Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

How Much Does U.S. Military Know About Afghan Military Targets?

Aired October 06, 2001 - 07:25   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 now to Joie Chen in Atlanta. She has more on the potential military targets in Afghanistan. Good morning, Joie.

JOIE CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

What does the U.S. military know about potential targets on the ground in Afghanistan? Well, already quite a bit, most likely, anyway. Even private experts who use intelligence of the satellite images, which are far less detailed than what is available to the government, to the military through intelligence there, are able to put together a fairly detailed understanding about what is out there.

Now, take a look at one map we've seen drawn up by a group called Globalsecurity.org. It picks out 15 camps. You see them marked in yellow, these little round dots, across Afghanistan. These are run by either the Taliban of bin Laden's people. Exactly what sort of training goes on in these camps is a little bit harder to determine.

But one camp in particular, it is not far from Kabul, is called Rishkor. You see it here, assemblage of several different facilities put together, but known as Rishkor. It is likely to get a fair amount of attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: The Rishkor camp is reportedly the single largest training camp in Afghanistan. It's just south of Kabul. It's a former Afghan army divisional headquarters, so you have a full military garrison installation there. It's substantially more elaborate and better established than most of the other known training camps, which are not much more than villages out in the middle of the countryside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Surprisingly enough, the outside world has seen something of Rishkor before. Video cameras were invited in, apparently in an effort to show that not much was going on here. But the analyst we spoke to says it is the sort of facility large enough to be worth coming back to to use, and that it is close enough to Kabul that its trainees might choose to hide out in the city among the civilian population during any sort of bombing or military activity, returning only when the coast there is clear -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Joie, any speculation on who is in these camps right now?

CHEN: Actually, Kyra, the best expectation is that maybe no one is in those camps right now. After all, anybody who was in a terror cell operating in any of the camps knew what was coming on September 11 and has had plenty of time to get out of the way since then. But the facilities might be important enough to eliminate to prevent any further use. And there is the possibility that something important might have been left behind, documents or some other kind of evidence that might be left there. So you might anticipate that Special Operations, somebody of that order, might want to go in and have a look around.

PHILLIPS: All right, Joie Chen, we'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning from Atlanta. Thanks so much.

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