against the Taliban has been a success. We have destroyed military training facilities, air fields, air defenses, ammunition storage areas, command and control facilities and terrorist camps throughout Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Cheney warns that there could be more attacks on the U.S. and he says that for the first time in history there may be more casualties among civilians here at home than among U.S. troops overseas.

Reaction and more information this morning coming from the Pentagon. Let's check in there now.

CNN's Jeff Levine standing by with the details -- good morning, Jeff.

JEFF LEVINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Well, we're 19 days into the war and one thing is absolutely clear, the U.S. military has control of the skies over Afghanistan. The latest example is the bombing raid against Kandahar on Thursday night. The airport was hit by cruise missiles and the city has been hit time and time again. In fact, over the last several days the Pentagon has brought out video and photographic evidence showing that military targets have been destroyed by air power. And, as a matter of fact, the Pentagon says it's quite pleased by this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: This is proceeding according to our plan and we are at this point so -- I mean that's -- we're, we're, we don't feel this is piecemeal. We feel this is very deliberate, very well planned and success is yet to be determined, but we think we're having some success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVINE: But the Pentagon has also pledged to destroy Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Is that still possible? Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld says it is still a major goal, but not an absolute requirement for victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We are working on a broad front across the world. One portion of the world is Afghanistan. One portion of the problem in Afghanistan is UBL, Osama bin Laden. Now, have we made progress? And I said, and I at great risk will say again, that until you have him you do not have him. So what is progress? Until he is no longer functioning as a terrorist, he is functioning as a terrorist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVINE: Now, the goal of the mission, says Rumsfeld, is to protect the world from terrorism. As part of this, he hopes to bring bin Laden and his followers to justice. But Rumsfeld admits it's like finding a needle in a haystack -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thank you very much.

Jeff Levine checking in from the Pentagon this morning. Thanks -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Checking on British forces, which will soon know more about their role in a U.S.-led ground war in Afghanistan. British military leaders are expected to announce about an hour from now that ground troops will be deployed to help with Operation Enduring Freedom. This is footage you're looking at is from a recent British commando training exercise in Oman.

When the armed forces minister makes that announcement this morning, we'll be bringing it to you live here on CNN.

Meanwhile, while there has been a step up in the air strikes, the Northern Alliance has been trading more shots with Taliban forceS.

Our Matthew Chance is with Northern Alliance troops in Bagram, Afghanistan -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. We're standing in this very forward position just north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, overlooking the Shimali Plains. Of course, the front lines between the Taliban militia and the Northern Alliance opposition forces in this part of northern Afghanistan.

We've been waiting to see throughout the course of today for any further U.S.-led coalition air strikes on those Taliban front lines. We haven't seen much activity in the air so far today, certainly no bombing runs against these Taliban positions. We did see two B-52 bombers flying very high in the skies above here, but no indication that they were dropping their bombs here. Maybe they were returning from a mission elsewhere in southern Afghanistan.

I just want to bring you some information that has come to us through our sources at the foreign ministry within the Northern Alliance here in northern Afghanistan. They say over the last couple of days, those sources, that there have been a series of high level meetings between senior Northern Alliance commanders and political personnel and military figures from the United States and the United Kingdom, from Britain, as well. We're told that the last of those meetings occurred last night, happened last night, Thursday night local time between three U.S. military officers, two generals and one major, according to our sources. One British general was also present at that meeting.

They discussed how best to coordinate the air campaign, the ongoing air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition with a possible ground attack involving the Northern Alliance forces. There was also the possibility discussed of sending military advisers from the United States and Britain to this area here north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, to help try and coordinate that strategy and to come up with a firm kind of a battle plan.

Also, according to our sources within the foreign ministry of the Northern Alliance, one of the interesting things that came out of the meeting last night was that Northern Alliance commanders were passing on their frustration that the targeting information, the targets, the intelligence, the troop concentrations of the Taliban, their positions that they passed on to the U.S. military, they say, had not been hit sufficiently, had not been destroyed. They expressed their frustration the bombing campaign on these Taliban front line positions had not been intensive enough.

It's something the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance, Abdullah Abdullah, has spoken about publicly. He's called -- he called just yesterday for the bombing of the front line positions to be stepped up. Obviously, there have been five consecutive days of bombing now.

In the meantime, we're waiting to see what further military action the U.S. coalition will take in the hours and the days ahead. For the meantime, though, Daryn, it's back to you.

KAGAN: Matthew Chance in northern Afghanistan, thank you -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, other news out of Afghanistan this morning, and maybe perhaps breaking news here, claims that the Taliban could -- what could be a major setback for opposition forces. They are saying that they have captured a key leader during U.S.-led raids around Kabul.

CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon joins us now by telephone from Peshawar, Pakistan. She's got the latest on these claims -- Rebecca, what's the word? REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, the latest is that a relative of the exiled commander Abdul Haq here in Peshawar has confirmed that Abdul Haq was, indeed, arrested in Afghanistan south of Kabul at about 2:00 a.m. local time Friday. And this relative would not go into a great deal of detail and would not, did not want to be identified, but also did say that the situation "was not looking good."

Now, the Afghan Islamic press, which first broke this story, this is a pro-Taliban, Pakistan-based news agency, they reported that there were American helicopters firing at Taliban forces who were trying to capture Haq in an attempt to prevent this. However, that report cannot be confirmed.

We were unable to get any details from the family about exactly what Mr. Haq was doing in Afghanistan, although other associates of his here in Peshawar said that he has been in Afghanistan since Sunday on some kind of peace mission, an effort to gain support for an anti- Taliban coalition within Afghanistan.

There are some conflicting reports about numbers of people who may have been with him at the time of arrest and we are still pursuing that information -- Leon.

HARRIS: Now, Rebecca, I understand that you've actually talked with Haq before, Abdul Haq. You've actually interviewed him before. Can you give us any explanation as to exactly why this may have happened at this particular time? Because as I understand it, his stance really, although he has been an anti-Taliban and has actually been working with some of the opposition forces, he has not necessarily endorsed the U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan and, in fact, had been advising for the U.S. and the British and the rest of the coalition actually to leave Afghanistan, correct?

MCKINNON: Yes, that is correct. He has been speaking out publicly against the air strikes, against any ground forces going in, wanting an end to the Allied action, saying that peace was required or at least no more fighting was required in order to build a political coalition and as long as the fighting was going on that (AUDIO GAP).

HARRIS: Rebecca MacKinnon, thank you...

MCKINNON: Now, apparently he's gone in without fighters. He's gone in apparently on a, what one associate of his called a peace mission. But at this point we're not sure exactly why he went in at this particular time -- Leon.

HARRIS: Boy, that raises a lot of questions.

Rebecca MacKinnon, thank you very much for that report. We'll check back with you later on -- Daryn, over to you.

KAGAN: As we keep hop scotching around the region, let's check in on Islamabad, Pakistan.

And for that, we bring in Nic Robertson -- Nic, hello. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, just to follow up on this possible arrest of Abdul Haq, the Taliban here in Islamabad telling us not only do they confirm that arrest, but they also point to radio broadcasts that have been made before the Taliban's radio system in Afghanistan was taken out of action by Allied bombing.

On those radio broadcasts, the Taliban have been saying that anyone that sides with the king is an act of treason against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and they say that that could be punishable by death. And certainly the indications are at this time that Abdul Haq would fall into that category.

But from our staff in Kandahar today, they report a demonstration there, several hundreds of people coming out onto the streets of Kandahar. Now, this demonstration, we are told, was to show solidarity and to show the United States that they want the United States, as they say, these demonstrators say, to stop bombing innocent civilians inside Afghanistan. Apparently, our staff say, there were other people there holding posters supporting Osama bin Laden.

Now, in the past we know that the Taliban have told people not to gather in large numbers. In fact, just recently they prevented one of our crews going out and trying to film the site of where the Taliban had said a helicopter had been downed because the Taliban said that would be dangerous to put a large group of people out there.

But we do know Friday is the holy day here in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It has generally been a day when bombing over the cities has been somewhat lighter, perhaps these crowds taking advantage of that knowledge to hold their demonstration today. Certainly hundreds of them out there on the streets in Kandahar.

A development here in Pakistan, as well. Pakistani officials say they've arrested two former atomic energy scientists. Now, they say that they've arrested them for questioning because they've been talking to the Taliban. Other sources here tell us that not only were these two atomic energy scientists who worked for Pakistan's atomic energy commission very respected in their field, but they were also very deeply religious people and they left the atomic energy authority, commission, rather, a little time ago and had been inside Afghanistan with the Taliban since the Taliban came to power.

Now, they also say, these sources say that these scientists had been advising the Taliban on scientific matters. But Pakistani officials here stress that as far as they know, and they believe this to be certain fact, that these scientists had not passed any nuclear details on to the Taliban -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Nic Robertson in Islamabad, thank you.

HARRIS: Well, Russia is ready to make a major contribution to the Allied war effort. Details on that coming up in our latest developments.

KAGAN: And a bit later we're going to hear about one Pakistani family that trains for what it calls the ultimate sacrifice. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com