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CNN Live At Daybreak

Special Forces in Philippines; U.S. Soldier Repairs Mosque

Aired January 15, 2002 - 06:32   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: More U.S. soldiers are expected to be deployed around the world in the coming years as the U.S. expands the war on terrorism. Analysts suggest the U.S. military presence may some day be found in places like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Somaliu (ph) -- Somalia, rather -- and Indonesia. Hundreds of U.S. troops are scheduled to arrive in the Philippines next week for war games.

CNN's Maria Ressa joins us from the phone from Manila with more on that.

Maria, what can you tell us?

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, just to give you an idea of the headlines here today in Manila, one says "U.S. Troops to the Rescue," another says Abu Sayyaf, that's a Muslim extremist group here, "Abu Sayyaf to Be Used as Live Targets in War Games."

Long before September 11th, the Philippines was fighting this war on terrorism in the Southern Philippines, it's a small island where the Philippine military has been waging war for the last two years. The Abu Sayyaf is a target named after an Afghan fighter. The group was founded by a Filipino veteran of the Afghan war. Its members are trained by Ramzi Yousef, this is a man who is convicted for the first bombing of the World Trade Center. He is a close associate of Osama bin Laden.

In the later years, after the death of its founder, Abu Sayyaf, best known for kidnapping. The group needed $20 (ph) million from ransom (AUDIO GAP), also beheaded several of those they have kidnapped, including an American Guillermo Sobero. They still hold two Americans and one Filipino now.

The war games that you're talking about actually officially begin today, but there are only about 12 to 16 U.S. soldiers here on the ground in the southern Philippines, in Sanguanga (ph). That's the main camp, main staging area before the troops go into Basilan. There (AUDIO GAP) main chunk of the forces come in the beginning (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the full war games to start mid February -- Carol.

COSTELLO: How many U.S. troops are involved in this operation Maria?

RESSA: Well it's interesting because that is -- there's a little conflict there between the U.S. and the Filipino government. The U.S. government says this figure could go up to perhaps thousands (ph). Philippine government, the defense secretary, he's here, says at most about 650. Part of that is the reason is because the Philippine government is really facing a danger of triggering a nationalist backlash. There's a long history. The Philippines is the U.S. only colony -- it's a former U.S. colony here in Asia. For many years the Philippines had the largest U.S. base in the region here.

If you remember in 1992, a streak of nationalism had senators voting against the renewal of that base's agreement. So there's a thin -- a really balance -- a very precarious balance the Philippine government needs to strike between wanting help in getting rid of the Abu Sayyaf problem, but at the same time dealing with psyche, the Filipino psyche, and not triggering that nationalist backlash -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll wait to see what happens. Thank you. Maria Ressa reporting live for us from this morning.

Well one U.S. serviceman repairing a damaged Mosque in Afghanistan has special significance. It gives him a place to pray.

Russell Scott is a Muslim and he told CNN's Bill Hemmer about restoring what he calls home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSSELL SCOTT, U.S. MARINE: When I landed on the strip, and I seen the minuet, and I seen the neon sign, which was in light, just said Allah on it.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): So you could see the Mosque from the airplane?

SCOTT: Right, at nighttime. It was just the light on it. The moon was shining clear right over it. As I landed off the plane, right there.

HEMMER: There it was.

SCOTT: There it was. I was happy. I was like man, I get to pray in a Mosque in Afghanistan.

HEMMER: What did they say happened here? What have you heard? What's the story?

SCOTT: I heard so many stories, I don't know which one is right. I heard this has been like this for years. I heard it was a stronghold for one of the Taliban squads. I heard that bombs had dropped on it. Rubble was from wall to wall. This wall to that wall, above my ankle, above my boot line.

HEMMER: Really.

SCOTT: When I had to step up, I had to literally climb. In order to get in the doors, we had to climb in through a window, which was full of glass and move dirt away. The glass right here, we had to take the glass out because it was just destroyed and you see the hallway there, and stuff, we actually got some of that stuff down, that was going to fall and probably hurt somebody.

The carpet we had to remove because it was full of glass. Outside right here is -- we couldn't walk at all because the rubble -- let me show you real quick -- all this rubble we moved out here, so all the rubble we moved.

HEMMER: That's a lot of carpet.

SCOTT: It's over 500 square foot of carpet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allah Akhbar (ph).

SCOTT: What was done in America on September 11th was not in any conjunction with Islam. It was someone else's ideology and idea of Islam. It's Mosque, no matter what they did in there, this is a Mosque. This is a place to worship Allah.

I'm just trying to restore it, just to get it back open, just -- so I can -- Muslim brothers here, locals who work here, to pray. You know because a prayer in congregation is better than any prayer alone.

I can use it. I can pray. I can take my shoes off. I can walk in without getting cut. I can pray safely without something falling and hitting me. But the other part comes when the locals themselves come in and start planting their seeds, and saying this is our Mosque, and when they start saying let's pray in here with you.

This has got to be pulled out and once again, see the signs are untouched. Right there Allah untouched. The minbar, untouched. As you can see, the bullet holes going around everything. Everything is still legible.

HEMMER: In Arabic script, what does that translate into?

SCOTT: Which one -- this one right here?

HEMMER: Yes.

SCOTT: Translates to God, Allah.

SCOTT: I'm still a Muslim. No matter where I go, no matter who I'm with or where I'm at or what I do, I'm still a Muslim. Islam is strong. It will always be here. I know wherever I go from now on, I know there's a place to go pray. I know there's a -- there's a home for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Bill Hemmer bringing us that soldier's story this morning.

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