Insights in War Against Terrorism
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: For more insight on today's developments in the U.S. war on terrorism, I am joined now by CNN military analyst, retired Brigadier General David Grange. General Grange, I want to ask you about what we heard from the Pentagon today, saying, essentially, that the war -- the effort to drop bombs and to find out what is in those caves in Eastern Afghanistan is just about at a conclusion. Does that mean they have literally now been to every cave and they are satisfied there is nothing in there?</s>RET. GENERAL DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Judy, I'm not sure how we would know that. From what I understand, so far we have just dropped bombs. So, until we put ground troops on the ground on the site to search out what has been destroyed, I'm not sure we would know that. And from what I hear about the complexity of the cave complex, the depth underground, I would think that we would need do that.</s>WOODRUFF: Well, what do you take it to mean? I'm quoting Rear Admiral Stufflebeem, who said today, the operation there is "coming to a conclusion."</s>GRANGE: Well, it may mean that, from the intelligence that they have received, that they don't believe anybody is in there. But it's just hard for me to imagine that we would make a statement without actually searching out the site, unless we had surrogates search it out, anti-Taliban forces do it for us. But from what I have heard, we have not done that yet.</s>WOODRUFF: So, is this statement perhaps premature?</s>GRANGE: Well, I think it may be. Until you actually search the area out, I don't know how the mission could be complete. So maybe he just means the air phase, the fire support phase of the airstrikes and not the searching of the complex itself. That could be the case.</s>WOODRUFF: Is it your sense that there is still intelligence, still information being gathered that the military believes will prove fruitful in the search for al Qaeda and Taliban leadership?</s>GRANGE: Absolutely. I think this complex that we are talking about right now, which the Soviets called the "Wolf's Hole," a very tough battle they fought years ago in this area -- they have warned us about this area, from the stuff I have read. And I think there's a few more complexes like this in that region. And I think a lot of intelligence will turn up once the searches are completed that will lead us to other strikes within Afghanistan or lead us to other strikes throughout the world. So far, the intelligence that has been picked up has helped us in Singapore. It has aided us in the planning for operations in the Philippines and I think some attacks that were planned in the United States itself. So, it would be very prudent to keep the pressure on, and search, and gather as much intelligence as possible for at least the immediate future.</s>WOODRUFF: General, I referred a few minutes ago, when I was interviewing Secretary of State Powell, to the lack of security in Afghanistan under the interim leader, Hamid Karzai. Is there anything the U.S. can do to get the country under better control for this man, who the U.S. would like to see succeed, presumably?</s>GRANGE: Well, I think, like the secretary of state, his statement that Karzai is doing everything he can, that's probably true, everything he can do within his power. And until -- I mean, it's hard for him to control some of the outlying regions up by Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat, in fact, the areas in Eastern Afghanistan where you have the bombing going on right now. So he'll need some kind of a force made up of the different ethnic groups, the tribes in the area, that he can deploy to different areas to make peace or follow the will of the country, you may say. Or he's just going to have to convince these other leaders, these warlords, to follow his lead. And I think it's going to be tough. What can we do? We are not going to put more troops on the ground to enforce rule of law. We have our own mission that we are focused on on the al Qaeda and the hard-core Taliban. But somehow we are going to have to help him through advisory capacity, through military aide, possibly, financing and that, so he can do the things he needs to do.</s>WOODRUFF: All right, General David Grange, we thank you again, CNN military analyst. Good to see you, General.</s>GRANGE: Thank you.</s>WOODRUFF: Thank you.</s>GRANGE: You, too. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com