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CNN Saturday Morning News

NATO Says Attack on U.S. Is an Attack on All

Aired October 06, 2001 - 09:13   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: NATO has invoked its self-defense clause as the U.S. wages war against terrorism, and that clause saying an attack on one member state is regarded as an attack on all.

General Wesley Clark knows that all too well. Former NATO supreme commander and a CNN military analyst, live this morning from Little Rock, Arkansas. General, good morning to you.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME COMMANDER: Morning, Bill.

HEMMER: We want to show this video again of what appears to be a drone, don't know this for sure, maybe you could identify it, or maybe you would choose not to, but if indeed it is, that would not surprise you, operating over Kabul, would it?

CLARK: Well, I think there are many unmanned aerial vehicles already over that region. I think this just happens to be one that for some reason was visible.

But let's see the video.

HEMMER: We're waiting on that, and for that I apologize. In the meantime, though, take us back three years ago, the air war over Yugoslavia. How often was this aircraft employed, and how much use could you get out of it?

CLARK: Well, we had the Predator unmanned vehicle, which we first began using over Bosnia, actually, when we put our troops in there in 1995-96. And it was developed really for use there. It flies at extended ranges. We kept them continuously in the air during the Kosovo campaign. We had several operating simultaneously. They do send back pictures. And they're maneuverable and steerable, and so you can focus the cameras anywhere you want on the ground. It's a very good aircraft.

HEMMER: We have been getting reports out of Kabul that there was a surface-to-air missile fired on behalf of the Taliban at this aircraft flying overhead. Here's the video we were talking about through Al-Jazeera on the ground in Kabul.

As you look at that, general, can you take us through it?

CLARK: It looks like -- that looks like a missile coming up at the aircraft. That doesn't look like the aircraft itself.

HEMMER: Indeed.

CLARK: And the aircraft could well have been a Predator. Sometimes in some light conditions they are visible. They're flying more than 20,000 feet high, and sometimes visible from the ground. And people do shoot at them.

But these aircraft are not that expensive, they're not manned, and it's expected that they will be lost. So the loss of a Predator aircraft is not such a big deal. It's more or less anticipated. That's why they're unmanned.

HEMMER: How formidable are the defenses on the ground in and around Kabul, surface-to-air missiles, talk about the Stinger shoulder-launched. What more do we know about it? How threatening are they?

CLARK: Well, at high altitudes, there are a few missiles that can engage our aircraft. But these missiles are also vulnerable. They're going to use means that we can detect and we can take counteractions against them when we or if we begin our operation there in a coordinated fashion beyond just this preliminary intelligence collection.

Now, there will always be a lot of small arms, heavy caliber machine guns, small caliber cannon, which are used in an antiaircraft role, and they can be quite difficult if aircraft are at low altitudes, let's say, flying at 2,000, 3,000 feet. They have to be engaged on a specific case-by-case basis. There's no sweeping way to take them out.

And I'm sure that there are a lot of aircraft, antiaircraft cannon that will be employed in that connection by the Taliban, but they're not going to affect our aircraft, because generally we fly above them.

HEMMER: Yes. What about Uzbekistan, the announcement yesterday 1,000 U.S. troops to be deployed at any time, really? Are you satisfied with that concession thus far? Would you like to see more?

CLARK: Well, I think it's the first stage, and I notice it could be used for search and rescue, it could be used for humanitarian assistance. And it's the first step, and then we'll see where we go from there. President Karimov said he wasn't prepared for now to do more, but then we may not be ready or -- it may not be necessary now to do more.

So I think that's moving well, from all I can see. I think the noose is going to be tightening around the Taliban.

HEMMER: The White House seems very patient at this point. Is there any hurry right now?

CLARK: I don't think there's any hurry unless we had specific perishable intelligence, a fleeting picture of where this network was that would cause us to strike instantly. We're far better off tightening the noose from the outside in, working to build the diplomatic coalitions, strengthening the Northern Alliance, and taking all the measures that are clearly under way now.

HEMMER: Yesterday there was a Titan IV rocket. It lifted off from the Brandenburg Air Force Base in California. We saw it live yesterday on CNN, but what we don't know, because it's classified, is the payload on board? We know it was launched successfully into orbit. But can you give us a sense, based on the number of satellites orbiting the earth, how much intelligence can be gathered and used to track down either the Taliban movements or the movements of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden?

CLARK: Well, we have a number of different systems in orbit. They have different capabilities. Some take pictures, some collect other things, and some are active. And generally we can spot movements on the ground, and we can get other information about what's going on on the ground. They're not perfect, and that's why we've got some eyes and ears in there on the ground right now.

But in weather conditions such as are present right now, as we can see from the television in Afghanistan, we can pretty much see what's going on there.

HEMMER: And quickly here, there's talk about food drops, humanitarian aid going into Afghanistan. Prior to that, there was talk also about the U.S. military taking out some of the antiaircraft artillery, some of the SAM sites perhaps too. What do you think of the strategy, food drops first, military response later?

CLARK: I think it's a great strategy, if that's what it turns out to be. And I think we're not terrorists, we don't want to hurt the situation in there in a humanitarian sense. We want to help it if we can. And so I think the food drops are very much something that's in play right now.

HEMMER: All right. Time will tell if everything we've just talked about comes in play or not.

CLARK: Oh, indeed.

HEMMER: General Wesley Clark, thank you, general, live in Little Rock.

CLARK: Thanks, Bill.

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