Fox News Network October 1, 2001 Monday (17:32)
War on Terror
BYLINE: John Gibson, Terry Keenan, Heather Nauert, Andrew Napolitano
GIBSON: Osama bin Laden could be anywhere hiding out in the mountains of Afghanistan. So, how do we track him down and punish him for the deadliest terror attacks ever on U.S. soil? We'll ask a leading defense and intelligence expert. Keep it right here on the Fox News channel, the network America trusts for fair and balanced news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIBSON: As America and its allies go after the elusive Osama bin Laden, the military is putting a lot of money into intelligence gathering, hoping spy planes and satellites will help pinpoint bin Laden's location and help us destroy his terrorism network.
For more on that now, let's go to John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a national security consulting firm.
So, John, we have been talking since September 11th about how badly we need human intelligence and people on the ground and local people and so forth. But what can our eyes in the sky still give us, and what are they giving us at this moment?
JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: Well, they are obviously going to be extraordinarily important because if you were to send in a Delta team to try to, say, capture Osama bin Laden or one of his leading lieutenants, you are going to want to make sure that when those guys drop down out of their helicopters they know exactly where every building is, where every vehicle is, and they have been able to rehearse that mission even a few hours before they actually land there.
So, imagery intelligence satellites to get a handle on where all the camps are, Predator unmanned air vehicles than can use television cameras to tell you whether the camp is occupied. All of that is going to be very important for supporting the collection of human intelligence that you would get from local warlords that want to go over to the Northern Alliance or local commandos that Delta teams might be able to capture.
Afghanistan
Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite one-meter resolution image of the Darunta terrorist training complex in Afghanistan. |
PIKE: It is actually about 100 times better.
GIBSON: ... OK, considerably better. But what 100 times better is going to tell us those camps are empty. How do determine where these people actually are?
PIKE: Well, I think that one of the very important things to understand is that the problem is not simply Osama bin Laden. The problem is the organization that he has been able to organize, train, and equip in Afghanistan.
But if you go back to the classical theorists of guerrilla warfare, Mao Zedong or Che Guevara, the first requirement for a guerrilla campaign is that you have to have a liberated zone that you can operate from. And that's basically what bin Laden and similar groups have obtained in Afghanistan at camps like this one and others. And as long as these camps stay empty, they may be on the run. But they're not able to organize for additional attacks.
And eventually they're going to have to come back into these camps. And then we will get them.
GIBSON: John, what about this is going to move this a little forward a bit? What can our eyes in the sky tell us about what's in a certain building that we suspect might be used to develop biological weapons or chemical weapons? What can satellite imaginary say about a building that's got a roof on it?
PIKE: Well, right now it is not clear. Recently, the Central Intelligence Agency built a dummy biological warfare laboratory out at the Nevada test site precisely to test new technologies, so-called hyper- spectral imagery, that might be able to detect the trace chemicals that are leaking out of a building like that.
Was that test successful? That information is classified. But this is really the cutting edge of detection technology to try to figure out what is going on in a building by detecting things that are leaking out of it.
GIBSON: John, there's a picture on the screen. I'm going to ask them to put it back up. It shows soldiers marching and a vehicle. And you said a minute ago that our military commanders have imagery that's 100 times or so better than this.
PIKE: Right.
GIBSON: If you can see people at 100 times plus, can you see who those people are?
PIKE: Well, you may not be able to see who they are, but certainly with the Predator unmanned air vehicle with a television camera, you would be able to tell the difference between a group of refugees walking along the road and a group of commandos. And that's exactly the sort of real- time intelligence that American special operations forces flying in from helicopters would need to know, whether this is a commando camp that's being reactivated or simply some refugees trying to find a place to sleep at night.
GIBSON: John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a national security consulting firm. Thanks a lot.
PIKE: Thank you.
GIBSON: John, we'll talk to you later.
When we come back, it is "My Word." And today, "My Word" is on bio- terrorism and the chance we could be facing a bio-bomb. That means disease. And we'll take your words, your e-mail on this terrible couple, three, four terror attacks.
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