This partial transcript of War on Terror: The Hunt for the Killers from November 29, 2001, was provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. Click here to order the complete transcript.
LAURIE DHUE, HOST: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REAR ADM. JOHN STUFFLEBEEM, PENTAGON SPOKESPERSON: It's very difficult then to assess. If opposition groups from the north were to decide to make a move on the city of Kandahar and the potential for how that might be received by Pashtun opposition groups from the south is obviously a problem that we all have to work through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DHUE: Admiral John Stufflebeem earlier today.
Well, the Northern Alliance says it is making a move on the Taliban's last stronghold, its birthplace and headquarters, Kandahar, as we've been reporting tonight. But this is a move that possibly could create some friction with Pashtun anti-Taliban forces in the south. As the Northern Alliance pushes south, are they pushing their luck?
Well, joining us now from Washington is Northern Alliance spokesman Haron Amin.
Hi, Haron. Thanks for being here.
HARON AMIN, NORTHERN ALLIANCE SPOKESMAN: Hi, Laurie. How are you?
DHUE: All right, we've been -- we've been reporting all night unconfirmed reports that the Northern Alliance is advancing on Kandahar. Can you confirm this for us?
AMIN: Yes. I can confirm that our forces have entered the eastern flanks of the city. And Mulahan Kibula (ph), who was there before the Taliban -- he is a local Pashtun who used to work with us in the past, and he has armed himself, as well as his men, and he's moving from the eastern part of the city, as well as the Karzites (ph) from the north.
DHUE: OK, but has the Northern Alliance actually taken control of Kandahar yet?
AMIN: Not fully.
DHUE: OK.
AMIN: They have enter the city, yes.
DHUE: OK. And when this happens -- and presumably, we can assume the Northern Alliance is taking over -- this was the last remaining Taliban stronghold, so symbolically and also not symbolically, this is huge, isn't it?
AMIN: Of course it'll be huge because that is the birthplace of the Taliban, the place where (INAUDIBLE) rose to the occasion, and where he's going to -- hopefully, his campaign is going to end.
DHUE: All right. In the last interview, I talked with the Major General Vallely about these alleged Northern Alliance atrocities committed against Taliban soldiers who had turned themselves in. Now, there were reports that some of these Taliban soldiers who surrendered themselves were executed and that some were found with their hands tied behind their backs. Can you confirm this? Do you think that this is likely the work of the Northern Alliance?
AMIN: Well, Laurie, remember that even in Kunduz, when the Taliban wanted to defect, it was Al Qaeda members who turned against them and killed a lot of them. The same thing happened in the prison. You had some members of the Taliban -- remember that the campaign -- that the whole defection happened such that we had to sort out between those domestic Taliban versus Al Qaeda people. And as we were doing that, that's when they engaged in blowing themselves up and, you know, double crossing us. And then the fighting raged on.
DHUE: OK. OK, so does the Northern Alliance condemn these kind of attacks?
AMIN: Of course. We have said that this is against Geneva conventions, that we were not involved. Who is to -- who's to say that the Taliban, the Al Qaeda people, did not do this? There are reports right now that are saying that it was a lot of the Al Qaeda people may have done this. But certainly, on our end, we can tell you that that's not our people.
DHUE: All right. We're hearing it from you first. OK, let's move on and talk about Usama bin Laden himself. What would the Northern Alliance do if they captured Usama bin Laden? Would they execute him, put him on trial, hand him over to the Americans?
AMIN: Well, I think that what needs to happen is Usama bin Laden needs to be brought to justice, and he needs to answer to all of the crimes that he's committed over the years against the people of Afghanistan. And beyond that, he's also responsible for the attacks against the United States, against people of the international community.
So I think there needs to be a joint venture on this, and I think that when it comes at the end, we're all going to work together on this to make sure that he's going to receive the kind of justice that would deemed necessary for him by everyone who has suffered because of Usama bin Laden.
DHUE: All right, Haron, we've gotten word~ that Ahmed Abdel Rahman was captured today by the Northern Alliance. He is the son of the man -- one of the people responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. Will the Northern Alliance hand him over to an international authority or the U.S. for questioning?
AMIN: Well, the questioning, Laurie, has already started, and some of the interrogators in the whole interrogation session have been Americans. So we are working on that already.
DHUE: All right, let's talk about the future, shall we? Various Afghan factions have been meeting, as you know, in Bonn, Germany, for the last few days. Now, yesterday the Northern Alliance said they would not permit any kind of international peacekeeping force. But today we're hearing the Northern Alliance will accept that. Why the change of heart? And are there any conditions being put on that?
AMIN: Well, there are no conditions. I think that initially, when Brahimi spoke about deployment of some sort of a security force, in order of preference, he said, number one, an all-Afghan security force. Number two, a multi-national force. Number three, United Nations peacekeeping force. I think that the first option was not fully scrutinized and fully assessed before the second option was so much adamantly requested.
The idea is that there is no opposition to the international -- to the multi-national force. I think that two things need to be put in perspective. Number one, how long, how many people are going in which part of Afghanistan. And number two, what's the objective? Are they going to be going there specifically for humanitarian, or is it going to be security? Is it going to be that?
These were the issues that were not made clear from the very start. But ultimately, we were in total harmony with that, with the United Nations. We just wanted to get the clarification.
DHUE: All right. Well, thank you for clarifying that. And thank you so much for joining us tonight. We always appreciate you coming on Fox.
AMIN: Thank you, Laurie.
DHUE: Haron Amin. Thanks very much.
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