Pakistan Taliban Trains Children to be Suicide Bombers
KAYE: Federal prosecutors say he tried to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas day, but Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's lawyer says he is not guilty. The plea was entered Friday in federal court in Detroit. The 23-year-old Nigerian was shackled at the ankles, saying little except that he understood the six-count indictment he faces. The most serious of the charges -- attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction on board northwest airlines flight 253, which was carrying nearly 300 people. A conviction could land him in prison for life. Abdulmutallab's time in Yemen has focused new attention on that Middle East country and its apparent role as a safe haven for members of al Qaeda. U.S. CENTCOM chief, General David Petraeus, recently returned from talks from the president and he spoke with our Christiane Amanpour.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Do you think there needs to be a systemic change to issues such as Yemen, which is so obvious so many people say that the grinding poverty there is such a recruiting tool.</s>GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. CENTCOM COMMANDER: I think that's exactly right. I think really that we have arrived at that conclusion. You think we recognized these are not short-term problems. These are not campaigns where you must take the hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade. These are endeavors that have to be comprehensive in nature and they have to be enduring in their timeframe.</s>KAYE: You can hear much more of that exclusive interview tomorrow on "Amanpour." It is the first meeting with the president since he pledged support in the fight against al Qaeda. That conversation 2:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN. It's like some kind of sick vacation brochure, pictures of paradise on the walls. Children told they could punch their ticket and go after they blow themselves up. CNN's Arwa Damon has more.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Images could not be more disturbing, children being trained by the Pakistani Taliban on military exercises and even more chilling, carrying out executions. How does this happen? How are children brainwashed into taking up the fight for the Taliban? We find some clues just a 15-minute drive from a Pakistani military base in South Waziristan, a volatile area that until recently was a stronghold of the Taliban. (on camera): After three days of fierce fighting, the Pakistani military took over this compound. They say that they knew that it was a training facility of sorts for suicide bombers. They suspected that maybe children were involved. What they didn't know or realize was the level of indoctrination. (voice-over): The military says it learned that the Taliban used this compound to brainwash boys as young as 12 years old, perhaps as many as 300 of them. (on camera): The children were told that images like this is what awaited them in heaven. Here, for example, we're told is a river that symbolizes milk and honey on its banks, virgins and heavenly creatures. (voice-over): This picture shows a home similar to those in this area but set against a lush backdrop. Written across it, "long live the Taliban of the mountains."</s>ZAHID HUSSEIN, TALIBAN EXPERT: But I have never seen this kind of elaborate painting about so-called heaven.</s>DAMON: Zahid Hussein, an expert on the Taliban, has talked with many children who have been in such training centers. He says these images would easily captivate boys in this part of Pakistan. They grow up in abject poverty, surrounded by this harsh landscape with no exposure to the outside world, and they are easily manipulated.</s>HUSSEIN: They tell them look actually this is a waste here, and if you do a good thing, then you will directly go to heaven, immediately go to heaven.</s>DAMON: He says it's a complete distortion of Islam, but one that the children fervently believe. In a phone call with CNN, the Taliban denied this compound was under their control. But it acknowledged it's training children from Pakistan, Afghanistan, central Asia and the Middle East to be suicide bombers. Parents sent their children to this center for the free food and religious education. But the military says the Taliban had other plans for them. LT. COL. YEUS (ph),</s>PAKISTAN MILITARY: These terrorists keep the children at the frontline and mostly the casualties were of children when they were attacking the posts.</s>DAMON: Dozens were killed in this marketplace after a teenager blew himself up in October. Although, there are no statistics on how many suicide attacks are carried out by teens, the government realizes it's a growing problem. Zahid Hussein agrees.</s>HUSSEIN: Almost 90 percent of the suicide bombers, if you look at their profile, they are between the age of 12 to 18.</s>DAMON: Innocent children turned into cold-blooded killers, fooled by fantastic images of paradise. Arwa Damon, CNN, Narwiskot (ph), Pakistan.</s>KAYE: It is heaven for gadget lovers. The latest Smartphones and TVs and other electronic devices, all under one roof in Las Vegas. We'll speak live with an expert to find out what's getting the biggest buzz at the consumer electronics show. And brutal weather coast to coast. 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