Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

America's New War: Taliban Leaders Say They Know Bin Laden's Whereabouts

Aired October 01, 2001 - 10:23   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Taliban leaders say they do know his whereabouts, and suggest they are willing to negotiate with the U.S. However, that overture, drawing a stern response from Washington.

Let's head to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, and CNN's Tom Mintier with the latest on this front and more from there.

Tom, Hello.

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.

We haven't heard anything more from the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, other than what he said last night, that they do indeed know where Osama bin Laden is, and that he is under their control. Now, we also heard from the ambassador, saying that he would he like to see conflict resolved peacefully, basically trying to send out an olive branch, indicating that they would like to negotiate the future of Osama bin Laden and avoid a military confrontation.

But again, the ambassador not willing or not able to say that the Taliban would indeed hand over Osama bin Laden, and that's what the United States says it wants. President George W. Bush saying more than a week ago, the time for talking is over, now is a time for action.

I was thinking, as I was listening to the New York mayor in his speech before the United Nations, a hundred percent of the people that are on the Afghanistan side of the border with Pakistan probably couldn't hear this speech, but they are affected just the same. They are spending every last bit of money they have trying to get out of harm's way, trying to escape the hunger and the drought that is currently going on. They have had three years of drought in Afghanistan. Times are very, very difficult. Now the possibility of military conflict hanging over their head, many people are not only take together hills but going to the border, which is also a hilly area.

The United Nations received some good word today from the United States, an offer of $100 million for the international aid effort that is going on here. The U.N. says they need $584 million to deal with this crisis. The last couple of days they, have been looking at a hundred different potential sites along the border with Pakistan to take the refugees. There haven't been that many in the past week, only about 15,000 made their way into Pakistan.

There are already two million crowded in the camps that exist here for years. But there is the possibility that a million, or a million and a half more would be coming out, possibly even a larger number than that.

And the International aid agencies are doing what they can right now to not only get ready here in Pakistan, but find a way it move food into Afghanistan. There have bee several truck convoys that have gone into Afghanistan. One convoy by Unicef put food on trucks, and then is loading it onto a convoy of 4,000 donkeys, and making their way into Afghanistan.

Another convoy that the U.N. put together of a couple hundred tons of wheat has reached Kabul and is being distributed there. But the people along the border area, tens of thousands of them tonight, sleeping out in the cold, and wondering what tomorrow will bring -- Bill.

HEMMER: Tom Mintier, the latest from Islamabad. Tom, thanks to you.

Back in this country now, I am going to head down to Washington, get an update on intelligence efforts ongoing in "America's New War."

Here's CNN's John King with us.

John, good morning to you.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

A great deal going on here in Washington, including the opening of the Supreme Court session. We will get to that in just a minute. But we want to continue pretty much on point you just left off with on Tom Mintier. A great deal of debate within the administration as to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, as to just what the administration should do, not only in tracking him down, but perhaps even trying to knock the Taliban government in Afghanistan from power, because, as the president says, it continues to harbor Osama bin Laden.

For the latest on those efforts and the administrations outreach it that international refugee effort to help the refugees, we turn to Major Garrett at the White House -- Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Administration officials confirming to CNN this morning, $100 million devoted from the United States that humanitarian relief effort along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that Tom Mintier just referred to, and a statement from White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, again, putting notice on the Taliban that it, in his own words, "stands in the way of feeding its own people," pointing out that the Untied States has historically been a very large donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, but the Taliban has often intercepted that food aid, depriving it from those who need it most, the refugees along that border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's what the administration wants to talk about as it deals with that region -- John.

KING: But there's a subject they're not too willing to talk about, and that is the question of covert aid for those who may seek to topple the Taliban. "The New York Times" reports this morning, the president has authorized covert aid. Ari Fleischer said this morning, he is not going to confirm, nor is he going to deny that story. He's simply not going to talk about covert operations, but there is certainly circumstantial evidence that indicates the administration either has decided to do that or is giving it very serious consideration.

Point one, the president has said there will be covert competent to this global war against terrorism. And also over the weekend, CNN was able to report on a memo provided to the president from the State Department and the National Security Council, that states explicitly for the first time, it will be U.S. policy to aid those who seek to overthrow the Taliban. And on Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the administration is acutely aware of those who want to topple the Taliban, and is looking for ways to assist them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There is no question, but that are a substantial number of Afghans that do not favor Taliban, find it repressive, don't agree with it, wish it were not there. It is also true that there are any number in the Taliban who do not favor Al Qaeda and wish it were not there. There are any number of factions within the Taliban, and tribes in other parts of the country, to say nothing of the Northern Alliance in the north, that would like the entire crowd out of there, not just Al Qaeda, but Taliban in addition.

What does that mean? Well, it means that we need to find ways to encourage those people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: The delicate balance here, John, of course is the administration does not want to be seen as the force imposing a new order in Afghanistan, only to assist those who seek to provide what they call an economically viable, peaceful Afghanistan, one free of terrorism -- John.

KING: Major Garrett at the White House, thank you.

I want to bring into this conversation now, our national security correspondent David Ensor.

David, you heard Tom Mintier say the Taliban says Bin Laden is under its control, and, Major, Talking about the possibility of a U.S. covert activity underway. What is the U.S.'s government understanding of, where is bin Laden and the level of activity inside Afghanistan?

Well, first of all, knowledgeable U.S. officials tell me, John, that they are confident, they believe that Osama bin Laden is in Afghanistan. So any reports to the contrary, and there have been a few, they are not believed by knowledgeable U.S. officials. As we just heard, there is a lot of talk about covert activity or undertakings in Afghanistan by U.S. or Allied individuals. There was that first report, the SAS British unit that might have come under fire near Kabul. Obviously, this is something that U.S. officials don't want to talk about in any kind of tail. But as you talk to various officials around the government, it's clear there is tremendous activity focused on that part of the world.

You heard Donald Rumsfeld talking about the different factions. Those factions have to be contacted, have to be talked to. There have to be discussion about they are willing to change sides, willing to join in a coalition. All that kind of work is being done by intelligence officers and diplomats around the world, sometimes inside Afghanistan, sometimes in Peshawar and other places, so tremendous activity and a sort of intelligence campaign that precedes any kind of military action.

There have also been a number of law enforcement actions. We have heard in reported, we reported ourselves that something like 400 arrests have been made, or detentions have been made around the United States. Multiply that by many times around the world. U.S. officials say hundreds and hundreds of people have been detained by law enforcement officials in governments on five continents. Interrogations and questioning are going on.

FBI officials have been sent out to these various countries to participate, or at least to listen to what the local officials are learning from these various detained individuals. So a tremendous dragnet out on the law enforcement front.

There are also discussions in recent days with Pakistan about other national securities that are of concern to the United States, such as the security of Pakistan's nuclear facilities, its nuclear weapons. Assurances from Pakistani officials that they believe, and we heard this from President Musharraf himself, in the interview yesterday with Christiane Amanpour, that they believe their facilities are completely safe, but obviously that is a subject of great interest indeed to the United States -- John.

KING: David Ensor, national security correspondent, thank you very much to that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com