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American Morning

Reports Flying About Whereabouts and Rumor of Arrest of Taliban Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar

Aired January 04, 2002 - 07:04   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go back to Afghanistan.

Let's get the latest on America's new war from that perspective. Reports now flying this morning about the whereabouts and about a rumor of the arrest of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. There's also some word this morning that U.S. bombers targeted suspected al Qaeda spots in eastern Afghanistan.

And our Bill Hemmer is standing by in Kandahar. He's got the latest on all of this for us -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Leon, good morning once again there in Atlanta.

We're standing in the middle of a dust storm right now. There's a giant street sweeper that basically comes by about 12 hours a day clearing some of the dust off the runway and there's a lot of dust here in southern Afghanistan. It's just kicking up off to our right right now so they're trying to fight through this. It is not a fall here, again, it is a dust cloud here in southern Afghanistan.

Let's talk about Mullah Mohammad Omar. You can pick your day and really pick your rumor at this point. It's a bit difficult to ascertain what is truth here and what is not. But what we believe right now is this. What we believe is that the Taliban founder is still in northern Helmand Province near the town of Baghran, possibly surrounded by 1,500 loyal Taliban fighters.

That's according to the local governor here in Kandahar. Also, local Afghan leaders indicate that they have given a deadline to those fighters to surrender, turn in their weapons and give up. And some insist that Omar has been given a similar warning, although that is difficult to confirm, as well. They're about 120 miles from our location here.

We do know, though, that U.S. special forces working on the ground there right now and some special forces a bit disgruntled, thinking that the more time that goes by and the fewer men employed there, that Omar may, in fact, slip the net, in the words of some here.

Now, if captured, here's one scenario that's starting to shape here. It is likely, it is likely if Mullah Mohammad Omar is taken captive by the U.S. he would not be taken here to the Kandahar Airport but rather taken out to a ship in the Arabian Sea. You know, there's already a couple hundred detainees here and you can imagine for yourself the logistical problems if, indeed, Mullah Mohammad Omar were brought here to the airport. Already the U.S. military has several dozen ships floating there in the Arabian Sea. They've been there for quite some time.

Let's talk now about the latest bombing run, the first air strikes in five days carried out overnight last night, Eastern Afghanistan now, near the town of Khost. This is an area that was targeted twice in the past three and a half months, also an area hit by cruise missiles about three and a half years ago when al Qaeda leaders were thought to be there in eastern Afghanistan.

We're told that the pounding was intense, F-14s and F-18s and AC- 130 gunships. And the Pentagon indicates that they believe right now that Taliban fighters and al Qaeda fighters specifically may be regrouping and resurfacing in this area and that's the reason for the targeted attacks last night there.

In southern Afghanistan now, at Camp Rhino, officially that is now closed. That's the original footprint for the U.S. military, the U.S. marines here in Afghanistan. But right now all the marines are out, either back at ship at sea or here at the Kandahar Airport. The marines went in in the past few days and did a little bit of cleaning up and the little construction work there on the few buildings that are in the desert there.

As the marines say, they have now returned Camp Rhino to the desert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. STEWART UPTON: The 50th MEU closed down Rhino last night and prior to leaving Rhino they painted over, for those of you that were at Rhino, they painted over the walls where they had spray painted some directions to where some of the facilities were located and they repaired the entire forward operating base the best they could to the condition it was prior to us arriving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Again, Camp Rhino now shut down, but Kandahar is not. It continues to grow on a daily basis. And so, too, does the list of detainees. Twenty-five more last night, most from Pakistan once again. The growing number now 250 here at Kandahar. However, there are a few more scattered about the area, eight out on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, including the American, John Walker, that Daryn mentioned a few moments ago, and a few other scattered in the northern part of Afghanistan away from here.

We're told by the marines the facility has now been expanded. They can take anywhere up to 400 detainees here. And we're also led to believe that in about two weeks time it'll be expanded once again to about 500 detainees here in Kandahar. One final note, greetings from home. A huge sign was unrolled today, 400 feet in length, sent in from a lot of folks in eastern Maryland, places like Denton, Maryland and Greensboro, Maryland. We're told that George and Shirley Jackson got a whole lot of people in the towns and the schools there to sign it and then they sent it off to an air base, McGwire Air Base (ph) in New Jersey, to bring it here and mail it here. And they cut it and they taped it onto the walls today and some of the greetings are actually quite touching, too.

Some Americans writing "fight hard and feel proud," "come home safe." One kid says, "Good luck. Hope you win." Another kid says, "Good luck. Don't get lost." So far they haven't. Greetings from home, always good to see 7,000 miles away.

That's it from Kandahar, Leon, the latest here. Back to you now in Atlanta.

HARRIS: All right, great.

Thanks, Bill. We'll check back with you later on this hour.

Well, U.S. war planes again, as Bill said, bore down on eastern Afghanistan, taking aim at suspected al Qaeda targets. Military officials are saying that some of Osama bin Laden's terrorist forces may have been trying to regroup.

Well, joining us now to discuss that big question and some other things is CNN's military analyst, retired Major General Don Shepperd in Washington once again. Good morning, General. Glad to have you back with us.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, let's see, barely 24 hours ago you told me that bombs would be dropping again in Afghanistan and it turns out that that's exactly what happened.

SHEPPERD: Yes, what's the picture that's taken place here is that these cells are regrouping, probably for future action, probably for self-protection, probably on the run and going to known areas where they have sympathy and they also have facilities where they can hide. Now, what's taken place, Leon, is in all of these areas, particularly in the host area, which is south of Jalalabad and the Gardez area, leaflets are being dropped and these leaflets are warning the population to stay away from the al Qaeda and not support them because they've become targets.

Any time we find these people with our sensors, and I'm talking about cameras, I'm talking about I.R. sensors, and I'm talking about listening devices, we basically are, we basically are going after them and we're going after them big time.

HARRIS: Any idea of whether or not these leaflet drops are actually getting locals there to turn al Qaeda members in? SHEPPERD: There hasn't been any indication of that yet, that that's actually happening. But it can happen. And again, you do it with money, you do it with requests all the time. So it's something that you regularly do in seeking people to turn over people that are fleeing.

HARRIS: All right, speaking of fleeing al Qaeda members, reports this morning that there are some reconnaissance flights over Somalia right now, the U.S. checking out whether or not that country has, whether or not any al Qaeda members have shown up in that country. What do you make of these reports?

SHEPPERD: Well, basically we've been watching Somalia for a long time. And the reason you watch Somalia is it's a lawless place. There's no organized government in there. There's no immigration facility. There's no regular airline flights in there. So it provides an absolutely excellent haven for these al Qaeda cells and any other terrorist cells. We've known it for a long time.

So we're watching the camps to see if the camps are re-inhabited again. We're doing, again, the listening devices, and we're trying to develop patterns as the world closes down on terrorists everywhere.

We're after them wherever they go and that's a good place to flee because of the lawlessness and the lack of an organized government in that area.

HARRIS: Well, you touched on something that first occurred to me when I read that report, is what is it that they would actually be looking for in flights overhead? Look, what would they be looking for? I mean I'm sure the terrorists aren't sitting down there with a giant X on the ground saying this marks the spot. What would they be looking for?

SHEPPERD: Not a giant X, but they do need training facilities, the same type that exist in Afghanistan. They need to bring these people in and train them and house them and they need to have those facilities away from populated areas. So you know the ones that have been used. You get that from human intelligence. You watch them again with cameras and listening devices and you go after them. You watch when they're re-inhabited. But human intelligence is key in all of this, not just the sensors.

HARRIS: Yes, but, you know, there have been eyes in the sky in that area for months now and how is it, then, that al Qaeda members could actually leave Afghanistan undetected and then reappear in another country in the first place?

SHEPPERD: Real easy, money and plans. They've had this planned for a long time. They get out of Afghanistan, into Pakistan. They get to the coast. They pay people, pirates and this type of thing, smugglers, things that have gone on in this area for years. And then these smugglers take them to Somalia and they get in with the clans there and then they get to their areas. It's pretty easy to do in this area, Leon.

HARRIS: Yes, that's why we think this is going to go on for a long time, too.

SHEPPERD: Indeed.

HARRIS: General Don Shepperd, thank you very much. Appreciate the insights. We'll talk with you later on this morning.

SHEPPERD: It's a pleasure.

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