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CNN Sunday Morning
Bush Expresses Outrage Toward Church Bombing in Pakistan
Aired March 17, 2002 - 10:08 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is expressing outrage of today's attack on that church in Islamabad. CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett joining us live with more on the president's reaction.
Good morning Major.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Miles. President at Camp David this weekend, but was notified about this terrorist attack and the U.S. victims, the American victims of the attack while he was at Camp David and the White House has released this statement from the president issued this morning. Let me read it, and we have a full screen of it, at least in part.
The president says, "I am outraged by the terrorist attack that took place today in Islamabad, Pakistan against innocent civilians. I strongly condemn them as acts of murder that can not be tolerated by any person of conscience nor justified by any cause." Continuing on with the statement of the president, "On behalf of the American people I extend my deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy, and I wish a full and fast recover to those injured. We will work closely with the government of Pakistan to ensure those responsible for this terrorist attack face justice".
And it only underscores, Miles, the very difficult situation not only that the U.S. personnel still operating in Pakistan face, but the new ally of the United States in the war on terror, General Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan faces when he made his decision and announced it publicly in Pakistan that he would side very publicly with the United States and try to eliminate all Pakistani ties, deep though they are, in the intelligence community with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. He anticipated what he described would be resistance within his country -- resistance that would take many forms.
It took one form, General Musharraf said, in the kidnap and later execution of American journalist Daniel Pearl. It appears to have taken another wrinkle here with attacks in Pakistan on what had historically been an off-limits area, a diplomatic enclave in Islamabad -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Major, I'm curious about this off-limits area. Clearly this is a place, some 300 meters from the U.S. embassy, presumably the security precautions there would be immense -- we would hope. What does this tell us about those security measures, and are you getting any sense from the administration that the U.S. embassy there might be under more strict security guidelines in the future?
GARRETT: Well clearly everything on a security format will now be looked at in a new and tragic light. And I'm sure the administration will take every step imaginable, not only with its own security at its own diplomatic residence there and other diplomatic areas, but also to alert all others operating in Pakistan to, again, raise their level of security even higher. Probably what it underscores, Miles, is a sense that there are those within Pakistan, perhaps who have ties to the intelligence community there, who roam a little bit more freely than American or others intelligence agencies were really able to understand or appreciate.
And this goes to the deeper issue within Pakistan. It had strong intelligence community alliances with the Taliban and al Qaeda. Those were severed, at least officially, at the highest levels of the government (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Pervez Musharraf, the president. It appears that they still linger and some sympathies linger and there may be other episodes of violence like this pointed clearly at Americans, pointed at others who are siding against Taliban and with the United States. It creates yet another areas of instability or at least a mention of instability within Pakistan complicated matters for the United States and for its new ally in the war on terror -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Major Garrett, north lawn of the White House. Thank you very much.
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