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CNN Live Sunday

President Bush Expresses Outrage Over Terrorist Attack in Pakistan

Aired March 17, 2002 - 18:06   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: Two Americans are among the five people killed in an attack on a church in Pakistan. Two men threw hand grenades into the church near the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. Services were under way at the time. Pakistan's president calls the attack a ghastly act of terrorism.

And President Bush is expressing outrage over the attack on the church at Pakistan's capital, calling them murderous acts. We get the latest now on the U.S. reaction from CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even before the president returned to the White House Sunday, top aides concluded the murderous terrorist attack in Islamabad represented a grisly gambit to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Pakistan. In a statement, the president said: "I am outraged by the terrorist attack that took place today in Islamabad, Pakistan against innocent civilians. I strongly condemn them as acts of murder that can not be tolerated by any person of conscience, nor justified by any cause."

Senior officials said the attack could signal a new tactic where Islamic militants use violence against Americans to undermine U.S. support of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee went further, suggesting Islamic militants may now target Americans wherever governments ally themselves with the U.S. in the war on terror.

SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), CHAIRMAN SELECT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: This may represent another form of escalation of the response to our war on terrorism, where targets that are known to attract large numbers of Americans, such as Christian churches, become the objects of terrorist activities throughout Central Asia and the Middle East.

GARRETT: Several White House aides said the U.S. will stand with Pakistan, in part because it purged Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers from senior government posts. President Musharraf spoke of the dangers of these government reforms when he met with President Bush in Washington last month.

GEN. PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN: I expected a certain degree of fallout of these steps, but however I would like to say we are not deterred.

GARRETT: At the time, the U.S. and Pakistan were engaged in an all-out search for kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl. To some, Pearl's subsequent murder and Sunday's terrorist attack highlight the lethal nature of Mr. Musharraf's militant opponents.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), SELECT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: There's a lot of dissent and was a lot of dissent on his option that he chose to ally himself with us in the West against the Taliban.

GARRETT (on camera): White House officials said the president will continue to review ways to protect U.S. citizens abroad, but they conceded all Americans are potential targets, even those praying in a church near a U.S. embassy.

Major Garrett, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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