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CNN Saturday Morning News
John Walker May Face Capital Punishment
Aired December 22, 2001 - 07:08 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There are reports today that the captured American who fought for the Taliban might face the death penalty. For the first time, President Bush has identified John Walker as an al Qaeda fighter. Today's "New York Times" reports that Walker will probably face at least one charge that carries the death penalty, but "The Times" says Mr. Bush has not decided on the specific charges to be filed against Walker.
Now, with all these latest developments in mind, let's go to our CNN military analyst, retired Air Force general Don Shepperd, who joins us from Tucson. Good morning, general.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about these air strikes that took place off the John Stennis. Are we going to see more air strikes, do you think?
SHEPPERD: I think so, Kyra, but it's going to be much less than we've seen up until now. Basically, what you have over the country is air power on call. As we have cleared the Tora Bora area of the major collection of al Qaeda and Taliban forces, they are fleeing to other areas. And as these targets are identified, both by controllers on the ground, by intelligence, and by sensors, we will likely be calling on that air power with combined with ground forward air controllers and things such as the Predator to strike them.
So you'll see selected strikes, not the large number of strikes that we've seen over the past few weeks.
PHILLIPS: Now, let's talk about some possible other targets. You were mentioning the Marouf complex, that's another cave complex, right?
SHEPPERD: Yes. Tora Bora, of course, is up by the Pakistan border south of Jalalabad. Early on, we heard about harassment Marouf complex, which is northeast of Spin Boldak, which is on the border with Pakistan and southeast of Kandahar. Marouf was another large tunnel complex, somewhat like Tora Bora although not quite as mountainous.
In addition to that, Helmand Province northwest of Kandahar and Oruzgan Province north and northeast of Kandahar, contain large numbers of caves, much like Tora Bora. It's not as defined as Tora Bora, where you had a large mountain range between two valleys. But it's reported that Mullah Omar is in the Helmand area.
So we will be again putting together intelligence from captured people, from POWs, from our sensors, and looking in these areas for the big prizes, which, of course, Mullah Omar and bin Laden.
PHILLIPS: Well, we talked about those captures, let's talk about the interrogation process. How does that all happen? I mean, can you talk openly about that?
SHEPPERD: Of course we can. First of all, these are not POWs, they are battlefield detainees, and there is a legal difference, because this is not a declared war. Now, the difference in what you see in a civil court and these people are that they are not allowed to have lawyers and military people, professional military people, will interrogate them.
Now, we do not torture prisoners, but what you do is basically bind them up, disarm them, and then you try to get information from them. And you do it by all kinds of things. You do it by pressure, you do it by repeated interrogations using one against the other, much like what you see on TV in a police process.
And then you slowly put together a picture, because these people will lie to you, and you get what you consider to be reliable intelligence, and then you act on that intelligence, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It sounds pretty respectful. Do you really think Osama bin Laden would be treated that way if he were captured?
SHEPPERD: Well, first of all, I doubt seriously that we'll capture bin Laden alive, although I hope we will. He'll be given every chance to surrender, I am sure. But if the troops that come up against him feel threatened, they will kill him and anyone around him, if necessary. So I doubt very seriously that it's going to be easy to capture him.
He will be a high prize, and of course he will be detained and taken and treated in the same way, but especially, of course, with great, great security around him, because he is the prize in this whole process.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the British peacekeeping forces, the role there, and what exactly they'll be doing.
SHEPPERD: Yes, again, as we've seen them, they came into the Bagram airport, reportedly about 100 of them, as the first part of about 1,500 that will be brought in as part of 3,000 to 5,000 peacekeepers, designed, again, to bring law and order while the six- month interim government has been installed and begins to serve.
Now, the idea is, these are not combat troops, they are blue beret people, as they've described themselves, designed to act as a police force, keep order, keep confidence in the people. They are capable of putting on their helmets and going to war, but that's not what they're there for. They're mainly a police and stabilization force that will grow to around 5,000 for this new government to be stabilized, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Now, you mentioned the new interim government. Let's talk about that for a moment. This is a really tough fight ahead. Is this government going to be able to instill the confidence that the people need right now and the law and order?
SHEPPERD: Well, remember, this is the first part of a process. This is a six-month interim government. The head of it is Hamid Karzai. This was decided in the Bonn talks. He will rule, if you will, or head the government for six months, at which time there'll be a loyajurga deciding what the rest of the year and a half of the two- year interim government will look like. And then a democratic election at the end of two years, supposedly.
He has a huge task on his hands. He's put together a bunch of tribes that have fought together and against each other for several years, and now they're set with ruling the country and bringing law and order, which is much more difficult than going to war.
PHILLIPS: All right, General John Shepperd, thank you so much. We'll see you back here at 8:00.
SHEPPERD: You bet.
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