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American Morning

An Inside Look into Pakistan, a Possible Bin Laden Location

Aired December 13, 2001 - 09:48   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: The British claim Osama bin Laden is still inside Afghanistan. Others think he has left Afghanistan behind. So where is he?

Well, Carol Lin reported all along the Afghani Pakistan border for us for more than six weeks, and she has dropped by this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Near the border crossing, not even a thin line of razor wire or minimal security provided at the refugee camp Killi Faizo (ph) is stopping armed Taliban from crossing in at night and threatening the refugees. The United Nations now says it is absolutely he imperative to move these refugees away from the border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Well, Carol Now joins me from New York to talk a little bit more about where bin Laden might be and what it's like to be a woman and report from the very Islamic Pakistan.

Nice to see you home safely. Welcome back.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

ZAHN: Talk to us a little bit about how you needed to dress when you were on duty. We have a picture of you standing here in what I guess everybody would immediately say are Western clothes, head to toe in denim, with a scarf wrapped around your neck.

Well, that picture is not up yet, but we can just imagine what it might look like.

LIN: This is a day we were reporting live from the Machaman (ph) border crossing. Now this is typical wear that we would wear in the United States for an assignment like this, jeans and a shirt. Whenever, though, they see the female form in this part of the world, they think you're a prostitute. And in some cases, because I had short hair, they think I'm a man, and so it's a very confusing message. So what you really need to do is be ready, wear the head scarf, as you are seeing there.

When we were in the refugee camp, if you didn't honor their local traditions, they would throw stones at you, it's as simple as that. In order to get your job done, you had to acknowledge I'm a woman in the field, they have certain expectations of me, and it's really disturbing to them to see me working, and it is just not what's done.

ZAHN: Once you showed you expected that, then did they treat you any differently than the male reporters. We want to go on to this the next image here of you, with what appear to be tribal leaders.

LIN: You know, it's a strange place of hospitality and hostility. On a single name, you'll have a man spit at me, and yet, someone like this, as a gesture here, as a courtesy, he was offering me his weapon, his gun, which is like offering your child to a guest. It was a gesture of such simple hospitality, and yet, these very same men would resent me if I weren't the guest of a tribal chief there in the countryside. They would have resented me and probably would have heckled and harassed me on the streets.

ZAHN: And once they had somewhat of a comfort left with you, do you think they share the kind of information with you that some of your male colleagues would?

LIN: Yes. Well, that's pretty tough. Because first of all, they don't make eye contact with you, so as a correspondent, that's very difficult to deal with. They would talk to the translator or the photographer. It's considered rude to speak to a woman who is not your wife or a member of the family.

ZAHN: Who is this?

LIN: I was a guest of the Nawab Bucti (ph) of the Bucti tribe. He is wearing a Greg Norman golf hat. This is a man who clearly has a sensibility in the West.

ZAHN: Well, Osama bin Laden wears a Timex watch.

LIN: There you go. Yes, he making a political statement of sorts. But in this case, he says, I lived in the West, I know what you are about, I'm inviting a woman to be my guest, which was very scandalous in the tribe and the fact of the matter is, you go as a CNN correspondent and they have to deal with you. But for me to attend these tribal meetings, there was scandal. I mean, it was the talk of the town. They never had a woman attend what they call their concheri (ph), where their tribal business is done.

ZAHN: And as we move on the next picture, which is you -- is that an M-16? What is that?

LIN: It's a Kalishnikov, and we were out at target practice -- and again, women not only do not leave the house, but they certainly don't handle their men's weapons, and again, this was a courtesy extended only to the guests of the tribal chief, who really, really liked to tweak his own people, frankly, and let them know there is an outside world and a bigger world beyond.

ZAHN: We don't want to overplay the dangers that we're involved, but the fact remains that it is extremely dangerous for these reporters to remain on the ground in Afghanistan.

LIN: Yes, and of the things. Ben Wedeman actually made -- our terrific Ben Wedeman, who's been reporting out of Kabul -- made the excellent point that this is a region that is so immune to danger, people who've been exposed to it for 23 years, don't react to danger in the same way that you and I. So there are no cues for correspondents out in the field to say, you know what, it is starting to feel a little funky out here, we need to leave. People just don't respond in the same way. There are other things as a woman reacting to you. They don't know whether to protect you or to scorn you, because all of a sudden your scarf drops in the middle of an interview, and they think you are being disrespectful.

You know, a man I was interviewing, it was as if I had taken my top off in front of him because my headdress had fallen during the middle of an interview. So you're struggling with this, trying to gauge the situation and try to read the cultural cues all at the same time.

ZAHN: We are delighted to have you back home safely. I know you want it go back to Afghanistan to report. We look forward to seeing you filing those reports.

LIN: Thanks, Paula.

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