Skip to main content
CNN.com /transcript

CNN TV

EDITIONS
SERVICES
CNN TV
EDITIONS

CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

America's New War: Taliban Government

Aired September 20, 2001 - 06:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to an expert here on the Taliban. His name is Professor Fred Halliday. He is with the London School of Economics and a professor in international relations -- the Middle East as well as Afghanistan.

Good morning, Professor Halliday.

We are just getting breaking news this morning...

FRED HALLIDAY, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Good morning, Carol.

LIN: ... good morning. We are just getting breaking news this morning out of Afghanistan that the decision by these scholars, these clerics -- these religious clerics to basically allow Osama bin Laden to pick his timing and invite him to leave the country. They are saying that if the United States wages attacks on Afghanistan, the Taliban will wage what they're calling a Jihad, a holy war.

Can you define that for us? What exactly is a holy war, and how threatening is it specifically to Americans right now?

HALLIDAY: Well, the concept of holy war exists in all of the three great religions in the Middle East -- in Judaism, in Christianity and Islam. If you look for the Jewish and Christian traditions in the "Book of Deuteronomy" or the "Book of Judges," you will see a lot about holy war, including killing civilians, wiping people out if it's justified. And Islam, which is the last of these religions, took this concept over.

The idea of Jihad, it literally means "effort," and it can be an effort to develop your country's economy. It can be an individual effort to pass exams. But from the beginning in the Koran itself and throughout Islamic history, it's always been associated with war to attack the enemy. And this is the concept which they're using now. And a person who wages Jihad is a Mujahid. That's why the people who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan or fought the French in Algeria years ago are called Mujahideen.

LIN: So does that mean for Americans at this time, when Americans are being warned that we still could be targeted for future terrorist attacks even in a matter of days or weeks -- who are these soldiers? Who are the troops in this holy war? How do you recognize them? HALLIDAY: Well, I think part of this one should downplay, part of it one should take very seriously. First of all, the Taliban religious leaders -- the Ulema, the literary, the men of knowledge, almost the word "scientist" is how you could also translate it -- will be meeting. They don't have any authority over Muslims in other countries. They don't have authority over Muslims in the West or anywhere else. This is just something they are saying, just as Saddam Hussein, who has absolutely zero religious authority for any Muslim, talked about this during the war of '91. So they can't command an army or a force.

Secondly, their own military power is very weak. I don't buy this argument that Afghanistan fought the Soviets, they fought the British. The terrain is tough. There will be people who will fight. But basically, Afghans are fed up with fighting, fed up with war. Many of them would love the West to come, or anybody else to come, the Iranians to come, and sort the place out.

LIN: So what are you saying...

HALLIDAY: But I would take seriously these two other things.

LIN: All right. What are you saying then in terms of if and when U.S. forces do enter Afghanistan, if that is the case, what sort of opposition would they find when they arrive?

HALLIDAY: I don't think they'll find -- they'll find guerrilla opposition. They'll find suicide fighters. They will not find a tenacious or well-armed military force.

Afghanistan is a country, in the words of the former UN representative, Mr. Brahimi to Afghanistan, it's a country held hostage by 50,000 men with guns on both sides. It's the Northern Alliance and the Taliban.

But two things I would say take much more seriously. One is simply spontaneous support by supporters of Afghanistan or of bin Laden for the Taliban at an international level, be it in Pakistan or be it in the Arab world or be it in other Muslim countries. That's not something they have organized, but it could happen.

But secondly and much more seriously, I am strongly of the view that those who organized the attack on New York and Washington last week, as in a nuclear war, if you launch a first strike, you must have a second-strike capability already in place. And I think there probably is already a second-strike capability in place after the first counterattack. We don't know where it is. It certainly can't take the form of what happened a week ago, because people are on the alert. But there may well be a network already in place to do something, and that is -- it has nothing to do with the Taliban, but it's something which I think we have to look very seriously at.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Professor Fred Halliday. It's good to have your perspective this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.

 Search   


Back to the top