Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Controversy Remains Over Strike on Afghan Convoy

Aired December 23, 2001 - 09:23   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There's still controversy this morning over the U.S. bombing of a convoy, a convoy that one member of Afghanistan's new government says had delegates traveling to yesterday's inauguration. The Pentagon disagrees, calling it, quote, "a valid strike."

Let's go to CNN military analyst General Don Shepperd again for some insight into this controversy.

General, I checked in with my sources too right there on the USS John Stennis, and they tell me that the strikes were valid also. They were legit. What's the deal?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Kyra, it's important to realize that pilots to not know what they are striking. They can see the target. In other words, in this case a vehicle convoy. But they don't know who's inside those vehicles. That has to come from intelligence.

Because of that, there is a well-ordered target nomination and target approval process that early on in the war was very slow. Reportedly we had Mullah Omar in the sights and the targeting approval process was too slow because it was designed to prevent mistakes.

Basically, it looks like in this situation people on the ground were watching what happened. This is an area with lots of Taliban. The wires report that there were two missiles fired from the convoy at the airplanes orbiting and then the airplanes got permission to strike, and struck the convoy, killed numerous people reportedly, and also the vehicles.

So we got a lot of questions to ask the Pentagon, but right now the Pentagon is standing by the statement that this was a valid target, including Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.

PHILLIPS: So General, if missiles were fired from the convoy, obviously that means they're not good guys.

SHEPPERD: Yes, a couple things about this area. You know, it kind of makes you wonder. We hear these reports of a Taliban leader surrendering several thousand men and weapons and we say "I thought the war was over and the Taliban were defeated."

Well, they're not defeated in many areas. The area south of Jalalabad in the Tora Bora area, still lots of Taliban sympathy in that area, lots of cleanup to be done.

And if indeed they were missiles that were fired, it indicates that certainly it was not a friendly convoy. It doesn't mean the tribal leaders couldn't be mixed in with it, but as we have said all along, if you consort with terrorists or among terrorists or supporting the terrorists, you're also a terrorist and you're going to become a target. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well on that note of decoy caravans I guess we could say, if that indeed was the case, there's this article that came out in the Washington Post. I want to get you to respond again to, General, about four years prior to September 11 that the CIA paid a team of about 15 recruited Afghan agents to track Osama bin Laden on a regular basis.

And evidently, according to this article also, that the bottom line was that they had eyes on him most of the time. So why is it that Osama bin Laden is not in the hands of the government?

SHEPPERD: Big country, lots of places to hide, and also we don't know for sure if that article is true, although it would be typical of what the CIA does all around the world with our own people, unheralded, no pats on the backs. And of course when something goes wrong, like 9/11, we beat up on them.

But lots goes on and a lot of it is done with money through the local populous doing these type of things. So we are looking for him all the time. We're paying people to look for him, but he's simply not easy to find.

But, as President Musharraf has said, he might indeed be dead, and I found that very interesting because President Musharraf is not a man that's loose with his words. I don't know if he knows something that we don't, but that's one of the reasons we're looking in all these caves obviously. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Looking forward, let's say Osama bin Laden does turn up dead in one of these caves, what's the next move? This war is not going to end, correct? The air strikes will continue and -

SHEPPERD: It's not going to end for sure. We want Mullah Omar. We want all of the al Qaeda leaders. We want the Taliban leaders, the senior Taliban leaders all over Afghanistan. Lots of cleanup to be done.

Lots of things to do in stabilizing that country and de-arming the country and bringing the rule of law to that country, and simultaneously in many other locations going against al Qaeda networks, including our own country.

A lot of that is also going on, but we're not going to stop after Afghanistan. It's a worldwide campaign. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: General Shepperd, thank you so much sir, always a pleasure.

SHEPPERD: Pleasure.

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