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American Morning

U.S. Military Moving on After Fierce Bombing Campaign

Aired January 15, 2002 - 07:05   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: Up front this morning, the U.S. military is apparently moving on after a fierce bombing campaign that targeted a large al Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.

We're going to get the very latest from the war zone right now.

Bill Hemmer is standing by in Kandahar with that update -- good morning, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good evening from Kandahar.

Eight days of intense bombing, really in the past three days. Our reports on the ground there indicated that the bombing intensified even more than we had seen previously. That terrorist training camp, apparently, though, has been absolutely flattened, the Pentagon saying that 60 structures above ground have been destroyed and about 50 cave openings also have been closed, and more may be on the way. One report indicates that a dozen or more may be just like it in the same area. So look for more targets there in the same part of the country.

No reports, though, of bombing in the past 24 hours in that time, and as the Pentagon says, as they always do, when the bombing subsides they send people inside those caves and tunnels and structures to find out more intelligence.

Speaking of caves and tunnels, though, here in Kandahar the marines today said they've identified seven people lurking on the perimeter yesterday afternoon. A patrol was sent out during the daytime hours and they found a weapons cache, rocket propelled grenades, mortar fuses on the ground. A bit later, they blew those areas up, flattened some abandoned buildings and knocked out the crawl spaces, where they say a lot of these weapons had been stored.

In addition they talked to, and they point to, rather, several cave openings have been imploded and closed for now.

As a result of all of this, they're going to expand the security perimeter here in Kandahar. All this just about a couple hundred yards from where the marines sit in those fighting holes 24 hours a day. And incidentally, this was the same area, Paula, where those shots were fired, that sniper fire and machine gun fire that took place last Thursday night when the first shipment of detainees headed off for Guantanamo Bay -- Paula.

ZAHN: How did they zero in on this particular area, Bill?

HEMMER: Yes, they were locating the, they watch the perimeter just about 24 hours a day, night vision goggles. Many times if they see things they'll throw up some white flares in the area, Paula. But what they were especially vigilant to was the movement and the activity they saw last Thursday. And they say they did not want to take any chances and certainly that security has been stepped up.

In fact, two nights ago when the second shipment left, we noticed about half a dozen humvees patrolling that same area at nighttime, at the same time the second flight was taking off.

ZAHN: What have you been told by officials there about the status of the detainees, those that still might be headed to Cuba, those that are already there?

HEMMER: Indeed, you're right. Nineteen more came in overnight last night, the first night in three nights that new detainees came in here. The number now on the ground 380 and as we've been saying for weeks now, sources say the greater majority, if not all, will make their way eventually to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

That second group arrived yesterday. Fifty now on the ground in Guantanamo Bay -- Paula.

ZAHN: Bill, a final question for you this morning. Are conditions there for you getting any better?

HEMMER: A little bit day by day. I'll tell you what, it got really cold last night. I think the wind chill was right around five degrees when we woke up this morning and we anticipate the thermometer will drop a little bit more tonight, which isn't too bad if you've got a place to go. But we haven't been inside and indoors for about a month's time. So we're staying bundled up, Paula.

ZAHN: They're still rationing hot water and you're still sleeping on a mat, right, on a stone cold floor?

HEMMER: Yes, pretty much sleeping on the tile floor, yes. But we got a chance to boil some water with some propane and some showers were set up about a week ago. We call them showers, Paula, but to be quite honest with you it's kind of like semi-warm water that trickles out of a hose. So it's better than nothing, though. We'll take it while we can get it.

ZAHN: Well, your reporting continues to stand up in spite of those tough conditions. And I know, of course, the marines are subjected to the same.

HEMMER: Oh, well, you're very kind.

ZAHN: So thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: Thank you. ZAHN: See you in about a half hour from now.

Sustained U.S. bombing has reduced al Qaeda camps to rubble and it appears most of their leaders are either dead or on the run. So why does the threat from a seemingly crippled terror network remain so great?

Well, joining me right now is Eric Davis. He is a terrorism expert from Rutgers University. Glad to have you with us in person on our set.

ERIC DAVIS, TERRORISM EXPERT: Glad to be here. Thanks.

ZAHN: I wanted to talk a little bit about what a senior law enforcement official had to say yesterday in the "Washington Post." And he essentially said after four months of intense bombing, that the Al Qaeda cells are still out there, they still represent a threat. Here is what he said. "Al Qaeda has been crippled in Afghanistan and crippled in Pakistan but it hasn't been put out of business by any stretch. They are still capable of doing a lot of damage."

What are they capable of doing right now?

DAVIS: Well, I think you have to make a distinction between what they can do here in the United States. I think the possibility of another September 11 type attack here is very, very remote.

I think where they can do the damage is outside the country because, of course, we don't have as much control of those areas.

ZAHN: And why are you so convinced that September 11 couldn't be repeated?

DAVIS: Well, first of all, I think that you have to look at our law enforcement agencies. Remember we heard a lot about turf wars before September 11? We have a lot of sharing of information now that we didn't have back then. We also have a level of readiness among our law enforcement agencies that is extremely high. We have cooperation with the Europeans, the Russians, the Philippines. The Indian intelligence services are helping us. And perhaps most importantly, intelligence services in the Middle East that were worried in the past about appearing too cozy with the United States are now providing us with important intelligence.

ZAHN: There are still experts out there that believe, in spite of the fact that we may have two of the big henchmen now in custody, that it really doesn't much matter because this operation operates sometimes from the bottom up.

And here is what the -- let me give you the correct title.

DAVIS: Sure.

ZAHN: The deputy director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence had to say from Scotland. "It is directed from the bottom up as much as the top down. The typical pattern before September 11 was of local al Qaeda cells initiating reconnaissance of potential targets, planning and then going back to the al Qaeda leadership for approval and possible funding. The foot soldiers are self-initiating and self-sustaining."

Do you agree?

DAVIS: Well, I agree. I think this is the whole thing. It's a decentralized global network. And, of course, by what we did in Afghanistan we can't destroy that. But the distinction that has to be made is between the ability to carry out the big type of September 11 type attacks and the smaller attacks that I think we're going to continue to see happening. Those, it's very difficult to control. But obviously the smaller attacks are in no way of the same magnitude as what happened on September 11.

ZAHN: And when you refer to smaller attacks, are you referring to the attacks on the embassies that we learned about, those threats that were thwarted in Singapore?

DAVIS: Well, yes, and I'm still concerned about issues such as, for example, taking a radiation bomb and leaving it, for example, in Grand Central Station. That's something that's very difficult to control. But a coordinated attack where you have many different operatives, you're commandeering four aircraft, you're smashing into three buildings, that's extremely difficult for anyone to mount in the future.

I think that we are in a whole new state of readiness today that we were not in before September 11.

ZAHN: But the truth is these campaigns don't cost a whole lot to pull off, do they?

DAVIS: No, they don't, and that's what's going to require addressing the problems that lead to terrorism in the first place in the Middle East. It's going to require much more sophistication and understanding the culture, the language, the operation procedures of these people. It's really going to require a lot of education, which goes way beyond law enforcement.

ZAHN: Well, I know a lot of people are going to be relieved to hear some of what you had to say today, particularly now that that threat was extended last week until March at the end of the Olympics.

DAVIS: Sure, sure. But again, we have not really seen anything since September 11 of any tremendous magnitude, and everything that we have heard has been thwarted.

ZAHN: Eric Davis of Rutgers University, glad to have you with us this morning.

DAVIS: Right. Glad to be here.

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