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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Omar Samad

Aired December 16, 2001 - 18:18   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: It may be difficult for the average Afghan farmer or villager for that matter to get his head around the concept of a $25 million reward. But that is what the U.S. is offering to anyone whose help leads to the capture of Osama bin Laden.

Our next guest has been giving a lot of thought to how helpful that reward may be. Omar Samad directs the Afghanistan Information Center in Washington. Thank you sir for being with us tonight.

OMAR SAMAD, DIRECTOR AFGHANISTAN INFORMATION CENTER: You're welcome.

SAVIDGE: Twenty-five million dollars, American, how does that go over in Afghanistan, and can they even fathom that?

SAMAD: Well it goes a long, long way especially in a country that's been ravaged by war. Poverty is really very acute. People are desperate and they really have lost everything that they have. There's no infrastructure, nothing whether they're at the village level or at the city level.

So obviously that amount of money goes a long way, but how do they, an Afghan, an average Afghan see that today inside Afghanistan? It's a very difficult question to answer because there's an element of pride. There's an element of wanting to capture the enemy. There's an element of wanting to take revenge for what has happened to Afghanistan, what the terrorists did to Afghanistan's people.

So it would encourage some people to help and assist, and as we see here, we have plenty of Afghans who have been helping the international coalition fight terrorism and pursue bin Laden and his network, as well as the Taliban who helped him.

SAVIDGE: Well we hear a lot about the reward in this country. I'm curious, has the average Afghan heard about the reward and how is the word put out? Are there wanted posters? Are there ads? I mean, how would someone learn about the money?

SAMAD: Well after September the 11th, I think that every Afghan inside the country and outside the country has heard about this reward. I really would be very skeptical if anyone has missed this message.

I think that the means by which the Afghans learn about such a reward is either through the radios that they listen to, especially the BBC Afghan Services, the VOA Afghan Services, the Trivella (ph), Radio Tehran, Pakistan radio and others that Afghans, the average Afghans do listen to very carefully, and obviously that has been spread.

And also, the U.S. as you remember, used these airborne radio aircraft to spread the word in the Afghan languages and the local languages. So I'm sure everybody knows about it.

SAVIDGE: Americans tend to think if you've got a problem, throw money at it. Is money, was it the best way to go about trying to get Osama bin Laden?

SAMAD: Money is part of it. I think it is a very strong incentive, but at the same time, the Afghans have many more reasons for which they should go after bin Laden, the terrorists, the Taliban leadership, and those who brought havoc on Afghanistan and destroyed the country and committed sins that are unpardonable, such as atrocities, human rights violations, women's rights violations, all of those.

So, obviously yes money will help, but there are so many reasons for Afghans to want to be part of this campaign that it's not the only incentive.

SAVIDGE: Would there be a sense of fear that if you did provide information and Osama bin Laden is captured, that you could suffer reprisals if you're an Afghan?

SAMAD: Well, you know, there's still -- in my opinion, there's still some danger in Afghanistan and in the surrounding areas, especially in Pakistan where the Taliban still have a pretty strong base of support in the tribal areas, within those seminaries or those madrassas or religious schools that promoted the Taliban ideology, the Taliban blueprint.

They still have a lot of support, so obviously there are people maybe willing to either kill or even, at the expense of their own lives, commit suicide and kill others to take revenge for what has happened.

But I think that it is very important that the new administration in Afghanistan look at these issues and make sure that safety and security in Afghanistan for every Afghan is assured in the future.

SAVIDGE: In this country, we call them bounty hunters, people who specifically go to try to capture someone for the reward. Is there anything like that in Afghanistan?

SAMAD: No, not that I know. Maybe from now on there will be, and maybe this will start a whole new business. I hope not. I hope that there won't be any more terrorists to pursue.

But again, as I mentioned earlier, there are still I think probably hundreds if not thousands of hardcore Taliban and hardcore supporters of bin Laden, Pakistanis, Chechens, some other Arabs, who still may be roaming in the hills, in the mountains, in the deserts of Afghanistan.

As you know, not all of them have been captured. Not all of them have been killed. Some of them have escaped, and not all of them made it to Pakistan or Iran or other countries. They're still inside Afghanistan.

We will have to deal with this problem for some weeks and months to come, and I hope the international community realizes that and helps the Afghan authorities in that regard.

SAVIDGE: Before we let you go, where do you think Osama bin Laden is, still in Afghanistan or gone?

SAMAD: Very difficult to say. It's a 50 percent chance, in my opinion, that he may have left Afghanistan, and the only other country that he may have gone to would be Pakistan. The other 50 percent tells me that he may still be somewhere in Afghanistan, where there's still some type of sympathy for him, some local warlord or some tribal chief or someone in a village somewhere that is supporting him.

SAVIDGE: Well, the U.S. hopes $25 million will change that sympathy.

SAMAD: Let's hope.

SAVIDGE: Omar Samad directs the Afghanistan Information Center in Washington. Thanks.

SAMAD: Thank you.

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