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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bin Laden May Have Paid for Escape to Pakistan

Aired December 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So let's talk more about Osama bin Laden. We are learning more this morning about Afghan intelligence reports that say bin Laden is now in Pakistan. A top Afghan official says a well-known independent military commander who was fighting against bin Laden may have actually been the one to help him escape at a price.

Commander Haji Zaman apparently raised suspicions after he requested a cease-fire in the Tora Bora area. The official says that's when bin Laden paid Zaman a large sum to take him to an Islamic group in Pakistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he doesn't have any idea where bin Laden is though, so searches continue in the Tora Bora caves for any al Qaeda holdouts.

CNN's Nic Robertson is monitoring developments in the eastern Afghanistan Mountains and he joins us now live with the latest from there -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's conflicting information here. If we talk to the Eastern Alliance commanders who are working with the U.S. Special Forces in these mountains, they say though there are so many U.S. Special Forces they can't actually put a number to them. But what we have seen here in the last few hours are what appears to be two groups of U.S. Special Forces headed away from the mountainside.

They were -- each group was headed by a Toyota pickup, the vehicle that most of the Eastern Alliance commanders use, and in those groups were some all terrain vehicles and all those all terrain vehicles is four-wheel motor bike type vehicles for getting into these rugged hills. There appear to be U.S. Special Forces, some of them armed.

Now their vehicles all seem to be packed up with equipment and they all seem to be heading away from the mountainside. It is impossible to say whether they are heading away for good or headed to another part of the mountainside area, but certainly the indication we have from this part of the mountainside near Tora Bora is that this small group of U.S. Special Forces appear to be relocating somewhere else.

However the Eastern Alliance fighters here are still providing security on this mountainside. They're still preventing journalists getting free access higher into the mountains, and they have been told by U.S. Special Forces if they find any al Qaeda bodies on the mountainside, they're not to bury them, but to call the U.S. Special Forces and they can see if there's any information that can be gleaned about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts -- Carol.

COSTELLO: That they're leaving -- does that mean they don't think Osama bin Laden is in that area?

ROBERTSON: What it may mean Carol and this is what we've seen over the last couple of weeks, it is now almost since the U.S. bombing here in the mountains ceased when the al Qaeda camps were overrun by Eastern Alliance fighters, is a lot of low-level caves in the mountains that have now been searched. They appear to contain ammunition -- in some cases there were some workout equipment. But they appear to have been relatively small caves.

What we haven't seen so far are these so-called super caves that appear to be at the heart of Osama bin Laden's operation. There appears to be no evidence to support that they exist perhaps in this particular area of these mountains. So perhaps, perhaps and we don't know because we don't get any information from U.S. Special Forces here -- perhaps they have finished looking at the caves in this area and they're moving off somewhere else.

What we've seen in these mountains, where we've been up there, been able to get up is destroyed villages, caves with the fronts of the caves collapsed in by rubble from bombing. Some of the caves opened; some of the caves still closed. So it appears as if at least in this area the Special Forces may be finished, but for right now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, good enough. Nic Robertson live from eastern Afghanistan this morning.

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