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CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghans Retake Hospital; Reporter Taken Hostage; Rumsfeld at X- ray

Aired January 28, 2002 - 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Gunfire also erupted today in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Afghan fighters and U.S. Special Forces launched an assault on a hospital where some al Qaeda members have barricaded themselves.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Kandahar and joins us now with this breaking news -- Ben, what's the situation now?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, that assault has come to an end now, according to a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar. All six members of al Qaeda were killed in the assault. He said that all attempts were made to have them surrender peacefully. They resisted and they fought to the end, according to the governor's spokesman.

The assault went on for a total of 12 hours involving both Afghan fighters as well as U.S. Special Forces. U.S. Special Forces claim that they played only a supporting role in the assault, but certainly from our vantage point where we could see them there were, I would say, playing some very close support to those Afghan fighters there who are loyal to the governor of Kandahar.

Also, according to that spokesman, five of those government troops were wounded in the assault. No U.S. casualties in this event, however -- Carol.

COSTELLO: They've been holed up in that hospital an awfully long time, haven't they?

WEDEMAN: Yes, they've been in the hospital approximately six weeks. They were admitted, having been wounded in the fighting prior to the fall of Kandahar in mid-December. They've been staying in there. They have been threatening to blow themselves up with grenades if anybody tries to take them into custody.

There's been a stand-off, really, for six weeks now in which the Afghan authorities have been trying to persuade the al Qaeda fighters to surrender but it appears six weeks was enough and therefore they decided to go in very early this morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ben, I don't know if you can see the pictures that we can see, but we're seeing right now a man who is outside the hospital but he's sort of like on the second floor walking on a ledge with a gun. Who is that guy?

WEDEMAN: Well, we shot those pictures very early this morning at about 7:30. He appears, from close observation, to be an Afghan fighter. He could well have been trained by the Special Forces. In fact, we, just a couple days ago, were allowed to film Special Forces training these Afghan fighters for close quarters combat and they could very well be the same ones -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's really scary pictures. But the situation is over right now and the hospital has been retaken.

WEDEMAN: Yes, that is correct, Carol. I'm standing right outside the hospital very close to some Special Forces members, in fact. They've allowed the press to go right up to the gates of the hospital. We're still not being allowed in. We're told that the Red Cross will take care of the bodies of the al Qaeda members. But, yes, now the fighting is over and it's quiet here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ben Wedeman, you stay close to those Special Forces soldiers and be careful.

Thank you.

Ben Wedeman reporting live for us this morning. Brave guy.

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai is in Washington today to meet with President Bush and officials with the World Bank. Last night, Mr. Karzai spoke to an audience of Afghan expatriates. He asked them to return home to help in Afghanistan's reconstruction. In an interview, Mr. Karzai spoke of the need for U.S. support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN INTERIM GOVERNMENT CHAIRMAN: The Afghan people want to be with America in this struggle against terrorism to the end of it. But Afghans also want their country to be made, their country to stand back on its own feet. So our people, the Afghans, want America and the rest of the world to stay with us, to help us gain that stage, the stage of standing again on our own feet and running our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Before leaving for New York on Wednesday, Mr. Karzai has meetings scheduled with members of the cabinet and Congress. Mr. Karzai will be the guest on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports." That's tonight at 5:00 p.m. Eastern and again at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. So be sure to catch that.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and four senators are back in Washington after a trip to Camp X-Ray at the Guantanamo Bay Navy Base in Cuba.

As CNN's John Zarrella reports, the bipartisan group backed the U.S. treatment of the detainees.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wasted no time. On the ferry ride across Guantanamo Bay, the secretary staked out his position on the detainees. They are not, in his thinking, POWs.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: In my view, unambiguously are unlawful combatants. Al Qaeda is not an army. Taliban was working intimately with al Qaeda. These are unlawful combatants and as a result they are detainees, not prisoners of war.

ZARRELLA: Rumsfeld, accompanied by the chairman of the joint chiefs and four members of Congress, spent about an hour touring Camp X-ray. They did not talk with detainees. But Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein vigorously defended their treatment.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I just want to ask our friends who are so ready to be critical to take another look because I'll be very candid with you, I would much rather be here in an eight by eight with a breeze than locked down in Folsom Prison in California.

ZARRELLA: Republican Senator Ted Stevens, a World War II veteran, took issue with comments made by British parliamentarians who criticized the detainees' living conditions.

SEN. TED STEVENS (R), ALASKA: I do believe that the British parliamentarians have done us a great disservice and a great disservice to these young men and women here who are trying to take care of these people who, after all, as I said, are killers. And they're not -- they're not war fighters of a foreign nation. They didn't wear a uniform. They don't have patches on.

ZARRELLA: At one point, Rumsfeld was asked about the eight by eight foot cages housing the detainees. He shot back...

RUMSFELD: Why is it you use the word cage? Do you like inflammatory words?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an outdoor cell.

RUMSFELD: Do you think it's good to do that, stir up people and make people think they're animals? I think it's improper to use that word.

ZARRELLA: Rumsfeld said the main reason for his visit was to thank U.S. troops for their work here. He even took time to pose for pictures with them.

(on-camera): All the members of the traveling group said the conditions at Camp X-Ray are just fine. The question they could not answer is just how long -- weeks, months, years -- the detainees might be here.

John Zarrella, CNN, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The "Wall Street Journal" says it has received photographs of one of its reporters being held at gunpoint by unidentified captors. Have you seen this picture yet? The gun can clearly be seen at the head of Daniel Pearl. He's been missing since Wednesday, when he went to do an interview in Karachi, Pakistan.

Besides the gunpoint picture, three other photos of Pearl were sent to a "Journal" correspondent in an e-mail. Pretty scary.

In Pakistan, of course, officials say the search for Pearl does continue.

And on the phone from Islamabad right now is CNN bureau chief Ash-Har Quraishi -- good morning, Ash-Har.

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well...

COSTELLO: Tell us...

QURAISHI: Go ahead.

COSTELLO: No, go ahead with what you were going to say.

QURAISHI: Well, what we're hearing at this point from officials is that the search does continue for Mr. Pearl. They are saying that they have very few leads at this point. Very little is known about his whereabouts.

Now, what we're trying to see here is what may have been involved. There are a lot of groups that are being pointed to as a possibility who may be involved in this incident.

Now, what we've also heard reports of an e-mail claiming responsibility by a group called the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. Now, that group itself, as far as officials are concerned, is a new group, something that they haven't heard from before. They haven't heard about this group. We here in Pakistan have not seen anything regarding this group before.

There are some reports that this group may be involved with Kashmiri separatists fighting for the independence of Indian-occupied Kashmir. But so far we have not seen this name before.

Now, another thing to keep in mind is that after the banning of groups by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a lot of these groups have changed their names, so it is possible that this may be the first time we're hearing about this group, but it may be an old group.

At this point officials aren't ruling anything out. They are taking these photographs seriously but they are skeptical regarding this recent e-mail claiming responsibility in terms of this group, the Pakistani movement.

Now, the other thing that we know is that Karachi in itself is not, it's not uncommon for abductions to take place in this city. People do go missing in Karachi. It is very serious. It is very dangerous. And so at this point the officials are trying to comb out any areas in Karachi where Mr. Pearl may be at this point -- Carol.

COSTELLO: That is a scary thought. It's just normal for people just to go missing in Karachi?

QURAISHI: Well, it is the largest city in Pakistan and it has been known to be a hotbed for sectarian violence there. We've had a lot of incidents between Sunni and Shi'a Muslim groups, drive-by shootings, abductions. So no, it's not uncommon. It's the largest city in Pakistan, about 12.5 million people, and crime there, although it has been decreasing in the last few years, is still existent and abductions are very common there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So what do you do to protect yourself as a journalist?

QURAISHI: Well, the danger, you know, really comes from people who are, who keep an eye on people who are in the limelight, the media, people who are involved with politics. Just some weeks ago, the interior minister here in Pakistan, who spoke at a conference on terrorism, made some volatile statements. His brother was actually killed in a drive-by shooting the day after that.

So it is a very dangerous city in that sense that you have to keep in mind what you're saying, where you're going and who you're talking to. A lot of times we as journalists do use people who are able to understand the terrain, especially in dangerous places like Karachi, where you're looking for, you know, interviews and things that you may not have connections to.

So in that sense it's, as journalists, it's, you have to have sort of a heightened sense of your whereabouts, who you're dealing with and who you can trust.

COSTELLO: Well, you be careful over there. I'm telling everybody to be careful this morning.

Thank you, Ash-Har Quraishi, reporting live for us from Islamabad.

Unbelievable.

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