I saw General Tommy Franks on the Jim Lehrer News Hour last night, and
I heard him say that he did not possess documented proof that Bin Laden was behind the
Sept. 11 attacks, although he later said in the interview that he believed, like the rest of us,
that Al Qaeda was involved.
I've given the reference so you can read the transcript of the interview for yourself.
A problem with the transcript. The date should be 2002 but, I checked the transcript
and it said 2001
......................................................................................................................
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS:
The head of the U.S. Central Command discusses
recent al-Qaida captures and the latest in the
war on terrorism.
Excerpt from The Jim Lehrer News Hour
January 8, 2001
The al-Qaida network
JIM LEHRER: Have we
found enough that
makes you able to
conclude that, hey, this
really was where this -
this really was the main
base of al-Qaida, this is where Osama bin
Laden and his people were calling the shots
as much as they were?
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS: My honest answer is
no. What we have found is a number of
places where we believe terrorist control
activities have taken place inside
Afghanistan.
But to be able to pick one and say, this is
the one, no, Jim, we haven't found that.
JIM LEHRER: Did they - you don't have any
evidence that they controlled something
outside of Afghanistan from Afghanistan?
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS: I'm not sure I
understand -
JIM LEHRER: Well, let's talk about
September 11. Have you found anything on
the ground that is directly ties somebody -
anybody on the ground in Afghanistan to
what happened here on September 11?
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS: I have not - I have
not seen evidence of this direct tie to which
you made reference, aside from the film that
I think was widely publicized, which I think
each American has to decide whether he
believes that bin Laden was truly behind
this thing on the 11th of September, as
indicated in that film.
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