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CNN Sunday Morning

Major Military Deployment is Under Way

Aired September 23, 2001 - 09:08   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.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And a major military deployment also under way as a result of the event of September 11th. Let's check in now with Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon for the latest on that front. Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN PENTAGON: Well, John King, just like pieces on a chess board the Pentagon is carefully maneuvering its manpower and hardware into place in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia region. The latest movement there that is being reported are, of course, the latest call up of five -- more than 5,000 reserve troops -- Air National Guard and reservists.

They're going to be primarily assigned in a support capacity working on refueling, working on communications, providing security for these deploying forces. Some of them will also be deployed on bases in a support capacity here in the United States.

We've already seen movement of some of the first aircraft in the first wave of air deployments. Huge B-52 bombers -- some nine of them taking off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana Friday night.

Also in the first wave scheduled to go out are B-1 bombers. Now they're gong to be augmented by support aircraft that will head out as part of a second deployment that will be signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Now Secretary of State Colin Powell this morning commented on these deployments and made it clear that their objective will be very precise.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES: We are not interested in going after the Afghan people. We are interested in going after Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network -- murderers of over 6,000 people in this incident, murderers in earlier incidents and, frankly, we should stop finding some way to generate sympathy for these murderers. They are faithful to their own fundamental beliefs.

We are proud of the relations we have with Arabs and believers in the Islamic faith both overseas and fellow Americans who believe in Islam.

KOCH: And very little Pentagon comment on reports over the weekend that an unmanned drone was shot down over northern Afghanistan. The Pentagon saying it will not comment on operational details. John?

KING: Kathleen Koch standing by for us this morning at the Pentagon. Thank you very much for that. And now we return to Bill Hemmer in New York.

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