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American Morning

Did a U.S. Missile Attack Kill Osama Bin Laden?

Aired February 07, 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, did a U.S. missile attack kill a top al Qaeda leader and could it have been Osama bin Laden? Well, military officials say the missile from an unmanned CIA plane struck an al Qaeda convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. It is now believed several people were killed and the Pentagon is trying to determine who the victims were.

For more on that, we turn to Martin Savidge, who's standing by in Kandahar -- good morning, Martin. What is the latest you've learned along that front?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Paula.

They are trying to figure out what exactly got hit and who may have been killed. We're told that there is a military operation under way from the Kandahar military base here trying to insert troops into the Tora Bora region where this whole incident took place.

Now, it happened, though, on Monday. That's when the CIA Predator unmanned aircraft apparently spotted this small convoy of vehicles moving down a road. They apparently called for an air strike from U.S. air forces, but apparently there were none available in the region at that moment.

So instead the Predator had a prowler missile -- or, I'm sorry, a Hellfire missile -- and launched it. That's an anti-tank missile that's laser guided. It went in and struck the convoy and, they believe, killed a number of people. We don't know why exactly, but the CIA believes that they are al Qaeda leaders.

Right now they're trying to get the troops in to see if that truly was the case. The reason they didn't get them in sooner than this is because weather in that area is notoriously bad and has been for the past couple of days. The problem is with the elapse of time if there had been people killed it's possible other al Qaeda operatives could have removed their bodies and we may not get a real clear picture -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Martin, how long might it take to get our troops in there so they can analyze what they've hit and who was hit?

SAVIDGE: Well, the truth is it shouldn't take that long. The Tora Bora region has had U.S. forces in it for some time, the same area where they had been searching for those caves. One of the reasons that the Predator was in that area was the fact that yes, those caves have been searched, but they were keeping aircraft surveillance to make sure if anyone returned. It appears that some may have tried to get back there.

How long? It's about maybe 50 miles to get down there, by helicopter half an hour. How long it takes to actually find anything, that's a different matter. We would think that some time today or tomorrow we would hear something specific.

ZAHN: All right, Martin Savidge, thanks so much for the update.

The big question this morning is, is al Qaeda about to strike the U.S. again? Testifying on Capitol Hill yesterday, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, told senators that al Qaeda leaders are still at large and working to reconstitute its terrorist organization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We assessed that al Qaeda and other terrorist groups will continue to plan to attack this country and its interests abroad. Their modus operandi is to continue to have multiple attack plans in the works simultaneously and to have al Qaeda cells in place to conduct them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: The CIA director also said Osama bin Laden's network remains the most immediate and serious threat to the United States.

And joining us now from Washington, CNN military analyst General Wesley Clark, still a man on the move. We caught you in Denver earlier this week. All right.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: Right.

ZAHN: General Clark, first of all, what did you make of the numbers that we heard for the first time yesterday from Mr. Tenet that some thousand al Qaeda operatives have been arrested all over the world?

CLARK: I think those are very good numbers. I think they're reassuring. It shows good cooperation with allies all over the world. And that's really going to be the key in winning this battle.

ZAHN: But the bottom line is Mr. Tenet also made it clear in spite of those arrests, he still believes there is a good chance that al Qaeda might try to reconstitute itself. What is the likelihood of that?

CLARK: My guess would be that it's quite high. This is an organization that's been years and years in building. It's come from component parts. These people are embittered. They're determined. And it's going to take, on our part, a very determined and long-term effort to root them all out. ZAHN: What kind of a long-term effort are we talking about?

CLARK: I think what we're talking about is a whole variety of measures starting with complete intelligence sharing with our allies and friends, developing new relationships with states that we previously haven't been that close to, perhaps. And then coordination of law enforcement activities and sharing evidence and coordinating laws so that evidence admissible in one country is admissible in another.

First and foremost it's a challenge of law enforcement that's backed up and energized by the intelligence community and, of course, by military force when necessary.

ZAHN: But in the meantime there has been so much discussion of sleeper cells that remain all over the world. Given the fact that we still believe that some of the al Qaeda leadership might have slipped over the borders into Pakistan and Iran, how would an attack actually be carried out?

CLARK: Well, it would require people in the target country to have access to the facilities and some means of conducting the attack. It could be explosives. It could be a disruption of something like a nuclear power plant by some technical means. And then it requires the direction and the planning to do it. So these sleeper cells may already be in place. There's no question that a lot of information has been collected over a long period of time, as secretary -- or as Mr. Tenet made clear yesterday. And so it's just a matter of getting the final organization together and then getting them the go signal from the terrorist headquarters.

That's why, Paula, it's so important that the United States and its coalition partners keep the pressure on al Qaeda, both in Afghanistan and everywhere. We can never lose sight of this. As Mr. Tenet said, it is the principal threat.

ZAHN: A quick final question. Yesterday when this Predator -- or, excuse me, on Monday -- hit this site near Tora Bora there seemed to be word from the Pentagon maybe that Osama bin Laden was holed up in that complex still. Do you have any information on that?

CLARK: I don't have anymore information but I do think it's ironic that that information is coming to us at the very time that we're recognizing that some of the earlier strikes we made may have been unsuccessful. And so we can just hope that this was a successful strike but it illustrates that the go and stop character of the conflict in Afghanistan, the fact that we're going to be there for a long time, it's very difficult and there are going to be high points and low points. I hope this is a high point.

ZAHN: I do, too.

General Wesley Clark, as always, good to have you on A.M.

CLARK: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Appreciate your perspective very much.

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