Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Developments With Marines in Kandahar

Aired December 31, 2001 - 08:06   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Marines will soon be handing over control of Kandahar Airport to the Army's 101st Airborne Division. And if these Marines can get wheels up out of there, that's just one thing the Marines are going to be celebrating tonight.

Our Bill Hemmer is standing by in Kandahar today where the troops are close to ringing in 2002. Hello, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: That they are, Leon, and thank you and good evening once again. I want to update you on what we are hearing about the area here in southern Afghanistan as it relates to the possibility of military activity. We are hearing reports that special forces may be in concert right now with Afghan forces working northwest of Kandahar in the province of Helmand. It has been rumored for months now that Mullah Mohammed Omar may be taking refuge in hiding in this part of Afghanistan.

Nothing confirmed on this. But indeed that's what we are picking up. The military, "no comment", they won't confirm or deny it. Simply they say any operation that may be underway or may not be underway, certainly they want to keep any view away from the public. For fear of any injury or damage to any men or women who might be working that mission. We'll continue to watch that throughout the morning here, and into the evening hours here in Afghanistan.

On another front, you heard Marty Savage talk about that CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter. This story developed yesterday. Apparently late Saturday, on a mission near Kandahar, this giant helicopter -- it's been a workhorse for the Marines here in Afghanistan -- went down suffering a hard landing. The nose gear hitting first and then that helicopter unable to fly out of there. The Marines still say the crew is safe, back here yesterday. And no problems in terms of injuries. But they hope to get that helicopter back here possibly over night tonight, possibly tomorrow, the first of the year. And again, the anticipation is that they can fly that helicopter out of there, so far as the engineers can assess the damage that was done to that chopper.

Back here in Kandahar, a detention facility now. We have some videotape to show you, shot just a few hours ago. The security here has been extremely tight, even for members of the media here working on board the airport. A lot of us are kept well away from that detention facility for fear of security breach, and other things like that. But we can tell you that facility makes improvements on a daily basis. More lights go up, more guards come in; more guard towers go up, more tents go up inside.

And with a short observation a couple hours ago earlier today, I can tell you, inside now: 164 detainees, all dressed in blue jumpers. Some of them are separated into groups, some of them are kept individually. Some shackled, some are not. And oftentimes you can see them kneeling and bending and praying throughout the day. In talking with sources, they say they will continue to exercise an extreme amount of patience and time when it comes to dealing with the issues and the questions they want answered. Ultimately they say, the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden still is outstanding. It has not been answered just yet, and still that is an outstanding issue.

Now as to whether or not they will give us an idea as to whether or not they are making progress, they are very tightlipped about that as well. And here's why. They say any indication that they offer publicly, they may perhaps get more information to other Al Qaeda or Taliban members still on the run throughout Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan. That may be able to use if indeed they are detained here at a later time. So certainly that is a security issue that we've been watching.

Also, three days ago, we reported to you from Kandahar that the 101st airborne division, the US Army, will come here possibly in mid- January; once the Marines pack up and clear out, and hand over this airport to the 101st Airborne Division. We have seen elements of the Army here thus far, but certainly we anticipate in the coming weeks that many more elements will arrive when that hand-over is anticipated there. From there you are looking at humanitarian aid, and the potential for peacekeepers here in southern Afghanistan.

Also, Leon, as you mentioned, New Years Eve later tonight, coming up on six hours away. They've planned a few things; some pyrotechnics -- going to blow up some more of those Soviet land mines that they have found here on a daily basis. We'll look forward to that in about six hours later tonight. See you again in about 20 minutes time. Going to let you know how the Marines are able to perform a mission like this.

They call it -- they call it, "Beans, Band-Aids and Bullets; 30 days in and 30 days out for the MEU" -- the Marine Expeditionary Unit. We'll take you through on that when we come back here at the bottom of the hour. Leon back to you; and again Happy New Year to you and Marty and everybody else back there at the CNN Center.

LEON: You got it. Same to you pal, stay safe. And when we get back, you'll have to share with us exactly how these fireworks with the landmines go off. That's a very interesting idea there. All right, you be safe; OK, pal. We'll see you later. Bill Hemmer in Kandahar.

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