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American Morning

Interview With Pat Strogan

Aired February 02, 2004 - 08:18   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military says it is certain that Osama bin Laden and former Taliban leader Mullah Omar will be captured by the year's end, perhaps even in a matter of months.
Canadian Colonel Pat Strogan is a former battalion commander in Afghanistan, is a veteran, as well, in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and he joining us this morning from Ottawa to talk a little bit about the difficulty of cornering bin Laden in the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Nice to see you, Colonel.

Thank you so much for being with us.

COL. PAT STROGAN, FORMER BATTALION COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: Thank you for inviting me.

O'BRIEN: Were you surprised when you heard what some people have characterized as almost boastful, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar will be caught by the end of the year?

STROGAN: Well, I must say I was a bit taken aback by the time line that was established. But I'm confident that it's only a matter of time before we're in possession of bin Laden's dog tags.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what the motivation for that could be? Do you have any idea? Many people were wondering why put a time line on it. And I would have to imagine when you were searching for Osama bin Laden, you didn't put a time line on it.

STROGAN: Well, I wouldn't even want to get into that.

O'BRIEN: Two years ago it was thought that Osama bin Laden had been killed by coalition bombs. Tell us a little bit about that. This is the area where you were pretty heavily involved in the searches there.

How close did you think you were and how good did you think the intelligence was that you were getting?

STROGAN: Well, at the time we were, I was in command of the Prince Patricias Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group attached to Task Force Rakkasan and we went into the Tora Bora region, where Osama bin Laden had made his last stand against the coalition, if you will remember. And it was thought that he may have died in the area. We went into the region and the intent was to identify, if that had been the case, and we were working on what we thought was fairly significant intelligence. But as you can probably believe or understand, due to the nature of that region, intelligence wasn't all that much in depth.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about that region. In fact, we know now that a spring offensive is being planned. But when you talk about the terrain, and you know it better than certainly most people, what kind of challenges are there, even if you wait till after the winter thaw?

STROGAN: Well, in the region that we were in, and I think you can extrapolate from there the other areas along that Pakistan-Afghan frontier, it was very, very rugged. I brought in a battalion's worth of soldiers and it was swallowed up very, very quickly. Movement was very slow and very tedious once we dismounted off of the helicopters. And, of course, we encountered some cold, if not hostile, feelings from the locals in the area, also.

O'BRIEN: Some have said now they will face bullets from tribesmen if they should cross into those borders.

Did you experience that? You say cold and hostile. That still sounds a fairly long way from bullets.

STROGAN: In our own experiences in the region that we were in, we received word from the locals that there were about two dozen foreign fighters who were buried in a local village. We sent in a patrol to judge the sentiments in the village and, as I say, we were met with cold, bordering on a hostile reception. However, as soon as they found out that we were there not to burn their opium crops but to gather evidence on the al Qaeda, they welcomed us and, in fact, assisted us in the exhumation.

All that to say is I think it would depend on the demographics in the regions that any operations were carried out with, were carried out, and, in fact, the alliances and allegiances that might be in those particular areas.

O'BRIEN: Of course.

Colonel Pat Strogan, thanks for joining us this morning.

Fascinating.

It'll be interesting to see if they can, in fact, make that time line.

Thanks for being with us.

STROGAN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 2, 2004 - 08:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military says it is certain that Osama bin Laden and former Taliban leader Mullah Omar will be captured by the year's end, perhaps even in a matter of months.
Canadian Colonel Pat Strogan is a former battalion commander in Afghanistan, is a veteran, as well, in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and he joining us this morning from Ottawa to talk a little bit about the difficulty of cornering bin Laden in the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Nice to see you, Colonel.

Thank you so much for being with us.

COL. PAT STROGAN, FORMER BATTALION COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: Thank you for inviting me.

O'BRIEN: Were you surprised when you heard what some people have characterized as almost boastful, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar will be caught by the end of the year?

STROGAN: Well, I must say I was a bit taken aback by the time line that was established. But I'm confident that it's only a matter of time before we're in possession of bin Laden's dog tags.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what the motivation for that could be? Do you have any idea? Many people were wondering why put a time line on it. And I would have to imagine when you were searching for Osama bin Laden, you didn't put a time line on it.

STROGAN: Well, I wouldn't even want to get into that.

O'BRIEN: Two years ago it was thought that Osama bin Laden had been killed by coalition bombs. Tell us a little bit about that. This is the area where you were pretty heavily involved in the searches there.

How close did you think you were and how good did you think the intelligence was that you were getting?

STROGAN: Well, at the time we were, I was in command of the Prince Patricias Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group attached to Task Force Rakkasan and we went into the Tora Bora region, where Osama bin Laden had made his last stand against the coalition, if you will remember. And it was thought that he may have died in the area. We went into the region and the intent was to identify, if that had been the case, and we were working on what we thought was fairly significant intelligence. But as you can probably believe or understand, due to the nature of that region, intelligence wasn't all that much in depth.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about that region. In fact, we know now that a spring offensive is being planned. But when you talk about the terrain, and you know it better than certainly most people, what kind of challenges are there, even if you wait till after the winter thaw?

STROGAN: Well, in the region that we were in, and I think you can extrapolate from there the other areas along that Pakistan-Afghan frontier, it was very, very rugged. I brought in a battalion's worth of soldiers and it was swallowed up very, very quickly. Movement was very slow and very tedious once we dismounted off of the helicopters. And, of course, we encountered some cold, if not hostile, feelings from the locals in the area, also.

O'BRIEN: Some have said now they will face bullets from tribesmen if they should cross into those borders.

Did you experience that? You say cold and hostile. That still sounds a fairly long way from bullets.

STROGAN: In our own experiences in the region that we were in, we received word from the locals that there were about two dozen foreign fighters who were buried in a local village. We sent in a patrol to judge the sentiments in the village and, as I say, we were met with cold, bordering on a hostile reception. However, as soon as they found out that we were there not to burn their opium crops but to gather evidence on the al Qaeda, they welcomed us and, in fact, assisted us in the exhumation.

All that to say is I think it would depend on the demographics in the regions that any operations were carried out with, were carried out, and, in fact, the alliances and allegiances that might be in those particular areas.

O'BRIEN: Of course.

Colonel Pat Strogan, thanks for joining us this morning.

Fascinating.

It'll be interesting to see if they can, in fact, make that time line.

Thanks for being with us.

STROGAN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com