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CNN Live Sunday

Pentagon: Some Afghan Detainees Planned to Terrorize U.S.

Aired January 13, 2002 - 18:02   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. warplanes continued to pummel suspected terrorist sites in Afghanistan today. That, as a second group of detainees was flown to Cuba.

CNN's Kathleen Koch reports that U.S. lawmakers returning from Afghanistan warn the complex and dangerous situation there will take time and money to handle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another C-17, this time loaded with 30 detainees, took off from Kandahar, Afghanistan, bound for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Military sources now say some prisoners in Kandahar had plans to one day travel to the United States and kill Americans.

The information worries U.S. senators who visited the region, including one who met with some of the detainees.

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-DE), CHAIRMAN, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: These are some real hard, hard, hard cases. But unless we gather the list of leaders which we -- I have in my pocket here, and there's about another 20 we don't have. People think that the possibility of them being able to do guerrilla kind of attacks on military here are real, and they're very concerned about it.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: That's why we're still there. That's why we're still attacking. We've got to destroy them, and we've got to make sure that they don't reconstitute themselves and reorganize to strike at us again from another base in that area of Afghanistan or someone else in the world.

KOCH: U.S. aircraft over the weekend made another round of strikes on a large complex in Zawar Kili, near the border with Pakistan that the military believes was being used as a transit point for fighters fleeing the country.

Another senator just back from Afghanistan says most needed now: U.S. aid to help the fragile interim government maintain order.

SEN. FRED THOMPSON (R), TENNESSEE: They're trying to get everybody under the same tent. They're doing a pretty a good job of doing that, but they've got to have some kind of an army eventually. They've got to have some kind of police force. KOCH: Senators reported there is still conflicting information on whether Osama bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar are still in the region.

(on camera): Information and intelligence being gathered there is drawing a chilling connection between al Qaeda fighters in custody and planned terrorist attacks against the United States. Military sources say why they weren't carried out is unclear.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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