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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pentagon Hopeful That bin Laden Can Be Found at Tora Bora

Aired December 11, 2001 - 06:31   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And as we've been reporting all morning there's been a major turn in the fighting at Tora Bora in Afghanistan where hard core al Qaeda fighters and possibly Osama bin Laden are holed up. For the latest we're going to go to CNN's Bob Franken at the Pentagon. Bob, how confident are U.S. officials that Osama bin Laden is in fact still with these al Qaeda fighters who are now surrounded?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not really confident, they are hopeful -- they are hopeful that the variety of intelligence reports that they've gotten have created -- are based on reality, that in fact he's there. Their fondest hope would be that as the combat that's going on around Tora Bora dies down, that the cease-fire takes effect, if the al Qaeda forces do surrender, as we're hearing that they just might by tomorrow at 8:00 local time, which would be quite a bit earlier -- 9 1/2 hours earlier here.

At any case, they would love nothing better than to have the forces go into the caves and find Osama bin Laden -- there he would say something like, I understand you've been looking for me. Now that would be the fantasy. They don't have any idea that that's exactly how it would happen or that he's even there. But at the Pentagon briefing, which was conducted by the Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he did point out that Osama bin Laden is not right now leading a very happy life.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: This is a man on the run, a man with a big price on his head, a man who has to wake up everyday and decide do I keep all the security around me, which I need to make sure that some Afghan bounty hunters don't turn me in, but which help to give a lot of reports about my whereabouts or do I go into hiding. He doesn't have a lot of good options.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

FRANKEN: And as the Pentagon coordinates the U.S. involvement in the search for bin Laden and the entire military effort in Afghanistan it's going to all come back here at 9:30 Eastern this morning, the exact moment three months ago when the Pentagon was hit by one of the airplanes that was commanded by what they now believe to be al Qaeda suicide hijackers. Secretary Defense Rumsfeld is going to have the ceremony at 9:30. It will actually begin with the unfurling of the flag at 9:00 a.m. -- Carol.

LIN: Bob, have you had a chance recently to take a look at the -- at the site damaged there on the other side of the building at the Pentagon and what does it look like if you have?

FRANKEN: It looks like a major construction project, that sometimes you sit and you recall three months before -- the period before that day when smoke was billowing. You had no idea what was going on. It looked like the section of the building was going to crumble, it was so chaotic. Now it is this very massive construction project, which will take a couple of years and hopefully repair the damage to the building, but of course never the damage to those who were here and had to suffer through it.

LIN: You bet. All right, thank you very much. Bob Franken reporting live from the Pentagon this morning.

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