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American Morning

Bush Says No Cave Deep Enough for Bin Laden to Hide

Aired February 06, 2002 - 08:04   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning: the search for Osama bin Laden. President Bush said just yesterday there was no cave deep enough for bin Laden to hide. But the confidence of the president flies in the face of the fact that the whereabouts of the terrorist leader remains unknown, and we have been hearing lots of reports that the trail has gone cold. But there may be a change in all of that.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with an update -- good morning, Barbara. What have you learned?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Paula.

Well, four months into the war, the general assessment is that the trail has gone cold, that Osama bin Laden has disappeared off the face of the earth. But this morning, U.S. intelligence sources tell us that they are stepping up their reconnaissance and surveillance of two particular sets of caves in southeastern Afghanistan. One of them is near the town of Khowst, one is near the town of Spin Boldack. Both of these places are not far from the Pakistan border in southeastern Afghanistan.

And the reason they are looking at both of these sets of caves is they have determined that bin Laden has used these in the past, and they are keeping a very close eye on them right now, because they think he may return. That in fact, if he is in Afghanistan in southeastern Afghanistan, which is one assessment, that he may go back to these caves. They will keep them under surveillance and reconnaissance and hope they can spot some activity.

And let me bring everybody up to date on one other matter on that raid that Daryn Kagan spoke about a few moments ago. Yes, the 27 detainees are being released, but we have also learned another detail in the last several minutes here at the Pentagon. And that is the CIA is now acknowledging that it was their cash, CIA money, that is being used to pay compensation to the families of the killed and the wounded in that raid. The CIA had decided to distribute some financial compensation to those families, because the CIA wants to maintain good relations with locals throughout Afghanistan, so that they can continue to operate in the region and perform these missions -- Paula.

ZAHN: Barbara Starr, thanks so much for that update. We will stay tuned to you at the Pentagon and make sure we get all of the latest information today -- thanks.

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