09 December 2001
Transcript: Gen. Myers Says U.S. Will Follow al Qaeda Leaders Wherever They Go
(Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman interviewed on CBS's "Face the
Nation") (2420)
If Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the al Qaeda terrorist
organization leave Afghanistan, U.S. forces will follow them "wherever
they go," says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers.
General Myers, interviewed December 9 on the CBS television program
"Face the Nation," said "we hope the message is clear to those that
harbor terrorists, that this is not a strategy that's going to pay
dividends in the long run." One of the lessons of the first military
phase of the war on terrorism is that "if you want to harbor
terrorists, there will be consequences," Myers said.
Following is a transcript of the interview:
(begin transcript)
United States Department of Defense
NEWS TRANSCRIPT
Presenter: Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
December 9, 2001
(Interview with Bob Schieffer and Gloria Borger, Face the Nation,
CBS-TV)
Schieffer: Good morning again. And with us here in the studio, General
Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. General Myers, thank you
very much. It's a pleasure to have you here this morning.
Myers: Good morning, Bob. Nice to be here. Thank you.
Schieffer: Mohammad Amin, who says he speaks for the anti-Taliban
forces in Afghanistan, reports this morning that Osama bin Laden
himself has taken command of a force of a thousand men in the eastern
region of Afghanistan. Do you put any credibility in that?
Myers: Well, you know, coming up with the ground truth in Afghanistan
has always been difficult. And previous statements by the Taliban, I
think we've -- have been discredited over time. So you've got to be
very careful with assuming what they say is the truth. But clearly our
objectives have not -- we have not strayed from our objectives of
eradicating the al Qaeda network -- not just in Afghanistan but
worldwide, and also ensuring that the Taliban are not effective in
harboring terrorists there in Afghanistan.
Schieffer: Well, do you -- what is your latest information on where
Osama bin Laden is?
Myers: Well, let me just caution again that it's -- bin Laden is not
-- not the target, it is the network, his al Qaeda network. Clearly,
he's part of that network, but he's not the sole target. And as I've
said many times, if we capture bin Laden this afternoon our time,
things will not be over. This is going to be -- our mission is to
destroy the whole network. Our latest information is, and has been for
some time, that he is in this area, the so-called Tora Bora area, and
they're in the hills with some other al Qaeda fighters, and they are
fighting fiercely against opposition forces, some of our forces, and
some of our air -- air attacks, trying to survive.
MS. GLORIA BORGER: Well, there are reports this morning that U.S.
planes are joining these Afghan fighters in hunting for Osama bin
Laden, literally in the woods. Can you confirm that then?
Myers: Well, we've -- for a long time, we've been working with the
opposition groups, and there are opposition groups right now that are
working in the Tora Bora area. Very fierce fighting. They are fighting
against the al Qaeda, we know that. We know that the al Qaeda forces
are relatively large in number just because of the ferocity of the
fighting. And we are supporting them, like we have supported the
opposition groups in the north and in the south.
Borger: What about the reports that he may have fled to Pakistan?
Myers: Well, I think we will continue to get reports like that. That
border is a longer border. There are many ways to get across it,
either on foot, vehicular traffic as well. And we've gotten help from
the Pakistani military to try to prevent that. And we're trying to
prevent that as well. The thought that we can do that with 100 percent
surety, of course, would not be right. There's a -- there is always
that chance. But as I have said before, if he does leave Afghanistan,
he'll be in the second most favorite country. He's obviously very --
he has been very comfortable in Afghanistan; as the support wanes for
him there, then he may want to leave. If he does, we're going to
follow him and his -- the rest of his leadership wherever they go.
Schieffer: Well, what you're saying is he's going to have a hard time
finding a home someplace else?
Myers: Well, I think it's harder and harder. I think the message
probably -- we hope the message is clear to those that harbor
terrorists, that this is not a strategy that's going to pay dividends
in the long run. And that's certainly one of the lessons of this first
phase, the first military phase of our war on terrorism, that if you
want to harbor terrorists, there will be consequences.
Schieffer: Do you, General, feel that you have now broken the back of
the Taliban? Are they still a fighting force of any significance?
Myers: Well, again, we think we've made some progress. We think that
obviously politically they're not much of a force. Whether we have
broken the back yet, I think probably too early to say that, although
we've come -- we're coming pretty -- we're coming closer day by day.
They're certainly in disarray. For some time, they've had trouble
marshaling their forces in a way that has been significant -- although
there are a lot of Taliban fighters left, both --
Schieffer: Let me just interrupt you here, because I've just been told
something, and this is bulletin material. I've just been told that one
of the wire services has moved a report that British forces -- if I'm
understanding -- correct me back there if I've got this wrong -- that
British forces say they have captured Osama -- No? I see. All right.
Take back the bulletin. The wire says that British forces say IF they
capture Osama bin Laden, they will only turn him over to the United
States if they are assured that he will not face the death penalty. Do
you know anything about that, General?
Myers: No, I've never heard that before. And, of course, we've
consistently said we want to bring the al Qaeda leadership to justice.
And -- and I don't think anything has been ruled out at this point.
Borger: Well, do you want to try Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar
because you want a certain outcome? Would you prefer that than saying
having the Afghans try them?
Myers: Well, I think, that's -- that's clearly not a military
decision. Our job is to find them, to -- our mission remains
consistent to try to find all the leadership, and to get the
intelligence we can get. This network is very, very large. It's not
just Afghanistan. As we've said many times, the leadership is in over
-- al Qaeda is in over 60 countries, to include this country. So, the
first step is to get the leadership; second step is to decide what to
do with them. But certainly the United States wants to be involved in
that.
Schieffer: General, the Washington Post reported this morning, other
news agencies including CBS News' Pentagon correspondent, David
Martin, have also confirmed that there is some sort of videotape that
has been captured by the United States, and it shows Osama bin Laden
talking about the attacks on the Trade Towers, and at one point even
says that he says, "Oh, it's better than we thought it was going to
be" -- or words to that effect. Have you seen that tape? Can you tell
us anything about it?
Myers: I have seen segments of that tape, some of which weren't
completely translated. And I think that work, since I have seen the
tape, has been ongoing to see what intelligence we can glean from the
tape. And then I know that the national command authorities are
discussing the tape and its intelligence value and whether or not to
release it.
Schieffer: Now, David Martin says one reason that it has not been
released is that there was some concern it might contain signals --
that it might have been used to signal Osama bin Laden's people of
something or other. Do you know anything about that?
Myers: I would just leave that to the intelligence folks. I don't -- I
would rather not speculate on that. I don't know that for a fact.
Borger: Can you tell us, though, what was Osama bin Laden's demeanor
on this tape? How would you describe it?
Myers: I'm almost afraid to go into that too much, but I will use a
couple of words. He was relaxed. And let me just -- it was a -- it was
obviously -- from my view anyway, the few segments that I saw, it was
a private -- he was conducting it like it was a private conversation.
Schieffer: Talk about his demeanor in general. This is a man who was
very happy to send young people on suicide missions, yet he seems to
have gone in hiding when the tough got going -- when the going got
tough. What kind of a commander do you think he is?
Myers: Well, he certainly wouldn't qualify for a command of any U.S.
unit, you know. We want our leaders to be out front, and they have
been. And, he does not appear to be that kind of leader. He's one that
prefers that others do the fighting and he does the rhetoric piece of
that. And so I would say it's pretty poor commandership from our
viewpoint.
Schieffer: What's the state of things in the city of Kandahar right
now?
Myers: Still a lot of confusion. You know, there are reports that the
Taliban control there has broken down. We think it has to a great
extent, but there is still a lot of confusion and there probably will
be for several days to come. It's that -- that is, it's not over
there. There is still a substantial number of Taliban fighters there,
to include foreign fighters fighting for the Taliban. And our -- our
main purpose right now, our main goal is to ensure that any of the
foreign fighters or Taliban that try to escape, that we can interdict
them and capture those we want and interrogate them and so forth. And
that's one of the main missions that our U.S. Marines have that are in
the vicinity of Kandahar right now.
Borger: Would you say that it's pretty chaotic right there on the
ground now, and dangerous?
Myers: Oh, it's absolutely -- well, that's -- you can almost say that
about the entire country, but certainly in the Kandahar region it's
very chaotic, it's very dangerous.
Schieffer: It's my understanding that some fairly senior Taliban
people were arrested or have been taken into custody, some ministers,
some generals. Have U.S. forces had access to them as yet?
Myers: In some cases, yet, and in some case, not yet. But we're
working that as we speak. Obviously, we want access to these people.
Some of these people we want to interrogate for the intelligence
benefit that we'll gain from that, and some we may want to keep. So,
we're working that issue as we speak.
Borger: Can we talk a little bit about John Walker, the American who
is now in your custody, who fought with the Taliban? Do you believe
that he committed treason?
Myers: Well, I think it's too early to say exactly what he did. We
know he was with the Taliban. He was the last -- with the last group
of fighters in Mazar-e-Sharif. We know he was armed. Right now, he is
in the control of the United States. He is at this forward-operating
base that we call "Rhino." He's with -- under the control of the U.S.
Marines. He's been given medical care. And we're treating him as if he
would come under the Geneva Convention, although we have not declared
that he is a prisoner of war yet. He is a detainee, officially. And
we're trying to give him all the care and the rights that he would
have if he were. And his final disposition, or the next step is still
-- is still being debated.
Borger: Are you debriefing him now? And is he cooperating?
Myers: We are debriefing him. Obviously, he would have some -- some
information that would be of great intelligence value that might help
protect our troops that are engaged there, and our coalition partners
that are engaged there. And that's exactly what we're looking for,
Gloria.
Schieffer: Well, is he cooperating?
Myers: He has been -- as I understand it, he has been reasonably
cooperative and talkative.
Schieffer: General, in the beginning people talked a lot about with
winter coming on that literally hundreds of thousand of people could
starve in Afghanistan. We haven't heard much about that lately? What
is the situation there? And what will the United States do about that?
Myers: Well, I'm not the expert on -- and I don't think the military
is the expert on that. But early on in this campaign, it was General
Franks who said, you know, as we start the campaign in Afghanistan,
we've got to help with the humanitarian piece of that. And so, you
know, very early on, right after the initial bombings, we started
dropping the humanitarian rations. That continues today. That's being
evaluated. It looks like this bridge down from Uzbekistan will open
shortly, if it hasn't already, so we can start using ground
transportation to bring in that sort of supplies. I would say the
situation, in my -- in my understanding of it, is still dire in some
parts of the country, and it's something that we have to, and have
been from the beginning, continue to work. It's a very important part
of our strategy.
Schieffer: General, I want to thank you very much. It's a pleasure to
have you, and good luck down the road. I hope you will come back.
Myers: Bob, thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity.
Absolutely.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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