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American Morning

At Pentagon, Investigators Trying to Pin Down Source of Newly Discovered Anthrax; For U.S. War on Terrorism, Newfound Friendship with Northern Alliance

Aired November 05, 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First, let's begin at the Pentagon, investigators trying to pin down the source of newly discovered anthrax. The trace amounts turned up this weekend during testing at a public post office branch located in an underground shopping area of the complex.

Also, the military campaign continues.

Live there this morning, here is CNN's Bob Franken tracking all of this for us now.

Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

It is important to emphasize this is a post office branch, nothing more than that. This is a building of course with 24,000 workers. So the post office would have a public branch here, as opposed to the Department of Defense mail facility, which, by the way, has been tested twice since October 15th, with negative results.

But on Tuesday of last week, they ran a test at this public branch post office, and when the results came back on Saturday. two of the 17 spots they checked were positive. They were both in the mailboxes, the of mailboxes that you can rent. One of them was an unused mailbox, but the other one rented out by a sailor, somebody from the United States Navy. He is having own test conducted to see if he is going to test positive, and of course, if he would, he would be put on an antibiotic, perhaps Cipro, perhaps doxycycline.

Now the six people who work in that post office have also been put on the antibiotic. Now the post office is still closed. There is a police line around it, as a matter of fact. What's interesting is the boxes themselves, not where they are loaded, but the boxes themselves face out into this concourse. By concourse I mean, an actual shopping mall. It's an area frequented by the public. So as you can imagine, they are running test throughout the area. They have tested the post office again. That was done yesterday. Those tests become negative. The other thing that they're doing, is they're 214 boxes in that post office, the people who are customers of them are all being notified we are told by Department of Defense people and post office officials, and they will of course them be given the suggestion that they, too, should be tested.

But anthrax has made its way to the post office here. This post office, by the way, is fed by the Brentwood postal facility. That's the large encompassing one that takes care of the entire Washington area. That is where the Daschle letter was processed. The one that caused the Capitol, they believe, to have to close down certain sections, and now they believe that this has become another branch that might have had some of the residue that spread out to here -- Bill.

HEMMER: Bob, let's go to the military front now. I think Wednesday of this week will mark the official one-month point of the airstrikes on and around Taliban targets on the ground. What's being said over the weekend that we should know right now in the current campaign?

FRANKEN: Well, they continue to intensify, and one of the reasons that they are, is that U.S. forces, that is to say a few special-ops people, less than a hundred, have been on the ground. They have been able to more directly and more accurately direct the bombing attacks, as opposed to the earlier reliance on the Northern Alliance, who are the normal allies of the United States.

As a matter of fact, the defense officials are so happy with that, that they say that they are going to put in perhaps another hundred or so special-operations people to continue to aim for pinpoint accuracy. That has been going on, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who has been touring the region, says that they have been very happy with the results of having the U.S. forces there.

The secretary of defense said -- we are having some technical problems, as you can tell. Here we go now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You have people on the ground, in communication with the aircraft overhead, and each day that we have been engaged in this since October 7th, we have been able to improve the effectiveness of it. We now have some larger number of teams of people on the ground that are assisting with resupply and humanitarian assistance as well as targeting, and the effectiveness of the bombing is improving everyday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now, the other part of the trip that was so important to secretary Rumsfeld, he went to Russia and talked mainly about antiballistic missile treaties, but he went to Tajikistan, which is a former Soviet satellite, and was the site of three air businesses that were used in the unsuccessful battle that the Soviet Union has against the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The United States is asking now, and has gotten permission, to put in some military engineers to decide how those facilities could be used, and then they will go back and say, this is what we would like to do, the United States would like to do, as it continues its offensive against Afghanistan, very strategically located -- Bill. HEMMER: Got it now. Thanks. Bob Franken, at the Pentagon.

There is an old adage that has long forged on alliances: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. For the U.S. war on terrorism, the oddest newfound friendship combines Washington's might as a superpower with the humble resources of a fighting group just now looking like an army.

CNN's Matthew Chance in Northern Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They fought the Taliban for years, and lost. But this once ragtag force suddenly looks more professional, more serious. De facto allies of the United States, thee Northern Alliance fighters have new uniforms, new swing in their step, sights set on the Afghan capital.

Addressing the troops, President Rabani told them they are the only Afghans battling terrorism and that they must continue to fight the Taliban. They also pay tribute to it their assassinated military commander Amidshar (ph) Masood. His name is now a battle cry for these men. They have the United States behind them, quite literally.

A plume of black smoke in the distance, a morale-boosting airstrike on the Taliban frontlines. The new commander told us these fighters will sweep to Kabul, push the Taliban from power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This parade is intended to demonstrate the military power of the Islamic state of Afghanistan. If the order for an attacks is given, we are confident these troops will achieve their mission.

CHANCE: A live-fire exercise, for the benefits of those in command. There's bee no timetable set for an advance on Kabul. But this is the kind of rocket and tank firepower these troops have at their disposal. Formidable, but here, there is no one firing back.

(on camera): This is the biggest show of force we've seen the northern alliance stage. These troops say they are fired up and ready for a fight. The big question is, though, whether the Taliban have been weakened enough for these forces to advance and to take the capital.

(voice-over): Their intended message of this military show is that they are. The real test is still ahead.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Northern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: We want to move a bit further east now in Islamabad, Pakistan, where Taliban leaders had their daily news briefing earlier this morning.

CNN's Bill Delaney live there in the Pakistani capital watching that, and also the fallout from the trip this past weekend of the defense secretary.

Bill, hello to you.

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, to you, Bill. And yes, late this afternoon, Islamabad time here in the Pakistani capital, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan again holding a news conference and again, alleging more civilian deaths from U.S. bombing in Afghanistan.

He said 10 civilians died yesterday. These numbers not independently confirmable. In fact, yesterday, when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was here in Pakistan, he accused the Taliban of regularly lying, he said, about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Now also in this press conference, Bill, what is becoming something of a regular theme of these press conferences, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan lambasting the United Nations, he said, for not confronting enough the looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Now, the United Nations, for its part, has largely pulled out of Afghanistan and has accused the Taliban of seizing some of its buildings and some of its vehicles.

In any event, with a humanitarian crisis looming in Afghanistan, this ongoing tension between the United Nations and the Taliban, simply not a good thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUHAIL SHAHEEN, DEP. TALIBAN AMB. TO PAKISTAN: The United Nations claim that it cannot operate inside Afghanistan due to security reasons is totally baseless and rejected by (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of Afghanistan. The only security problems that may have to face are the bombing of the United States and the coalition forces, nothing else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DELANEY: Now, a rather mysterious report from the Taliban ambassador it Pakistan. He says, in Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan, he says the Taliban have the body of a dead American citizen. Beyond that, it gets very unclear what this is all about.

Now reportedly, a few weeks ago, this American citizen crossed into Afghanistan, apparently reportedly using a Pakistani name. He subsequently, according the Taliban ambassador, became ill and died in a hospital, as I said, in Kandahar.

Now, the American embassy here, Bill, says they know nothing about this.

Back to you, Bill.

HEMMER: Bill, with regard to this trip of Donald Rumsfeld being not only in Pakistan, but also India this past weekend, has there been much from that meeting that may have moved the military ball one direction or the other? DELANEY: Well, what's interesting today, from the foreign ministry, Bill, is Pakistani officials saying there is a remarkable degree of unanimity now between the U.S. and Pakistani military officials about the ongoing military situation in Pakistan. No significant areas of disagreement about how that's being -- that military campaign is being conducted, Pakistani officials say. They say both U.S. and Pakistani officials want the bombing in Afghanistan want the bombing to end as soon as possible. But Pakistani officials saying, they agree with U.S. commanders that such a bombing campaign cannot be put on a timetable.

So the U.S. and Pakistan very much on the same page as far as ongoing military campaign in Afghanistan according to officials at the foreign ministry -- Bill.

HEMMER: Diplomacy in that relationship ongoing, just as critical as the military campaign.

Bill Delaney, in Islamabad with us now.

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