Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Look at Predator Unmanned Aircraft, Developments in Afghanistan
Aired September 07, 2002 - 08:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: In the war on terror in Afghanistan, the Predator is giving U.S. troops a high tech advantage over the enemy. CNN has obtained the first declassified pictures showing the unmanned spy plane's pivotal role in actual combat.
CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has our exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roughly six miles. Let me know when you see the target area and I'll start to clock onto it.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These declassified pictures are thermal imagines transmitted by an unmanned spy plane as it loiters over a target in southern Afghanistan one night this past winter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have the two buildings in sight? There seems to be a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) with a lot of vehicles right in the area. Those are the only two buildings in the area. Do you see those?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Is it on the east side or the west side of Highway 4?
MCINTYRE: This is the first combat footage from a Predator drone to be released by the Pentagon and it has been declassified at the request of CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a square building and a rectangle building to the northwest. And on the big square building there's a square rectangular like holding pod next to it. Do you see that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
MCINTYRE: The voices on the tape are of the crew of an AC-130 gunship, which will use its highly accurate side-mounted 105 millimeter Howitzer to take out Taliban vehicles and fighters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a mosque. Do not engage the mosque.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The square building is the mosque or is it the rectangle? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rectangle. The rectangle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rectangular building is the mosque.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger that.
MCINTYRE: When the AC-130 gunship arrives on the scene, the Predator is already providing streaming video directly to the AC-130 crew, along with verbal guidance from the Predator operator on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, in front of the mosque there's three vehicles oriented east to west. Do you see those?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people moving out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the vehicles is moving right now.
MCINTYRE: To the Predator's infrared camera, the warm bodies of individuals show up as white shapes and they can be seen scrambling as the AC-130 circles overhead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the vehicles is moving right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are clear to engage it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, 30.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Direct secondary...
MCINTYRE: The result is a deadly accurate fuselage of artillery shells.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's people coming out of the mosque right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay away. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the vehicles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disengage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's OK. MCINTYRE (on camera): The U.S. military has used unmanned spy planes for years, but it was only in the Afghanistan war it was able to get the live video feed directly to pilots for real time targeting. It is that capability that makes the Predator an indispensable tool in modern warfare, especially if the U.S. goes to war against Iraq, where intelligence will be the key to finding and perhaps killing Saddam Hussein.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: And now we are taking you to Afghanistan, where the governor of Kandahar was wounded in this week's assassination attempt on Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. Gul Aghi Sherzai tells CNN that he knows who is behind the assassination.
Our Ryan Chilcote got the first interview with Sherzai after that assassination attempt.
He's joining us now from Kandahar live by video phone -- what's the latest from there today?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning.
According to -- OK, good morning.
According to the governor, Abdur Rehman, the man who opened fire on the governor of Kandahar and the president of Afghanistan, narrowly missing the president, but wounding the governor of Kandahar in the neck before he himself was killed, was actually hired to be a bodyguard for the governor here just two weeks ago. He came to the governor's offices and said he wanted to serve his country.
Meanwhile, the governor told me that 17 men, 17 of his own bodyguards are now being questioned in connection with that. They want to ascertain if these men had any idea of Abdur Rehman's intentions to try and kill the president when he was hired.
Now, the government, the governor also announced that he has no doubt that the Taliban -- obviously those are the people who once ruled Afghanistan from Kandahar -- were behind this attack.
Let's hear what the governor had to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GUL AGHA SHERZAI, KANDAHAR: We just found out this morning that this man was with the Taliban in the past. He was a famous man there and he worked for the Taliban. Our investigation continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHILCOTE: Well, the governor also met with the father of one of the three men killed in that assassination attempt. That man's son actually jumped on Abdur Rehman, on the attacker, to try and stop him from firing before he himself was killed in friendly fire. The governor told the father of that man that his son had become a martyr in so doing and promised that the government of Afghanistan would give him 10 -- the equivalent of (AUDIO GAP) dollars.
Meanwhile in Kabul, the commander of ISAF, that's the International Security Assistance Force that is comprised of some 18 countries and provides security in the capital, said that, cautioned that providing complete security in Kabul would mean an end to normal life in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. HULMI AKIM ZORLU, COMMANDER, ISAF: The only way to stop the risk completely would be a complete security clampdown, soldiers in every way, checkpoints in every street, searches in every (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But this would inflict wartime conditions on the peace loving people of Kabul. We will not give the terrorists that victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHILCOTE: It's worth mentioning that ISAF actually doesn't have any troops here in Kandahar. So even if they had wanted to, they wouldn't have been able to prevent this attack -- back to you.
CALLAWAY: All right, thank you.
That's Ryan Chilcote joining us from Kandahar today.
Thanks, Ryan.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
