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CNN Live Sunday

Bin Laden's Whereabouts Remain Unknown

Aired February 24, 2002 - 11:01   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, says the U.S. still does not know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. General Myers told ABC's "This Week" program it is somewhat foolish to speculate about where he might be located. But if he is alive, where is he? From Pakistan, CNN's Chris Burns will be letting us know exactly where the search is in a few moments.

But first, later on with "LATE EDITION" with guest host John King, will have more on the search for bin Laden and the War on Terrorism. His guests will be Senate Intelligence Committee members John Edwards and Richard Shelby. Let's now go to Bob Cosantini who is at the Pentagon with the latest on the search there. Hi, there.

BOB COSANTINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, intelligence and military officials have been operating for many weeks under the assumption that Osama bin Laden is still alive and they maintain there is no particularly compelling evidence that the Saudi exile has been killed, and so they continue to assume he survived U.S. bombing efforts to kill him or get him out into the open.

Now the intelligence work is being focused near the border towns of Khowst and Spin Boldak. There are a large number of caves in that rugged terrain, caves that reportedly have been used by bin Laden in the past and caves that have not been bombed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We see so much intelligence information and it's snippets of this and snippets of that and speculation about this and theories about that. What we do know is there's not been any recent evidence that he's alive. That does not mean he's not alive. It simply means that we don't have evidence that he is or isn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSANTINI: Rumsfeld went on to say that a bin Laden who is on the run, no matter where he is, could not possibly be an effective leader of al Qaeda, and to that end, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is saying that many of those under bin Laden have either been captured or killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS: We have gotten close to them and some of the interrogations that we're doing both in Afghanistan, in Kandahar and up at Bagram and the interrogations we're doing down in Guantanamo, we're linking this together with civil law enforcement authorities from not just this country but all our partners in this coalition against terrorism, and it's pretty effective. We're able to piece things together, and you probably read over the weekend, there have been several arrests in other countries of al Qaeda operatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTANTINI: However, Myers admits there are a number of lawless places in Afghanistan where al Qaeda and Taliban forces could be trying to regroup. That's why he and the secretary were emphasizing today the need to get an Afghan National Army up and running as soon as possible. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot, Bob from the Pentagon there.

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