text: BBC News | BREAKFAST WITH FROST | Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon MP
  BBC BREAKFAST WITH FROST INTERVIEW: GEOFF HOON MP DEFENCE SECRETARY DECEMBER 9TH, 2001
  And now let's turn to the man himself, the Defence Secretary is here with us right now after that brief report from Jill, very, very effective report from Jill and it's a joy to have you with us Geoff.
  As ever, good morning, let's begin if we may with the plethora of stories, on the wires and everything else, about the stabilisation force and one paper says that we're prepared, Tony Blair's prepared to supply up to 10,000 troops for a stabilisation force which may well number 50,000 and that we, we are prepared if necessary to lead this, to be the framework nation although other countries are possible, according to Colin Powell are Germany or Turkey, is all of that true, that's what we've read?
  Not all of that true, is true but we certainly want to help, we have won the war, it's important that we win the peace, it's important that we play our part in the international community to help to rebuild Afghanistan. It's equally important as far as any military mission is concerned that we understand precisely what it is that the United Nations wants us to do, that there's an agreement with the United Nations, with the United States and obviously with the interim administration in Afghanistan. Those details are still being worked out.
  But we are prepared to supply troops to the stabilisation force?
  We're certainly prepared to help, it's something that is important as we go on ensuring that Afghanistan has a real future after the tremendous efforts that have been made on the ground in the military campaign, we cannot afford to let this opportunity slip.
  Up to 10,000 troops would we be prepared to do, is that true?
  I don't want to go into numbers at this stage but actually what is very important is that this is a multi-national force, that it reflects the wide range of support that the international community have given to Afghanistan and therefore I don't believe that necessarily any one country will have such a large number. What's very important is all those countries who have offered help already are able to participate.
  And would we be prepared to lead this operation if asked?
  Again that's something that is still being looked at, I see every advantage in one country providing the main elements of the headquarters of this operation, something that the United Kingdom has done very well in the past. Certainly if the United Nations makes a request we will look at that very, very seriously.
  And definitely say yes?
  Well I don't believe that it's possible at this stage to definitely say yes and that's not least because obviously it is a matter for Parliament when British Forces are deployed, I'd want to be able to discuss that, not only with Cabinet colleagues but also in Parliament when the time is right.
  What about the British troops who are at Kabul Airport, are they going to stay or go?
  Well they've been doing�
  Or be reinforced?
  They've been doing an absolutely tremendous job there, that airfield is really the main form of communication to the outside world, it was from there that the delegates of the Bonn Conference were able to fly out with the assistance of the Royal Air Force and return to that airfield. It still remains the main access for aircraft in and out of Afghanistan and it is very important that the remarkable work that they have done there continues to be recognised.
  And if it was a British Corps or British troops who, who found Osama bin Laden, captured him alive, what would we do with him?
  Well I believe that it would be very important to respect the international legislation that's relevant to those circumstances and that is that the countries that have the main call on him as far as bringing him to justice is concerned, which clearly is the United States, we should hand him over fairly promptly to face justice in the United States.
  But we couldn't fly him via England because then we would be sending him to a country which has a death penalty, so he would have to go straight from Afghanistan to New York?
  Well we have of course, we do extradite people to countries with the death penalty, obviously subject to certain undertakings that are given. We have extradited people in the past to the United States and I see no reason in principle why that should not happen, but it would mean of course that certain undertakings would have to be given about any penalty that he faced.
  There would be, yes, if we get into that it's no death penalty, isn't it?
  Well that is the position but I think what is important, given the appalling horror that this man perpetrated in the United States on the 11th of September, that he faces justice in the United States.
  And what about the United States story today, that they're hunting for terror camps at the moment in Somalia and possibly Yemen and Sudan, you, you've said yourself that, that we, we may well have a situation where we have to go in to other places besides, here's the quote "we may need to coerce regimes in states which harbour or support international terrorism and ultimately the use of military force in the event that diplomatic and other means fail", so we're, we support any action in Somalia do we, by the US?
  We don't support any action in any given country, I didn't name any particular countries in that speech last week but what is important and I believe that our action in Afghanistan is the most important form of coercion we could demonstrate. What we said to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was hand over the perpetrators, let us have Osama bin Laden otherwise we will be forced to take action and that is what happened. Now that has sent a very clear message to any other government anywhere in the world that is tempted to harbour and support terrorism in the way the Taliban regime did.
  But could you imagine any circumstances where we would not offer to help the Americans with such an operation, or with any operation against terror, you can't conceive a situation where we would say no to the Americans can you?
  I think that's just slightly misrepresent the way in which this works, we sit down with the United States at every level, the Prime Minister talks to the President, I talk to my counterpart Donald Rumsfeld, Jack Straw talks to Colin Powell, there's tremendous contact between our respective militaries to work out what is the appropriate next step if any next step is necessary. So I don't believe that it just arises by the Americans saying we're going to do that will you join in, what actually happens is a long process of careful, detailed discussion before any further action is taken.
  And this situation where thousands seem to have escaped from Kandahar, thousands of Taliban are being searched for outside Kandahar, but we'd heard that they were surrounded, we'd heard that they were surrendering, how did they come to escape, did we, did we fail somewhere?
  I don't believe so, I think it's necessary to look carefully at the kind of society that Afghanistan is, what often happened there is that when in fact there has been a surrender, particular groups have simply changed sides and although that seems very odd to our point of view it is entirely consistent with what is really a feudal society where different groups owe allegiance to different local leaders who in turn owe allegiance to regional leaders and then to the various people right at the top. I don't think we should misrepresent that, it's simply the way in which their society functions and has done for hundreds if not thousands of years.
  So would you say Geoff, so far that the whole operation has gone better than you expected or exactly as you expected?
  I certainly think it's gone better than I expected, we anticipated that the Northern Alliance would be able to reoccupy those areas which they dominated ethnically in the North of Afghanistan, what I think has gone much better than anyone could have expected is the revolt against the Taliban regime in the South by the Pushtans, by the same ethnic background as the Taliban themselves. I wouldn't necessarily have expected that that would have happened but it does demonstrate just how deeply unpopular the Taliban was even in their ethnic heartland where people of their own background have been prepared to rise up and use arms against them.