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Will Turkey be Staging Ground for U.S.-Led War with Iraq?
Aired February 20, 2003 - 07:33 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on whether Turkey will be a staging ground for a U.S.-led war with Iraq. Washington wants to know soon. Thousands of U.S. troops are on the way, billions of dollars are at stake.
Let's check in with Barbara Starr, who joins us from the Pentagon this morning with the latest on that -- good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, here at the Pentagon, indeed, the cook is ticking. Now, the U.S. has, as we talked about earlier this morning, offered Turkey an aid package of some $26 billion in return for the ability to base 40,000 U.S. troops in Turkey for a possible move into northern Iraq, a northern thrust against Baghdad if war breaks out.
The Turkish government has so far not signed on the dotted line, according to U.S. officials.
The problem for the Pentagon here is one of strategy. If they cannot get an agreement out of Turkey in the next couple of days, it may mean they have to rewrite the war plan here. And that's going to be a delay. It's going to be a problem.
Now, an initial group of 3,500 soldiers and equipment landed in southern Turkey yesterday. This was a pre-approved advanced party, if you will. They were going to move in, get everything ready for the Fourth Infantry Division, the first group of 15,000 soldiers. Their equipment is waiting offshore to land in Turkey, but they need approval from the Turkish government.
Now, if this cannot be solved, the problem is what to do with all those ships out in the Mediterranean that are carrying the tanks and heavy equipment for the Fourth I.D. There's a couple of work arounds that the Pentagon says they could do, but none of them are really great options. If you look at the map, it tells the whole story. Those ships in the Mediterranean would have to come through the Suez Canal. They would have to sail around into the Persian Gulf, move into Kuwait, unload there and then there are two really lousy options, according to Pentagon officials. The equipment would have to be unloaded and driven 500, 600 miles across Iraq into northern Turkey. That's still pretty hostile territory.
The other option is to basically land in Kuwait, unload, put everything on airplanes and fly into an air base in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. That's also really tough. Those air bases are very remote and they really can't handle the kind of traffic to bring 40,000 troops into northern Iraq.
So the clock's ticking. There isn't really a solution to this problem at the moment. But we should tell you, northern Iraq is getting to be more and more active. Pentagon officials tell us that in recent days there has been an additional small number of U.S. special forces that have moved into northern Iraq that are conducting liaison communications with those Kurds in northern Iraq, trying to get everything ready in case all of this can be resolved, and, if, indeed, the U.S. goes to war -- Paula.
ZAHN: Barbara, let's come back to what you were talking about, some of these work around plans, if that is necessary. The Bush administration has made it pretty clear that they are, at least publicly they are saying they have given Turkey their best offer. Is the expectation at the Pentagon that the work around plans will have to be implemented if we go to war?
STARR: Well, I can tell you, those work around plans are already being fine tuned, dusted off, relooked at. As of yesterday, people were really looking at how they would carry that out. Here at the Pentagon, they, of course, always plan for everything at the same time. So they're not waiting here for Turkey to make a decision. They are going ahead and looking at how they would actually do it, because the problem, again, is they have many, many ships lined up in the Mediterranean and all the way back to the United States, cargo ships carrying the tanks, heavy equipment for the Fourth Infantry Division and the 40,000 troops they want to put in Turkey to move into northern Iraq.
The troops are mainly still back in the United States, but they've got to get a decision, they've got to get everything moving -- Paula.
ZAHN: Barbara Starr, thanks for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 20, 2003 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on whether Turkey will be a staging ground for a U.S.-led war with Iraq. Washington wants to know soon. Thousands of U.S. troops are on the way, billions of dollars are at stake.
Let's check in with Barbara Starr, who joins us from the Pentagon this morning with the latest on that -- good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, here at the Pentagon, indeed, the cook is ticking. Now, the U.S. has, as we talked about earlier this morning, offered Turkey an aid package of some $26 billion in return for the ability to base 40,000 U.S. troops in Turkey for a possible move into northern Iraq, a northern thrust against Baghdad if war breaks out.
The Turkish government has so far not signed on the dotted line, according to U.S. officials.
The problem for the Pentagon here is one of strategy. If they cannot get an agreement out of Turkey in the next couple of days, it may mean they have to rewrite the war plan here. And that's going to be a delay. It's going to be a problem.
Now, an initial group of 3,500 soldiers and equipment landed in southern Turkey yesterday. This was a pre-approved advanced party, if you will. They were going to move in, get everything ready for the Fourth Infantry Division, the first group of 15,000 soldiers. Their equipment is waiting offshore to land in Turkey, but they need approval from the Turkish government.
Now, if this cannot be solved, the problem is what to do with all those ships out in the Mediterranean that are carrying the tanks and heavy equipment for the Fourth I.D. There's a couple of work arounds that the Pentagon says they could do, but none of them are really great options. If you look at the map, it tells the whole story. Those ships in the Mediterranean would have to come through the Suez Canal. They would have to sail around into the Persian Gulf, move into Kuwait, unload there and then there are two really lousy options, according to Pentagon officials. The equipment would have to be unloaded and driven 500, 600 miles across Iraq into northern Turkey. That's still pretty hostile territory.
The other option is to basically land in Kuwait, unload, put everything on airplanes and fly into an air base in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. That's also really tough. Those air bases are very remote and they really can't handle the kind of traffic to bring 40,000 troops into northern Iraq.
So the clock's ticking. There isn't really a solution to this problem at the moment. But we should tell you, northern Iraq is getting to be more and more active. Pentagon officials tell us that in recent days there has been an additional small number of U.S. special forces that have moved into northern Iraq that are conducting liaison communications with those Kurds in northern Iraq, trying to get everything ready in case all of this can be resolved, and, if, indeed, the U.S. goes to war -- Paula.
ZAHN: Barbara, let's come back to what you were talking about, some of these work around plans, if that is necessary. The Bush administration has made it pretty clear that they are, at least publicly they are saying they have given Turkey their best offer. Is the expectation at the Pentagon that the work around plans will have to be implemented if we go to war?
STARR: Well, I can tell you, those work around plans are already being fine tuned, dusted off, relooked at. As of yesterday, people were really looking at how they would carry that out. Here at the Pentagon, they, of course, always plan for everything at the same time. So they're not waiting here for Turkey to make a decision. They are going ahead and looking at how they would actually do it, because the problem, again, is they have many, many ships lined up in the Mediterranean and all the way back to the United States, cargo ships carrying the tanks, heavy equipment for the Fourth Infantry Division and the 40,000 troops they want to put in Turkey to move into northern Iraq.
The troops are mainly still back in the United States, but they've got to get a decision, they've got to get everything moving -- Paula.
ZAHN: Barbara Starr, thanks for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
