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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

U.S. Help Former Soviet Republic Fight Terror; U.S. Asks bin Laden's Family for Help; Pakistani Police Warned Not to Investigate Pearl's Death

Aired February 27, 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, HOST: Tonight on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: THE WAR ROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So long as there's al Qaeda influence anywhere, we will help the host countries route them out and bring them to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A former Soviet republic gets U.S. help for its terror problem. The U.S. asks for help from Osama bin Laden's family, seeking to learn if he's dead or alive. And Pakistani police are warned not to help the U.S. in the Daniel Pearl case.

We will go to the Pentagon and Afghanistan, and I'll speak live with Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby and Jane Harman of the House Intelligence Committee as we go into the WAR ROOM.

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Washington. We have some breaking news we are following right now out of San Diego. Two San Diego television stations are reporting that the body of a child has now been found in a California desert. According to those reports a search team looking for Danielle van Dam found remains in El Cajon, that's near San Diego.

Yesterday, Danielle van Dam's neighbor, David Westerfield, a 50- year-old man was charged with her kidnapping and murder. We will continue to follow this breaking news story from San Diego throughout this program, throughout the evening here on CNN. Stay with CNN for all the late breaking developments, but once again a body of a child has been found in the desert outside of San Diego, two San Diego television stations reporting that might be the body of little 7-year- old Danielle van Dam.

We will have more on the story as it becomes available, but turning now to the U.S. war against terrorism. Once part of the mighty Soviet Union, the Republic of Georgia has its hands full fighting terrorists in a rugged border region, but help will soon be on the way as U.S. special forces bring anti-terrorism expertise right to Russian's back yard.

For more on this development, this latest front in the battle against terror, let's go live to our military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre, he's over at the Pentagon -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Pentagon sources tell CNN that the Pentagon is very close to approving a plan that would send up to 200 U.S. Air Force and Army special forces to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia to assist in training. But the Pentagon also says that these troops would not be involved in direct combat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Pentagon sources say the U.S. plans to send between 45 and 200 U.S. Army and Air Force special forces to Georgia in the next few weeks, to provide training and equipment to Georgian forces battling Chechen guerrillas. The U.S. says some of those Chechen guerrillas have been joined by al Qaeda fighters who traveled from Afghanistan both before and after September 11.

BUSH: So long as there's al Qaeda influence anywhere, we will hope the host countries route them out and bring them justice.

MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze asked for the American military trainers, when he met with President Bush last year. And that with both governments in agreement the Pentagon is likely to approve the mission within two weeks.

The U.S. already has some 600 troops in the Philippines, helping government forces battle the rebel group Abu Sayyaf. But the Pentagon says plans for Georgia are different.

VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: As we said all along, it is such an unconventional war, and we will do different things in different parts of the world depending on the circumstances.

MCINTYRE: In the Philippines U.S. special forces often operate close to the frontlines. In Georgia the troops would remain near the capital of Tbilisi, far from the battle zone in the Pangeuzie (ph) Gorge where some al Qaeda fighters are believed to have joined Chechen rebels.

Late last year the U.S. delivered 10 unarmed Huey helicopters to Georgia to give their forces more mobility, it's all considered part of the anti-terrorism war effort.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we help our friends increase their own security capability, we are helping them in the global war on terrorism and against other internal threats they may have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Keeping U.S. troops out of direct combat in Georgia is a nod to Russia, which while a key ally in the war against terrorism has also publicly objected to U.S. military involvement in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. And the next front in this war on terrorism may be Yemen, another country that sources say has requested and will likely soon receive U.S. military trainers -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie, switching gears dramatic development today, the U.S. now formally asking Osama bin Laden's family for DNA samples. Fill us in.

MCINTYRE: Well, this is being handled very delicately, U.S. agency approaching an agency of another unnamed government were given to believe that government is Saudi Arabia where members of bin Laden's family still reside, members who have renounced him. The U.S. would like to get a DNA sample to compare it to samples that were collected from the sight of a CIA missile strike on February 4 near Zawair Kili where it was initially believed it was possible bin Laden might have been killed, now the working assumption is that bin Laden is still alive elsewhere in Afghanistan. But that DNA match would allow the United States to rule out bin Laden for sure in that strike -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre over at the Pentagon. Thank you very much for that report. Meanwhile, the State Department today announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Daniel Pearl's killers. The key suspect in the case is in Pakistani custody, but the U.S. wants him extradited and as CNN's Chris Burns reports from Karachi, that has stirred passions in Pakistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The office under threat, where police sources say the key suspect in Daniel Pearl's kidnapping was questioned by investigators. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man who admits he was behind the plot, and who U.S. President Bush says he would like to get his hands on. The anonymous caller demanded officials halt any extradition proceedings against Sheikh Omar or face attack; a bombing or rocket strike on the investigators office, causing authorities to boost their security.

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin is in Karachi to visit U.S. and Pakistani investigators. The chances of extradition?

WENDY CHAMBERLIN, U.S. AMB. TO PAKISTAN: That's one of the conditions that I think is going play out as this investigation proceeds.

BURNS: Chamberlin met the day before with President Pervez Musharraf about Sheikh Omar's possible extradition. The ambassador said she was -- quote -- "Not disappointed by General Musharraf's response." "The New York Times" reports Musharraf agreed in principle to the extradition, but on a number of conditions. Conditions which official say include completing the investigation in the Pearl case, and possibly trying Sheikh Omar first in Pakistan. A quick extradition could further complicate things politically for Musharraf who's already got his hands full in his month old crack down on militant groups. He's also reportedly trying to rid his intelligence agency, the ISI, of agents who supported some of the militants in Afghanistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir. Sentiments run strong on the streets of Karachi not to extradite Sheikh Omar, not to cave in to the American requests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have our own judicial system in Pakistan, and I think there's no need to extradite him to America.

"If he was extradited to America there would be a negative impact," he says.

"I don't believe he did it," says another.

Some are supportive of Musharraf. "Better leave it to the government," says this man, "whatever Musharraf decides is OK."

(on camera): Whatever General Musharraf ultimately decides, analysts say he will have to take into consideration not only the American request, but how an extradition could play at home, whether it could undermine public support for him at a crucial time.

Chris Burns, CNN, Karachi, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And we will have more from the region on "LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN WITH NIC ROBERTSON." That's in about 50 minutes from now, top of the hour, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. on the West Coast.

So is the ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia the next front in the U.S. war on terror? And can DNA detective work determine if Osama bin Laden is dead or alive?

Joining me here in the CNN WAR ROOM, Senator Richard Shelby, he's the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, retired General Wesley Clark, he is the former supreme allied commander of NATO, and Representative Jane Harman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Remember, you can e-mail your WAR ROOM questions, got to my Web page cnn.com/wolf. That is also where you can read my daily on-line column.

Let me begin with you, Senator Shelby, on Osama bin Laden and the request for DNA from an Osama bin Laden family representative, what's that all about?

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: Well, what we are trying to do is find out if there's remains, where we did some bombing, that could be linked to Osama bin Laden. I think it's very logical. We haven't seen him. I personally believe he's alive and I have said on this program, I will believe that he's alive until we have a forensic evidence to the contrary.

BLITZER: Is it within the realm of that possibility that that tall individual with the white robe that was apparently killed in that Predator CIA Hellfire missile strike was Osama bin Laden?

SHELBY: I don't know about the situation. I know about the situation, I don't know if that fits the possibility of killing Osama bin Laden. We thought earlier it might, but we need to know if Osama bin Laden -- of any of the remains are his or not, and we can find out through DNA testing.

BLITZER: Representative Harman, what do you know about all of this?

REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, I think DNA testing is very reliable. We found that out recently in terms of test of prisoners on death row who turned out not to do the crime. So I think we should do it.

If we find his remains, that would be terrific. If we don't find his remains, I think two things. First of all, we should continue to pursue him. But second of all, we have to keep our eye on the ball which is to protect Americans here and abroad against a second wave of attacks. And that's, I hope, what everyone is still doing. And I have some questions about expanding our efforts into Georgia for this reason, because I think most of our attention and resources has to be spent on making certain there's not a second wave of attacks against America.

BLITZER: Well, we are going to get to the whole issue of expanding the war on terrorism. Moving into the former Soviet republic of Georgia now. We heard from Jamie McIntyre (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in just a moment.

But as far as whether or not Osama bin Laden is alive or dead or where he might be, when we hear top administration officials say they don't know, is that what they're telling you as well, a member of the House Intelligence Committee?

HARMAN: They don't know. This is a tough thing. We looked for him for years before September 11. Now we're looking for him under a microscope. We have our best talent on the case and the best international talent. And it's very hard to find him, as tall as he. Hopefully, he may be in those remains in Afghanistan. That would be great news. But if not, we will keep doing this, consistent with our primary objective which is to protect our country against a second wave.

SHELBY: Let's don't bet the house, though, that we will connect the remains with his DNA, but it is worth pursuing. I believe myself still that he's alive because he's a survivor, and ultimately we will get him because I've said we are after him. He's big time and he's the No. 1 wanted person in the world.

BLITZER: And I know, General Clark, you believe that if he were dead, we would know it by now.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think that's exactly right and I think the family is the key. I think his family or the wives' families. He has several wives. Someone would know it and someone would be talking about it and that's why I think the best way to catch him alive is to work with the families.

BLITZER: How do you feel? You're the former NATO -- supreme allied commander of NATO -- about the U.S. now moving into Russia's backyard with military support for Georgia, the former Soviet republic. The Russian foreign minister was not very happy or even saying today that when it comes to the possible appearance of American military in Georgia, from our point of view, meaning Russia's, it might cause further complications to an already difficult situation in that region.

CLARK: Well, Russia has been fishing in troubled waters in Georgia for a decade, and so I'm not surprised by the Russian reaction. I have a lot of sympathy for Georgia and I'm delighted to see us being able to do a little more concretely to assist Shevardnadze, but like all efforts like this, we have to know what the objective is. We have got to make sure we have got the resources and the training and the funding and it's all lined up in a way that we get our part of that mission done the way we want.

BLITZER: All right. Representative Harman, I want you to listen to what General Peter Pace from the Pentagon said earlier today about this new mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS VICE CHAIRMAN: Georgia right now is very much the two things I've told you about, one is the helicopters and two is working with that government to see if there's training and equipment that we can do within that will will assist them to become more proficient inside their own borders with their own security forces to take care of their own problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: If there are al Qaeda operatives in Georgia and the government of President Shevardnadze asks the Bush administration for help, what's wrong with that?

HARMAN: Nothingm, provided that we have clearly defined objectives. You know, as a member of the Vietnam generation, I think we forgot that, a generation ago. And we need to know why we're going in, exactly what we are going to do and when we are leaving. And then what happens if five other countries in the region ask for the same thing and we are short on resources and our primary objective which is to protect America against a second wave of attacks gets put on the shelf. I think that's a very dangerous outcome.

SHELBY: I think we can best protect America by destroying the enemy wherever they are. And the enemy in this case is obviously trying to reassemble and I'm sure that a lot of them have been traced all the way back to Chechnya, which is in the neighborhood of Georgia, and Georgia itself. We've got to rid ourself of the enemy.

BLITZER: But you can't really blame the government of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for being concerned about the U.S. moving right into the Russian backyard. SHELBY: Well, they've got problems of their own with the Chechans. They probably see the geographic implication of that from a military standpoint.

BLITZER: From a military standpoint, is the U.S. military getting stretched too thin now getting involved in the hunt for terrorists all over the world?

CLARK: Wolf, I don't think so. But I do have to question why Russia would be concerned. I mean, we are supposedly working together on this. We are allies, aren't we? And we said we were going to cooperate and wouldn't they want us to help them in this way? And the answer is no because it's not only about the fight against terrorism. It's their own struggle to regain their empire and control formerly- Soviet Georgia.

So I think what we have to see in this operation is this is an effort to forestall more dangerous and difficult Russian unilateral actions directed inside Georgia and possibly against Georgia.

BLITZER: All right. We are going to take a quick break. We have a lot more to talk about.

And when we come back, will the United States get its hands on the key suspect in the Daniel Pearl case? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN WAR ROOM.

The United States has posted a reward of up to $5 million in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping murder case, but it may have trouble getting custody of a key suspect already who is under arrest.

Joining us once again, Senator Shelby, Representative Harman, General Clark. Senator Shelby, should Pakistan hand over this suspect in the Daniel Pearl case to the United States?

SHELBY: Well, I would like to see it, see the suspect handed over because I believe that they would get a fair trial, but I believe justice would be done. What I worry about is justice not being done in Pakistan, but they could do it there.

If they did it there, if they tried the suspects there and justice was done, that's one thing. But it is a precarious political situation for Pakistan.

BLITZER: The conventional wisdom, Congresswoman, is that President Musharraf is doing everything he can, but he has political problems and handing over Omar Saeed Sheikh, the chief suspect, could undermine his position within Pakistan.

HARMAN: I think extradition is a little tricky. First of all, I think we need to find Daniel Pearl's body. In terms of closure for the family, that's critical. And he and a number of others are -- need to be interrogated there and need to lead Pakistani officials to the body. I hope we do that first.

But there is no current extradition treaty with Pakistan. There is an old 1931 treaty that applies to the territory that became Pakistan, but if that's invoked, then apparently, India might ask for extradition of 20 people imprisoned in Pakistan, and the thing might get very muddy.

If Pakistan can demonstrate that they will quickly and swiftly try the suspects and that there will be a resolution that is appropriate -- and Pakistani law provides for this -- I think we should at least consider whether that might be a better outcome and leave things, other things untrammeled.

BLITZER: Elements within Pakistani military intelligence worked to created the Taliban and al Qaeda. There's a close former relationship that may still exist, at least in part.

CLARK: Well, we think it does still exist in part, and that there are still people inside that Inner Services Intelligence unit that are disloyal to Musharraf. But he's been very, very creative in using opportunities like this to let his own domestic opposition surface, and then he strikes out against them and eliminates them.

So I think this is an action he could take, this extradition, he could take it, and it might be wise to do so. It would give him one more opportunity to strengthen his own end on his armed forces.

BLITZER: Senator Shelby, an unprecedented Gallup poll just conducted in major parts of the Muslim world showed very negative feelings about the United States. Look at these numbers here. We will put them on the screen. U.S. military action in Afghanistan. "Is it morally unjustified?" Look at this, Indonesia, 89 percent say yes. Morocco, 86 percent. Pakistan, 80 percent. Even Kuwait, a country the United States helped liberate from the Iraqis, 69 percent. And in Turkey, which is a NATO ally, 59 percent say U.S. military action in Afghanistan is unjustified.

SHELBY: I'm not shocked, considering everything, considering where these polls were taken and the people involved. I think they're basically in denial, but it also points out that we've got a real problem in the Muslim world.

BLITZER: It does point out that there's a failure, that the United States has not at least convinced a lot of people, a billion Muslims out there, that the United States is in the right.

HARMAN: We are not reaching the hearts and minds. We need to do a lot more. It was interesting to me traveling recently in Damascus, Syria to see cable dishes on every house. I asked, "are they watching Wolf on CNN?" I'm shilling for you in Syria. The answer is no, all they watch is Al Jazeera, where they get fed a daily diet of lies about what's going on. It's not surprising that the television they watch persuades them to the wrong conclusions, and I just hope we can do better penetrating these countries and making sure that accurate information is heard in these countries.

BLITZER: Can the United States do better?

CLARK: Well, I think we can, but we can't carry this by ourselves. We have got to have these countries, our allies, our friends, they got to carry the message for us. And one of the ways we do that is to bring in international law, and go back to that old institution that we started, the United Nations. And we've got to ask ourselves, have we done everything we can do to bring the full heat of the United Nations and that body, the Security Council and the General Assembly, down on Osama bin Laden? Have we used international law to the fullest possible extent? Because these are the ways we get other governments carry our message.

BLITZER: I'm afraid you're going to have disagreements on those last two points you made, but we will leave that for another show. There are some people in the United States who don't have confidence in international law or the United Nations. We will leave that for another program.

General Clark, thanks for joining us. Congresswoman Harman, Senator Shelby, always a pleasure.

And don't miss the CNN WAR ROOM tomorrow night, the compelling new motion picture about the Vietnam War, "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson is out in theaters this weekend. I'll speak with the director, Randall Wallace, and the story's co-authors Lieutenant General Hal Moore and former war correspondent Joe Galloway. That's tomorrow night here in the CNN WAR ROOM, 7:00 Eastern.

And remember, I want to hear from you. Please go my Web page, CNN.com/wolf, click on the designation for comments. I'll read them, all of them, I promise you. Send me your comments.

Coming up, late developments which may -- may relate to the case of a missing 7-year-old California girl. And the apparent remains of the child have been found in a desert near San Diego. We will be back in just a moment with a quick check of this breaking news story. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We are following a breaking development out of San Diego right now. A spokesman for the San Diego Sheriffs office tells CNN they believe they have found the body of Danielle van Dam, the little 7-year-old girl kidnapped, but they could not confirm it. Authorities hunting for the body of the 7-year-old have found what are remains of a body in the desert. We will continue to follow this story throughout the evening here on CNN. Stay with us for all the late breaking developments.

And that's all the time we have tonight. Please join me again tomorrow, twice at both 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "CROSSFIRE" begins right now.

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