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CNN Saturday Morning News

Army Forces Prepare to Take Over for Marines at Kandahar Airport

Aired December 29, 2001 - 08:05   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 turn our focus now back to southern Afghanistan, where the U.S. Army is preparing to take over for the Marines at the Kandahar Airport. That's where our Bill Hemmer is stationed, at the airport with the troops -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, thanks and good evening once again.

The indications were getting through our sources here at the airport do say that the division, the army division or the 101st Airborne will be here in mid-January. Again, that's the word right now. It could all change, possibly. No deployment order has been signed on that front. We will stand by and wait for more in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Also now on the detainee front, you heard Walter Rodgers talking about more prisoners taken in northern Afghanistan. We do anticipate a strong number of those eventually to make their way down here to Kandahar.

Late last night, though, Kyra, the largest single load yet, 63 prisoners brought here, detained here on the grounds of the Kandahar Airport, bringing the total now to 125. What is significant about this latest group, we are told, of the 63, 29 have injuries, things like broken bones, injuries that are consistent that may have been suffered on the field of battle or possibly from bombing of U.S. airplanes above.

Also, 16 more suffer from lifetime illnesses, we're told, diabetes, malaria, other things inflicting them. And certainly that'll be a major challenge for the people trying to take care of them between the doctors here that attend to those detainees here on the grounds.

We want to talk more about the detainees and possibly where they may go from here with Major General Don Shepperd, retired, U.S. Air Force, now with us live in Washington.

And general, from 7,000 miles away, I say good Saturday morning to you, I should say.

When they talk about the future for these detainees, the possibility now at the Pentagon is that they will be taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

As you look at that and assess that, there were other considerations, ships at sea, the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. How do you rate that decision at Guantanamo Bay, General?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think Guantanamo is a very smart decision, Bill. First of all, it's a very secure area. It's very hard for anyone to get into to pull a jail break, if you will, lots of security down there. And we've also had experience using that facility with the Cuban and Haitian detainees, thousands of prisoners, if you will, at that time. So I think it's very, very smart and a wise decision.

HEMMER: And what do you make of the Afghan government asking the U.S. military to stop its bombing, they said, within three or four days time and the president yesterday in Crawford, Texas saying it will not end, the hunt will continue for al Qaeda and Taliban elements in this country? How do you synchronize the two, from the military and a political standpoint, General?

SHEPPERD: Yes, Bill, remember that this request came from reportedly the defense ministry of the new government, not from Hamid Karzai. It's very clear that we have competing priorities now in various regions of the country. As the new government and as the Taliban and al Qaeda are ousted and the opposition forces go back into the area and take over the areas, it is very difficult to apply air power.

On the other hand, we have said that as we find the remaining al Qaeda cells, and of course if we find bin Laden or if we find Mullah Omar, we want to retain the right to use air power if necessary against those targets.

So again you've got Afghans wanting to take over their country again, air power to cease the bombing so they can begin to operate and establish the services and the rule of law across the country. And this is a messy and difficult process, as we switch from war to relative peace across the country, Bill.

HEMMER: General, two other issues I want to get to quickly here. One is India-Pakistan. There are concerns from the U.S. military that if that situation continues to build up and grow that Pakistani military support guarding the border of Afghanistan would be shifted and moved toward the eastern edge of that country.

How do you anticipate, if such a move is made, what's the impact on the U.S. war on terrorism?

SHEPPERD: Bill, this is an enormously dangerous situation that we must put a great amount of effort as the United States and the world community into de-escalating. Any time you get two nuclear powers head to head with their armies, these things can spin out of control with the obvious happening, even the application of nuclear weapons.

The effect on the Afghan campaign is several. One, we could lose the effect of Pakistani forces assisting us in the al Qaeda escaping, if you will, from the Tora Bora area and into western Pakistan. Two, we could lose the security of our bases that are in Pakistan, which have been essential to the effort so far. And further, we could lose our oversight right -- our over flight rights if the war between the two actually breaks out.

So it's very much in our interests and in the interests of world peace to get this thing de-escalated and if possible settled, Bill.

HEMMER: Quite critical, as you mentioned, General.

Quickly here in Kandahar, we're getting word now the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army may take this airport if the deployment order comes some time in mid-January. What do you make of that decision? What would their role be here extending weeks and months ahead of January?

SHEPPERD: Yes, this is standard joint military doctrine, if you will. The marine MEUs, the marine expeditionary units, seven of them across the world, one stationed overseas, the other six in the United States, are designed to go in for 30 days to take objectives and then to bring in heavy follow on forces from the army, for instance, to hold those objectives and then expand operations.

Likely what Kandahar would be used for is a base for sustained operations, these al Qaeda and Taliban cells as they pick up, and also to support the multinational force that's going to be going in there for the two years, reportedly up to 8,000 troops across the country in a difficult mission, Bill.

HEMMER: All right, General.

General Don Shepperd, thanks for sharing some of your Saturday morning with us, General, live in Washington.

One more note here from Kandahar quickly. I want to show you a piece of videotape that we gathered earlier today.

There are four American marines here, all Muslim, that have moved into a mosque of sorts, moved in there to pray on a daily basis. We are told this mosque in late November was used as a Taliban and al Qaeda headquarters here at the airport. A firefight erupted between special forces trying to seize this air field and the damage is considerable, too.

There are giant holes in the ceiling. There are bullet holes throughout the walls. And of course there's debris knocked down on the carpeting that goes along the floor, along that mosque.

The four American marines say they will keep at it day by day, hopefully making a little progress day after day. We saw them praying earlier today and they say with time they hope to get new carpeting on the floor of that mosque and again return it eventually to some state of normalcy.

That's the scene we saw today here in Kandahar. More coming up next hour. Back to Kyra now in Atlanta -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: A special integration of two worlds.

Bill Hemmer, thank you so much.

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