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American Morning

Target: Terrorism - Blair Promises Not To Forget Afghan People

Aired October 02, 2001 - 10:00   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to Tom Mintier in Islamabad, Pakistan for his reaction.

Tom, before I go to you, I just wanted to bring up a point that Mr. Blair said very early on in his speech, where he made it clear he wasn't trying to attack Muslims; but he said that Afghanistan is a place where all other forms of Islam are suppressed.

Any immediate reaction to those words from there?

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think listening to Tony Blair's speech, it was directed, a major portion of it at least, to the Taliban and to the Afghan people themselves; saying that the Taliban was a regime funded by fear, or founded by fear and funded by the drug trade. Saying 90 percent of all the drugs in Britain fund guns for the Taliban. And also saying they would not wage war on the innocent, but find and punish the guilty.

Also offering a promise to the Afghan people that when it is all over and after the Taliban is gone, saying that they will not leave them. They will continue to offer humanitarian assistance, rebuild the economy of Afghanistan. These are the kind of things people in this region are really interested in hearing.

I think Tony Blair hit all the right notes, if you will, as he ticked off each and every reason why this action, if indeed it takes place, was being made to take place. Paula?

ZAHN: So Tom, ultimately, how do you think this speech does play there?

MINTIER: I think it will probably play very well, because again, directed toward the Taliban, it was directed toward Osama bin Laden and his organization. Basically saying that they weren't going to target innocent people, but they wanted to find and punish the guilty.

Basically, you know, going on, saying to the Taliban, as was said earlier, surrender the terrorist or surrender power. This was about as direct as you can get as a politician, saying that the Taliban, your days are numbered.

ZAHN: All right. Tom Mintier, thanks so much for that update.

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