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CNN Live At Daybreak
Ashcroft Defends Justice Department Methods; Worldwide Hunt for al Qaeda Continues; Soldier Injured in Friendly Fire Incident During Prison Riot Speaks
Aired December 07, 2001 - 06:30 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: And Attorney General John Ashcroft is defending some tough anti-terrorism policies that critics say are just unconstitutional. But as CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl reports, Ashcroft answered those critics with some criticism of his own.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ASHCROFT, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have detained about 500 ...
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Called before Congress to defend the administration's anti-terrorism policies, Attorney General John Ashcroft turned the tables on his critics.
ASHCROFT: To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this. Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve.
KARL: Ashcroft went on the offensive in response to congressional critics who have questioned the use of military tribunals to try suspected terrorists.
ASHCROFT: Are we supposed to read them their Miranda rights, hire a flamboyant defense lawyer, bring them back to the United States to create a new cable network of Osama TV or what have you.
KARL: Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy had demanded Ashcroft's appearance, hinting he would be grilled on alleged civil liberties violations. But at the hearing, Leahy spent much of the time defending Congress' right to ask questions and pleading for cooperation.
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (R-VT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: As ultimately we work better when we work together.
KARL: Even on that score, Ashcroft wasn't making any promises.
ASHCROFT: In some areas, however, I can not and will not consult with you. KARL: In the audience, Al Sharpton was among those civil liberties advocates exasperated at the lack of tough questions for the attorney general.
AL SHARPTON: I think that he all but drew the line in the sand and they all bowed at the line and I think that clearly it's going to now have to be up to activists to raise the counterpoint to this.
KARL: But the attitude in Congress is a reflection of public opinion. In the latest CNN "USA Today" Gallup Poll on the issue, only 10 percent say the administration has gone too far in restricting civil liberties to fight terrorism. Sixty percent called the administration's actions about right and another 26 percent say the president has not gone far enough.
ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: There is reluctance in some quarters to raise these issues. It's not popular to stand up to the Constitution.
KARL: Republic Arlen Specter and Democrat Russ Feingold both did ask questions about the rights of those in jail in conjunction with the war on terrorism. But they are the exceptions in a Congress not eager to talk about civil liberties during a time of war.
Jonathan Karl, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: U.S. officials say that the search for members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network is not confined to Afghanistan. CNN's National Security Correspondent David Ensor has more on where that search is spread.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: While the world's attention is focused on the fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. military and intelligence officers are quietly carrying on a global war against al Qaeda.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This war on terror is so unconventional that there will be strikes that people may not see until we tell them that there has been a strike.
ENSOR: U.S. and allied efforts against al Qaeda are underway, officials say, in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Somalia, U.S. surveillance aircraft offshore are watching two former al Qaeda training camps in the south of the country, say U.S. officials. No one has forgotten that 18 U.S. Army Rangers died at Somalia in 1993, but experts say military action there should not be ruled out.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: U.S. Special Forces can go in and close those camps without really having to negotiate with any central government because there isn't one in Somalia. ENSOR: Just north, in Yemen, U.S. investigators are working closely with Yemen authorities, but in the Hadramout province, ancestral home of the bin Laden family, the central government has little control.
REUAL GERECHT: It's a very closed society of clans. Everyone knows everybody else and if you are not of those clans, you will learn very little and your freedom to maneuver will be very little -- and in fact, you can be killed quite quickly.
ENSOR: Up along the Red Sea in Sudan, where bin Laden lived in the mid '90s, officials are turning over piles of information on al Qaeda seeking to rid their country of a pro terrorist image. A once powerful Islamic leader Hassan Turabi, whose niece is said to be married to bin Laden is under house arrest. Thousands of miles to the east the battle against terrorism is joined in the Philippines. Authorities there have long sought to crush Abu Sayyaf, a group of extremist Muslim kidnappers with known ties to al Qaeda.
The president of the Philippines was recently promised more military assistance by President Bush. Al Qaeda is also being pursued, U.S. officials say, in Malaysia and in Indonesia. Across the Pacific in the tri-state area bordering Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, U.S. intelligence officials are helping the search for al Qaeda operatives. In Kabul, Afghanistan in one al Qaeda safe house, CNN's Christiane Amanpour found a picture on the wall of a famous waterfall in the tristate area.
And then there is Europe. Al Qaeda cells have been found in Germany, Spain, Italy, Britain, hidden among Europe's growing Muslim communities.
GERECHT: That is where the better troops of al Qaeda go to be trained and to meet their brothers. It is - it is, operationally, arguably much more important than any Middle Eastern country.
ENSOR: The battle is not confined to land. On the high seas, Navy officials say, they are querying some ships coming out of Pakistan looking for al Qaeda leaders trying to flee. Several shipping companies, say intelligence officials, are owned or managed by people with ties to the al Qaeda organization. In recent years, they say, smaller, older freighters, fishing boats, and yachts have been used by al Qaeda to transport supplies, weapons, and people.
(on camera): Even such relatively humble craft in key areas are being watched closely say U.S. officials and could be bordered or even sunk. David Ensor, CNN, Washington.
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CALLAWAY: An American injured in Afghanistan is being honored for his service, but as CNN's Aaron Brown reports, his award is bittersweet because another American didn't make it back alive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: Before he even rode up, there was gunshots going on everywhere. It's very fortunate they're not the best shooters in the world because the shots were just going everywhere. There were shots on the road leading towards the fort, and mortar rounds -- you heard the mortar rounds breaking the walls.
AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little over a week ago in a place most of us had never heard of before the war began, this man, a member of an Air Force Special Operations Unit, was in the fight of his life.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: We were hugging the ground pretty hard. But - so the Northern Alliance guys were saying this is not a good location. You know, they were pretty happy that the Americans were there and they didn't want - they didn't want us to get hurt.
BROWN: His name is Mike, a Staff Sergeant, comes from Connecticut, and that's all we can tell you about him. But for the first time on television, he is being allowed to tell what happened when the Taliban began an uprising at a fortress prison outside the city of Mazar-e Sharif.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: Our main role is to go in and pull out the CIA agent that might be - might be possibly killed. So there was no way to get him out without the - with all the Taliban forces securing the south side. And with the mortar rounds being just to our position, it was - it was evident that we're going to have to call close-air support or else, you know, we might not make it out of there.
BROWN: That instant decision in the chaos of combat nearly proved fatal, because the resulting fire missed its intended target.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: We called in the bird, gave him some information ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey guys, get down.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: And next thing you know, I was flying through the air. I got tossed probably 100 feet, everything went brown - I hit the ground ...
BROWN: And he knew right away, he says, that he'd been hit.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: I was laying there - I had to make sure that I had all my body parts. I wiggled my fingers, wiggled my toes, and I checked my face, see if I was missing my ears or nose or whatever.
BROWN: His eardrums were shattered, he was bloodied, and yet he was the lucky one. A Special Forces officer, a captain, was far more badly hurt.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: He was laying right out in the open. Shots were - he could have been - shots were still flying through the air and where he was is probably one of the worst spots. So we knew we couldn't - we knew we had to go grab him.
BROWN: And grab him, they did, the sergeant says, and took him to safety.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: We were very fortunate, and I thank God that we're alive. It was a - it was a true miracle that all five of us are alive.
BROWN: The Purple Heart he wears now is bittersweet. He says it's an award you get because you've been hurt, but it's a medal he will take back into combat if he is asked.
STAFF SERGEANT MIKE: My brothers are fighting in this war and to be home watching them, it's just - I want to be there with them. They're doing - they're doing an awesome job - special tactics, the para-rescue men there, the combat tours, the combat weathermen, it's they're doing such an awesome job and to be here watching it and I'd like to be there with them.
BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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