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CNN Saturday Morning News
Tracking Down Osama bin Laden
Aired September 15, 2001 - 08:20 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: We've been reporting all morning about the widening investigation into those responsible for this attack. Nineteen suspected hijackers now have been confirmed by the FBI onboard those four aircraft. And all of them with either direct or indirect ties to Osama bin Laden.
So suspect number one remains very high on the list as the FBI continues its investigation -- other agencies all around the globe conducting the investigation. What makes this an unusual criminal investigation is the end result of their effort might, in fact, be military actions rather than something that happens in a court of law.
Joining us to talk a little bit about that is General Wesley Clark, the former Commander of NATO. Thanks for being with us this morning...
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, FORMER COMMANDER OF NATO: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: ... as our analyst. General Clark, when we talk about Osama bin Laden as suspect number one his whereabouts are not known for certain. He has -- we're told by intelligence sources -- at least a dozen camps just within Afghanistan . . .
CLARK: Right.
O'BRIEN: ... designed to train terrorists. As a military person when you're presented with that objective what goes through your mind?
CLARK: Well, we have to ask, what really is the objective? Is it to strike a blow or is it to really take apart the organization? Maybe it's first to strike a blow and keep it off balance. So it's -- what's the objective? Where do we strike? When? And how?
So where is a number of different camps? We'd like to get specific information of what might be there and whether there are innocent people in there or whether it's just fires.
O'BRIEN: Now as we take a look at a map of the region you've got Afghanistan obviously where we think Osama bin Laden is...
CLARK: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ...but it's important that the neighbors are in some how reckoned with one way or another. And as it stands right now the focus seems to be on Pakistan. Why don't you explain that dynamic for a moment?
CLARK: Well, as you look at the region the access from the sea to Afghanistan is blocked by Pakistan. Afghanistan is completely a landlocked country on the south and the northeast -- southeast Pakistan. On the west -- Iran. And so if we're going to get access to this country we could come in from the north. We could come in from the northeast or we could come in south or from the west.
We talked to all of the leaders in this area. We've heard some rather hostile statements from Iran. We know that Pakistan is under threat. And Musharif has some major domestic difficulties when he takes a move in this.
And so there's a diplomatic effort being worked right now to help Musharif or assist him in making the choice to cooperate with us. It would be ideal to be able to have the support -- full support and full cooperation of Pakistan but we know that won't be easy.
Then inside Afghanistan we've got to find the targets and figure out how to strike them.
O'BRIEN: A lot of big ifs -- a lot of big questions to answer but implicit in your discussion here when you talk about going through countries is that -- is that this is not going to be a Persian Gulf War type of scenario. This is going to be . . .
CLARK: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ...something that one way or another involves putting U.S. troops on the ground. Explain what the options are. I mean, immediately people might think of a D-Day type of invasion. That might not be the way to go.
CLARK: Well, that certainly won't be the first way to go because it's a very difficult place to get to and the objective is not the country -- the objective is the terrorist network. So we want to locate the individuals who are behind it and what they need to support themselves and take that out.
It may not be necessary to go to Afghanistan because there may be nodes that are -- cells that are in other countries that could also damage it. But if it is necessary to go there we could go with Cruise missiles or aircraft. We could send in special strike teams or Special Forces. We could use local people to go in and get them. And so there are various forces of action. I'm sure our military is working those forces of action right now.
O'BRIEN: Let's look at that wider view of the region here for just a moment. And in that wider view the reason we highlight Diego Garcia is there's a U.S. base there. That's the ground base. Of course, you can put some aircraft carriers nearby. Are we limited though by this issue of Afghanistan being such an isolated nation? Does that limit the U.S. options?
CLARK: I'm not sure that it limits the options so much as it makes them much more complicated. We've got to either trespass on or use with the permission the soil or air space of neighboring countries.
And that always adds a complicating factor as we found in the Kosovo operation.
O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of the distances there. Diego Garcia -- now that island there where there is a U.S. air base is well within the range certainly of something like...
CLARK: Right.
O'BRIEN: ... a B-52.
CLARK: This is -- this is 400 miles. And so up here is well over 1,000 miles into Afghanistan. It's well within the range of our long range strike aircraft. We can position them there. We can put aircraft carriers out in the Arabian Sea. We've got forces now around the Persian Gulf area and more can be brought in there.
O'BRIEN: And we still have forces on the ground in Saudi Arabia, right?
CLARK: We do. We have forces in the Persian Gulf area not only in Saudi Arabia but also in Kuwait.
O'BRIEN: The political realities of that though -- launching an attack potentially from an Arab country on potentially Afghanistan?
CLARK: It will have consequences ...
O'BRIEN: Yeah.
CLARK: ... domestic consequences for that country and international repercussions as well. So ...
O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, as a military planner often times the political realities get involved in these decisions. How much will the desire to do something quickly to answer a political need infiltrate the military decision making do you think?
CLARK: Well, I don't think it will be in the military piece but it will certainly figure in the calculus of the president and the Secretary of Defense because we've got to keep our country together and move forward in a way that brings us to a long term objective.
On the other hand we don't want to do anything that's self defeating. So my guess is there will be a -- kind of a nagging sense of urgency but we're going to give enough time to line up the diplomatic pieces first before we do what's necessary or feasible militarily.
O'BRIEN: General Wesley Clark, thanks for giving us that good overview of the region and the options that lie ahead. General Clark is our military analyst and obviously a former Commander of NATO.
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