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CNN Live At Daybreak
Where is Osama bin Laden? U.S. Agents Interrogating Al Qaeda Prisoners
Aired December 19, 2001 - 05:02 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: We begin with a check of the latest developments in the anti-terror war. Tribal commanders tell CNN Taliban fighters have retaken the southern Afghan city of Takhteh Pol some 25 miles from Kandahar. Reports of the takeover after an intense fire fight haven't been independently confirmed, though.
It's been a dirty secret of the Taliban only now coming to light. Today's "Washington Post" reports Taliban soldiers may have abducted hundreds of women and girls during their five year rule in Afghanistan. Many are still missing or have been killed. Many others were sold as sex slaves to wealthy Arabs to bankroll the Taliban. Families of the lost women didn't report them missing for fear the women could be harmed by their Taliban captors or because of the stigma of having their women used for sex.
It's a question that has been asked over and over with no clear answer -- 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 Afghanistan, or he may have escaped to another country.
Right now let's check on the latest, though, out of the Pentagon live this morning with Natalie Pawelski -- Natalie, how does the hunt go?
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, there's a lot of talk of the war entering a new phase, more searching, less destroying. In fact, the Pentagon tells us it hasn't dropped a single bomb since Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: It's a very natural transition from occupying territory that was perniciously held by the enemy to now having most of their territory under opposition control and now beginning to focus in on the pockets of enemy resistance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAWELSKI: On the ground in eastern Afghanistan U.S. special forces are among those continuing the cave to cave search for any remaining al Qaeda fighters and for Osama bin Laden. Pentagon officials say they don't know if he's dead inside one of those caves, alive somewhere in Afghanistan or on the run somewhere else. But while the Bush administration says it will never give up the hunt for bin Laden, it continues to warn of a wider struggle and to say bin Laden's capture or death is not the point of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 are going to continue to use every tool at our disposal, not just the military, to go after those cells throughout the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAWELSKI: In southern Afghanistan, in Kandahar, U.S. forces continue to work clearing mines from the airport and they've finished up a sort of jail for Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. The first 15 prisoners, caught fighting around Tora Bora, arrived Tuesday. And the next troops to arrive in Afghanistan might be British and German forces, arriving as early as tonight. They'll be part of an international stabilization force. Their job, to secure roads and to protect the interim government as Afghanistan tries to write a new chapter in its troubled history -- Carol.
LIN: Natalie, there doesn't seem to be much bombing today over Tora Bora. Do you know if the planes are still flying?
PAWELSKI: Carol, we're being told by the Pentagon that the planes are still up there fully loaded. There are bombers going over looking for targets and special forces and anti-Taliban forces on the ground looking on the ground for targets. But they're not finding them and if they don't find the targets, they don't drop the bombs.
LIN: It makes a lot of sense.
All right, thank you very much, Natalie Pawelski, reporting live this morning from the Pentagon.
If you want to know more about al Qaeda's caves, you can check out our Web site. You can actually see how U.S. forces clean out caves and tunnels. Plus, there's a link to a virtual tour of several rooms inside those caves showing weapons, ventilation systems and a lot more. All you have to do is go to CNN.com. AOL keyword is, of course, CNN.
Right now CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken has more on what al Qaeda prisoners of war are saying.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United States is focusing more and more on the prisoners taken in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials confirm that 15 more had been turned over to U.S. troops, taken to the new detention facility constructed at Kandahar Airport. Five others, including American John Walker, are on board a U.S. assault ship offshore. FBI agents have been dispatched to assist with interrogations.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: Our first priority is to get information from them and first and foremost information that can lead us to the capture of other terrorists and I would say particularly, frankly, the capture of terrorists here in the United States or in other places where they may be planning operations.
FRANKEN: And perhaps information about Osama bin Laden, still unaccounted for. Pentagon officials say they don't know if he's dead at the bottom of a cave in Tora Bora or alive in Afghanistan, or out, although there was a blunt warning to any country that might be considering giving him someplace to go.
WOLFOWITZ: Any country in the world that would knowingly harbor bin Laden would be out of their minds. And I think they've seen what happened to the Taliban, and I think that's probably a pretty good lesson to people not to do that.
FRANKEN: Not that officials have given up on the possibility that bin Laden is still in Afghanistan. The search for him and for Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, the treacherous caves, the land mines, the ongoing military operations, are all evidence that the Taliban and al Qaeda are what the deputy defense secretary described as only half defeated. In Brussels, his boss warned that the worst could be yet to come.
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The task is still ahead of us and it should not be considered that it will be accomplished in a short period of time. It's going to be tough, dirty, hard work.
FRANKEN (on camera): Each day officials here try to come up with a catchy phrase to describe the current situation. Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz may have had the winner when he described the ongoing fight against terrorism by saying the bell ending the first round hasn't rung yet.
Bob Franken, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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