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American Morning

Fresh Report Surfaces That Bin Laden Still Alive

Aired June 24, 2002 - 10:33   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A fresh report surfaced over the weekend that Osama bin Laden might still be alive, and he may be preparing his followers for more attacks. This is all based on an audiotape by an Al Qaeda spokesman that was aired by Al-Jazeera television.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more on whether the administration considers this information credible.

Good morning, Barbara, what's the word on all of that?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Well, indeed, this tape aired over the weekend on Al Jazeera television in the Middle East. But here in Washington, the administration is saying it doesn't know yet if the tape is authentic, and that fundamentally, it changes nothing as far as the Bush administration is concerned.

Now on this tape, the spokesman for the Al Qaeda said that Osama bin Laden and one of his top lieutenants, Ayman Al-Zawahri, were in good health and that more attacks were planned. From the administration's point of view, they'll look and try and determine if the tape is authentic, but they say it doesn't change anything because in -- due to the lack of evidence that bin Laden is dead, there's no evidence he's dead. There working assumption remains that he is alive, that they have to believe that, and they have to conduct the anti-terrorism campaign on that basis. They're working assumption is that bin Laden is alive, probably moving across the Afghan-Pakistan boarder. Now, of course, no one knows for sure, but that's what the working assumption remains, irrespective of this tape.

But senior administration officials do confirm to CNN that so far this year, in the last six months or so, they have no confirmed contacts with bin Laden. There are no confirmed sightings. There are no confirmed videotapes that he has made this year, no confirmed cell phone intercepts, no tape recordings, nothing since January that confirms his existence. So they'll look and see if this tape is authentic, but it really doesn't change anything. They don't know, but they have to believe at the moment that he is alive -- Leon.

HARRIS: Very interesting.

Well, tell us about something else they do something nor about. This week, as I understand it, there is more information out on that violation of the airspace over the White House last week.

STARR: Well, CNN has learned some new details. In fact, on Friday, according to government spokesman there were two additional violations of this restricted airspace around Washington D.C., 15 miles, 18,000 feet. Again, two small planes, came within this airspace. We don't know yet, but we believe that NORAD was not asked to scramble planes, that the planes stayed far enough from the White House, underscoring again, however, that small planes do wonder into this restricted airspace. We are also told that at Andrews Air Force Base, where those planes are on strip alert, they are reviewing their procedures. They are trying to determine if they should move the strip alert location closer to takeoff point on the runway. They could perhaps shave three or four minutes off the response time if they reconfigured the runway and made things a little bit closer.

So everybody still taking a very hard look at the lessons learned, especially as some of these small planes continue to wonder into the airspace -- Leon.

HARRIS: That's interesting. That's going to have some people kind of concerned over here that may not have noticed this before. In fact, does this make them think at the Pentagon that this may have been happening for a long time in the past and no one ever took notice of it?

STARR: Well, the military will tell you that since September 11th, there have been really hundreds and hundreds of violations around the country of various airspace restrictions. Of course, overwhelmingly, virtually all of them prove not to be a threat. But what they're really trying to focus on is getting that response time down, so that if there is a real problem, they can get up there and take care of it, intercept a plane, force it to land. So that's why they're doing the lessons learned, trying to take a look at all the procedures between NORAD and the FAA, and really shave that response time down as much as they can.

HARRIS: Good deal. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks much. Good to see you, too. Take care.

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