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On the Story
Pakistan Cuts Off Diplomatic Relations With Taliban
Aired November 22, 2001 - 08:11 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well for some insight on what this morning's developments might mean for the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, let's turn to our military analyst retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd, who is joining us from the Washington bureau this morning. Welcome back general.
Let's talk some more about something you brought up last hour. We talked about Osama bin Laden, the possibility of him escaping out to the ocean or to the sea somehow, some way. Can you explain that could even be possible?
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well there's been speculation Leon, that he has aircraft, perhaps even a helicopter, hidden away somewhere that he can fly out of the country. He's got a lot of support in the surrounding area of Pakistan. There are Pashtun tribesmen that are sympathetic to him that are in Pakistan.
He can be shepherded, if you will, to a port on the coast of Pakistan, get in a ship of some type, and then haul for Africa or the Gulf -- the Gulf region. His ancestral home is Yemen. Some speculation he could go there. Again, the U.S. Navy and the coalition Navy are going to be searching for him.
They've searched the Gulf for 10 years in various ways for contraband, oil, this type of thing. So it's not unusual that they -- that they do these type of things. So it's not unusual that they -- that they do these type of things. But wherever he goes, there's lots of people looking for him and he's going to find it more and more difficult to escape without notice.
HARRIS: Yes there's probably no need to search for him in northern Afghanistan now that Konduz is about to be surrendered. What do you make of that particular development and if you can give us an idea of exactly what the theater looks now with Konduz being taken off the table.
SHEPPERD: Well Konduz is the last holdout of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. Kandahar being in the south is still in Taliban hands. But up in the north, essentially the northern part or about 75 percent of the northern part of the country is now in Northern Alliance and opposition hands.
Konduz is good news in that we don't have to go in there and kill a bunch of people. The key, however, of Konduz is to make sure that the people coming out are not released to fight again or go back to their own countries to fight in another war somewhere.
HARRIS: Yes.
SHEPPERD: So this is going to be -- going to be real dicey how we handle this.
(CROSSTALK)
SHEPPERD: And we need to let the Taliban surrender and then the other people need to be incurred in some manner.
HARRIS: OK. Good. I did -- sorry to cut you off there, but does the coalition have a role in keeping those people there in Afghanistan and not letting them go to another country?
SHEPPERD: Well of course we're not in control of what the Northern Alliance does. All we can do is talk to them and ask them to do certain things. One of the important things we've asked to do is not mistreat prisoners of war. So I'm sure we're in contact with them, but it's up to the Northern Alliance how they capture these people; how they incur them; how they treat them, as a matter of fact; and where they put them.
I'm sure we'll be talking to them along with the United Nations on how to do this. But much to be sorted out here before it actually takes place.
HARRIS: Yes yesterday we were seeing reports of these interdictions taken place on the roads there from the U.S. special ops forces on the ground there. They've been intercepting these -- the gasoline smugglers, if you will, who have been going from one country to another using Afghanistan as something of a -- of a way station there.
Does that tell us any -- that sort of thing, (INAUDIBLE) information -- does that tell us more about the pervasiveness there of the special ops forces on the ground in Afghanistan?
SHEPPERD: Well the secretary of defense has reported that there are several hundred special operations forces now in Afghanistan. He doesn't say where, but in various areas. The reports are typical special force operations. They're there to establish leads on, gain intelligence, conduct operations.
Reportedly yesterday they stopped in the middle of the night. Five tanker drivers were awakened by special forces with a Sparsi speaker. They were handcuffed. Their trucks were blown up, and then they were taken four or five miles away and released.
This is typical of the type of things that special operations forces do. Look, interdict, find and the same thing, we're looking the same way for bin Laden and the al Qaeda cells.
HARRIS: Major General Don SHEPPERD in our Washington bureau. Thank you very much once again, and we will talk with you later on. Thanks for spending the Thanksgiving holiday with us this morning.
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