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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Olympic Games to Kick Off; U.S. Troops Inspect Damage of Missile Attack on Suspected al Qaeda Convoy

Aired February 08, 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 ANCHOR: Tonight on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, THE WAR ROOM: President Bush will shortly declare the Olympic Games open, but this celebration of peace and cooperation is guarded by thousands of troops as well as fighter jets and helicopters.

Damage assessment: U.S. troops on the ground at the site of that missile attack on a suspected al Qaeda convoy. Was Osama bin Laden among those killed?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We just simply have no idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: How is the U.S. handling the continuing threat as it wages war against terrorism? We'll go live to Salt Lake City and to the Pentagon, and I'll speak live with the co-authors of "Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces", best-selling writer Tom Clancy and retired general Carl Stiner, former chief of special operations, as we go into THE WAR ROOM.

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Washington. We'll get to Tom Clancy and General Carl Stiner shortly.

But first, amid unprecedented security, the Winter Olympic Games are about to begin. Let's go right to Salt Lake City. Our White House correspondent, Major Garrett, is there and he joins us now live -- Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good evening and welcome to Salt Lake, Wolf. It's a little bit chilly here, as you might expect. It's a great atmosphere for the opening of the 19th Winter Olympiad. The president is here. I don't know if we can take that live shot quite yet. He's preparing to meet all 300 athletes and trainers, all part of the U.S. Olympic Team. They've gathered to see the president. He's going to wish them well, wish them well in their competition, but also maybe, in a very small way, remind them this is not only an American event, it is an international event. He wants them to compete fairly and openly, but also understand the world is watching what's happens in Salt Lake, wants them to be patriotic but also at least sympathetic and maybe in some ways respectful to the overall peace and cooperation that is so much a part of the Olympic movement.

In addition to that, of course, Wolf, the president knows and as everyone who is here understands and sees visibly everywhere they look, security, security, security. More than 16,000 security personnel, federal state and local. You mentioned helicopters. Those are serious military helicopters, Wolf, Black Hawk helicopters. They stand at the ready, as do F-16 military aircraft patrolling the skies. In addition, National Guard troops with M-16s at the ready all around all the venues. Heavy security, lots of long lines for spectators not only tonight for the Opening Ceremonies, but for all of the events for the next two weeks here in Salt Lake.

Security is a watch word, but also, the country is at war. There's a global pursuit of terrorists, but the nation and the world is going to pause a little bit to see the Olympics and that spirit of cooperation and competition so much a part of the international Olympic movement -- Wolf.

BLITZER: He's going to give the athletes a little pep talk shortly, Major, but is he actually, the president, going to see any competition while he's in Utah?

GARRETT: He's not scheduled to, Wolf, tonight. He is to be here for the Opening Ceremonies, participate as the head of state for the host country. He will read a 14-word statement that every head of state for any host country for any Olympiad reads to welcome the world to that particular venue. He will then watch as the Opening Ceremonies commence. And as they conclude and the fireworks go off, the president and his entourage will leave the stadium, heading as scheduled currently now, for a weekend of rest and relaxation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Will not see any competition here, but I'm sure, because this is a sporting president, Wolf, he will watch a good deal of it on television.

BLITZER: Like all of us. Thank you very much, Major Garrett in Utah. And we will be checking with the president throughout this half hour to see how he's doing with those athletes.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops are looking for signs of who was killed in a missile strike Monday in Afghanistan. It's thought a high-ranking al Qaeda leader was a target. Our military affairs correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, is over at the Pentagon. He joins us now live -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, from one snowy, mountainous venue to another, this time the mountains of Afghanistan and the Tora Bora region, where more than 50 U.S. troops are now on the ground, combing the area, looking for evidence of what happened in Monday's attack in which a CIA drone fired a Hellfire missile at a group of three people on the ground. The mission of those troops is to find out whatever evidence they can that would indicate who was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: There are over 50 personnel involved in this operation and, of course, their mission is to exploit any intelligence that can be gathered at the site. To answer what might be the first question, no, we don't have any reports yet from the ground. This is due to the fact that it's nighttime there. That's when they were inserted and they're going wait until first light to begin their sweep.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Almost five days since the strike, it may be difficult to find anything. It's possible that some of the other people, a group of about 30, might have cleared away some of the remains or even buried them and there's been fresh snow since then. And also, the U.S. realizes they may bring back only small parts of remains. They have special forensics teams standing by to examine them to see if they can determine whether or not it was Osama bin Laden or some other al Qaeda leader who was killed in that strike. Right now, the U.S. says it has no indication one way or the other -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And, Jamie, what are you hearing about this report that the U.S. now has in its captivity a former high ranking member of the Taliban regime?

MCINTYRE: Yes. This man identified as Mullawi (ph) Muttawakil is identified as the former Taliban foreign affairs minister. He apparently turned himself in to Afghanistan authorities today near Kandahar. He's now under U.S. military control. He's one of the 10 or 15 highest ranking Taliban members who were still at large. And the U.S., as one official told me, that they can consider him to be one of the fence-sitters, deciding whether to try to reconstitute the Taliban or whether to just give it up. And the U.S. officials are hopeful that his surrender might prompt other Taliban officials to give up as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thank you very much for that report.

Highly motivated, highly capable. Special operations forces are in the vanguard of the war against terrorism. In Afghanistan, around the world or on the home front, Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Air Force, they have one thing in common: They are the quiet professionals.

A new book, "Shadow Warriors", takes us inside the special forces. Joining me here in the CNN WAR ROOM are its authors: the best- selling writer, Tom Clancy, and retired general Carl Stiner. He headed the U.S. special operations command.

Remember, you can e-mail your WAR ROOM questions to us. Simply go to my Web page, CNN.COM/WOLF. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us. Congratulations on the new book.

Tom Clancy, the special operations forces we've all been seeing in Afghanistan seem to be getting a lot of publicity, but are they doing anything different now than they used to do?

TOM CLANCY, AUTHOR: No. Essentially what they're doing is executing the stuff they've been trained for for, you know, years. And these aren't rookies. These are experienced, long-term service professional soldiers and they're the very best we've got.

BLITZER: When you take a look at these guys, their psychological makeup is pretty specific because they're going into very dangerous situations. What makes a person want to get involved in this?

RETIRED GENERAL CARL STINER, U.S. ARMY: Well, Wolf, it's the overall selection and assessment process to pick the right people, people who have inner strength, people who are very intelligent and are capable of solving problems, making decisions on their own in complex situations in the absence of orders, people who can handle stress and people who can coordinate whatever activities that are required. That is in the selection and assessment process.

And then they go into all this specialized training, and you're seeing part of some their training here in the coordination of the airstrikes, calling them in, designating targets. The combination of their skills to include their language and their cultural training and mobilizing the tribes, and being able to employ the air support that they have on these al Qaeda targets, I think is the best of all worlds and is the appropriate approach.

BLITZER: Because of the failures at Desert One, the failed hostage rescue mission against Iran, because of what happened in Mogadishu that's now been a major motion picture made on that there, was this reputation that U.S. special operations forces were not really all that good. You know about that.

CLANCY: Well, I know about that as mainly a creation of people in the media who don't like the military very much. I mean, what happened at Desert One was a mission that may have indeed have worked had it gone forward. There was just -- everybody is subject to bad weather and bad luck, and that's what happened to them.

What happened in Mogadishu with the Rangers is we lost what, 18, 19 soldiers...

BLITZER: Eighteen.

CLANCY: ... in return for something on the order of 5,000 people on the other side. That's a hell of an exchange rate. It's not exactly indicative of a military debacle, is it?

BLITZER: I wouldn't necessarily say that it was indicative. I think you're right.

CLANCY: A lot of people in the media did say so and it really broke the hearts of some of these people who come back, who knowing they had been in a serious fight and thinking they had come out on the winning side. They come home and look at TV and they're called losers.

BLITZER: But the impression was that because shortly thereafter, the U.S. got out of Somalia, it looked like the United States simply paid a price and ran and got out of there. STINER: That's right. Well, this was the second time when they blew up the Marines in Lebanon in 1984.

BLITZER: Two-hundred forty-one Marines were killed.

STINER: That's correct.

BLITZER: And to this day, as far as I know, no one has been held accountable.

STINER: No. And that was the Ayatollah Khomeini's declared objective, to drive the United States out of the Middle East at that time and he succeeded.

BLITZER: And the U.S. got out of Lebanon very quickly.

STINER: Exactly. And then, you know, that I idea spread among those who hate us, so to speak.

BLITZER: That the United States can -- you can get the United States...

STINER: Spill a little American blood if you want them to leave, and they'll leave.

BLITZER: And they'll run away.

STINER: Right.

BLITZER: But that's not happening right now?

CLANCY: Not exactly. No, they -- right after this happened, I was commission to do a piece for the "Sunday Mail" in London, and the question I posed is: Why is it so hard for these people to understand this? You know, our culture is out there in movies and on TV globally, and yet they don't understand our society. They thought they'd give us a good, stiff punch in the nose, we were going to run away. Not this time.

BLITZER: Let's talk about something you write in the book, General Stiner, and I'll put it up on our screen. "When state- sponsored terrorism broke out, the United States quickly showed itself unprepared to cope with it. It had neither a national policy nor intelligence capabilities aimed at terrorism, nor any military forces adequately trained and prepared to respond to terrorist provocations." And several hundred pages later, you add this: "Our intelligence services failed us massively in the days before September 11, 2001."

George Tenet, the director of the CIA, testified this week before the Senate Intelligence Committee and insisted there was no intelligence failure.

STINER: Right. I know that he did, and I don't dispute what he said. But if you look back when we first became the target of terrorism, it was when the Iranian students went over the wall and took our embassy in Tehran in 1979. And then, following that were all the other incidents that happened, the blowing up of our embassy in Beirut in 1982.

BLITZER: I want to just interrupt for a second, gentlemen. I want to briefly listen to what the president is saying. He's meeting with some of the American athletes at the Winter Olympic Games. Let's listen in.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank your, coaches, and your families.

Today, we are joined by three Port Authority police officers from New York City -- Tony Skinella (ph), Kurt Kelinja (ph), Frank Accardi (ph). Where are they? There they are. Thank you all for coming.

As you know, they brought with them one of the flags that flew in front of the World Trade Center on September the 11th, which will be carried into the Olympic Stadium today. This flag serves as a symbol of this nation's strength, of our resolve, of our determination to fight for freedom. These games come at a perfect time for the country. In our time of sadness and determination and resolve, our Olympic athletes will represent the best of America.

I can't wait for Americans to see our flag fly. It is such a proud moment for all of us. This nation is steadfast and unified, and you the athletes are going to represent us with such class and dignity and courage. It's a chance for the world to see that in times of war, we can come together in friendly competition to promote the peace.

So not only you represent the greatest nation on the face of the earth, you represent a spirit that is much bigger than evil and terror. You represent peace.

A lot of people are going to be watching you, particularly a lot of kids. You'll become heroes overnight. It's an awesome responsibility. I know you'll handle it with grace. I know you'll set the best example possible. And so we are here to wish you all the best, to congratulate you.

Let's roll. God bless.

BLITZER: President of the United States at a little pep rally for the American athletes at the Winter Olympics.

We were talking to General Stiner about the intelligence failure. I want to get back to that, if in fact there was an intelligence failure. But when you see the president give a kind of pep talk like that, you're a retired four-star general, you know what happened on September 11. What goes through your mind?

STINER: The first thing that went through my mind, it was no surprise to me. Those of us that have been involved in terrorism for a long time have felt that we were a target, and that we were at risk for terrorist attacks right here in the United States. It could have been a lot worse, in my judgment.

Back to the first question that you asked. Our embassy was blown up in Beirut in 1982, and the station chief and all of his staff except for two staff members were killed, and our entire intelligence mechanism, human intelligence mechanism for that part of the world...

BLITZER: Human intelligence.

STINER: That's exactly right. Was neutralized in that. Then when Bill Buckley was captured and tortured, no doubt he revealed who his operatives were, and it was neutralized again. Moving forward...

BLITZER: So the point is that there's a history of intelligence failures that led up to September 11? Is that what you're saying?

STINER: Well, what I'm saying is you cannot penetrate these religious-based fanatical organizations with overhead systems and meet our total intelligence needs. The United States must have a strong human intelligence capability. When you look at the attack of 11th of September, that was very well planned. That was a very complex operation that was very well planned and well executed.

BLITZER: Let me bring in Tom Clancy. How was the president doing? We just saw him speak to the athletes, but since September 11, what kind of grades do you give him in handling the war against terrorism?

CLANCY: Oh, at least an A. I mean, he's been doing beautifully. It helps that he's got a good team with him, Rumsfeld and Colin Powell at state.

BLITZER: Dick Cheney.

CLANCY: And pardon me for forgetting that, I mean, Dick Cheney was a very capable sec-def under President Bush the elder, and he's a very capable chap, since he was a congressman.

BLITZER: But you're not as complimentary in the days and weeks and months leading up to September 11, as far as preparedness for what happened?

CLANCY: Wolf, come on. I mean, the CIA's human intelligence capability was gutted first by Senator Frank Church in his committee hearings in the early '70s, and then by Jimmy Carter and his hitman, Stansfield Turner, in the late '70s, who destroyed what, you know, what Frank Church couldn't destroy, you know, a few years earlier. You can't shoot a guy in the back and then complain when he fails to win the race. I mean, if you want to knock the Olympic team for failing to win every gold medal, don't shoot them in the back first.

BLITZER: So in other words, he inherited a rough situation when he got into office.

CLANCY: Yeah. I mean, it was people in the political left who trashed CIA, you know, almost 30 years ago, and now they're the ones who claim intelligence failures. They're the architects of that failure.

BLITZER: That's a good point. We are going to continue this conversation. We have a lot more to talk about. When we come back -- general, stand by -- we are also going to ask this question: Why were the Special Operation Forces always treated as a step child by the Pentagon? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN War Room. In addition to fighting the enemy, U.S. Special Operations Forces have often had to fight for recognize at the Pentagon. Let's bring back our guests. First, General Stiner. Tell us about those days that you remember vividly when your guys, the Special Operations Forces, were almost second-class citizens over there.

STINER: OK. Wolf, this really happened after the Vietnam War and the draw down and the refocusing of our defense priorities on the Soviet Union. And Special Forces was downsized significantly and were used as bill payers to activate more conventional units for the Soviet Union.

The services owned the Special Operations Forces at that particular time, and they would program money for them, but when it came time it was not applied to the greatest needs of those forces. It would be moved off and used for conventional weapons systems.

BLITZER: And they were relegated to the sidelines, as you well remember. Has it changed since then, Tom Clancy?

CLANCY: Well, Wolf, if you look at my time bar here, you'll see it's the submarine dolphins, the submarine officers' badge. It was given to me by Ned Beach, the author of "Run Silent, Run Deep" and a distinguished submarine officer. In 1939 when he was assigned to submarines after coming out of the Naval Academy submariners were the stepchildren of the Navy, before them the aviators were the stepchildren were the stepchildren of the Navy. Hell, there was a time when CNN was a stepchild of NBC and ABC, right? I mean, 20 years ago they didn't like you very much. The new kid on the block is not always the most popular kid on the block.

BLITZER: But the situation has changed dramatically since then?

CLANCY: Well, they've pretty much made their bones and earned their spurs in Afghanistan, haven't they?

BLITZER: I think that's true.

STINER: The real change came about with the Defense Reorganization Act of '86 and the Colin-Nunn Amendment, which called for four star command, which was the U.S. special operations command.

BLITZER: And you became that general?

STINER: Yes. The first one was General Jim Lindsey, he activated, I was the second one. But that act also took away from the services those special operations forces and assigned them to the U.S. special operations command. And in their wisdom, Congress gave the U.S. special operations command its own program and budget and holds that CINC responsible for the readiness of them.

BLITZER: So you can thank Congress for a lot of that? STINER: Yes.

BLITZER: Let me bring another quote from the book, "Shadow Warriors." In it, you say this:

"In the near term, we must clean out all terrorist cells and sympathizers in the United States."

Now what does that mean?

CLANCY: Well, it means that, you know one of the things we have the FBI for is to get rid of criminals, and you know, let's put hit the way, Donny Brasco in his capacity as an FBI undercover agent infiltrated the Mafia. Why? Because the Mafia does bad things that we want to stop them from doing so. Similarly with terrorist cells in the United States we want to identify them and put them out of business, because their criminal networks. On the broader question.

BLITZER: That's easier said than done, you know, clean them all up.

CLANCY: Wolf, if it was easy I'd do it. In fact we need the FBI to do it.

BLITZER: And special operations forces do they have a role in that?

CLANCY: Generally, under (UNINTELLIGIBLE) law is called is posse (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We don't use military forces to engage in...

BLITZER: Although, there could be a homeland command? That they are trying to --

CLANCY: The statutory law at the moment says that the military forces do not perform police function without the express permission of the president, so they just don't do that.

BLITZER: So that's not going to happen. But wrapping up right now, how long is it going to take to win this war against terrorism, General Stiner?

STINER: It's hard to say, Wolf, because we've heard the president and the secretary of defense say that they operate in some 60 countries. And the objective is to neutralize the al Qaeda organization and the leadership of it, and that means neutralizing their money, their access to money. It could take a long time because of the forces of darkness. They don't fight on a linear battlefield, they hide in the shadows and they strike you where you're most vulnerable, and with whatever means that will produce the most terror. But let me say this. We are very fortunate to have special operations forces in this, because of the versatility and talents. And right now, one example is what they're doing in the Philippines to help train the Philippine Army to do something about the threat they face.

BLITZER: From Abu Sayyaf?

STINER: Yes.

BLITZER: All right. Unfortunately, General, we have to leave it right there. General Carl Stiner, Tom Clancy. The book, "Shadow Warriors." Excellent new book, read it. Good work. Thanks for joining us.

STINER: Thank you very much, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks for educating a new generation about special operations forces. Appreciate it.

STINER: Yes.

BLITZER: Just ahead, a look at the shoes. Authorities say Richard Reid was going to use to blow up a plane. We'll be back in just a moment with a quick check of the top story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Today's news alert begins with a look at the shoes authorities say alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid was wearing. The shoes resemble hiking boots with explosives molded to fit inside the soles of the shoes. Reid is accused of trying to ignite the shoes on a Paris-to-Miami flight. New physical evidence is said to tie Reid to a European cell of Osama bin Laden. Reid had a pre-paid phone card when he was arrested. That card has been linked to another phone card found in the apartment of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist arrested in Brussels.

Remember, I want to hear from you. Please go my Web page at cnn.com/wolf. Click on the designation for comments. We'll try to get as many of those comments on the air as we can. And that's all the time we have tonight. I'll be back on Monday twice at both 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern.

And Sunday please join me on "LATE EDITION," among my guests the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and the Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. That's Sunday at noon Eastern. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I am Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

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