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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Marines Add to Prison Population at Kandahar Detention Center

Aired December 30, 2001 - 07:02   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: We're going to go back to Afghanistan now and talk about what happened over night. U.S. Marines have added to the prisoner population at the detention center at Kandahar. CNN's Bill Hemmer is live in Kandahar once again with the latest on that.

Hi, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Kyra, good morning to you in Atlanta. It is evening again, once again, here in Kandahar. I'm going to talk more about the detainees in a moment. Once again, I want to repeat the information we're getting here from the U.S. Marines. Apparently, late yesterday, a Super Stallion, a CH-53, a large helicopter used by the Marines throughout the Afghanistan theater, apparently suffered a bad landing somewhere here in the region. The crew, we are told, is safe and OK, no casualties, no serious injuries there. Right now, they're in the process of recovering that helicopter, trying to get it back here to the airport. We'll get more on that to you as soon as we get it.

Now, the detainees -- last night, again, another batch brought here -- 14 in the latest load, bringing the total now to a 139. And we are told the process, through sources here at the airport, the process can be very slow and will take a rather long time, in the word's of one source, indicating that a number of translators here working the scene cannot work 24 hours a day, but indeed, they're trying the best they can. And certainly, when you're trying to work your way through a third language, it can be most difficult here, trying to get the questions and the answers through.

We're also told the ultimate question -- where is Osama bin Laden and his whereabouts -- still not answered here by the detainees in Kandahar.

There's another report out today that says there is an additional 139 detainees being questioned now somewhere in Pakistan. Sources here at the airport say that's not true. They say there are detainees there, but they're only being processed, things like fingerprints and names and home countries of which 14 different countries are named. Eventually, we are told, those 139 detainees will be brought here and at that point; they will be interrogated and questioned here on the ground.

Another note, on these -- the detainees here in Kandahar, though the Red Cross has been in and out of this compound for the past week assessing the treatment facility and also the detention facility and what's happening with these detainees. We do anticipate a report from the Red Cross possibly coming out about 48 hours, about two days time from now.

Another note here, the U.N. has been shuffling in and out of the Kandahar Airport for the past few days trying to assess the situation here for the possibility of humanitarian aid brought in sometime during the month of January or possibly into the month of February. Right now, there are no daytime flights. Security for the U.S. military is said to still be unstable and insecure. And until they say the situation is safe around the area, daytime flights will not happen. That's a must, they say, for the humanitarian aid to flow in here.

As we bring you up to date though on the events of Kandahar, I want to move now to a different part of Afghanistan, specifically the Tora Bora region. CNN's Nic Robertson is standing by live there, watching Special Forces move throughout the area. For an update now, here is Nic.

Nic, good evening to you.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Bill. The question here, like where -- exactly where you are, is where is Osama bin Laden? U.S. Special Forces, we saw them going up the mountainside this morning, they go out on their all-terrain vehicles. Now, they came back down around about lunchtime today. That's quite unusual. Normally, they spend about the whole day up on the mountainside around the area where the caves are, not far behind me.

We've been talking today with some of the Eastern Alliance fighters, some of those who are gathered behind me here right now. We've been asking them because they are working with the U.S. Special Forces, exactly what they've been finding out and they tell us, they believe, Osama bin Laden's gone to Pakistan. They say that they've searched the mountains, that they've found al Qaeda, that they've arrested them, that they've found dead Arabs on the mountain and that they believe that the only people left up here are more Afghans. They think -- all they say, all the Arabs are gone though they may all have gone into Pakistan and they believe Osama bin Laden's gone with them.

Even some of the more senior commanders here believe that perhaps the American forces here can also wind down their effort. They say, as far as they know, there's no need for them to continue to work, that all the work is down here. They've checked the mountains thoroughly. They've been to the border. These -- the Eastern Alliance fighters you see now on the tanks here are providing security on the mountains, but they say that if the Americans want to stay and continue and search the mountains, that's just fine. But as far as they can see, the work here is done.

These Eastern Alliance fighters have been providing security, have been helping out on the mountains, have been guiding the Special Forces. But they say, they think, that the job here is done, that Osama's in Pakistan -- Bill. HEMMER: Nic Robertson working the story there in Tora Bora. Nic, thanks to you.

Back in Kandahar now, two more notes quickly. You know, in the past couple of days we've been talking about military leaders from the U.S. leaving Kandahar, heading up to Islamabad to meet with Pakistani officials regarding the India-Pakistan issue. Those officials are back now and they indicate to me that the meetings there on security manners were -- quote -- "very, very successful," indicating a good meeting there in Islamabad.

Also, here at the airport throughout the day today, it is Sunday, still half a world away, there were church services for the U.S. Marines and the members of the U.S. Navy, the Army and the Air Force, scattered about this airport. Catholic services were held also, too, Protestant services. And for the Marines that attended there today, prayers were at the utmost for the safety and the goodwill of their comrades working here, about 7,000 miles from home.

More coming up next hour from Kandahar. Now back to Marty and Kyra standing by in Atlanta -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you Bill very much.

More prisoners, more air strikes and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, is it cooling off? To find out what's next in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan we turn to CNN military analyst Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. He joins us live from Washington.

Good morning to you General.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: Good morning, Martin.

SAVIDGE: The UNB bombers in action Friday. I'm wondering just how many more targets could possibly be left for the U.S. military, at least from the air.

SHEPPERD: Yeah, I think the few targets, at a certainly a time of transition. Basically, what's happening is we're flying between 60, 70, 80 sorties or flights a day over the country. Most of them, of course, armed with ordinates, missiles, bombs, that type of thing and on call, but few of them being called. It appears what's taken place is that as targets emerge that are Taliban or al Qaeda leadership targets, where they can be positively identified, that air strikes are being called in on those targets.

But it's a dicey time right now because as the new government is trying to assert control over the country, meetings are taking place and of course, those Taliban leaders that we mixed with members of the new government. So we're having to be very, very careful and very few targets are emerging and certainly, none of the fixed targets that we were after before, those are all gone, Martin.

SAVIDGE: The defense minister reportedly is requesting the U.S. stop the bombing campaign. Does that pose a problem? SHEPPERD: It does pose a problem. We definitely want to go after discrete targets where we know leadership remain of al Qaeda- Taliban or there are meetings of Taliban and al Qaeda or even a facility that we haven't discovered before. And we know that Mullah Omar is very likely northwest of Kandahar, for instance, in the Helmand, the Erksand (ph) province area and we want to be able to go after those people. So it does provide a problem for us if any kind of negotiated settlement comes out where we are prohibiting from striking with air power. It poses a big problem for us.

SAVIDGE: The detainees down there in Kandahar, Bill Hemmer was talking about, what sort of information, what value would it have for U.S. interrogators?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, now, it's shifting a little bit from the original. The original purpose, of course, was to obtain military information -- where is the rest of the al Qaeda and Taliban. Those people will have moved and the military information is becoming less and less useful. It now switches to more of a police work type thing -- where did you come from, what type of training did you receive, who gave that training, where did you get your financial support and further, what might be coming up on the future, did you ever talk about future targets. That's the kind of pictures that are emerging and so, we're going into the police work areas as opposed to the military interrogations -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: One of the things that has been talked about is possibly moving some of those detainees in Guantanamo in Cuba. What's the thinking there?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, good place. First of all, it's isolated, it's hard for somebody to pull a jailbreak and not many places for people to go, hard to swim away from, if you will. Also, we've had a lot of experience in handling prisoners there -- remember, the Cuban refugees and also in the Mariel (ph) boat lift and also, the Haitian situation.

We've handling as many as nine, 12, 14,000 prisoners there. So it's a large facility with good facilities for handling prisoners and providing the security that goes with it, Martin.

SAVIDGE: And getting to Osama bin Laden, the "New York Times" is reporting possibly that some of the steam is running out of the operation. What do you think of that?

SHEPPERD: Well, of course, I'm disappointed by it. But it's very clear that we don't know if he's dead or alive. We don't know where he is. The steam is not going after the effort to find that out, but the leads are growing cold. It could be that he's dead. It could be that he's buried in a cave. It could be he's in Pakistan or has escaped somewhere else. But we're not getting much information from any detainees. I think they don't know either. So in that sense, it's growing cold, but the efforts are still heavy in that area.

SAVIDGE: And it will continue, I'm sure, for some time. General Shepperd, thanks again. SHEPPERD: A pleasure.

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