Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

At This Hour, U.S. Marines in Kandahar are Preparing to House as Many as 500 Taliban and Al Qaeda Prisoners

Aired December 20, 2001 - 08:04   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: We're going to start in the war zone. At this hour, U.S. Marines in Kandahar are preparing to house as many as 500 Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. FBI agents are at the newly- built detention center to interrogate the prisoners.

CNN's Mike Chinoy has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like phantoms in the night, 15 fighters from al Qaeda and the Taliban emerge from the gloom, blindfolded, their hands and feet bound, tied together, guarded by U.S. Marines, their war against the United States ending here in a corrugated iron detention center at Kandahar Airport.

The 15 were reportedly selected by the U.S. from hundreds of prisoners captured by anti-Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan during the past two months, chosen either because they were suspected of holding senior positions or had useful information and insights about the workings of Osama bin Laden's terror network.

On arrival, they were fingerprinted and processed by a team of FBI agents, then moved inside the compound. Here, once day broke, Marines continued to reinforced the detention center, the prisoners put into individual holding areas surrounded by concertina wire. Even though their legal status remains unclear, they are being given the same rights under the Geneva Convention as prisoners of war.

MAJOR CHRIS HUGHES, U.S. MARINES: They will be safeguarded, provided food, water, shelter, medical care. They are free to practice their religion and to meet with representatives from the international committee of the Red Cross.

CHINOY: The next step for the FBI team is to determine how to handle the interrogation, how to be sure the not always overlapping needs of the U.S. military, the intelligence community and the U.S. justice system are all met. It's not as easy as walking into a room and asking questions.

TOM KNOWLES, FBI: But it's far more complicated than that, because our whole purpose here now is when we operate overseas, we still operate under the same rules as we do in the United States. And the detainees, while they are being held in accordance with the Geneva Convention and receiving all of the treatments, we're still trying to decide who we want to talk to, who has got information, and we've got to figure out how we work by our laws over here under this particular matter. So we're -- there's constant coordination going on between the military, with the FBI here and FBI headquarters and the Department of Justice.

CHINOY (on camera): The arrival of the detainees highlights the way the conflict here in Afghanistan is changing, becoming less and less of a shooting war and more and more of a manhunt, with the people held here simply pawns in the search for a bigger prize: Osama bin Laden and the terror network he directs.

I'm Mike Chinoy with the U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.