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American Morning

Hunt for Bin Laden Continues

Aired December 18, 2001 - 09:06   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: Two U.S. transport planes flying over Kandahar took evasive action today after what was initially thought to be missile fire. But U.S. officials now say the planes were not fired on.

Our Mike Chinoy is standing by in Kandahar. He filed this report just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not exactly clear what happened, except that two U.S. C-130 transport planes, flying at night, saw flashes below them. Concerned that it might be anti- aircraft fire, they took evasive action. Nothing happened to either of the planes.

It is very hard to tell -- Marines here at Kandahar Airport, where I am, say -- precisely what happened, whether it was missiles or whether it was simply people firing off in the eve celebration at the end of Ramadan. People all around Kandahar have been firing guns all the time over the last couple of days.

Still the episode does underscore the danger that the U.S. Marines face, on numerous fronts -- not only from possible attack by Taliban or al Qaeda fighters who are out in the surrounding countryside, but also from the thousands of land mines that surround this airport, along with numerous amounts of unexploded ordnance. We've been hearing large bangs on and off all day as the Marines detonate some of that ordnance, trying to reduce the threat as they move ahead with attempts to make this airport operational.

We were taken, a couple of hours ago, to see a new detention facility. It's a corrugated iron hut surrounded by several rows of barbed wire. It will house between 100 and 300 al Qaeda prisoners, most of them either detainees who surrendered or were captured during the battle for Tora Bora.

We are also told there are some al Qaeda detainees in Kandahar itself under the custody of local officials, and apparently U.S. military have been in some contact with them, but don't know very many details about that. We are told there may be some of those al Qaeda detainees arriving here as early as Tuesday night.

One of the big concerns for U.S. forces is security. People here are well aware of what happened in Mazar-e Sharif when Taliban and al Qaeda fighters imprisoned in a big fort there revolted, and hundreds of people were killed. They want to prevent any repetition of that here; the prisoners will have their hands and feet bound and be tied together. When they arrive, they will be searched extremely thoroughly. After they're inside the detention center, they'll face interrogation from a team of FBI agents. The FBI wants to see if they can learn anything about possible future al Qaeda plans for terrorist attacks against U.S. targets, and see if they can get any additional evidence of that past al Qaeda activity as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That was Mike Chinoy, reporting from Kandahar.

He is apparently on the run, but no one knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding. When and if the U.S. military does catch him, dead or alive, will the mission end there?

Joining us now from Washington, CNN security analyst Kelly McCann. He is president and CEO of Crucible Security in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Welcome back. How are you doing this morning?

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I'm well, and you?

ZAHN: I'm good, thanks.

I want you to react to something that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said late yesterday. Let's all listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The subject of the whereabouts of the senior al Qaeda and senior Taliban leadership, it's an interesting question. I know everyone is focusing on it. It seems to me that until they are located and dealt with, it's not useful to try to speculate about how close one might be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: But the fact is, Kelly, every single time a senior administration official comes out and talks about Osama bin Laden, it fuels the speculation about where he is. There are reports this morning he's already in Pakistan, that he shaved his beard, that he shaved his head. There are other reports that he is still hunkered down near Tora Bora, very close to the Pakistani border. What do you think, based on what you've heard from your sources?

MCCANN: I think that the secretary is right on. There's a difficult question here, Paula, that you know, being in the media, that people have a thirst for wanting to know things and about things that they can't influence. They just want to know. The problem is, we've known from the beginning, that people that are here in the United States and elsewhere in the world, obviously, are monitoring the media -- they're listening to the radio, they're watching TV -- and that information is filtered back to people still in the al Qaeda.

So we have to be very careful. Speculation doesn't do anything. I would just suggest that we all trust the people who are empowered and do know the whole spectrum of intelligence, because they are so far waging this war brilliantly.

They're probably determining whether it's more valuable to see a 6-foot-5-inch very skinny man dead or whether it's more valuable to let him go about his business and see who he contacts and how he does it.

So it's in good hands. I think the secretary is right.

ZAHN: But don't we have to acknowledge this morning that Osama bin Laden does have a lot of options at this hour?

MCCANN: No, he doesn't have a lot of options.

ZAHN: You don't think so? You think he's so surrounded that he can't get out any number of ways?

MCCANN: I think that this effort, Paula, has made him very paranoid, very, very tentative about using any method of communications. He's concerned about being seen, which adds to the whole frenzy of trying to stay safe, which equals he will make a mistake. And when he makes a mistake, if we don't know where he is, we will be there to get him. If we do know where he is, then it's even better if he keeps looking over his shoulder. So this whole thing adds up to paranoia for the al Qaeda, and that's just great.

ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about the potential of actually finding Osama bin Laden dead. There's been much debate about actually how you prove he is dead. Walk us through the process that would be used in that case.

MCCANN: Well, of course, the byproduct of combat is dead people. And there's an equal effort through the mortuary centers, the affairs center, in the U.S. Army to train people to handle that. At the user level, it becomes the grave registration units, and those guys are charged with going out and finding the deceased -- enemy and allied, and, of course, U.S.; and then making collection points that are free from disease, in proper hygiene, etcetera; then finding out and trying to determine who they are; and coordinating the release and transfer of those people.

The closest we've been to that is in Bosnia and Kosovo, when we have stood next to these mass graves as our company protects U.S. diplomats. The graves registration guys and mortuary affairs center people were there, advising the Bosnians. And the critical thing is, you hear a lot of talk about DNA -- and there is an armed forces repository for DNA information that every troop has to give blood to. The trouble is we don't have that same body of data for enemy people. So although we could get the samples, unless we have something to match them against, of course, the DNA won't work.

So it's a complicated issue, not to mention the fact that when you're putting 2000-pound bombs on people, there's not much left. It's a difficult question.

ZAHN: J. Kelly McCann, thank you for covering all that for us this morning.

MCCANN: Thanks, Paula.

ZAHN: Take care.

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