Following is the transcript of the interview:

U.S. Department of State
Secretary Colin L. Powell
Washington, DC

Interview On ABC's "This Week"

November 18, 2001

QUESTION: (In progress) happen next in Afghanistan. And what about Usama bin Laden? A short time ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell joined us to answer those questions and others.

Thanks so much for being here this morning, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY POWELL: Good morning, Cokie.

QUESTION: We've heard that the hunt for Usama is getting closer. Is that the case? Are we about to get him?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I think his options are being narrowed. As more and more of the country is released from Taliban domination, he has fewer and fewer places in which to hide. We think he's still in Afghanistan. There aren't many countries around Afghanistan which would welcome him at the moment, or for that matter, any country in the world, with one or two exceptions, that would welcome him.

So I think, as the President has always said, the noose is getting tighter. We're going to get him out of his hole sooner or later, but we'll get him.

QUESTION: We heard David Wright say that he has found evidence in those safe houses of some link to September 11th. They have also seen in those houses evidence of looking at bombs. Do you think Usama has a bomb?

SECRETARY POWELL: I have no reason to believe that he has a nuclear weapon. There's no doubt that he would like to have had one, and I'm sure they were trying to see what they could do to bring the components together to produce one. But based on what I've seen so far, it's most unlikely that he had one or was anywhere near getting one.

QUESTION: Now, Usama is -- the American people see very strongly as a sign that we've won if we get Usama bin Laden. But the news of the past week is sounding like the war is getting won. Is it effectively won?

SECRETARY POWELL: One part of the conflict, I think, is moving along rather well, and that is to get the Taliban regime out of power and to make it much more difficult for the al-Qaida network to function in Afghanistan. We're not going to lose sight of the objective of destroying the al-Qaida organization in Afghanistan and getting Usama bin Laden.

But as the President has said from the very beginning, our campaign is much broader than that. We want to go after al-Qaida wherever it exists in the world. And it is in some 50 countries, and any one of those cells in those 50 countries could be planning a terrorist operation right now during this Ramadan season.

And so we're not going to lose sight of that objective, and we're not going to lose sight of the broader objective that the President put before the American people and put before the world that has brought this coalition together, is that we're going after terrorism around the world.

And so this is the beginning -- a successful beginning, I believe -- of a very long campaign. And we have to be patient, we have to be persistent, and at the end, I'm confident we will prevail under the President's leadership.

QUESTION: I want to come back to that in a minute, but I want to stay in Afghanistan for a couple more minutes.

In terms of what's happening there on the ground in the fighting, there are reports today that there's a CIA paramilitary force in there. Are they -- first of all, is that true? And secondly, what role are they playing?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I don't want to confirm what the CIA does or does not do. Let me just say that they have been doing some rather splendid work with respect to our activities in Afghanistan, working alongside our military forces that are inside in Afghanistan that we've reported on rather extensively.

I think we've got a very fine linkup between our intelligence assets, our military assets, all within the framework of a good political-military strategy. And it's now starting to show rather significant results.

QUESTION: Now, there are those who say that the diplomacy is behind the military action. And you've had the return of a former Afghan leader, Rabbani, coming in, talks about a meeting coming up this coming week, maybe in Europe, of various Afghan factions. Is that going to happen? And what is the significance?

SECRETARY POWELL: We think the diplomacy is catching up with the rapid pace of military operations. United States Ambassador Jim Dobbins, who is our Special Envoy to the region, and to work with the Northern Alliance, had a meeting this morning in Tashkent with the Foreign Minister of the Northern Alliance, Mr. Abdullah.

And Mr. Abdullah has agreed on behalf of the Northern Alliance to send Northern Alliance representatives to a meeting that's being convened by Mr. Brahimi, the Secretary General of the United Nations' representative on these matters.

Now, where that meeting will be held is still being debated. And the purpose of that meeting is to bring together the factions as quickly as possible so that as quickly as possible we can create an interim government that can go in and begin to take administrative control in Kabul, and then over a longer period of time, you create a more comprehensive, broad-based government.

QUESTION: And while that --

SECRETARY POWELL: So things are now starting to move on the diplomatic front rather well.

QUESTION: And while that interim government is in place, does that require peacekeepers on the ground, including US peacekeepers?

SECRETARY POWELL: It may well require some military presence on the ground, if that seems to be appropriate, both in order to bring in humanitarian supplies, or for the purpose of just providing a level of stability in the towns that are being liberated.

And I think we'll have to make a judgment on each of those places as we go forward. In Mazar-e-Sharif, coalition forces are coming in. That's the town in the north that was the first one that was liberated. And they have come in, really, to help with the delivery of humanitarian supplies and provide more security in that region so that the nongovernmental workers and human rights workers and humanitarian workers and UN workers can get in to
deliver food.

QUESTION: One of the extraordinary things that happened over this weekend was the First Lady giving the radio address and talking about the women of Afghanistan. And you have issued a State Department white paper on that subject which says -- and we're going to put it up here -- "The Afghan people want, and the US Government supports, a broad-based representative government which includes women in post-Taliban Afghanistan."

Does that mean the United States says to Afghanistan, you must include women in your government?

SECRETARY POWELL: We will say to the Afghan leaders that if you truly want a representative government that will be respected in the eyes of the world and that reflects the aspirations of all the Afghan people, you have to include women in this political structure.

Now, this, I think, can be done. There are Afghan women who are more than able to contribute to such a government. And we're not going to dictate what they do with their government. It has to come out of the Afghan people.

But we hope they will realize, having gotten rid of the Taliban, having gotten rid of these deprivations and these degradations that they were putting on women and against women, it is now time to allow women to participate more fully in Afghan society, and that includes the political structure of a future Afghan government.

QUESTION: Now, there are those who say this is all part of a propaganda ploy -- and you do have a new office of public diplomacy -- but there are those who say no propaganda will work unless the Middle East, Palestinian-Israeli situation is solved.

You're making a major speech tomorrow. You're expected to talk about this issue. We hear that you're going to say that -- you're going to waive the seven days of no violence before the Mitchell Plan goes into effect. Is that the case?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, the two are not that directly linked. Usama bin Laden tried to steal the Palestinian issue, but he failed, and Chairman Arafat said clearly he wants no part of bin Laden and considers him an outcast.

QUESTION: What about the --

SECRETARY POWELL: With respect to the Middle East, I will be making a speech tomorrow. I will lay out a vision that the United States has, and I believe the international community has, for settlement --

QUESTION: And will you waive the seven days?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'll get to that. I didn't impose the seven days, so therefore I can't waive it. We'll have to see how Mr. Sharon reacts to my speech and what other actions he might take.

What Mr. Sharon has said -- and he was the one who said he needed seven days of quiet before he would be in a position to participate in discussions with the Palestinian side -- Mr. Sharon is determined to bring the violence down. He was brought into office on the basis of security for the Israeli people.

And so we are in a delicate situation right now, and I hope that my statement tomorrow will lay out what the United States believes, our vision, a comprehensive statement of our vision. No new plans are coming. We have a plan. It's a plan that works, the Mitchell Plan. And what we have to do is to get the two sides talking to each other, security officials to security officials, in order to get a cease-fire in place.

With that cease-fire in place, lots of things happen quickly, leading to negotiations.

QUESTION: Now, does that mean no conditions for going to the Mitchell Plan?

SECRETARY POWELL: The United States is not in a position to impose upon either of the two sides specific conditions. We can encourage them. Israel is a democratic nation, freely elected leaders, that makes their judgment. We can encourage, we can prod both sides, and Mr. Arafat, as the leader of the Palestinian Authority.

We do encourage and prod both sides to move both of them in a direction where we can get the violence down, confidence built back up between them, trust restored, so that we can start into the Mitchell Plan and get to negotiations, which is the sole purpose of the Mitchell Plan.

QUESTION: But Mr. Secretary you've been saying that since the first interview we had here in February.

SECRETARY POWELL: And I'm sorry, it hasn't changed since the first interview I gave in February. The violence has continued. It's time to bring an end to the violence. And until that violence is ended, we're not going to get forward movement into the Mitchell Plan.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you so much for being with us, Secretary Powell.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Cokie.