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CNN Live At Daybreak
Thousands of Coalition Forces Poised for Battle
Aired March 18, 2003 - 05:02 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As the United States moves closer to the brink of war this morning, let's quickly get a look at the latest developments on Iraq. President Bush is giving Saddam Hussein until 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday to leave Iraq. But the Iraqi leader says he's not going anywhere. The new Turkish cabinet considers allowing coalition troops to launch a possible attack on Iraq from there. Parliament is expected to vote on the proposal tomorrow. And word from the Pentagon that Iraq's Republican Guard, some of Saddam Hussein's best trained and equipped troops, are setting up defensive positions around Baghdad.
Right now, thousands of coalition forces are poised for battle, awaiting that final order from their commander-in-chief, the president of the United States. Last night, President Bush gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avoid war.
A lot of people watched, but in case you missed it, our Senior White House Correspondent John King has details on this pivotal speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avert a war.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing.
KING: That ultimatum gives Saddam until Wednesday night. Officials say war could begin any time after the deadline lapses and that Mr. Bush would deliver an Oval Office address after ordering troops into combat. The speech included a hopeful message to the Iraqi people.
BUSH: We will deliver the food and medicine you need. We will tear down the apparatus of terror. And we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free.
KING: And this blunt warning to the Iraqi military.
BUSH: Your fate will depend on your actions. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone.
KING: The United States, with more than 225,000 troops already deployed, will carry the overwhelming load in any war. But British troops also are on hand and Australia also says it will offer military assistance. Spain, Italy and Portugal back the U.S. position, as do Japan, Poland, Bulgaria and most of the new Eastern European democracies that were once part of the Soviet bloc.
But France, Germany, Russia and China are the major powers opposed to war with Iraq. Mexico refused to back the White House and Canada said Monday its troops would have no part in any war.
BUSH: These governments share our assessment of the danger, but not our resolve to meet it.
KING: The president warned the prospect of war in Iraq raised the likelihood of terrorist attack here at home and said the government is taking immediate measures to beef up airport and port security. Mr. Bush gave leading members of Congress a speech preview, and sources tell CNN the White House is poised to seek between $75 billion and $100 billion in emergency spending to pay for the war and its immediate aftermath.
Not long before the speech, one senior aide described the president as well aware of the gravity of the moment, but comfortable with the course he is on.
(on camera): Officials here have little doubt that the president's ultimatum will be ignored and that within days Mr. Bush will be ordering troops into combat to fulfill his promise that "the tyrant will soon be gone."
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Of course, Baghdad not taking these comments lightly.
Let's get right to the president's comments from there.
Joining us from the Iraqi capital on the coalition bull's eye, our Rym Brahimi -- good morning, Rym.
Is the Iraqi public aware of President Bush's ultimatum?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I'm pretty sure he must be aware, definitely. But just before we get to that, we have some latest news here.
We understand that the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, is on his way to Baghdad. He's currently on the plane, we're told by foreign ministry officials here. He's due to land in about 15 minutes from now in what appears to be maybe a last ditch effort to avert war or at least try to be seen as doing something.
This representative of the Arab countries, many of which do not want war, many of which, though, host U.S. troops that are prepared to launch an attack on Iraq soon.
Now, the foreign ministry says they don't know what message Amr Moussa brings. He is expected to meet with the Iraqi foreign minister. We'll be bringing you the latest on that as soon as we get that.
Carol, to get back to the ultimatum, well, the foreign minister has said, of course, that that's a non-starter from the beginning, that that wouldn't happen. And I think many people here are aware of that. They're also aware of the fact that something is going to happen very soon. They saw the inspectors leave this morning. That's a clear sign. The inspectors left at Saddam International Airport, where a Boeing 727 was ready to take them away. They also, some of the other international staff from the United Nations humanitarian missions and agencies are also preparing to leave. There's another plane on standby at the airport for the rest of the international staff to go, a clear sign for ordinary Iraqis -- we've seen this before -- that it's not a good sign in their terms -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, another question about the secretary general of the Arab League going to Iraq. Could he be talking about exile for Saddam Hussein and would Saddam Hussein be finally willing to do that?
BRAHIMI: Well, we can only speculate at this stage, Carol. But there could be a remote possibility that the secretary general of the Arab League could bring a message, even if it is a message similar to that of President Bush suggesting maybe exile. Even if that is the same message, maybe the Arab League secretary general believes it will be, it will go down better coming from the Arab League secretary general rather than anyone else.
That's just speculation for now, as we still don't know exactly what the goal of the mission is. He was supposed to come on Friday, along with a delegation of foreign ministers from Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, and that trip didn't happen because they weren't able to agree with Iraqi officials on what they were going to, what mission they were going to fulfill.
So maybe this is another attempt to come and divert war. At least, again, there's a lot of fear among the Arab leaders of what's going to -- the reaction of the Arab public opinion is if the U.S. attacks Iraq and maybe that could be a way of saying well, we've tried all we can until at last minute -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi, you stay safe there in Baghdad.
Thanks so much for your report this morning.
Some world leaders took to the air waves after President Bush's TV ultimatum. Japan's prime minister threw his support behind President Bush, even though polls show 80 percent of his citizens oppose a U.S.-led attack. Even so, officials in Tokyo say they must secure their alliance with Washington, given their worries about nearby North Korea.
And German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder repeated his claim there is no justification for war against Iraq and no reason to end arms inspections. The president's speech isn't even 12 hours old and already our reporters in the field are seeing Iraqi troops lining up along the Kuwaiti border.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is one of them. He joins us live by video phone -- what can you see, Ben? BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, and actually I am on the border in northern Iraq between Kurdish and Iraqi forces. And what we've been seeing here is that the Iraqi forces are clearly digging in. I saw a group of them with picks and shovels reinforcing their positions.
Now, we have been coming to this area, this village, over the past three weeks on a fairly regular basis. Until today, we noted that they seem to be very relaxed up there on the hill. We saw them joking around and really not taking the situation, apparently, too seriously.
Today, the situation is very different, indeed. Most of the troops who before were just walking around on the ridges seem to be in their positions, very little movement. Now, it's very difficult, possibly, to see through this video phone, but on, behind my shoulder there is, for instance, a water truck up there distributing water to the troops. But by and large it's very quiet here on this front.
Now, we are right on the edges of the village of Kallah (ph), which has been evacuated. And almost all of the inhabitants have pulled out of there. They are very worried, the Kurds in this area, about the possibility that Iraqi forces will use chemical weapons, as they did on the Kurds back in 1988. In fact, one of the villagers was telling me he hopes the wind continues blowing this direction, which is in the direction of the Iraqi forces, in which case the Iraqis, if they do have their chemical weapons, are very unlikely to use them -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Ben, I was just going to ask you if you could tell what weaponry those troops were using, but you can't see far enough, right?
WEDEMAN: No, actually, we have been able to watch. The last time I was here we had a very strong lens. We were able to see that most of them, it would appear, at least those walking along the ridge, have AK-47 assault rifles, which by, sort of by battle standards are really light weaponry. We have seen they have, they do occasionally have anti-aircraft guns, which they use basically to fire at land targets. We have been told, for instance, they have 120 millimeter mortars, which are very clearly deadly. But we have not been able to see, for example, if there are any tanks or other heavy vehicles. We are within the no fly zone so there are no Iraqi aircraft above us still -- Carol.
COSTELLO: How far away are American troops from where those troops are?
WEDEMAN: Well, to the best of our knowledge they are very far away, indeed. They are inside Turkey, which is a good three to four hour drive from here. We do know that there are several dozen U.S. special forces in northern Iraq, but the deployment, it was hoped, of 60,000 American troops, it doesn't appear it's going to happen. We've heard from senior Kurdish officials, for instance, that they expect maybe up to 5,000 U.S. troops eventually to come into northern Iraq. We know that the Kurdish authorities have prepared air strips for the eventual entry of U.S. troops into northern Iraq. But really I have seen no American troops in northern Iraq since I got here almost a month ago -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And negotiations are still ongoing with Turkey.
Ben Wedeman, you stay safe there.
Thank you for your report this morning.
There are more than 225,000 American troops in the Persian Gulf awaiting the president's order to lock and load. Some of the troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf watched their commander-in- chief on closed circuit TV.
Here's some of their reaction to what their boss had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES "MARVIN" HAIGLER, F-18 PILOT: We've been thinking about it, but it's not a whole lot different from what we've been doing, you know, going flying over Iraq, getting shot at, that kind of stuff. So I'm sure it'll be a little grander scale but I mean that's our job and we're ready to go.
JUSTIN PORTZ, SUPERHORNET SQUADRON: I think it was short and to the point. I think it's what we all expected. And we've given our demands and we expect them to live by the rules that we've set forth and I think we've gave ample warning and ample amount of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And we want to get more reaction this morning on the president's comments from those who may be going into battle.
Ryan Chilcote is with some Marines in Kuwait.
He joins us now live -- what are they saying there, Ryan?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Good morning, Carol.
Well, very few of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles, actually saw or heard the president's address. After all, it was four in the morning here and even though things do start pretty early, they don't start quite that early.
Also, the MWR tent, the morale, wellness and recreation tent, where they could see it on TV, was closed, and the Internet, their Internet connection here has been shut down for reasons of operational security.
So not, the soldiers here are pretty isolated. Not a whole lot of ways to hear that address. However, enough of them obviously did hear it because by 6:00 a.m. this morning when the soldiers do their P.T., I couldn't find a soul who hadn't heard about the address, at least second or third hand.
One of the things sticking out in a soldier's mind after, from what they heard was that 48 hour ultimatum. Very few of the soldiers actually think that President Saddam Hussein or any of -- or his sons will leave Iraq. They're seeing this as something of a cue for when they might be called into action.
Now, what do they think about that? Well, very pragmatic thinking among most of the soldiers. A lot of them say hey, the sooner this happens the better. They think that the sooner it happens the better because the sooner it happens, they feel, the sooner it'll -- and the sooner they can go home.
A lot of these soldiers actually just about seven months ago came back from Afghanistan, came back from a six month tour in Afghanistan. So they really would be quite happy to get back home -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, there was so much agony in just waiting to see what would happen.
Ryan Chilcote, thanks so much for your live report this morning.
We'll get more reaction from the American troops in the next half hour of DAYBREAK when we get a live report from our Alessio Vinci. He's with a group of Marines in the Kuwaiti desert.
Also in the next half hour, we'll go live to the Pentagon to hear what the military planners have in store for Iraq. Our Chris Plante will bring us that.
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 March 18, 2003 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As the United States moves closer to the brink of war this morning, let's quickly get a look at the latest developments on Iraq. President Bush is giving Saddam Hussein until 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday to leave Iraq. But the Iraqi leader says he's not going anywhere. The new Turkish cabinet considers allowing coalition troops to launch a possible attack on Iraq from there. Parliament is expected to vote on the proposal tomorrow. And word from the Pentagon that Iraq's Republican Guard, some of Saddam Hussein's best trained and equipped troops, are setting up defensive positions around Baghdad.
Right now, thousands of coalition forces are poised for battle, awaiting that final order from their commander-in-chief, the president of the United States. Last night, President Bush gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avoid war.
A lot of people watched, but in case you missed it, our Senior White House Correspondent John King has details on this pivotal speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avert a war.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing.
KING: That ultimatum gives Saddam until Wednesday night. Officials say war could begin any time after the deadline lapses and that Mr. Bush would deliver an Oval Office address after ordering troops into combat. The speech included a hopeful message to the Iraqi people.
BUSH: We will deliver the food and medicine you need. We will tear down the apparatus of terror. And we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free.
KING: And this blunt warning to the Iraqi military.
BUSH: Your fate will depend on your actions. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone.
KING: The United States, with more than 225,000 troops already deployed, will carry the overwhelming load in any war. But British troops also are on hand and Australia also says it will offer military assistance. Spain, Italy and Portugal back the U.S. position, as do Japan, Poland, Bulgaria and most of the new Eastern European democracies that were once part of the Soviet bloc.
But France, Germany, Russia and China are the major powers opposed to war with Iraq. Mexico refused to back the White House and Canada said Monday its troops would have no part in any war.
BUSH: These governments share our assessment of the danger, but not our resolve to meet it.
KING: The president warned the prospect of war in Iraq raised the likelihood of terrorist attack here at home and said the government is taking immediate measures to beef up airport and port security. Mr. Bush gave leading members of Congress a speech preview, and sources tell CNN the White House is poised to seek between $75 billion and $100 billion in emergency spending to pay for the war and its immediate aftermath.
Not long before the speech, one senior aide described the president as well aware of the gravity of the moment, but comfortable with the course he is on.
(on camera): Officials here have little doubt that the president's ultimatum will be ignored and that within days Mr. Bush will be ordering troops into combat to fulfill his promise that "the tyrant will soon be gone."
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Of course, Baghdad not taking these comments lightly.
Let's get right to the president's comments from there.
Joining us from the Iraqi capital on the coalition bull's eye, our Rym Brahimi -- good morning, Rym.
Is the Iraqi public aware of President Bush's ultimatum?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I'm pretty sure he must be aware, definitely. But just before we get to that, we have some latest news here.
We understand that the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, is on his way to Baghdad. He's currently on the plane, we're told by foreign ministry officials here. He's due to land in about 15 minutes from now in what appears to be maybe a last ditch effort to avert war or at least try to be seen as doing something.
This representative of the Arab countries, many of which do not want war, many of which, though, host U.S. troops that are prepared to launch an attack on Iraq soon.
Now, the foreign ministry says they don't know what message Amr Moussa brings. He is expected to meet with the Iraqi foreign minister. We'll be bringing you the latest on that as soon as we get that.
Carol, to get back to the ultimatum, well, the foreign minister has said, of course, that that's a non-starter from the beginning, that that wouldn't happen. And I think many people here are aware of that. They're also aware of the fact that something is going to happen very soon. They saw the inspectors leave this morning. That's a clear sign. The inspectors left at Saddam International Airport, where a Boeing 727 was ready to take them away. They also, some of the other international staff from the United Nations humanitarian missions and agencies are also preparing to leave. There's another plane on standby at the airport for the rest of the international staff to go, a clear sign for ordinary Iraqis -- we've seen this before -- that it's not a good sign in their terms -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, another question about the secretary general of the Arab League going to Iraq. Could he be talking about exile for Saddam Hussein and would Saddam Hussein be finally willing to do that?
BRAHIMI: Well, we can only speculate at this stage, Carol. But there could be a remote possibility that the secretary general of the Arab League could bring a message, even if it is a message similar to that of President Bush suggesting maybe exile. Even if that is the same message, maybe the Arab League secretary general believes it will be, it will go down better coming from the Arab League secretary general rather than anyone else.
That's just speculation for now, as we still don't know exactly what the goal of the mission is. He was supposed to come on Friday, along with a delegation of foreign ministers from Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, and that trip didn't happen because they weren't able to agree with Iraqi officials on what they were going to, what mission they were going to fulfill.
So maybe this is another attempt to come and divert war. At least, again, there's a lot of fear among the Arab leaders of what's going to -- the reaction of the Arab public opinion is if the U.S. attacks Iraq and maybe that could be a way of saying well, we've tried all we can until at last minute -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym Brahimi, you stay safe there in Baghdad.
Thanks so much for your report this morning.
Some world leaders took to the air waves after President Bush's TV ultimatum. Japan's prime minister threw his support behind President Bush, even though polls show 80 percent of his citizens oppose a U.S.-led attack. Even so, officials in Tokyo say they must secure their alliance with Washington, given their worries about nearby North Korea.
And German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder repeated his claim there is no justification for war against Iraq and no reason to end arms inspections. The president's speech isn't even 12 hours old and already our reporters in the field are seeing Iraqi troops lining up along the Kuwaiti border.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is one of them. He joins us live by video phone -- what can you see, Ben? BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, and actually I am on the border in northern Iraq between Kurdish and Iraqi forces. And what we've been seeing here is that the Iraqi forces are clearly digging in. I saw a group of them with picks and shovels reinforcing their positions.
Now, we have been coming to this area, this village, over the past three weeks on a fairly regular basis. Until today, we noted that they seem to be very relaxed up there on the hill. We saw them joking around and really not taking the situation, apparently, too seriously.
Today, the situation is very different, indeed. Most of the troops who before were just walking around on the ridges seem to be in their positions, very little movement. Now, it's very difficult, possibly, to see through this video phone, but on, behind my shoulder there is, for instance, a water truck up there distributing water to the troops. But by and large it's very quiet here on this front.
Now, we are right on the edges of the village of Kallah (ph), which has been evacuated. And almost all of the inhabitants have pulled out of there. They are very worried, the Kurds in this area, about the possibility that Iraqi forces will use chemical weapons, as they did on the Kurds back in 1988. In fact, one of the villagers was telling me he hopes the wind continues blowing this direction, which is in the direction of the Iraqi forces, in which case the Iraqis, if they do have their chemical weapons, are very unlikely to use them -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Ben, I was just going to ask you if you could tell what weaponry those troops were using, but you can't see far enough, right?
WEDEMAN: No, actually, we have been able to watch. The last time I was here we had a very strong lens. We were able to see that most of them, it would appear, at least those walking along the ridge, have AK-47 assault rifles, which by, sort of by battle standards are really light weaponry. We have seen they have, they do occasionally have anti-aircraft guns, which they use basically to fire at land targets. We have been told, for instance, they have 120 millimeter mortars, which are very clearly deadly. But we have not been able to see, for example, if there are any tanks or other heavy vehicles. We are within the no fly zone so there are no Iraqi aircraft above us still -- Carol.
COSTELLO: How far away are American troops from where those troops are?
WEDEMAN: Well, to the best of our knowledge they are very far away, indeed. They are inside Turkey, which is a good three to four hour drive from here. We do know that there are several dozen U.S. special forces in northern Iraq, but the deployment, it was hoped, of 60,000 American troops, it doesn't appear it's going to happen. We've heard from senior Kurdish officials, for instance, that they expect maybe up to 5,000 U.S. troops eventually to come into northern Iraq. We know that the Kurdish authorities have prepared air strips for the eventual entry of U.S. troops into northern Iraq. But really I have seen no American troops in northern Iraq since I got here almost a month ago -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And negotiations are still ongoing with Turkey.
Ben Wedeman, you stay safe there.
Thank you for your report this morning.
There are more than 225,000 American troops in the Persian Gulf awaiting the president's order to lock and load. Some of the troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf watched their commander-in- chief on closed circuit TV.
Here's some of their reaction to what their boss had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES "MARVIN" HAIGLER, F-18 PILOT: We've been thinking about it, but it's not a whole lot different from what we've been doing, you know, going flying over Iraq, getting shot at, that kind of stuff. So I'm sure it'll be a little grander scale but I mean that's our job and we're ready to go.
JUSTIN PORTZ, SUPERHORNET SQUADRON: I think it was short and to the point. I think it's what we all expected. And we've given our demands and we expect them to live by the rules that we've set forth and I think we've gave ample warning and ample amount of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And we want to get more reaction this morning on the president's comments from those who may be going into battle.
Ryan Chilcote is with some Marines in Kuwait.
He joins us now live -- what are they saying there, Ryan?
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Good morning, Carol.
Well, very few of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles, actually saw or heard the president's address. After all, it was four in the morning here and even though things do start pretty early, they don't start quite that early.
Also, the MWR tent, the morale, wellness and recreation tent, where they could see it on TV, was closed, and the Internet, their Internet connection here has been shut down for reasons of operational security.
So not, the soldiers here are pretty isolated. Not a whole lot of ways to hear that address. However, enough of them obviously did hear it because by 6:00 a.m. this morning when the soldiers do their P.T., I couldn't find a soul who hadn't heard about the address, at least second or third hand.
One of the things sticking out in a soldier's mind after, from what they heard was that 48 hour ultimatum. Very few of the soldiers actually think that President Saddam Hussein or any of -- or his sons will leave Iraq. They're seeing this as something of a cue for when they might be called into action.
Now, what do they think about that? Well, very pragmatic thinking among most of the soldiers. A lot of them say hey, the sooner this happens the better. They think that the sooner it happens the better because the sooner it happens, they feel, the sooner it'll -- and the sooner they can go home.
A lot of these soldiers actually just about seven months ago came back from Afghanistan, came back from a six month tour in Afghanistan. So they really would be quite happy to get back home -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, there was so much agony in just waiting to see what would happen.
Ryan Chilcote, thanks so much for your live report this morning.
We'll get more reaction from the American troops in the next half hour of DAYBREAK when we get a live report from our Alessio Vinci. He's with a group of Marines in the Kuwaiti desert.
Also in the next half hour, we'll go live to the Pentagon to hear what the military planners have in store for Iraq. Our Chris Plante will bring us that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
