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Pakistani Taliban Says Its Leader Is Alive, Hiding From U.S. Drones, Despite U.S. Military's Assertion Of His Death

Aired February 04, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

STAN GRANT, CNN INT'L. ANCHOR, PRISM (voice over): The U.S. thinks he is dead but the Pakistani Taliban insists their leader Hakimullah Mehsud is alive and in hiding.

Toyota tries to tap the breaks on its troubles as the U.S. announces an investigation into the Prius and its stopping problem.

And e-mail is so yesterday. Remember communication before social media. Tonight on PRISM as Facebook turns six, we're asking how much do social media matter?

From CNN Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates, this is PRISM, where we take a story and look at it from multiple perspectives. I'm Stan Grant.

Dead or alive? The fate of Hakimullah Mehsud remains a source of dispute. Did the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan perish in a suspected U.S. drone strike? Or is he, indeed, as the militant group contends still alive and well?

Reza Sayah has more on Mehsud and another Pakistani man making news in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REZA SAYAH, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (On camera): The mystery surrounding the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud now in its fourth week. A U.S. counter-terrorism officials telling CNN he believes Mehsud is dead; but the Pakistani Taliban saying, not true.

In a phone call to CNN the spokesperson for the Pakistani Taliban, Azam Tariq, said, "Hakimullah Mehsud is alive and he is our chief. All the reports regarding his death are propaganda." Tariq, saying Mehsud is in hiding because he is being targeted by U.S. drone strikes.

Of course, rumors surrounding Mehsud's possible death started swirling back on January 14, when according to Pakistani military officials he was targeted by one of those U.S. drone strikes. On Thursday the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed three U.S. soldiers on Wednesday. They say the bombing was revenge against U.S. forces in the region.

Also on Thursday, a very angry reaction to the guilty verdict, against Pakistani nuclear (sic) scientist Aafia Siddiqui. A U.S. court found Siddiqui guilty of trying to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan back in July of 2008. In Pakistan, in several cities thousands held protests and chanted slogans against America, condemning the verdict, calling for her release.

This verdict and its reaction comes at a very bad time, when it comes to U.S. Pakistani relations; these two countries with frayed relations. Already the two are trying to work together to fight the insurgency, but there is a lot of anti-Americanism here. A recent poll shows it is America that is the number one enemy, not India, not the Taliban. This verdict and its reaction certainly doesn't help public opinion about America here in Pakistan. Reza Sayah, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRANT: Well, the Taliban in Pakistan is claiming responsibility for Wednesday's deadly bombing near a girl's school in the Northwest. Three U.S. soldiers and four Pakistanis were killed when a suicide bomber targeted their convoy. Dozens of people were injured. A U.S. military official tells CNN the Americans killed in the attack were members of a special force detachment, training Pakistani forces.

Ten U.S. missionaries held in Haiti could soon find out their fate. Their schedule to appear before prosecutors at this hour, to find out whether or not they'll face criminal charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country, illegally.

Well, slowly some of Haiti's children are going back to school in makeshift classrooms, reading, writing, and arithmetic, now go together with learning to cope with the quake's aftermath. John Vause reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SR. INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a world turned upside down, the morning school bell at St. Marie's was a familiar reassuring sound. It didn't seem to matter much their class was held in a tent, the kids sitting on damaged desks pulled from the rubble, or under a piece of tarp, or even in a cemetery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bon juor!

VAUSE: That is where Jacques Mateu (ph) was teaching history; 28 of his 45 students turned up. "It is as if they were thirsting for school," he says. "They were happy when they arrived, happy to be back in the classroom."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please ask, how they feel right now?

VAUSE: Israeli counselors gave teachers a crash course in dealing with post-traumatic stress. They say the first month after a disaster like this is crucial.

(On camera): What do you do, during this period?

MOSHE FARCHI, CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST: OK, during this period we try to encourage them to go out of this feeling of being a victim, into being a survivor.

VAUSE: And to do that, children are encouraged to talk about what happened.

"The house fell down, and I almost died," this little boy told his class. Many struggled even to say the word, "earthquake".

"My grandma was screaming, where is your mom? Then my mom came and we were all at peace, even when the thing was happening."

Their old school is a pile of rubble. Two students died here and five teachers are still unaccounted for.

(On camera): Thousands of schools in the capitol collapsed just like this one. By one estimate, as many 80 percent have either been destroyed or are badly damaged. Experts say it will take years to rebuild this country's education system, just to get it back to how it was before the quake, when it was considered to be one of the worst in the world.

(Voice over): It is hard to know for sure, but St. Marie is one of the handful of schools to have reopened in Port-au-Prince so far. The government still hasn't announced plans for the rest of the school year.

But for a few hundred students, school is in, and for a few hours life seems just a little bit like it was, before "the thing" happened. John Vause, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRANT: Well, learn how you can help people in Haiti by visiting our Impact Your World page, that is at CNN.com/impact.

Sex, power, murder, convictions, now appeals, it is all unfolding in Egypt as billionaire businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa and a hit man object to their death sentences. They are convicted of ordering and carrying out the 2008 murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim. She was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment. Tamim's former lover, Moustafa, and the assassin he hired have been sentenced to hang. Their appeal will resume on March 4.

Well, also in Egypt, the main opposition party has picked a conservative as its new leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood is known for its efforts to steer the country away from secularism. Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman looks at the man now in charge, and the implications of his promotion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They are the biggest challenge to the 28-year-old regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's most power opposition movement, banned but tolerated.

(PROTESTERS CHANTING)

WEDEMAN: And now it has a new leader, Mohammed Badia, a 66-year-old conservative.

In 2005 the Brotherhood won an unprecedented 88 seats in the largely powerless parliament.

(CROWDS CHANTING)

WEDEMAN: The group can send thousands of its supporters into the streets, but in recent years it has kept a lower profile. The Egyptian regime regularly rounds up Brotherhood members, including prominent activist Issam Al-Aryan, who has spent eight years in jail. He knows they are outgunned.

ISSAM AL-ARYAN, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: We are not going to make progress in the streets, shedding blood in such a country, we know the regime. The regime can use tanks and can use helicopters to eradicate any big confrontation on the streets.

WEDEMAN: But support for the group is starting to erode. Young reformers are increasingly disillusioned by the group's aged, cautious leadership.

Ibrahim Al-Hudaibi quite the Brotherhood a year and a half ago.

IBRAHIM AL-HUDAIBI, FMR. MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MEMBER: This older generation is incapable of including this younger generation into the formula. And this is why I think the younger generation is looking for other alternatives.

(CROWD CHANTING)

WEDEMAN: Dissention within the ranks comes at an inconvenient time. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for later this year, presidential elections are set for mid-2011. University professor and politician Muna Makram-Ubaid, has closely watched the Brotherhood for decades.

MUNA MAKRAM-UBAID, WAFD PARTY: I don't think the second tier within the brotherhood is very happy. I don't think so, because most of them are younger. They have more reformists views. They are more-they are more prone to confrontation.

I don't think that they will take it lightly. I think it is going to be a tough year for the Brotherhood, as a group, as an organization.

WEDEMAN (On camera): And that is probably music to ears of a regime that has scant tolerance for those who pose a serious challenge. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRANT: "Panda-monium", as we have been reporting, to major American zoos are losing their Panda's today. Tai Shan of the National Zoo, in Washington, and Mei Lan, of Zoo Atlanta, will travel to China on a special FedEx jet. Now the pandas were part of the special loan program. American zoo goers who watched Tai Shan and Mei Lan grow up are very sad to see them go.

That is the plane there. You can see, now, live, coming to you with those pandas leaving the U.S. en route to China.

Well, Toyota says break problems will not force a recall of its popular Prius model. But how the quality problems are affecting the company's bottom line? We'll have a report.

Plus the sixth anniversary of the social networking web site, Facebook. In tonight's "PRISM Segment" we look at just how much social media rally matters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRANT: Well, just when the world's largest carmaker seems to solve one problem another one develops. Toyota officials reported a fourth quarter profit today, but a crisis of confidence over its vehicle safety is overshadowing that. The company says it has found the cause of breaking problems in some Prius hybrid cars. Toyota is not ordering a recall for now, but the U.S. government has opened a formal investigation of the Prius for model year 2010.

Toyota says it has had to recall 8 million other vehicles for a sticky accelerator problem. Well, local dealerships-we're not going to do that now.

We are going to go now to social networking and Facebook, which launched six years ago, today. Now since then the Internet phenomenon has grown into a global business. The number of Internet users worldwide reached 1.7 billion in 2009. That is up from 360 million in 2000. This would roughly mean that one in every four people, around the world, uses the Internet; 43 percent of Internet use is in Asia, almost a quarter in Europe, and 14 percent is in North America.

Well, through the PRISM this evening how much do social media matter? And where does Facebook rank. The site saw astronomical growth in 2009, adding more than 200 million new users. It surpassed MySpace to become the number one social network in the world. Facebook now has more than 375 million users, making 45 million status updates, everyday.

The site was the target of some criticism and controversy over a new homepage design, also new terms of service and privacy concerns, but Facebook raised more than $200 million just in the past year. It is expected to surpass $700 million in revenue in 2010. And rumors persist that the site may even file for an IPO.

Well, 2009 was also a big year for Twitter. And estimated 18 million people are now Tweeting online. While that is only a fraction of the size of Facebook, Twitter saw 200 percent growth in the past year. It is expected to reach some 26 million users in 2010.

Well, social media have caught the attention of the business sector, governments and traditional media, as well. We want to bring in someone who spends a lot of time with social media for us. Errol Barnett is at CNN Center.

Let's talk about how people are using social media in ways that affect everyone. Whether you use it or not, Errol, you can't avoid it in any case, can you?

ERROL BARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Stan. And if you think about it this way, even if you don't use social networks, you have seen it grow. It's growth, its use worldwide, and it really has affected everything from our personal to professional lives. And it has had an arm in influencing politics as well.

So, that is all due to technology, but what many people don't realize is there is a bit of psychology that plays a role in this, too, the value of social networks. It is because we all trust our friends, our families, and co-workers recommendations more than we would trust a stranger, right? So, if you look at a lot of these social networks, a lot of information that is shared here, is about current events. And when you note that 3.5 billion bits of information shared on Facebook, each week, you really see the value of these social networks.

Let's look into what people talk about. Mostly, it is mundane, personal topics. But social movements have really been fueled by social networks. The big one we know of was the protests to the Iranian presidential elections last summer. And they were illegal to demonstrate on the streets of Tehran. Media outlets couldn't cover it, but people took their phones, their mobile devices, they shared that content with their friends and families outside the country, who in turn posted it on social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, allowing us to see what was taking place on the ground. This also kept pressure on the government. And in a way, has isolated them since then, to deal with this issue.

But it happened before the Iranian election. We can look back into Moldova, in early 2009, protests there were organized through Twitter, as people demonstrated against the Communist government's electoral win. We can rewind back to Myanmar, in 2007. I found a Facebook page to support monks there. But they organized through social media; a few hundred monks. Many people joined because of social networks, and they were able to protest as well, Stan.

So, we are seeing-and even recently, of course, with Haiti, and the aftermath, some of the first pictures of devastation were shown through Facebook groups like this one, and images like this. Since then it has helped us understand what is taking place on the ground, technology has also helped people raise record amounts of aid money. So, this level of trust and connectivity, has created this new way of socializing. And it is sure to characterize that next generation, Stan.

GRANT: Errol, that is using it as a social good. There are also concerns that people had, about privacy.

BARNETT: Absolutely.

GRANT: How is that being met?

BARNETT: Well, you know, because we are all more connected, and we have access to more people around the world we are also more susceptible to fraud, to hacking, and viruses. And so these social networks, what they are trying to do, is they are trying to monetize your information, so that they can continue to make money. And that is where we are seeing a bit of friction. Facebook, for example, you noted in the intro do this segment, that they had come under some scrutiny for their changes in the homepage design and the privacy.

Well, let me give you an example of my Facebook page. They try and make sure that ads are targeted toward you. This one is saying need a business investor. This is an advertisement for UCLA, alumni iPad. I went to UCLA, and down here they are telling me I can get a free iPad. It for 26 year-olds only. That is my age. But they want to be able to target ads in your direction to make sure that you use them. And if you dislike them, for example, let me click on this close box. They'll ask you why you don't like it? Was it misleading, offensive, irrelevant, uninteresting? This is causing a lot of people to be worried that their personal information is actually out there to be sold. And so it is how social networks really get a handle on their security that will determine its success in the long term, Stan.

GRANT: Errol, thank you for that. Errol Barnett, there now.

The use of social media is generational, as Errol said, for example, one study finds Twitter is not as popular as other sites among the younger generation, even though it is more recent. Why not? Well here is what some young people had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not really interested in Twitter. I don't know anyone who uses it. I have no idea how it works.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is just annoying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't really like advertising, like on Twitter, because you just think it is a scam, and you don't really trust it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still read the newspaper. Television, not as much now, just because everything is available on the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't really use Twitter, just because, I feel like I don't think people need to know my every thought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: We want to bring in another voice on this subject now. Toby Daniels is the founder and executive director of "Social Media Week" he joins us from New York.

Toby, you have talked about this as a fifth revolution. And obviously it is changing the way that news is processed and reported, but how in other ways is this revolution taking place?

TOBY DANIELS, EXEC. DIRECTOR, "SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK": It is taking place in a number of different ways. I actually coined a phrase from Clay Starkey (ph), the author, who talked about social media being the fifth revolution, a revolution that we are experiencing in our lifetime. And it is as significant as broadcast media before it, and even the telephone and the printing press before that.

And it is obviously impacting society in a number of different ways. And I think it is important to look at it on a spectrum. On one side we have the frivolous, much like reality TV in broadcast media.

On the other side, we have significant. And I know that you have talked already about the Haiti disaster. We actually hosted an event this week with "The New York Times" that looked specifically at how news journalists and reporters on the ground were using communication tools and technologies to gather and report news in different ways.

And I think for the first time we are starting to see the significant uses of social media fro not only just reporting news but also for potentially helping to save lives.

GRANT: Is it supplanting traditional media? Or are we seeing more convergence?

DANIELS: I think we are seeing a significant amount of convergence. I don't think one necessarily replaces the other. Certainly I think traditional media needs evolve and adapt, and embrace these new communication tools and technologies. But I think what is probably more interesting is looking closely at consumer behavior and how behaviors are changing. Because I think, really, looking closely at the way that people are now interacting and communicating and sharing, is really sort of interesting in terms of looking at the direction that this is actually going in the future.

GRANT: Toby, we know that in traditional media we have programs and policies, and so on, in place, where we are able to authenticate credible information, vouch for that information. When it comes to this type of media, the new media, if you like, where are those checks and balances? How sure you can be about the credibility of the person sending that information and so on?

DANIELS: I think authenticity is a very challenging issue, right now. And really sort of understanding the reliability of sources and information is something that both individuals are experiencing and, of course, traditional news and media organizations are also having to deal with as well. I don't think there is necessarily an answer right now. And I think that everyone is really just getting to grips with this and understanding how best to use the media, and how best to analyze and assess the quality of the information that is coming out.

And I think it does really, genuinely present a big challenge. Nevertheless, I think the speed at which information is now able to be shared is important. And I think, particularly, in real-time events much like the Haiti disaster, I think we started to see the power of this real- time communication in terms of its ability to actually provide benefit and do good.

GRANT: Toby, appreciate your time. Thank you very much for that. Toby Daniels, the founder and executive director of "Social Media Week".

Well, the U.S. is bracing for a major winter snow storm. Forecasters expect up to two feet of snow across portions of the Northeast and Mid- Atlantic. We'll have more on that, plus a look at your global weather picture. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRANT: Welcome back.

You are looking at what is believed to be an underwater volcano erupting near the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. The Japanese cub scout captured these images of spray and smoke. The last underwater eruption in this area was in 2005.

Well, on that note we'll have a look at the global weather picture. Mari Ramos is at the CNN World Weather Center-Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, yes, I want to start you off in the U.S. A big winter storm shaping up, if you have travel plans for this part of the world you really need to listen up. If you don't, let me tell you, people across much of the U.S. are going to be reeling from this.

We have another area of low pressure moving across the region here; a lot of moisture coming off the Gulf of Mexico. Temperatures are relatively mild here, so all of this coming down in the form of some very heavy rain. There are flash flood warnings in many cases. Farther north, though, that moisture turns into ice and snow.

Right now affecting the Central Plains, but eventually moving into the Mid-Atlantic region where it is going to pick up even more steam. This area of low pressure will make its way through the region as we head through the day on Saturday and some areas could get over 40 centimeters of snow, Stan, in just a period of 24 hours. And we are talking cities like Washington, D.C., maybe Philadelphia and Baltimore. These will be the areas more affected.

You see the moisture coming in here out of the south. And look at that, D.C. could get maybe 18 centimeters of snow. Blizzard-like conditions, so it is going to be a very messy next couple of days across this region.

We go from winter to summer. We are going to head to the southern hemisphere. Here we are dealing with a tropical cyclone. We can go ahead and call it a rare tropical cyclone, Tropical Cyclone Ollie. We are here in the South Pacific, Bora Bora, Tahiti, this is French Polynesia. What we are looking at here is a-this part of the world maybe gets one tropical cyclone every year. And some years they don't get any at all.

But during El Nino years they tend to see more storms, and they tend to be stronger. And this is a very strong weather system. We are talking winds of 213 kilometers per hour, near the center. Fortunately, it missed the more populated areas of Bora Bora and Tahiti. Bora Bora had winds in excess of 137 kilometers per hour.

Now the concern is for the islands farther to the south. Local media reporting damage in Bora Bora. Somebody on Twitter was just telling me a little while ago that waves are as high as six meters crashing on the shores of Tahiti.

The storm itself expected to continue training to the south. And it should lose some steam as it moves into cooler water. The concerns right now will be those islands here, farther to the south. That could be impacted from the storm as it continues on that track. You can see the weather improving in Bora Bora, Stan, also in Tahiti, but Tubuai (ph), farther south, still could see winds maybe up to 88, maybe up to 100 kilometers per hour.

Back to you.

GRANT: Mari, thank you for that. Mari Ramos, there.

Well, that's it for me, Stan Grant, in Abu Dhabi. "Living Golf" is up next, after we update the headlines.

END