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CNN Sunday Morning

Rumsfeld Continues Five-Country Trip

Aired November 04, 2001 - 07:01   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: It has been a month since the U.S.- led air strikes began in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is traveling in Central Asia and says the campaign is showing measurable progress.

CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us from the Pentagon with the latest -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, Secretary Rumsfeld is trying to keep that progress on track by shoring up support among critical allies in this campaign. His five-country trip began on Friday with Russian, including stops in Uzbekistan, in Tajikistan, in Pakistan, where the secretary has just landed, and in India.

Now, the country of -- the most recent country prior to Pakistan that Rumsfeld visited was Uzbekistan, which has opened its airspace to U.S. planes and also given U.S. forces the use of Khanabad airspace near the southern city of Karshi for humanitarians and search and rescue missions.

And the Defense Secretary said he had, quote, "interesting and informative discussions with Uzbek president Islam Karimov about the ongoing campaign and the continuing role that Uzbekistan might play.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We had thousands of people killed in the United States. There are terrorist networks out there that are threatening to kill thousands more. It is our first choice that that not happen. We are aggressively attempting to find and root out terrorist networks.

To do that, we need the assistance of dozens and dozens and dozens of countries all across this globe. And we need their help by way of intelligence gathering. We need their help by way of over- flight rights. We need their help in many, many ways. And the way to get that help is to take it where you find it, make sure that they know that it's an important thing for this world of ours to get rid of those terrorists and to stop them from killing people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: We now have a clearer picture of what happened when a U.S. helicopter went down in Afghanistan on Friday. The chopper crashed around 11:00 p.m. as it and another helicopter were trying to rescue an ill serviceman. Now, the reason for the crash, apparently, was that there was bad weather. About four servicemen on the aircraft were injured. They were lifted out by the second chopper. Then the Pentagon says that on Saturday, a second set of helicopters went back into the area and were able to retrieve the ill serviceman. However, we have no word on his condition or on the exact location of the crash -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Kathleen, Secretary Rumsfeld is now in Pakistan. He has a crowded agenda there, doesn't he?

KOCH: He does. Obviously, his primary focus is shoring up the support that Pakistan is offering and has continued to offer in the ongoing campaign against terrorism. But there is another issue on the agenda, a very important one, the embattled area of Kashmir between Pakistan and India. The secretary has a great deal of concern that if this conflict really erupts up, that it could distract from the consensus that the U.S. is trying to build in the region for the U.S. efforts, and seriously complicate the situation -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon, thank you.

KOCH: You bet.

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