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American Morning

Colin Powell Ends Peace Mission to Mideast

Aired April 17, 2002 - 09:02   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 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ends his peace mission to the Middle East today with no concrete agreement on ending the violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Joining us now with the very latest is CNN's Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem who's had some chance to analyze some of what Yasser Arafat said after his meeting with Secretary of State Powell and, of course, monitoring the news conference that Colin Powell held earlier this morning. Good morning, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, to you, Paula as well. The Secretary of State this hour expected, wheels up, expected to leave Israel for Cairo. His next stop a brief meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia but not be President Hosni Mubarak before returning to Washington later today. Not a whole lot of tangible progress. Seen at least visibly during the course of the secretary of state's two hours of talks today with Yasser Arafat in his besieged Ramallah headquarters. Indeed at a later news conference wrapping up his 10-day mission to this part of the world, the secretary explained why he couldn't even achieve a ceasefire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We could have a ceasefire declared today, but what would it mean while one side is still pursuing an operation that they are bringing to close but they have not yet brought to a close and the other side is not yet in a position to respond because the incursion has not yet ended. It in the process of ending I hope. And so a ceasefire is not a relevant term at the moment. But it will become relevant, I believe very quickly when the incursion ends, when the withdrawals have been completed and then we are positioned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: At the same time the Secretary of state strong words - using some strong words for both the Israelis and the Palestinians to backup their own private commitment with actions to the Israelis. He said get out of the areas. Israel recently reoccupied as quickly as possible. The Israelis having not paid attention to President Bush's appeal for immediate withdrawal some two weeks ago to the Palestinians, to Yasser Arafat, saying back up you're promises to end terrorism with actual deeds. For the Israelis, the Former Israeli Ambassador of the United Nations Dore Gold, now a top foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Sharon, tried to put his best foot forward when his spoke with him a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DORE GOLD, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR TO ARIEL SHARON: What Secretary Powell goes away with that's tangible is Israeli timeline to withdraw its forces from Palestinians city and bring the current operation to a close. That's a clear tangible accomplishment. Unfortunately, Yasser Arafat has not reciprocated, has not offered a meaningful ceasefire and certainly hasn't agreed to General Zinni's last compromised formula for a ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Chairman Arafat, after his two-hour meeting with Secretary Powell, was furious. Very, very angry at the Israelis for continuing to encircle his headquarters compound in Ramallah, for continuing to go in and out of other areas of the West Bank. He was especially bitter about the situation at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Listen, for example, to this brief excerpt of what Mr. Arafat had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YASSER ARAFAT: I have to ask the whole international world, I have to ask his (ph) President Bush, I have to ask the United Nations, is this acceptable? That I can't go outside from this door? Is this acceptable? For how long?

What did Secretary Powell ...

ARAFAT: Do you think? Do you think? Do you think this will not reflect in the whole stability and the peace and in the Middle East?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And he specifically referred, on a couple of occasions, to what's been going on at the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square in Bethlehem. That's not very far from where I am right now. About 200-armed Palestinians remain holed up inside that church. There was some fire - firefights yesterday and last night. Unclear precisely what precipitated it, what happened. Some damage to the church itself. Although the stalemate continues, the secretary of state promised the U.S. would do what it could to end it but there doesn't seem to be any clear resolution to that stalemate in Bethlehem anytime soon - Paula.

ZAHN: And when the secretary of stat travels to Egypt, he won't be meeting with the president; will he?

BLITZER: No. There had been expectation he would meet with Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. But apparently there's no real need. There also had been speculation that after his meeting, Paula, his meeting with Arafat today, he might even wind up with yet another meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He's met with him three times since arriving here last Thursday night. They didn't have another meeting.

The secretary is leaving open though the possibility he could return in the next few weeks, indeed, some U.S. officials suggesting he might return next month if there's an opportunity to improve the situation.

Paula, I have to tell you this is an extremely volatile situation, not only between the Israelis and the Palestinian but along Israel's northern boarder with Lebanon and with Syria. Some calming on that front over the past few days since Powell went to Beirut and Damascus. But just as there's been a calm that could easily flare-up. The Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern part of Lebanon supported by Syria and Iran could make a move and that could escalate tensions between the Israelis and the Syrians and the Lebanese. So it's a serious issue all around.

ZAHN: And I don't know whether you heard my interview with the Lebanese prime minister but he basically suggested today that in spite of the fact that Lebanon has tried to decrease the tension along the boarder, they're not going to make that commitment until Israel removes its troops from that area. So here we go again, right?

BLITZER: Yeah. And I didn't hear - I didn't hear the interview but it's a clear-cut source of potential tension, if not much worse. That tiny little area along the boarder between Israel, Lebanon and Syria, disputed territory. And I don't see any quick resolution to that disputed territory either. In all, U.S. interest in this part of the world are great as you well know, Paula and the stakes are real serious for all concerned.

ZAHN: All right. Wolf Blitzer thanks for that wrap up. See you a little bit later on today.

We're going to move on to our "Big Question" of the hour, did the U.S. let Bin Laden get away? There is a new report today that Osama Bin Laden was in Afghanistan at the battle for Tora Bora last year. He apparently he was in a cave. The Washington Post is reporting intelligence officials believe Bin Laden slipped away in early December. Something that CNN's Jamie McIntyre reported more than a month ago. The Post reports that the Bush Administration believes its failure to commit ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war on terror. Joining us now with more insights is CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well yes, you know the U.S. has wondered for months now if Osama Bin Laden really was in Tora Bora late last year just as the U.S. was beginning its air assault there. And the conclusion now is that, yes, he was and he slipped away.

Now, of course, this has been rumored for months. But what officials are now confirming is that interrogations of several detainees that they seized in the regions, those interrogations have independently confirmed that Bin Laden was there. That he was there in early December. That he addressed his Al-Qaeda troops there and then slipped away presumably at his believed with the help of local Afghans who were sympathetic to him. And of course, it was that type of help from the locals that then in subsequent encounters led the U.S. military to make a change of policy and put U.S. troops on the front line in any potential combat situation not Afghans so this type of thing would not happen again.

And now months later the U.S. military is still very heavily concentrating its search for Bin Laden on this entire no-man's land between Pakistan and Afghanistan, along their mutual southeastern boarder. Officials tell us that if Bin Laden, indeed, is still alive, they believe the best chance is that he is moving across that boarder again with the help of locals - Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks Barbara. We're going to follow up on the story now with our own general. See you later on in the day. British troops have joined the search in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan for remaining pockets of Al-Qaeda and to talk about the U.S. military's plan to take the hunt for Bin Laden across the boarder into Pakistan and the difficulties of that kind of manhunt, we turn to CNN Military Analyst General David Grange who join s us from Chicago. Good to see you again. We haven't seen you in a couple of weeks.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, (RET) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

ZAHN: Welcome back.

GRANGE: Thank you.

ZAHN: All right. General, in this Washington Post report the accusation is that General Tommy Franks misjudged the cooperation that he was going to get from his Afghan allies. Is it his fault that Osama Bin Laden slipped away?

GRANGE: Well I'm not sure, Paula, if it is his fault or not. He is the operational commander. He's overall responsibility. The intelligence at the time and the feelings of the allies that our forces were working with would be that they would secure the area, the would cord off the area as strikes went in and then grab anybody that tried to flee. Obviously that was misjudged and if this is the case that Bin Laden was in the Tora Bora area and he slipped through the porous boarder, which is very easy to do in this mountainous terrain.

ZAHN: Based on what you know about this, how bad of an error is it?

GRANGE: Well you know, when you miss a prime target like that it hurts and you have enemy now that's still on the loose that continues to plan operations, most probably if he's alive, against the United States and our allies. Bin Laden and Hisarahi (ph) are two top enemies of this country that are on the loose. Very dangerous and hopefully we'll have the chance to grab them again. One of the issues is going to be operations in Pakistan to do this. ZAHN: Let's talk about what that operation might entail. I mean there have been reports of the U.S. troops actually physically extracting Osama Bin Laden, if he's alive and well from Pakistan, from Pakistan. How would that work?

GRANGE: Yeah, first of all, it's I think proper to understand that usually the hardest combat situations occur, as they say in the military, where two maps join together. And in this case you have two countries, the boarder joining together. And the boarders not recognized by many of the local tribes. They move back and forth, smugglers and just the tribunal habits for centuries through this area or especially since the Duran (ph) line was established by Great Britain.

So the problem is it's a sanctuary. And guerrillas need sanctuary to survive. And not only do they have local support in the Afghanistan side but they have local support on the Pakistan side. So operations have to be conducted by somebody in Pakistan, which were, as I believe Bin Laden, if he's alive, and some of his other key leaders, still remains.

Now covertly that could be done probably right now or is being done right now. Overtly it's tougher for President Musharraf because then he may loss some support that he's trying to garnish in his region. So it's a very difficult situation at the President Musharraf's end but ...

ZAHN: And covert - oh sorry, General. What did you say was happening covertly right now?

GRANGE: Well covertly, you know, you can get away of some of these operations handled by other agencies besides the military of our government and other allied governments and the government of Pakistan because the local people may not know about the operation.

Overtly, moving helicopters and ground troops and vehicles and those types of things, people see that and they will respond to that and you have a lot of sympathizers in Pakistan for the Taliban, for the Al-Qaeda, so an overt operation is harder to conduct or gain support to do.

ZAHN: Well we appreciate you covering so much ground for us this morning. General Grange always delighted when you join us. We know you're a very busy man.

GRANGE: Thank you.

ZAHN: Take care.

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