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CNN Live At Daybreak
No Bombs Dropped on Afghanistan Since Monday; Rumsfeld Says NATO Needs Upgrade
Aired December 19, 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's a question that's been asked over and over with no clear answer yet. Where is Osama bin Laden? The search for bin Laden or any al Qaeda materials goes on in caves in Eastern Afghanistan. Pentagon officials say bin Laden may be dead or alive in that country or he may have escaped to another country. In the meantime, the latest on the hunt and the bombing campaign, Natalie Pawelski live at the Pentagon this morning. Hi Natalie.
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well there's a lot of talk of the war entering a new phase -- more searching, less destroying. In fact the Pentagon tells us its planes haven't dropped a single bomb since Monday. As for the searching, U.S. Special Forces on the ground in Eastern Afghanistan are combing the last known hideouts of al Qaeda fighters -- several valleys, each filled with hundreds of caves.
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GEN. PETER PACE, JOINTS CHIEF OF STAFF: You want to go a very methodically one by one and if it's been closed by bombs, determine whether or not you want to open it up to see what's in there and if it's not been closed by bombs, you have to determine whether or not it's worth going in. So it's going to be step by step, cave by cave and to put a time limit on that would be imprudent right now.
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PAWELSKI: Pentagon officials say they still don't know if Osama bin Laden is dead in one of those caves, alive in Afghanistan, or on the run somewhere else. While the Bush administration says it will never give up the hunt, it also says in briefing after briefing, that getting bin Laden is not the point of this war.
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PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: The war on terrorism is about more than one man. It's about more than one terrorist network. It's about the whole complex of global terrorist networks that interact and support one another. So we're going to continue to use every tool at our disposal, not just the military to go after those cells throughout the world.
(END VIDEOCLIP) PAWELSKI: In Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, U.S. forces have finished up a sort of jail for Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. The first 15 arrived on Tuesday. FBI agents will be interrogating the prisoners, people the Pentagon believes could know a lot about past al Qaeda activities and perhaps plans for future terrorist attacks. On track to arrive as early as tonight, troops from Britain and Germany part of an international stabilization force as Afghanistan tries to write a new chapter in its often-troubled history -- Carol.
LIN: Thank you very much. Natalie Pawelski with the latest from the Pentagon. Now in a terror war progress report to his NATO counterparts, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says NATO forces must be upgraded. CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre has this report from Brussels.
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JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As NATO ministers in Brussels discuss the best ways for the alliance to combat terrorism, the United States delivered a grim warning.
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DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: September 11th could be a preview of what could come if the enemies of freedom gain ability to strike our nations with weapons of increasingly greater power.
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MCINTYRE: Warning that their capitals could be next on a terrorist hit list, Rumsfeld fronted the NATO allies to fulfill their pledges to boost spending on NATO's under funded and under equipped military so it can operate if necessary far from Europe. Despite the realization after the 1999 Kosovo War, that most NATO nations don't meet U.S. military standards for mobility and high-tech weaponry, little progress has been made.
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GEORGE ROBERTSON: We're still not doing well enough under the defense capabilities initiative. There are still some major deficiencies and some major shortfalls, which ministers reviewed today.
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MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld also complained NATO's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia should have long ago been replaced by a civilian force and is draining valuable military assets away from the fight against terrorism. He called for roughly one-third reduction of the 18,000 NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia. U.S. officials said of the 6,000 troops cut, about 1,000 would be Americans. As for America's hunt for Osama bin Laden, Rumsfeld said simply the effort continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUMSFELD: Neither he nor Omar or several of the other senior Taliban or al Qaeda leadership have been located. We have reduced the number of areas within Afghanistan where they're likely to be. Those areas are being attacked from the ground by Afghan forces with the support of coalition forces.
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MCINTYRE (on camera): NATO has always been cautious about what it calls out of area operations, but Rumsfeld argued that no part of the world is out of NATO's area now given the reach and power of today's weapons and the willingness of terrorists to use them.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, NATO headquarters, Brussels.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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