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American Morning

U.S. Army on the Move

Aired December 28, 2001 - 07:06   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now back to America's new war. The U.S. Army is on the move, preparing for its relocation from Camp Rhino to the airport in Kandahar.

CNN's Bill Hemmer is following the buildup. He joins us. He's been with marines all week. Pretty soon there'll be a bit of the changing of the guard, won't there, Bill?

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eventually, Miles. Hello, again. Good evening from Kandahar.

At this point, Miles, a very long and loud night last night. Twenty-six different aircraft, and Miles, being a pilot yourself you know that C-17s are a rather large plane. We had six of those come in last night, much of which to unload supplies ahead of the U.S. Army.

Now, there were not a whole lot of personnel seen here. A few fresh uniforms responded in and around the area. But the large contingency of the U.S. Army, it's going to take a couple weeks before they get here. Again, they're not here in Afghanistan just yet but we do anticipate come mid-January to see a higher number of U.S. Army personnel here on the ground.

Basically it's the next phase and it's starting here at the Kandahar Airport. The supplies again brought in, not much personnel. Within weeks we should see a bigger presence here for the U.S. Army.

Now let's turn our attention to the detainees. The latest batch was brought in last night, 25 more, bringing the total here to 62. Agents at the airport indicate here that these came from the same border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan that the group on Thursday came. You may remember 20 came here on Thursday.

Now, we are also told through sources some of the detainees are willing to talk. Not all of them, but some are. But all, they say, are scared to death, in the words of one agent working the scene here.

Nationalities not revealed, but we are told that they run the spectrum of the al Qaeda network and we've been led to believe that al Qaeda has reached into about 60 different countries worldwide. A number of detainees here cover those countries that have been talked about within the al Qaeda system.

The big question, however, still not answered just yet. They still have not said where Osama bin Laden is and according to reports that we've gotten through yesterday, they continue to vary as to whether or not he is dead or alive in Afghanistan or whether or not he has sneaked outside into Pakistan.

We do anticipate the strong possibility more detainees will be brought in tonight. One agent said they may expect as many as 100, but they don't want that many right now. They say security and safety is certainly an issue. They will take them in bunches, but 100 seems to be stretching it at the moment.

I asked one agent whether or not they're making progress. He says every day we're making progress here.

One other note from a different part of the country here in Afghanistan. In the Tora Bora region, our CNN crews there working the scene earlier today, Walter Rodgers and CNN's Nic Robertson say they spotted about 25 U.S. special forces troops loading up in a convoy and packing out and heading out of that area. Now, whether or not this means they're folding up their operation there or whether or not they're moving to a different area is a bit difficult to ascertain. But the facts on the ground as we know it, 25 U.S. special forces seen on the move earlier today.

Back here in Kandahar we'll talk more about the significance of the U.S. Army a bit later this morning and also we're going to take you on a tour in a couple minutes here. In about 25 minutes time we're going to take you on board a light armored vehicle. They call them LAVs in the marines and they have been a critical piece of hardware for the marines operating here in Afghanistan.

We'll see you again shortly, Miles. Back to you now in Atlanta.

O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Bill. See you then.

The fact that some special forces might apparently be leaving the Tora Bora region, the hunt for bin Laden, could he possibly be in Pakistan? Some of the issues we want to talk about with our security analyst, J. Kelly McCann, who is with Crucible Security, joining us out of Washington.

Kelly, good to see you again.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's talk about the apparent departure of some of the special forces here. Fairly significant convoy there, 25 ATVs, some pickup trucks with supplies. How much should we read into that?

MCCANN: Not so much. I mean we control the battle space now so they've got different tasks they've got to do and obviously the way that the operations order works, it's a dynamic document. So as you force things to happen on the battlefield, obviously you change your plans. So we may have seen a reaction based on other things we've done and they're being sent to respond to that to keep the momentum up. O'BRIEN: Does this lead you to believe that U.S. forces will not be so actively engaged in this cave by cave search we've heard so much about?

MCCANN: It does. I mean it sounds like the Pentagon now is rescinding what they were talking about earlier about the marines going in. And obviously throughout this war we have wanted the Afghani people to do it for themselves. So at, you know, our better discretion we'll let them do it and we'll give them guidance as far as using techniques, tactics, procedures and hopefully giving to them some equipment, as well.

O'BRIEN: A lot of reports out this morning that seem to indicate bin Laden might have bought his way across the border into Pakistan and might, in fact, be under the protection of forces that are linked to the security forces in Pakistan themselves. It doesn't seem like too unlikely a scenario. Bin Laden certainly has the money to bribe. We've been talking so much about that $25 million reward. Bin Laden would probably have a fistful of cash that could get him some places if he needed to get there.

MCCANN: Right. Yes, you know, the big thing, I think, Miles, that's important is if he does slip out of Afghanistan there is a better understanding in other places in the world of what $25 million is. If you remember, you guys reported talking to villagers in Afghanistan who had no real concept of how much money that is.

Contrast that with the more educated population in Pakistan and we may have a better chance of someone cashing in on that.

O'BRIEN: Well, and I suppose the government in Pakistan would find Mr. Bin Laden to be an unwelcome guest. But, you know, tempering their desire to perhaps get rid of him from Pakistan is there is a strong Islamic insurgency there. You have to be very careful about that. Is it possible they would allow bin Laden to exist in Pakistan?

MCCANN: Oh, I don't believe that at all. I think that if they knew, if the government knew that he was there, they'd have no choice but to hand him over. The biggest problem is the timing of this. Now is not a good time right near New Year's to have him able to communicate and us perhaps not be able to monitor those communications. You know, they've kind of said before that they'd tie an incident to a holiday and that's the only thing that might be troubling is losing contact with his communications network.

O'BRIEN: It still seems unlikely that he would get on that satellite phone at any time, even if he was in Pakistan.

MCCANN: True enough. But, you know, he knows that we've been monitoring that and if you remember, when that was leaked inappropriately, that we were monitoring those communications. He stopped using it. So just the fact that he could then turn to a trusted aide and pass it down two or three fold to a phone that we weren't monitoring or didn't have knowledge of makes it a little bit hazardous to us. O'BRIEN: Kelly, you've had a chance to see the full 34 minute excerpt of that tape. Anything that strikes you? Or is it pretty much the same?

MCCANN: Pretty much the same stuff with one exception and that was the specific mention that he as specifically targeting the economics of the United States and encouraging others to continue to do so. I think that that shows the cleverness of this fellow and the depth of what he's trying to do to us. So we're going to have to be on guard for that kind of thing.

O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann is our security analyst. He's with Crucible Security in Virginia. Thank you very much for being with us this morning.

MCCANN: Thanks, Miles.

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