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CNN Live At Daybreak

Mullah Omar May Have Been in Complex Targeted By U.S.; Prison Riot Quelled

Aired November 28, 2001 - 06:01   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get the latest from the Pentagon and word from the Pentagon that U.S. airstrikes on this Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan might have targeted and found Mullah Omar. For more on that let's bring in our Bob Franken.

Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Daryn and of course he is one of probably the two most wanted men in the world, at least by the United States and sources here at the Pentagon said that there was some intelligence that Omar might be at this compound where two sites were hit just south of Kandahar. The reconnaissance -- live reconnaissance video was actually witnessed by the secretary of defense in Tampa.

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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld left the Pentagon control center for the entire United States military for a quick visit to the regional control center CENTCOM. From MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, CENTCOM oversees the 25-nation part of the world that includes Afghanistan, and the commander, Army General Tommy Franks, is running the day-to-day war.

Franks says an important part of that war now is a thorough search for evidence that terrorists in the country were developing chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons -- the weapons of mass destruction.

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GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: We've identified more than 40 places, which represent potential for WMD research or things of that sort. Of those, a great many are currently under opposition leadership control and we are very systematically going about our way of visiting each one of those.

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FRANKEN: So far, says Franks, investigators have found laboratory paraphernalia and documents, but nothing concrete that points to terrorists developing weapons of mass destruction. No evidence, for instance, of the deadly gas sarin and suspicious vials that were uncovered. Franks did tell reporters that the search for Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda and Taliban leaders was focused on areas in the regions surround Jalalabad to the east and Kandahar to the south. That's partly due to intelligence and also logic.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

FRANKS: We do not have yet control of this region by opposition groups. We do not yet have control of this region by opposition groups, and so we'll simply continue to do that. We'll simply continue to tighten the noose.

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FRANKEN: Even though most of the news from Afghanistan seems positive to the United States these days, Secretary Rumsfeld told reporters who traveled with him from Washington that the situation even in the territory wrested from the Taliban is still very dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It was entirely Taliban. It is no longer entirely Taliban. It is partially Taliban and partially opposition forces. But in those towns and in those countrysides are al Qaeda and Taliban people. So the situation is very dangerous.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: Now as for the bombing runs on that Kandahar leadership complex, it was announced to reporters as we traveled with Secretary Rumsfeld back from Tampa, he said to us and other officials have said they really don't know yet who was hit, whether Omar in fact was hit by the bombing runs or what Taliban leadership, if any, was killed in that bombing run -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Bob, you mentioned this a little bit in your piece, but I'd like to hear more about the evidence or perhaps hints of maybe research into bio and chemical weapons within Afghanistan.

FRANKEN: Well mainly what they have found is some paraphernalia. They found a lot of documents -- technical documents, which could indicate that some research was going on into what they called WMD -- weapons of mass destruction. But no evidence, at least, no evidence presented to reporters. Now this does not mean that there was something that they still consider very sensitive, very secret. But at the moment, the official line is that nothing has been found to indicate concretely that there was any development of biological or chemical or of course nuclear weapons going on in Afghanistan.

KAGAN: All right Bob Franken at the Pentagon, thank you very much. More a little bit in the newscast, by the way, about reporting during this conflict and what kind of access reporters have had to the battlefront. First, though we want to go to Christiane Amanpour who is standing by in Kabul with more on this potential hit on the Taliban and one of its leaders Mullah Omar. Christiane, hello once again.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn well the Taliban representative to Pakistan is denying that a leadership compound was hit. He's denying that Mullah Omar was hit and he's basically saying that Mullah Omar is safe and sound.

They're also continuing to deny that Osama bin Laden is in Taliban-control territory. Now you mentioned the difficulties of actually reporters being able to confirm certain things, well the Taliban have prevented almost all reporters from being in the Kandahar region, so it's very hard for independent confirmation of that hit that took place last night to verify the claims by the Taliban or by the U.S. of what actually was hit and who may or may not have been killed.

On another issue, weapons of mass destruction, the Pakistanis are saying that two of their atomic scientists have been redetained. They're not saying exactly why, but recent reports have surfaced that these two or at least one of those atomic scientists had opened a relief organization here in Afghanistan several times had close ties with the Taliban and recently journalists have found in one of the buildings that was used as a relief organization documents and text that describe anthrax.

Apparently these text appear to have been downloaded from the Internet and particularly from sites of the U.S. Defense Department, particularly talking about how to immunize against anthrax and the concerns the U.S. has about anthrax being used against its soldiers in the field. Nonetheless, everybody a little bit worried about the connection or the seeming connection, at least being between text of these documents in Afghanistan connected potentially to some of Pakistan's senior scientists -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Christiane, what is the status of those scientists right now? Aren't some of these men, they have been taken into custody and then released?

AMANPOUR: Well they were taken into custody earlier a few weeks ago basically after the United States intelligence officials raised questions about their potential links with the Taliban and with the al Qaeda and with Osama bin Laden. It was considered at the time that these scientists had been instrumental in building Pakistan's atomic weapons and could potentially have given that expertise to the Taliban. That apparently did not measure out.

However, these scientists have now been redetained, rearrested. That was confirmed by Pakistan today because of potential new questions about their role after this anthrax text, although it appears to be a publicly available anthrax text was found in a relief agency building belonging to one of those scientists right here in Kabul.

KAGAN: Christiane Amanpour reporting from Kabul. Christiane, thank you very much.

Although from within Afghanistan you've heard no doubt news of an uprising at a prison that was holding Taliban prisoners. Apparently that prison riot has now been subdued. Our Alessio Vinci is on the scene in Mazar-e Sharif with the latest on that -- Alessio hello.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Daryn. With the battle now over, the grim task of cleaning up the area and retrieve some of the bodies have began. Red Cross personnel have been collection hundreds of bodies and body parts scattered throughout the area here of the fighting. We have taken a walk through the main courtyard where the men battled two place -- between two sides, and it is a horrible scene of death and destruction. We can tell the way (ph) the battle came to an end as the Northern Alliance tanks shot several times a building, crushing it on top of a handful of Taliban prisoners who have been holding up inside a basement. It is difficult, really, to imagine how the Taliban prisoners managed to sustain almost three days the intensity of fire power coming from all sides including from the United States bombing jets.

Red Cross officials are also telling us that bodies will be collected, identified when possible, photographed and buried in mass graves on 20 kilometers outside of town. They're also telling us that they're trying to complete the cleanup as soon as possible to avoid the spreading of disease. But there is still a danger, we're told that there is a handful of Taliban prisoners who may -- who are still buried alive underneath the rubble, and they could detonate hand grenades as rescue workers approaches them in trying to get them out of the rubble and that is a risk, of course, here for the -- both the Red Cross personnel and of course for the hundreds of troops and soldiers here were still inside this fortress.

Meanwhile General Abdul Rashid Dostum has returned to the fortress here, which he uses as a residence as well as the headquarters of his troops. He toured the area of the fighting saying that he believed the uprising was a well-planned plot to kill him and other top Northern Alliance generals. But a Taliban leader with whom Dostum had negotiated the surrender of the Taliban a couple -- last week, was then revolted, saying that the prisoners were mostly foreign fighters and that they had basically acted on their own.

General Dostum also offered some more details about how the uprising may have begun. He said that not all of the prisoners had been fully searched and once they arrived here at the fortress, some of them had managed to smuggle and keep some hand grenades, which then they detonated on Sunday and following the chaos of that event and seized weapons and start shooting and then the story went that there was three days of intense fighting between the two sides, which left more than 400 Taliban dead and as many as 100 Northern Alliance soldiers, as well dead -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, Alessio, you answered my first question, and that was how did these prisoners get the weapons in the first place. Let's move onto the next and what is the future for these prisoners? Where are they going and how will they be held? VINCI: Well Daryn, all the prisoners who were brought here are now dead with perhaps the exception of those few -- as I mentioned, they may still be alive underneath the rubble. General Dostum has also negotiated a further surrender of as many as 6,000 other prisoners from the area of Konduz. Those prisoners will obviously not be brought back here and they're also telling us that extreme protective measures will be taken in the future to avoid this kind of incident repeated again -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Alessio Vinci in Mazar-e Sharif. Thank you.

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