Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Charges Levied Against Walker

Aired January 15, 2002 - 19:00   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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Tonight on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: THE WAR ROOM, a crucial development in the case of John Walker. He learns what charges, and possible penalties he'll face for fighting with the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We can not overlook attacks on America when they come from U.S. citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Another American goes missing in Afghanistan. Was he kidnapped?

As more al Qaeda and Taliban fighters fall into U.S. hands, where are their leaders?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I don't care how long it takes. I don't care where they hide. We're after them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We'll go to Afghanistan, and to another potential battleground, Somalia. And I'll speak with General Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and veteran terrorism analyst Brian Jenkins, as we go into the "War Room."

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting tonight from Washington. The guessing game is over. Taliban American John Walker now knows what charges await him upon his return to the United States. Today, the attorney general, John Ashcroft, spelled out the charges and the punishment if convicted.

Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti has been tracking developments. She joins us now live from our Washington bureau -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Wolf. The president himself signed off on a recommendation to try John Walker in federal court, not by military tribunal or by court-martial, that was ten days ago. Today charges were filed in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): American Taliban John Walker, who also went by the name Suleyman al-Faris (ph), will be tried in federal court on four counts, none carries the death sentence. But Walker could face life behind bars.

ASHCROFT: At each crossroad, Walker faced a choice and with each choice he chose to ally himself with terrorists.

CANDIOTTI: The charges are conspiracy to kill Americans outside the U.S., two counts of providing material support to terrorist groups including al Qaeda and providing services to the Taliban. Walker was interviewed by CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann before a prison uprising, during which Spann was killed.

ASHCROFT: He chose to embrace fanatics, and his allegiance to those fanatics and terrorists never faltered, not even with the knowledge that they had murdered thousands of his countrymen, not with the knowledge that they were engaged in a war with the United States.

CANDIOTTI: According to the criminal complaint, Walker met with Osama bin Laden three to five times during al Qaeda training.

ASHCROFT: On one of those occasions, Walker met personally with bin Laden who -- quote -- according to Walker, "thanked him for taking part in jihad."

CANDIOTTI: Sometime after June of last year, court documents state Walker learned from one of his instructors that bin Laden had sent people to the U.S. to carry out several suicide missions. It does not specify whether Walker knew any details. Authorities say Walker waived his miranda rights in writing before he was interviewed by the FBI. The complaint cites a CNN interview with Walker, after his capture, as evidence of his allegiance to the Taliban.

WALKER: So I started to read some of the literature of the scholars and the history of the movement, and my heart became attached to them.

CANDIOTTI: Walker's family has maintained his innocence, describing a 20-year-old young man who got caught up in something way over his head.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

So far Walker's family in California has not responded to charges and Wolf, at this time Walker remains on a Navy ship at sea while plans are being finalized to transfer him to the U.S.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti, thanks for the good reporting. And there's been a late development in Afghanistan. Let's go live to our Bill Hemmer, he's on the scene in Kandahar -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, good morning from Kandahar. A few hours ago another group of detainees were shipped out from here, at the detention facility bound for Guantanamo Bay. Thirty more in the latest group, Wolf, and eventually there will be 80 now in Guantanamo Bay once this next group arrives after a 20-hour flight and a stop over at an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile, Wolf, on Tuesday the Marines yet again told us why this place is so dangerous again in southern Afghanistan. Apparently late Monday they identified seven men on the perimeter, in fact a few hundred yards from where we are standing and few hundred yards from where the Marines patrol in their fighting holes on a 24 hour basis. After an inspection. the Marines found a cache of weapons. They say in some abandoned homes out there, they located mortar fuses and rocket-propelled grenades. They blew up and flattened those structures, and also took out the crawl spaces underneath where they say a number of weapons had been hidden.

Also, they say a number of cave openings were imploded and closed. And by the way, this is the same area, and the same location where just last Thursday night when that first shipment of detainees went out to Cuba, that machine gun fire and sniper fire originated. Certainly, the U.S. military here being quite vigilant about its perimeter. They say they will extend that perimeter sometime very soon to ensure the security of the base here in southern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile in Kabul, reports of a American, Clark Bowers from Harvest, Alabama, his wife Amanda reports that her husband is now missing. Apparently she says he has called by way of satellite phone twice this week, saying that he and his translator have been taken captive by a tribal warlord. He says he's OK and fine, but the translator apparently was beaten up quite a bit. American officials now taking this threat, in their words -- quote -- "very seriously." However, one official says the story is rather spotty. There has been a ransom demanded according to Amanda Bowers, but again that ransom amount has not been made public. We will follow it more, next hour Gary Tuchman live in Alabama -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Bill Hemmer, thanks very much for joining us.

And this important note, at the top of the hour, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Bill will be back with a complete look at today's events in the war on terrorism, including an up close and personal look at what it's like for the troops on patrol there at the Kandahar Airport. That's "LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN WITH BILL HEMMER," tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

And now to another potential hot-spot in the expanding war on terrorism. President Bush has said the effort to battle terror won't be confined to just one country. Another possible target: Somalia. CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in the capital of Mogadishu, and she has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Wolf, Somalia is precisely the kind of lawless country with no central government that the U.S., and indeed other international officials, believes could provide the perfect hiding place for either al Qaeda or other terrorists. The United States says warships are patrolling the Somali coast and that its surveillance aircraft, it says, are in the skies above this country along with French and British aircraft trying to establish what may or may not be going on here.

The U.S. has also this month sent in a team of specialists to talk to various factional and tribal leaders here on ways of trying to combat terrorism and preventing any kind of al Qaeda or other terrorists, take root or seek protection here. And we have talked to the president of the transitional national government for Somalia who says that in conversations with the U.S. political officer, that he feels that Somalia has pretty much been given a clean bill of health, and, indeed, that political officer was quoted, earlier this month, as saying that they did not believe there were any al Qaeda linked cells or centers here in Mogadishu. But there was the possibility of people linked with terrorism, living in Somalia so they are keeping a very close watch on this.

(voice-over): In the meantime, extraordinarily, given the bad blood that has flowed between Somalia and the United States, certainly over the last ten years, with that devastating foreign policy debacle of the United States when 18 special forces rangers were killed in October 1993, despite that the Somalis say they bare no bad blood. Because, remember, hundreds of Somalis were killed in that incident, as well, and they say they would welcome the Americans back to Somalia, not to bomb their country, of course, they say, but to help reconstruct it.

(on camera): They say they have had enough of 11 years of civil war, of all the warlords that take control of this country.

(voice-over): And they are looking to see if they, too, might be able to take advantage of the sort of post-September 11 syndrome, if you look. They say they want to join the war on terror. And they are looking to a sort of Afghanistan model. All the warlords and tribal leaders here seem to be trying to jockey for position to be the American proxies here in Somalia.

(on camera): So that's a situation, we are watching it closely. Back to you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Christiane Amanpour will be live from Somalia tomorrow and Thursday night 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

As events on the ground continue to show, Afghanistan remains a very dangerous place, indeed. Earlier today, I spoke with the nation's second-highest ranking military officer, General Peter Pace, he's vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and the first Marine to hold that post. I began by asking him about the discovery of weapons stockpiles close to Marine positions at the Kandahar Airport.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. PETER PACE, VICE CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS: Well, as best we know right now, it's one of what we presume would be several locations throughout Afghanistan where there would be stockpiled weapons. The Marines right now are taking count. Those pieces of ordnance that are not worth retaining, because they are not usable will be destroyed in place. Those that might be usable elsewhere we will probably either keep right where they are in place or move them to a safe storage area.

BLITZER: It sounds like it is still a volatile dangerous situation around Kandahar as the Marines prepare to leave and members of the 101st Airborne, the Army special forces begin to move in. How dangerous is the situation in and around the Kandahar base?

PACE: Afghanistan in itself is dangerous throughout the country. I can't think of a place on earth I would rather be than with either U.S. Army or U.S. Marines on the ground, as far as personal safety is concerned. But clearly, for those soldiers and marines on the battlefield, it's still a very dangerous place.

There are mine fields, there are pockets of resistance still there. So, we need to be very careful as we go about our business.

BLITZER: As the Marines prepare to leave, this frees them up, obviously, for different missions. Any specific mission on the horizon for them?

PACE: I wouldn't talk -- I will not to future missions, but clearly this opportunity for the Army to replace the Marines, for the Marines to go back aboard ship and to be available to General Franks as the U.S. central command commander, will be very useful to him.

BLITZER: In the Tora Bora area in and around eastern Afghanistan, could you clarify what the status is of the U.S. bombing? It's been quite intense over the past few days, but some suggestion it's winding down.

PACE: It will continue as needed. The Tora Bora complex as best we know right now has been thoroughly searched. The caves that were of interest to us were searched. Some of the bombing has been to close up the caves now so they will not be used in the future. Some of it was to destroy some old -- usable -- but old ordnance and some other equipment that was found there.

So, there has been bombing both for the purposes of destroying things we found, and also to close the caves.

BLITZER: Is there any indication whatsoever you have learned anything about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar, the former leader of the Taliban from all of the investigations, all of the discoveries since the bombings campaign continued?

PACE: All of the data is being fed in to the folks who are working the issue very hard for us to locate both Omar and Osama bin Laden. I will not be specific about what we have learned or not learned. But obviously, every bit of information we get helps put the picture together. BLITZER: Can you update us on the case? A lot of interest in this kidnapped, apparently, kidnapped American. His name is Charles Russell Bowers. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and others very interested in this. Is there any new information you can share with us?

PACE: All I have on that is what I've read in the papers and seen on TV. I would have to refer you to you the FBI to get the details.

BLITZER: And as you know, John Walker, the Taliban American fighter, picked up by U.S. military, about to be handed over to civilian control, the U.S. Justice Department, where he will be -- he will be treated.

Is that good news, bad news? What does it all suggest about what is going to happen to John Walker?

PACE: I don't know what will happen to John Walker. All I know is that from the U.S. military standpoint we are waiting disposition instructions. And if in fact what you just said is true, that that is going to happen some time in the near future, we will deliver Mr. Walker to where ever we are told to by our own government.

BLITZER: How comfortable has the U.S. military, General Pace, been in dealing with the various warlords who are effectively in control of big sections of Afghanistan? As you know a lot of suggestions that they are not necessarily the nicest bunch of guys. Barnett Rubin, writing in the "New York Times" earlier today, a professor, says: "The elimination of the Taliban regime made possible the establishment of a new administration but at the price of empowering some corrupt and brutal figures."

PACE: That's a pretty tough environment with some pretty tough characters, but the young soldier who have been on the ground there working with them are pretty tough in their own right as far as their abilities on a battlefield.

So our battlefield coordination with the what were opposition forces and then became anti-Taliban forces, and are now Afghan forces, has been very, very productive, as you know. And we will continue to work them, to get to the point that is good for the future of Afghanistan and for our own war on terrorism.

BLITZER: Was that incident at Spin Boldak last week when U.S. military had to effectively go take charge of an area because the war lord was not doing the job, was that an isolated incident, or do you suspect we will be seeing more of that kind of military activity?

PACE: I think throughout Afghanistan you are going to find various levels of cooperation from the various leaders. We need to, as we have, to this point in the war, determine which of the leaders there have the kinds of ideas and ideals that are consistent with our own and to work with them.

BLITZER: We have an e-mail question from a viewer in Massachusetts. Nina writes this to us, she says: "It appears that the U.S. military is not concentrating any resources on locating terrorists in western Afghanistan near the Iranian border."

What is the reason for this if in fact her assumption is true?

PACE: Well, Nina, what I would say to you is that the war on terrorism is global, that all the information we are gathering both in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world, is used world wide to pinpoint leaders not only in eastern Afghanistan, which is getting most of the news, but in western Afghanistan as well, and elsewhere in the world.

So, we are taking every bit of information we get from every source we can get and conclusion (ph) together a picture that we need of the global war so we can take down the networks worldwide.

BLITZER: General, as you know, there has been some criticism from international human rights organizations, Human Rights Watch in New York, others, that the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay at the U.S. Naval Base there, is inappropriate. It violates certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions. What do you say about that?

PACE: The detainees that we have, both in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay, and also aboard ship are being treated humanely and certainly consistent with the Geneva Conventions.

BLITZER: What is next in the war? Somalia, the Philippines, Iraq, or is the next stage already begun?

PACE: You know I can't talk about future operations, but suffice it to say, if you are watching this picture and you are involved in terrorism around the world, I would not be comfortable if I were you.

BLITZER: General, as you know on this day in 1943, some 59 years ago, the Pentagon was open, I am a former Pentagon correspondent, I used to walk around the halls there on a daily basis. It was wounded as you know, on September 11. It is recovering right now. Tell our viewers how the building and the people inside are doing.

PACE: It was wounded. We are recovering. I would tell everyone watching that we received from the people who worked in this building back in 1943 and 1944, a wonderful legacy and a great freedom in this country and throughout the world. And those of us who are proud to serve here today rededicate ourselves to ensuring that the freedom that was passed to us by those who helped build this building will be sustained by those of us who are currently rebuilding it.

BLITZER: General Pace, I know you have been busy. Thanks for spending a little bit of your day with us here on CNN.

PACE: Thank you very much, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: When we come back, has Osama bin Laden made a clean getaway? I'll speak with a terrorism expert, Brian Jenkins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to the WAR ROOM. Has Osama bin Laden made it out of Afghanistan and out of the region? Has he left order for another terror attack? Joining me here in the CNN WAR ROOM is Brian Jenkins. He is a terrorism expert, senior adviser at the Rand Corporation. No one I know knows more about fighting terrorism than you do, Brian. Thank you for joining us.

BRIAN JENKINS, TERRORISM EXPERT: Thank you.

BLITZER: Obviously today, the news of John Walker, he is going to be tried in northern Virginia, same place Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, is going to be tried as well. Does that require the U.S. government to go on an even higher state-of-alert?

JENKINS: I don't know that we have a higher state-of-alert right now to go to other than on the basis of some information that an attack is imminent. Certainly every one of these trials can be the occasion for further terrorist attack.

At the same time, we have tried terrorists previously in this country. Those who were involved in the bombing of the embassies in Africa, those who have been involved in previous terrorist attacks, and we have managed to do so without incident. So, security will be extremely tight.

Certainly an opportunity for someone to create mischief, but not necessarily a guarantee.

BLITZER: With Osama bin Laden still at large, but on the run, al Qaeda dispersed, do they still have the wherewithal, the operational capability to order another terrorist action?

JENKINS: I think we have to believe that they do. I think we have presume that even before September 11 they realized that that would provoke a response from us. And so, in addition to the actual terrorist attack itself, there was probably something like a business continuity plan that they would put in place, first for the survival of the leadership, to make sure that Osama bin Laden and his immediate lieutenants would be able to escape the military response.

Second, to continue to communicate and then third, to be able to continue operations. What we don't know is were their operations in place, in preparation, even before September 11. We do know that these operations are planned and prepared for years. So there may be operations that are in training right now that we don't know about.

At the same time, there have been about 1,000 people that have been detained worldwide. We know in some cases, on a basis of intelligence that was gathered in Afghanistan, that some attacks, planned attacks, were broken up, most recently in Singapore, possibly in Yemen.

BLITZER: We have some e-mail questions. Let's get through a few of them.

John in Pennsylvania: "Will the U.S. target as Qaeda in the Philippines next, or is there a better opportunity to target them elsewhere?"

JENKINS: You know, this war on terrorism has many components. It has a military component, which we have seen in Afghanistan. It has intelligence operations. It has a more traditional form of law enforcement and arrests. It may involve military assistance. It may involve special operations. It may involve more military force. It is going to be opportunistic. That is, the combination of measures that will work best most appropriate to one single place or another, will be used based upon the intelligence and based upon what we can do in a particular country.

BLITZER: A lot of attention now being focused on Somalia. Brian, in Dale City Virginia asks this question: "If the U.S. does eventually send troops into Somalia after as Qaeda cells, how can we avoid becoming bogged down in dangerous house-to-house searches?"

Mogandishu being a lot different than open fighting in Afghanistan.

JENKINS: I think there will be a tremendous effort to avoid precisely that because, for any army, no matter how skillful it is, house to house fighting in that kind of environment can be very, very dangerous.

I don't think -- I'm not going to be able to comment specifically on what tactical plans are and what the next strategic location is, but I think we will make every effort to avoid getting bogged down in that kind of a situation. There are other ways to deal with it.

BLITZER: The Winter Olympics next month in Utah, the U.S. is on a high state-of-alert obviously. Enormous security counter terrorist preparations under way. Is there still though, some vulnerability out there?

JENKINS: There is always a vulnerability. Planning for the Olympic security began years before September 11. I mean, they began to it into place, and each Olympic event, each subsequent Olympics that takes place, we learn from the previous one. And it gets better and better.

Obviously, we are operating in a high-threat environment. And so security is going to be very, very tight. Can that absolutely prevent someone in Salt Lake City or near Salt Lake City or somewhere else in the world at the same time the Olympics is going on to attract attention to themselves? Of course not.

BLITZER: We only have a few seconds, but if the war on terrorism that the U.S. us waging right now, were a nine-inning baseball game, where would the war stand right now?

JENKINS: We are in the first inning.

BLITZER: OK, Brian Jenkins, thank you for joining us.

JENKINS: Thank you.

BLITZER: We will be back in just a moment with a quick check of all of this hour's latest developments including details of a school shooting in Manhattan. We will tell you why it is especially sad and ironic that violence erupted at this particular high school on this particular day. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's get a quick check of the late developments this hour. Two male students at a Manhattan high school are hospitalized in critical but stable condition after a shooting that may have been gang-related. Police have not yet found the person who did the shooting. The shooting took place at Martin Luther King Jr. High School on the 73rd anniversary of the civil rights leader's birthday.

Officials are expected to increase the reward in the anthrax investigation to $2.5 million. They hope to generate new leads as to who sent a series of anthrax-laced letters last fall. The current amount of the reward is $1 and quarter million.

That's all the time we have tonight. Please join me again tomorrow twice at both 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I am Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "CROSSFIRE" begins right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com