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American Morning

Bin Laden Leading Al Qaeda Troops "From the Rear"

Aired December 10, 2001 - 08:10   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: As we've been telling you, the U.S. military has been intensely bombing suspected al Qaeda hideouts in Tora Bora.

Let's bring in CNN Military Analyst General Wesley Clark for his view. Welcome.

MAJ. GEN. WESLEY CLARK, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you Paula.

ZAHN: Good to have you with us as well.

CLARK: Thanks.

ZAHN: All right, General Clark, I'd love for you to try to dissect exactly what the Northern Alliance spokesman is telling us. He says that Osama bin Laden is personally leading some 1,000 al Qaeda troops. What kind of a military commander do you believe Osama bin Laden to be?

CLARK: Well I think he's a commander who's leading from the rear. I think he's going to protect his position if he's still in the area. He probably is giving instructions that they will stand and fight. I think it's going to be a fight that probably takes a few more days, maybe even weeks to unravel.

It's not a fight that's easily won by the Northern Alliance because the terrain makes it very difficult to identify the enemy locations. It makes it difficult to bring in the aircraft effectively on them because this is very rugged up and down kind of terrain where bombs have a hard time striking exactly where they're pointed.

Now the Northern Alliance can succeed if it works patiently. It's just got to keep the pressure on. It's got to find out the positions and call in those coordinates (ph) for the airstrikes. But the Northern Alliance also has got to be careful not to get too - get too forward there or take too many casualties and find itself in a position where it runs out of steam in this assault because this is going to be a tough fight.

The other thing that's got to happen is they've got to work all the way around that mountain complex and they've got to cut off the reinforcements or supplies that may be coming in from Pakistan. There are continued rumors that these cave complexes have entrances inside Pakistan and so the people can escape and also be resupplied from there. So they've got to isolate this area and then patiently reduce it.

ZAHN: There were reports yesterday, of course, that U.S. planes had been dropping one of its most powerful bombs, the 15,000 bomb called - 15,000-pound bomb called the Daisy Cutter (ph) bomb. How effective is that in softening up these positions so the Northern Alliance can do some of what you've just described.

CLARK: Well it's a very significant weapon because it's - because it's a large explosive. It puts out a tremendous over pressure and so that over pressure is very destructive. It's very hard to defend against it. It's very damaging to people several hundred yards from the point of impact of the bomb, and so it's an excellent weapon in rough terrain like this in these mountains.

ZAHN: You have been saying all along how long it's going to take for this campaign to be effective and that was pretty much echoed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz yesterday. Let's listen to what he had to say on one of our shows here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: We've got al Qaeda leadership we have to go after. We've got Taliban leadership we have to go after. We want to clear out all the terrorists in Afghanistan and that could take awhile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: So what are the implications of that for the potential use of U.S. ground troops?

CLARK: Well I think we want to be as patient as possible and as long as the soldiers of the Northern Alliance and the Pashtun tribes will carry the fight on their own with a little help from U.S. air power and some advisers there and some logistics, then that's the way we prefer to do the fighting.

This is after all their country and they should have a great interest, as they say they do, in getting rid of these foreign fighters who've dug in there and brought all this trouble to Afghanistan. But we're going to have to be patient. As long as we've got the pressure on them, we're making it very difficult for al Qaeda to plan additional terrorist events around the world.

So they're off balanced and we have the initiative, but we have to be patient because this is simply not something you can throw men at and get the job done right away. You've got to take your time and use your advantages against his weaknesses. We have the advantage of technology. We have the heavy fire power. We have the locals on our side, and we work patiently point-by-point location-by-location. As long as we've got them surrounded where they can't get out and can't be reinforced, then the outcome is inevitable.

ZAHN: Based on what we heard over the weekend, what do you think the chances are that the U.S. and its allies and the Northern Alliance will ultimately get to Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar?

CLARK: Well I think the chances are fair. I don't think it's a guarantee in the immediate future because there are escape routes. Mullah Omar is in his own country. There will be relatives there and family members and others who are still loyal to him personally and will try to protect him. But I think the odds in the long term are excellent that we will get him.

As far as Osama bin Laden is concerned, he's going to want to keep the fight up until he can try to draw Americans in so he can use his firepower against Americans. He wants to make a stand and make a statement otherwise he's going to be totally discredited in the Arab world -- then, he will try to escape. So I think that the key is isolating the area, working patiently against him, and helping the people on the ground fight their own fight. We'll get him.

ZAHN: Wesley Clark, always good to have your perspective. Thanks again ...

CLARK: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... for your time this morning.

CLARK: Thank you Paula.

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