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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Learns Shocking Information From al Qaeda Prisoners

Aired January 13, 2002 - 07:00   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: Let's go back to Afghanistan now. The U.S. routinely interrogates the al Qaeda fighters that have been captured during the war and some of the information they've learned is pretty scary. CNN's Bill Hemmer joins us now live from Kandahar this morning with the details.

Hi, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, good evening from Kandahar. Here's what we're learning today. Military sources say right now they're holding suspected al Qaeda terrorists who had, quote, "plans to travel to the U.S. one day and kill Americans," a direct quote. They say there's a direct connection to al Qaeda fighters in custody and planned terrorist attacks in the U.S., but apparently, quote, "those planned events did not come off for whatever reason," possibly they say, the events of September 11.

Bagram, north of Kabul, increasingly looks like a centerpiece for interrogations. We now know in recent days, the man accused of running the terrorist training camps here in Afghanistan, Ibn al- Shaykh al-Libi, was moved to Bagram off of the USS Bataan in the Arabia Sea. It was a week ago, you might recall. Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former ambassador to Pakistan, was also taken to Bagram. One source saying, quote, "there are a lot of bad boys in Bagram, but also, there are some lost in the sauce as well." I reference that some detainees are providing little or no information to U.S. investigators.

Also, investigators scouring evidence that al Qaeda was possibly working in concert with other countries to develop chemical and biological weapons. However, they tell me there is still no prove, no prove, of their ever fully developing those weapons and succeed. And they're still looking again for evidence of a possible connection to Iraq.

As for the detainees again, still learning a bit more every day, Kyra. We now know some have, quote, "simply broken down." Some don't know where they are, whether it's Bagram, Kandahar or even possibly Cuba unless they have direct contact and conversations with some of the other prisoners and detainees in these various areas.

On the overall investigation, I am told, quote, "this will take a long time to complete the puzzle, but we're making progress every day," end quote. Three hundred and ninety-one still here in Kandahar. It's possible another group will be shipped out to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, possibly again tonight. And again, we're told, the next group may be larger than the original group of 20 that were shipped out to Cuba here on Thursday evening -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Bill Hemmer live in Kandahar, thank you so much.

And more prisoners will be heading to Camp X-Ray in Cuba and the body of another Marine has been recovered from last week's plane crash in Pakistan. CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us live from the Pentagon with the latest on those stories.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Kyra, well, it was a second reportedly uneventful night for the 20 al Qaeda and the Taliban prisoners or -- the Pentagon is calling them detainees, now being held at a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The camp commander there says that the men, quote, "said prayers and spent their night in a small" -- "spent the night in their small outdoor cells."

The cells have a chain link fence perimeter, a concrete floor and a wooden roof. The detainees have been given foam, rubber sleeping mats and two towels, one to use for bathing, one to use as a prayer mat. They've also received a copy of the Koran, toiletries and flip- flops for walking back and forth. No word yet from the Pentagon on just when more detainees in Afghanistan might be headed to Guantanamo Bay.

Meanwhile, Saturday in Afghanistan saw renewed bombing of potential terrorist targets. U.S. warplanes struck at major -- what is suspected to have been a major al Qaeda training camp, a complex of tunnels and caves and mountainous terrain in the eastern part of the country near the border with Pakistan. At the same time, a small group of U.S. Special Forces is continuing the hunt for Osama bin Laden and any potential renegade supporters of his who might still be in Afghanistan.

Now, some success to report across the border in Pakistan where military investigators are sifting through what is left of that KC-130 refueling plane that crashed on a remote hillside in the southwestern part of the country on Wednesday. At this point, we're being told that six of the seven bodies have now been recovered and could be flown to Dover Air Force Base as soon as today perhaps.

Now, at this point, the Pentagon does still believe that the crash of the aircraft, the four-engine turbo prop, was accidental and was not due in any way to enemy fire. And yesterday, the Marine Air Corps, the Marine Corps air station in Miramar and San Diego where the earlier aircraft was based, sent out another KC-130 with an all- volunteer crew to continue the mission of the first aircraft that was lost -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right and Kathleen, back to the air strikes for a moment, any word to how long these are going to continue to last? Are they still going to maintain at a sporadic pace? KOCH: That's the word from the Pentagon, Kyra, that they will continue to strike what they call these "targets of opportunity" any time that they see movement of forces on the ground that they believe are suspicious and that they can identify as being Taliban or al Qaeda or they see any perhaps potential return to some of these cave and tunnel complexes that they had earlier emptied or that they had earlier struck. They are going to go right back at them and hit them hard -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kathleen Koch, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much.

KOCH: You're welcome.

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