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CNN Live At Daybreak

Look at Military Strategy in Afghanistan and Two High-tech Planes Heading Over There

Aired November 01, 2001 - 05:12   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: Time now to check the latest developments. Attorney General John Ashcroft says no breakthrough is near in the anthrax case. Ashcroft says that investigators are still trying to find the source of the anthrax found in three letters and some government buildings.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Pentagon sources say two high tech war planes are heading to Afghanistan to aid the bombing campaign. One aircraft is an experimental unmanned spy plane. The other one is a radar plane that spots targets on the ground.

CALLAWAY: And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visits Moscow tomorrow to discuss the war against terrorism. Rumsfeld then heads to Central Asia.

We're going to head now to the Pentagon with Ed Lavandera and find out a little bit more about military strategy over in Afghanistan and the two high tech war planes that are heading over there -- what's the latest?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catherine, the latest is that over the course of the last 24 hours the U.S. military forces in Afghanistan have engaged in an attack, attacking the front line, the Taliban front lines. The idea is to cut off communication and supply lines to the Taliban. And they're also hoping that over the course of the next couple of days, perhaps the next couple of weeks, that the northern town of Mazir-i-Sharif will be bombed enough so that the Northern Alliance could soon topple that down, and they're hoping that that would allow ammunition drops to be brought into the country and that they're hoping that a lot of this bombing campaign that we've seen over the course of the last 24 hours will weaken the Taliban front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADM. JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: I can say that their command and control has been cut, severely downgraded. They're having extreme difficulty communicating one to another. Mullah Omar is still their leader, their commander. They're still attempting to be able to communicate with Mullah Omar. They are also trying to be resupplied and reinforced and they're having difficulties in all of that.

We believe that that puts a terrific amount of stress on their military capability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And as you mentioned, they're also, the Pentagon announcing to everybody that they will introduce the use of two high tech war planes in the region, as well. One of those is called the Global Hawk, and that is a, these are weaponry and aircraft that will help the U.S. military track moving forces along the ground. They will also use an aircraft known as the J-Star. And the idea, of course, behind this is as the air campaign continues over Afghanistan and the troops along the front lines scatter and move throughout the region they hope that these aircraft, these high tech surveillance planes will help the U.S. military forces on the ground and in the air track the movements of Afghan -- or, excuse me, the Taliban forces on the ground right there as well as aiding the Northern Alliance troops that are fighting against the Taliban, as well.

Also, in the "Washington Post" this morning, the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, writing an opinion piece where he also engages in a broader discussion of this military campaign and this war on terrorism, saying that the U.S. needs to look beyond this war and start thinking about the other kinds of attacks and the other kinds of dangers that are lurking out there in the world.

He discuss that the U.S. and its military needs to be aware that from now on the idea of a war might not be classified into one specific theater, but it's a more vague and a more far reaching sort of threat that the U.S. is under -- back to you.

CALLAWAY: All right, and Ed, can you tell us a little bit more about the Global Hawk? We know that the Predator had been used, and it also is an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. But why are they now bringing in the Global Hawk?

LAVANDERA: Well, it was used very effectively during the Persian Gulf War and as we mentioned it's also, it helps now that the air campaign has been going on now into its fourth week as these troops on the ground scatter and move throughout the country, that there is a lot of information that's needed in finding out where these Taliban forces are moving to and the al Qaeda forces are moving to. And the hope is that some of these high tech airplanes will be able to help the U.S. military forces track the movement of those groups.

CALLAWAY: All right, Ed Lavandera at the Pentagon, thanks for joining us this morning.

HARRIS: Coming up in just a few minutes, we're going to check and see if there's any evidence of this increased intensity in the bombing campaign that Ed's been talking about. We'll check in with our Matthew Chance, who's with the Northern Alliance folks in northern Afghanistan. And we're also going to take another look at life over in that part of the world. We've been seeing quite a bit on how different it is over there from here in the us. Like, for instance, here you wouldn't expect to see people walking around in the United States just carrying machine guns on the streets, would you?

CALLAWAY: No, you wouldn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Pakistan's wild west, where a man is measured by the size of his weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLAWAY: Still ahead, CNN's Carol Lin takes us to Quetta, Pakistan for a look at the country's underground gun market. It's all ahead, so stay with us.

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