Pentagon Confirms 1,500 Taliban Fighters Negotiate Surrender
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you were with us about an hour ago, you heard the daily Pentagon briefing. Our Barbara Starr was in that briefing, and brings us the latest. Barbara, not a lot of nuggets, but still good to have the daily briefing and hear the latest.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. Good morning, Daryn. They briefed us now after the New Year's holiday, and we did learn a few things this morning. As this hunt for Mullah Omar intensifies, the Pentagon is now confirming that some of the 1,500 Taliban fighters, those heavily-armed fighters, are negotiating for their own surrender with the interim government in Kabul. These are the fighters that have been protecting Mullah Omar in this area of the Helmand province, about 120 miles northwest of Kandahar. These fighters, along with Mullah Omar, had escaped Kandahar when it fell several weeks ago. And this time, the Pentagon is making it very clear that the mullah cannot be allowed to escape again.</s>VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: We expect to have control of him, and to go against a little bit of what I was saying earlier, but from what we have seen from reports from the interim government, from anti-Taliban forces, they understand and have said we understand that if we come under control of Omar, he will be turned over to the United States.</s>STARR: The Pentagon also tried to clear up some of this ongoing confusion about that Marine Corps mission, the intelligence gathering mission west of Kandahar. They said again that that mission was not designed specifically to go look for the -- for Mullah Omar. But there are still plenty of concerns in the region. The Pentagon said for the first time that it now believes that some al Qaeda fighters are regrouping inside Afghanistan -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Barbara, also some news on some works in progress, including military tribunals, with all these weeks later still haven't decided how exactly they are going to do that. Also, the preparation of Guantanamo bay.</s>STARR: Right. That is ongoing now. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is coming back to the Pentagon today after the New Year's holiday. He's expected to begin making some key decisions about how those tribunals will be organized and held. And down in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, workers are getting that facility ready. They are working on housing, on detention facilities, fences, water lines, all that sort of thing -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Barbara, thank you, and happy new year to you.</s>STARR: Happy new year.</s>KAGAN: Thank you so much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com