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CNN Live At Daybreak
New Focus in Afghanistan; Mood Tense in Islamabad
Aired January 08, 2002 - 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: There seems now to be a shift in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. We get the latest from CNN's Jeff Levine at the Pentagon. Good morning to you Jeff.
JEFF LEVINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. It appears that U.S. forces are concluding their search for Osama bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora. Now U.S. planes are concentrating their firepower in Eastern Afghanistan. The area is near Khost on the Pakistani border. The heavy assault began on Sunday.
It's aimed at wiping out Taliban and al Qaeda fighters as they try to escape. Many of the attacks are focused on the Zawar Keely (ph) camp, a suspected terrorist training base. It supposedly contains ordinance, explosives, and tunnels.
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REAR ADMIRAL JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: Restraint was prompted by the intelligence collected that there was a lot of stuff there. That's a large camp. There are kind of three areas to this camp as it moves down this large wadi (ph) above ground and in two separate cave areas. So there are a number of caves to shut down; a number of above ground facilities that have been leveled now or at least most of them have. And after the strikes in the third and fourth, over this weekend, well we hope we find tanks. So something's coming out of the ground and we're after it.
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LEVINE: The targets include mortars, machine gun emplacements, and artillery in this ongoing operation. The Pentagon says some allied planes were flying over Pakistani air space, then came back to Afghanistan to drop their bombs.
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STUFFLEBEEM: We're flying a little bit more than 100 sorties a day and we're using land-based aircraft, the B-1s and the B-52s, our long-range bombers. We're using a carrier-based aircraft and coalition aircraft carrier-based, as well as land-based. They're predominantly flying close air support missions or on call interdiction missions to be called in by the Special Forces working with any Taliban forces.
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LEVINE: Meanwhile the U.S. is investigating the death of Sergeant First Class Nathan Chapman, the first American soldier to die in the Afghan war. His remains are expected back in the U.S. later today. His widow Renae released a brief statement to CNN. It says -- quote -- "Nathan would be happy that the nation supports what he believed in, justice and freedom. Nathan also would like to thank the nation for helping his family when he can't".
By the way there are unconfirmed reports that Chapman died in an ambush, essentially a setup, and that his assailant was a 14-year old boy -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Was that ambush allegedly done by anti-Taliban forces too?
LEVINE: It's really hard to say. It could have been anti- Taliban; it could have been Taliban. The area is so dangerous and so treacherous it's not really at this point possible to say who is responsible, although, as we indicated, there is an investigation underway. I think it's worth pointing out that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in an article in "The New York Times" today says that things in Afghanistan are essentially as dangerous and treacherous as they were a month or two ago.
So even though the Taliban have been largely dismantled and even though al Qaeda is on the run, the environment there is extremely difficult, extremely dangerous and one in which caution is obviously to be used.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. Well said. Thank you. Jeff Levine reporting live for us from the Pentagon this morning.
A group of U.S. senators meet with Pakistani officials today after a stop in Afghanistan and they'll probably find that the mood in Islamabad is very tense. CNN's Tom Mintier is there right now. Tom, what can you tell us?
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the mood is indeed tense. Pakistan has one eye looking towards Afghanistan and the border there and making sure that Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar doesn't make it across. The other eye, of course, looking directly at India involving Kashmir and the tense standoff that exists between the two countries.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in the region and is on his way back to London now. He did stop in Afghanistan after a meeting here, but he spent 90 minutes with Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, discussing Mr. Musharraf's stand on terrorism and that involves also as it is in Kashmir.
Also the tension that exists between India because of the events of October 1st and December 13th. Pervez Musharraf says that the situation is improved because it hasn't gotten any worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) GEN. PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN: We are taking steps within Pakistan to bring some degree of normalcy, balance, tolerance -- a tolerant society introducing a tolerant society, checking any form of militancy from within our society and we know that we've been a victim of sectarian extremism, sectarian terrorism here. All that is being addressed and its final decisions will be given when I come and address the nation in a few days time.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
MINTIER: That address to the nation is seen by most observers as extremely critical, basically outlining the local language, his position, his stance on the crackdown on some of these Islamic militant groups, saying that these people will not be tolerated; closing down three organizations, putting more than 200 people under detention. So this is an ongoing program according to the government, but it is one that could diffuse the situation between India and Pakistan. So everyone is waiting to see what the details are in President Musharraf's speech in the next 24 to 48 hours.
As you said at the beginning, delegation of nine U.S. senators coming from Afghanistan to Pakistan. They, of course, will meet with the Pakistani president later in the afternoon here. Also wondering what might be on that agenda, whether the senators while they're here as an official delegation will indeed bring a message to President Musharraf, basically prepping him for his speech, giving him some input from the U.S. government.
We will be hearing from them the next two hours. They have scheduled a press conference shortly after they've returned from Afghanistan here to Pakistan. We'll hear probably about their experiences in Afghanistan and the reasons for going there and also the reasons for coming here and what they hope to accomplish in the meetings with the Pakistani government and the Pakistani president.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: But they did express the thought that the United States should continue to support Afghanistan while they were there.
MINTIER: Absolutely. Absolutely. They, you know I think this visit to Afghanistan and it's going to be a revolving door basically. We've seen Tony Blair there at the same time as the senate delegation.
And Mr. Blair when he was here saying that the international community must continue to support the situation in Afghanistan; must continue to support the economic reform that's going on; must continue to support the new government.
This was the message that the U.S. senators brought as well, that not just the bombing campaign and attempting to get rid of al Qaeda and the Taliban, but now that the way is clear for peace in Afghanistan being part of the remodeling effort, if you will.
COSTELLO: Okay. Tom Mintier reporting live for us from Islamabad this morning. Thank you very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
