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American Morning

Is Osama Dead or Alive?

Aired August 20, 2002 - 07:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The terror tapes provide certainly a wealth of information about the public launch of al Qaeda and the intentions of Osama bin Laden. But they also raise many questions about the man himself. The biggest, of course: Is Osama bin Laden dead or alive?
Mike Boettcher has been talking with his sources and experts from around the world on this issue.

Mike -- good morning to you.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: If you go back to last December, many experts were coming on CNN and saying in the next weeks and months ahead, if there is no new videotape of Osama bin Laden, that suggests the most sincere evidence that the al Qaeda leader is dead. I am curious to know, is there a consensus from the people you talk to?

BOETTCHER: Well, you know, that whole thinking, I think, was a bunch of bull, frankly. They are very patient, al Qaeda is. They operate on a different timeframe.

I will tell you what my sources and the coalition against terror are saying. In the past, they have told me, we think -- we think he is alive. Now, they are saying he is alive. They believe very definitively that he is in the tribal areas of Pakistan close to the Afghan border.

And I will tell you something else that I have learned, information they are checking that Osama bin Laden had an operation on his shoulder about five to six weeks ago, and that that operation was performed by Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Now, CNN reported several months ago that Osama bin Laden had injuries to his hand and shoulder in the battle at Tora Bora, when U.S. forces -- Air Force attacked that area. And they are checking the reliability of the reports that that shoulder is still bothering him, but they believe those are very reliable sources telling them that he did have surgery about five or six weeks ago.

HEMMER: Mike, I want to roll some of this videotape that we just saw shortly in Nic Robertson's latest piece. Bodyguards, many of them surrounding Osama bin Laden. As you look at this tape, what does it say about bin Laden, and they way he operated during this briefing about four years in 1998? BOETTCHER: Well, it said that even though he exuded confidence there at the beginning, he had a lot of bodyguards. And the analysts who have looked at this tape with me say that it appeared he was in an area he was not that familiar with, that there were many bodyguards around him. And when he left the building and there was that RPG, that rocket-propelled grenade, fired, he flinched. And then, later on, they were telling -- the bodyguards were telling the people in the hills to stop firing.

They said it appeared to them that Osama bin Laden -- and you see it right now. You see him flinch and put his arm up. They said it appeared to them he was in an unfamiliar area, and they are closely examining it to make sure where this area is. They are not quite sure. Peter Bergen believes it's near Khost.

HEMMER: Now, Mike, quickly here, it may seem like an insignificant point, but I think it may go to a larger issue concerning the personality of bin Laden. He had a passion for Land Rovers. Why significant?

BOETTCHER: Yes. One of my sources who is very familiar with al Qaeda says that Osama bin Laden loved his Land Rovers more than he loved his wives. That was the joke among many of the al Qaeda members. He bought 50 of them about three years ago. Here you see him exiting from the Land Rovers. He bought 50 from the United Arab Emirates. He gave some of them to the Taliban as gifts, and he kept the rest. And in future videotapes, you'll see those Toyota Land Cruisers over and over again.

HEMMER: Thank you...

BOETTCHER: He loved them very much.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mike -- nice work. Mike Boettcher, CNN correspondent in Atlanta.

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