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Afghanistan: From a Firefight to Fighting a Fire; Where Is Daniel Pearl?; What Are U.S. Forces Doing in Yemen in Kenya?
Aired February 14, 2002 - 20:00 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Martin Savidge in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Coming up tonight on LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN, a strange 24 hours here, going from a firefight to fighting a fire.
We'll also update you on missing journalist Daniel Pearl, and we'll tell you about the ongoing war against terror in Yemen and Kenya. Why are U.S. forces there? It all begins right now, right here, LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN.
ANNOUNCER: Flares spark a line of fire near the Kandahar Airport, just one night after American soldiers were directly in the line of fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIEUTENANT DARREN McDONOUGH, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: I heard a big whack, you know, like a supersonic round, and then I felt a burning on my neck and that kind of spun me around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Living on the frontlines, when the sun goes down, so does the temperature.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just so delirious with cold.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not sure we're (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: From Kandahar with love.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PFC JOE GALLAGHER: I'd like to give a shout out to Britney Spears. I just want to let her know that I'm safe, and I love her, and I'll be home in time to do that Pepsi commercial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: And greetings from halfway around the world. LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN, Martin Savidge.
SAVIDGE: Good evening, happy Valentine's Day from Kandahar, Afghanistan, a lot of territory for us to cover tonight. We begin though with the most unusual scene that broke out just beyond the perimeter here at the air base at Kandahar.
It began with a security alert, the flares once more filling the air, as there were at least four suspects that were believed seen out beyond the perimeter. The flares were meant to illuminate the area. They did, and they did it far more than anyone expected.
One of the flares triggered a major blaze, a brushfire along the perimeter. It spread quickly and it spread furiously. At times, it was threatening positions of U.S. forces out there. It also shut down air operations. Finally, in an effort to try to put those flames out, the U.S. sent two fire engines that are assigned to the air base here, out beyond the perimeter.
It's dangerous territory, mines, unexploded ordinance, not to mention they're big fat targets. The doused the flames, the base remained on full alert, but that was the only firing that was taking place.
Unlike say, 24 hours ago, when we watched the red tracer bullets filling the air here at the Kandahar Air Base. At that time, we had no idea that Charlie Company, out on the perimeter, was in the fight of its life, that there was a new born and new made band of brothers. Here is their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): From our vantage point at the Kandahar Airport terminal, the firefight nearly a mile off seemed almost harmless. There was no way to know the members of Charlie Company were in the fight of their lives.
McDONOUGH: Once I started getting about here, I had a lot of fire on me. I mean, it was smacking across the berms. I could here it pinging past my head.
SAVIDGE: The soldiers say the shots were fired with control and accuracy, that whoever was firing knew exactly what they were doing, and exactly where the members of Charlie Company were.
CORPORAL ANTHONY MATA, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: G-40 position was taking rounds. I was taking very effective rounds, sandbags right next to me.
SAVIDGE: The attackers were shielded by a nearby depression, six to eight feet deep, and shrouded by bushes and trees. They opened up from just 50 yards away.
SAVIDGE (on camera): The gunfire at this particular bunker was so close and so intense that the soldiers could actually hear the bullets snapping over their heads. They were thumping and hitting into the sandbags here, ripping them apart and forcing some of them down on the ground.
SAVIDGE (voice over): Lieutenant Darren McDonough left his position to try to get a better fix on where the attack was coming from. It was a decision that nearly cost him his life.
McDONOUGH: I made it about, I'd say halfway between these two berms, and at that point, I heard a big whack, you know, like a supersonic round and then I felt a burning on my neck and it kind of spun me around, and I guess the 762 round just grazed through my neck.
SAVIDGE: Did you know you'd been hit?
McDONOUGH: Well, that was the quote of the day. When I got to this berm, I hit the ground and I got on the radio and I said, "I think I've been hit."
SAVIDGE: McDonough was dazed and bleeding, with bullets landing all around him.
MATA: The next thing I heard, "hey I think I'm hit," and that's the last thing you want to hear.
SAVIDGE: Corporal Anthony Mata was in a nearby fighting hole. He ran through the gunfire that was tearing apart the sandbags around him, across open ground, to his lieutenant's side.
MATA: So, you know, adrenalin kicking, 150 miles an hour. I said "hey, I'm going to go find him." Thank God he was right here at this berm. I found him, rounds hitting directly on top of both, I mean right, two feet above both of our heads.
SAVIDGE: You didn't hesitate at all, didn't think once before you moved?
MATA: No. That's training.
SAVIDGE: In another fighting hole, Specialist Tim Bates kept up his gunfire, unaware that a bullet had ripped off a top of a finger on his right hand.
SPECIALIST TIM BATES, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: We just took fire and I didn't even notice that I was wounded until five minutes into it.
SAVIDGE: Corporate Mata and Lieutenant McDonough struggled to get under cover. Nineteen-year-old PFC Joe Gallagher provided cover fire with a grenade launcher. What was the feeling afterwards, when the shooting stopped?
PFC JOE GALLAGHER, 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION: It was a surprise, kind of a mixed emotion when reality set in. They just had, everybody just came a few inches from death.
SAVIDGE: It will be a long time before the emotions and images of their fight together fade. These men are now linked by a life and death struggle that only those in combat know, a modern day band of brothers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Moving to the west now, and the nation of Iran, just to the other side of Afghanistan. Iranian officials say they have rounded up 150 men, women, and children that may be suspects that have links to Taliban and al Qaeda. The Arab, African, and European nationals were detained in Iranian towns and cities close to the border of Afghanistan.
Iranian officials say that the detainees are being interrogated. So far, no indications that any of them are prominent members of Taliban or al Qaeda, the investigation ongoing.
Then, in Yemen, which has been a valuable partner with the U.S. in the War against Terror. You may remember that a suspected al Qaeda member blew himself up, rather than be taken into custody. CNN's Brent Sadler has more on that man, and on the efforts of Yemen to fight the War on Terrorism.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BREND SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the al Qaeda suspect Yemen security forces tried to take alive, Sameer Ahmed Mohammed al-Heda pictured on the front page of a government newspaper.
The 25-year-old Yemeni was hiding out here in the first floor apartment of a building in a city suburb. He reportedly opened fire on security forces, while trying to make a getaway, but died soon after when he pulled a grenade, which exploded as his pursuers closed in.
The operation is being claimed by the authorities here as the first success in a countrywide manhunt, launched in December, to capture remnants of al Qaeda in Yemen, including these two suspects, Mohammed al-Ahtel (ph) and Kaeed al-Harithi (ph), wanted along with the dead man for the suicide attack on the American destroyer, USS Cole in Aden nearly a year and a half ago.
Yemen's security services have been on a heightened state of readiness since Tuesday when the FBI issued a worldwide terror alert, warning of possible attacks against U.S. interests both here in Yemen and in America.
The dead al Qaeda suspect lived here for about a week. According to official Yemeni sources, he had strong family ties to other alleged al Qaeda terrorists, including one relative named by the FBI as a September 11th Pentagon suicide hijacker, Khalid al-Mirda (ph) a Saudi-born Yemeni, and another relative, Mustafa al-Ansari, a Saudi whose name appeared on this week's FBI terror alert.
(on camera): Security sources here say two pistols, a mobile telephone, fake ID documents, and books were seized from this city hideout of the dead al Qaeda suspects, what witnesses thought was a university student, who kept a low profile. (voice-over): His alleged role in the bombing of the destroyer Cole in October, 2000, is now part of an expanding investigation into that terror attack, a U.S. inquiry team, working from the heavily guarded American Embassy here, piecing together new fragments of evidence.
Brent Sadler, CNN, San'a, Yemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: It turns out that five other terror suspects are already in prison in Yemen as well. They were listed in that security alert that was issued earlier this week by the FBI and law enforcement. Sources tell CNN from Yemen, that the five men were already behind bars when that alert was issued. The five are among 17 other associates, who authorities say may be planning an attack on the United States, that is linked to another Yemeni man.
Now we move on to Africa, and the nation of Kenya, an exercise underway involving U.S. forces very close to the border of Somalia. That's raising concerns. It's also raising eyebrows. Catherine Bond has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. Embassy in Kenya describes this military exercise as considerably larger than many, involving up to 3,000 U.S. Marines and Sailors, most stationed on amphibious assault carriers off shore.
They're coming here to a Kenyan Navy Base, where Kenyan infantry and U.S. Marines demonstrate tactics, some from U.S. Navy helicopters, in a joint operation a U.S. diplomat describes as nothing unusual.
JOHNNIE CARSON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO KENYA: This exercise has been planned many, m any months in advance. It is a part of a series of exercises stretching over a number of years, all of which predate the terrible and horrible events of September 11th. We will continue, I hope, to be able to exercise in Kenya with the support of the Kenyan military.
BOND: But the fact these exercises are taking place, roughly 100 kilometers or 60 miles south of Somalia, means this military mission has attracted more interest than most. For the United Nations officials and European diplomats say they doubt there are any terrorist training bases in Somalia, the Bush Administration continues to talk as if there were.
CARSON: As a fellow democracy, it is important that we work together. We all face global challenges. We can succeed in defeating those challenges if we work together.
BOND: U.S. military nonetheless denying that what's going on here is linked to the administration's declared War on Terrorism.
COLONEL CHRISTOPHER GUNTHER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: No, we have no connection whatsoever with Somalia, other than our geographic location.
BOND: This location is home to a conservative Muslim society. The society within which a Palestinian-Jordanian national, convicted of involvement in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, lived quietly for several years before taking part in the attack.
AHMED SALMAN BAGUFAH, RESIDENT: Myself, I feel this is also as a political war, frightening Muslim. We are very competent. We are very strong, and should not support any Muslim movement.
BOND: After all exercises like this, the U.S. military is conducting humanitarian projects, providing free medical consultations to local villagers, as well as helping build new school classrooms for a girl's school.
Humanitarian and military exercises are due to wind up in about a week's time, though some U.S. Marines say privately they may be hanging around offshore for some while longer. Catherine Bond, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: There are mixed messages tonight concerning the fate of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl. Those messages coming from a key suspect, who now claims that Daniel Pearl is dead.
Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh had earlier said that Pearl was alive, but now he tells Pakistani officials holding him, "as far as I know, Pearl is dead." Sheikh told the judge that he was responsible for Pearl's abduction. Pakistani officials say Sheikh's story has been changing all the time. Meanwhile, Pearl's pregnant wife issued an emotional appeal for her husband's release. We'll take a break and be back with more in just a moment, LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN.
ANNOUNCER: Next, it's no four-star hotel, but we'll check in anyway, when LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: U.S. Marines first arrived at Kandahar Airport on December 14th. The Army's 101st Airborne took over command from the marines on January 19th.
SAVIDGE: A couple of weeks ago, we did a piece called "how we do the thing we do" a look at news gathering here. Now we follow up with "how we live the way we do." Kandahar's no five-star hotel, but we call it home. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): Life here rises and sets with the sun. So does the thermometer. Most days, I'm up before dawn. This just isn't one of them. We sleep like mummies since the airport terminal has no heat. It's so cold, even the Canadian soldiers complain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't let the breath fool you. It's actually, what's the temperature right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sweltering, sweltering sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're probably looking at about somewhere in the neighborhood of...
SAVIDGE: The rest of the crew live a dusty stroll across the base. Soldiers call it moon dust. On the way, you pass the latrines. This is actually one of the nicer ones. The three-seat configuration is a real conversation starter. Note the window to take in the view.
Now here's the gang. Justin Oliver (ph), our satellite engineer, and Jeff Sponsler (ph), the technical engineer. How's your morning been?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tragic actually. I broke my glasses this morning. Well, I woke up and they were broke in two.
SAVIDGE: Fear not, the PX will open up tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cool.
SAVIDGE: Inside, it's the set of MASH, media style. No heat, no privacy, but it's home. Most of the journalists spend the day hanging out by the pool, in the airport central courtyard. The pool's empty. That's me heating up the water for our daily wash. It's never going to boil if you're watching.
Watching is about all there is to do some days. Even bathing is a spectator sport. The pool is the center of our lives. We wash our hair in it, brush our teeth in it, even hold news briefings in it. The army likes to call it the media pool. The joke's worn a bit thin.
That's Thomash Exler (ph), my producer, with a phone permanently to his ear, talking to Atlanta. I sometimes think if he ever stops talking, he'll also stop walking. He can cover miles on a single call.
This is the media workspace. You enter through a broken out window. It's here, armed with a small paintbrush and spray can, we do battle with the dust. When the wind blows, the base is a swirling storm of misery. It gets on equipment, gets in your food, gets on your nerves. Only Thomash seems unaffected.
We're so dirty, we're losing our hair. The barber, PFC Thomas, is happy to comply. His styling guide is a CD jacket from an Nsync album. Here, this is the look we are going for here.
That's Jonathan, our cameraman, bravely going first. Then it's my turn, apparently a little off the top means nothing to the army. Thomash notifies Atlanta.
Meals are another big event in our lives. Mostly we eat military rations known as MREs, which stand for Meals Ready to Eat. Recently though, we've been taking our chances outside. (on camera): So here's the basic deal when it comes to the meal here at Camp Kandahar. They have a kitchen. It's relatively small, and they can't serve everyone every night a hot meal, so there's a rotation every couple of nights. Tonight just isn't our night, so then we're allowed to hang on the fringe here and when the main service is done, we get to go in and see what's left.
(voice-over): Soldiers eat what they can. We watch enviously. As the sun sets, our social life kicks in. A hot night at the airport usually means, you sat too close to the fire. Then it's off to bed, our lullaby, the soothing sound of military transport planes unloading, just outside the bedroom window. Goodnight, Thomash.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: That's life. Coming up, video valentines, words of love from here to home. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Not a lot of cards and roses here at the Kandahar base. That's not to say there's not a lot of love. Here are our video valentines, from here to home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SPECIALIST WILLIAM REED, 101ST AIRBORNE: Specialist William Reed, Charlie Company, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I'd like to say Happy Valentine's Day to my girlfriend Ashley, and say hi to all my family and friends back in Nashville, Tennessee. Love you, mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Sergeant Lalu (ph). I'd like to say hi to my new bride, Kristen, and my folks back home in Lafayette, Louisiana.
CHRIS LAUDETTE: My name is Chris Laudette with (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and I'd like to say Happy Valentine's Day to my family, my mom and Archie in New Hampshire.
STAFF SERGEANT SHEFFIELD: Staff Sergeant Sheffield from Charlie Company 2187. I'd like to say Happy Valentine's Day to my wife Phyllis. I love you a lot, and Cass and my young daughter Catherine Elizabeth, Happy Valentine's to you also. You all have a good day.
PFC JASON McCULLOUGH: PFC Jason McCullough from Charlie Company 2187 (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I'd like to say hello to my wife and kids, and I'm all right, you're probably hearing a lot of rumors.
GALLAGHER: My name is PFC Joe Gallagher. I'm with Charlie Company 2187. It's Valentine's Day so I'd like to give a shout out to Britney Spears. I just want to let her know that I'm safe, that I love here, and I'll be home in time to do that Pepsi commercial together.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SAVIDGE: Britney Spears now knows. Well, it was an ad campaign that helped bring about a resurgence to a city that had fallen on hard times, namely the Big Apple. Now that ad campaign has been resurrected, to help a city that has been knocked down but not knocked out by terrorism. CNN's Garrick Utley has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 1977, designer Milton Glaser was asked how to make people love New York. Outside a studio, the city was going bankrupt and looking for help. In Washington, the president was telling New Yorkers what they could do. Glazer needed to come up with a big idea.
MILTON GLASER: Well, my first solution was really simple. It was sort of two lozenges like this, a little more elegant, and it said "I Love New York." And then the next day I was in a cab and I said, you know, there's a better way to do that, and I just jotted down, I Love New York, and I said yes, that's better.
UTLEY: Better? Glaser didn't know what he had created. The advertising campaign for New York ran only a few weeks, but its message never stopped.
GLASER: For some reason, that image of the city just had legs, and it traveled all around the world and you could not go anywhere from Iceland to Africa without finding some equipment for I heart New York.
UTLEY (on camera): What Milton Glaser wanted was to convince people outside New York that this was a city worth visiting, and perhaps even loving. He was also trying to persuade New Yorkers that their metropolis had a future, that this was not only a place to love, but also to live, and since September, that once again is a question.
GLASER: The first act of healing is recognition of the wound. You discover it's much easier to be in love with someone who's vulnerable than invulnerable, and I just felt this enormous affection for our town and everybody else here did too, not only here but all across the United States.
UTLEY: So, has life in New York returned to its old normalcy? No, it's merely found a new normalcy. On Broadway, the shows go on. Tourists are beginning to come back, and for baseball fans outside the city, it will soon be time to hate the Yankees again. And once again, New Yorkers asking people to love it, or at least visit it.
And Milton Glaser pitched in too, when he realized that his I Love New York was no longer enough.
GLASER: And it seemed to me that something had to be acknowledged, and so I put a black mark on the heart, approximately on the lower west side of Manhattan, and added the words "more than ever." It's they mystery of poetic symbols. I have no idea what it is.
UTLEY (voice over): Amazing isn't it, the power of a heart?
Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: I remember that theme as I was growing up as a child in Ohio. It's interesting now, you will see on the vehicles, sometimes the fire trucks here, sometimes other military vehicles that roam around the base, a simple phrase, a simple bumper sticker. It says, "I Love New York" words that have much more feeling now than they ever once did.
Coming up for domestic viewers, THE POINT is up next. For our international viewers, regular programming resumes. We'll see you again next time right here, LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN.
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