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CNN Live At Daybreak

Prisoners to Arrive in Cuba Around 8:00

Aired January 11, 2002 - 06:02   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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A C-141 plane carrying the first group of al Qaeda and Taliban detainees to a U.S. Navy Base on Cuba, as I told you before, is in the final stages of its flight. For an update we go to CNN's Bob Costantini. He's live at the Pentagon this morning. Good morning to you Bob.

BOB COSTANTINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. The flight of the detainees could be landing at Guantanamo around 8:00 a.m. Easter Time, about two hours from now at the very earliest, and that's if everything goes according to plan. About the best we can tell you is that there are no reports of problems. Few details about the 8,000-mile journey have been released and even the arrival at the naval base in Cuba is going to be shrouded in semi-secrecy.

News crews will not be allowed to photograph the prisoners as they get to the base. They will be allowed to simply witness it. Construction crews worked Thursday finishing makeshift outdoor cells of wood, metal and chainlink fencing in what's being called Camp X- Ray. Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners will be closely watched there.

The first 20 were loaded on one transport plane Thursday to start the 20-hour trip from the U.S. base in Kandahar. They were hooded, sedated, and chained to their seats with two guards reportedly for every prisoner. The head of the U.S. Central Command, General Tommy Franks was interviewed on CNN's "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, COMDR. U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Well what we'll do is we'll begin with smaller numbers and be sure that we have this process working just like we want it to work and then we'll -- then we'll increase the numbers. So we started with a small size.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTANTINI: The plane was to stop at an undisclosed location to put the detainees on another aircraft for the final flight to Guantanamo. As the first prisoners were being flown out of Afghanistan, the base at Kandahar came under small arms fire. Snipers had apparently penetrated a parameter around the air base. U.S. Marines returned the fire and the exchange ended quickly with no reports of casualties on the base.

Now the facility at Kandahar holds hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners and they are all eventually expected to be transferred to Guantanamo -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And the reason for the tight security at Guantanamo, Bob, is because they want to avoid any sort of prison uprising, kind of like the one that happened in Mazar-e Sharif.

COSTANTINI: That is correct. The situation in Mazar-e Sharif weighs heavily on the minds of defense officials and that is of course in November where al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners who were kept in a large fort area rose up and took control of some of the arms and killed some of their captors, eventually had to be put down, but many of them showed that they were willing to die to perhaps kill some Americans and some of their captors as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Bob Costantini reporting live for us from the Pentagon this morning. We thank you Bob.

Let's talk more about Cuba now. It may be softening its stance towards the United States and one example is seeing Havana's reaction to the arriving detainees. CNN's Lucia Newman has the story from Guantanamo Bay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the only land entrance to Guantanamo Naval Base, the sign at the gate reads Republic of Cuba, preterritory of the Americas. A gesture of defiance in the face of what Cuba's communist government calls a painful thorn in its side. All the more surprising, then, Cuba's muted reaction to the arrival of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners.

On a government conducted media tour of the Cuban-controlled site of Guantanamo, General Jose Sola (ph), second in command of Eastern Cuba's army said Havana did not consider the prisoner's arrival a security threat.

"We haven't taken any specific precautions," says the general. "First because we hope the Americans are taking all of the high security measures necessary and second because we've long had our own security measures in place to deal with any situation."

The general added, though, that any problems with the Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners would be solely the responsibility of the United States, not that the prisoners would have an easy time getting out by land. The entire area surrounding the base has been mined by Cuba. The Americans withdrew their mines several years ago. But despite the fact that Cuba and the United States are declared political enemies, according to the general, communications between the military commanders on both sides of the naval base have improved in the last six years.

Few countries have been as critical of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan as Cuba, yet in the last few weeks, Havana has indicated it wants cooperation with Washington in the fight against terrorism. Its low-key response to the arrival of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners could be a beginning.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Guantanamo, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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