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American Morning

Taliban American Indicted

Aired January 16, 2002 - 09:04   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Taliban American John Walker has been indicted. He will face a civilian trial, in a federal court, in Virginia. Prosecutors feel they do not have enough against him to warrant charges that carried the death penalty, but the attorney general told me this morning the door is still open should additional evidence against him be developed.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us from the White House now with more.

Kelly, good to see you.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, too, Jack. A belated congratulations on the new show.

CAFFERTY: Thank you. The good part is I get to see you more often than when I was working at CNNfn.

To what degree, Kelly, was the White House involved, if at all, in the decisions on what to do about this American that was captured with the Taliban?

WALLACE: The White House, Jack, definitely involved. In fact, President Bush had his National Security Council come up with a series of options about how to handle this case, and that it was basically a recommendation from the National Security Council with definite involvement of the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and the attorney general, John Ashcroft, and that it was about 11 days ago that President Bush signed off on the recommendation coming from his team, that Walker be tried in a civilian court, as opposed to going before a military court-martial.

Then it was just yesterday, Jack, in fact, as President Bush was heading back to Washington, from New Orleans, that the attorney general called the president to say that Justice Department was ready to proceed, and announced its decision, and the president said to go ahead.

And as you know, Jack, those charges include conspiring to kill Americans overseas as well as providing support to terrorists organizations. But as you mentioned, no charge of treason, treason a very, very difficult charge to prove in a court of law; treason, though, does carry the death penalty. It was a very interesting from your interview with the attorney general, earlier today, John Ashcroft, saying that he is not ruling out filing additional charges if additional evidence becomes available.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S ATTORNEY GENERAL: We believe that the evidence that is available through his statements, which is the basis of the charges, provides charging for those crimes, which are not death eligible. We have not foreclosed charming other crimes against this individual should other evidence be developed, or other evidence be made available. But these crimes which that are charged fit the evidence which we now have, and they are not death eligible crimes; the maximum penalty is penalty of life imprisonment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: The attorney general, Jack, telling you that Walker will be returned to the United States -- quote -- promptly. He will be tried in the federal court system in northern Virginia.

As for Walker's family, they are saying they are grateful he is coming home, but they are expressing disappointment that he was interrogated for 45 days without having access to an attorney. To that, the attorney general says that Walker was read his Miranda rights, which include access to an attorney, but he waived them, and that he then did talk with an FBI special agent, which led to the indictment -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: Thanks a lot, Kelly Wallace, live at the White House.

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