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CNN Live Today

Interview With RAF Spokesman

Aired March 31, 2003 - 10:21   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: Time to get the view from the White House right now. That is exactly where we find our senior White House correspondent John King, who has just returned from an off-camera briefing -- good morning, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula. President Bush here at the White House. This morning, his normal round of briefings. An emphasis by the White House on the home front today, but still the war front if you will. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge among those here to brief the president this morning, and he will travel with the president this afternoon.

Mr. Bush will go to the port of Philadelphia. He will deliver remarks there to about 700 Coast Guard officers, saluting the Coast Guard's role not only in domestic terrorism, the fight against domestic terrorism, but also the Coast Guard operations in the Persian Gulf region. You see Secretary Ridge there leaving the White House this morning. Mr. Bush, during that speech in Philadelphia, we are told, will deliver an update on Operation Iraqi Freedom, and great deal -- over the weekend a great deal of media accounts about apparent possible divisions in the administration, possible questions about the war plan. Ari Fleischer telling us just moments ago the president remains quite confident in the plan. We know from other sources that he directly endorsed the plan, and urged Secretary Rumsfeld to keep on the press for Baghdad in the weekend conversations, and Ari saying that the president believes he has the full support of the American people as this war goes on, a war Ari Fleischer yet again this morning reminding reporters could go on for quite some time, as the toughest battles, he said, are yet to come -- Paula.

ZAHN: John, share with us some of those divisions that we have heard play out in various accounts over the weekend in his administration.

KING: Well, one division we know about is a philosophical division about the use of military force. When Colin Powell, now secretary of state, was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he came up with what they call the Powell Doctrine, which meant that any time you go into military action, you use overwhelming force. Secretary Rumsfeld has changed that, some would say challenged that by saying you can have a small force, or a smaller force, and then back it up as we are seeing now, a rolling start as they called it, bringing in additional force as it goes on. That is one philosophical difference.

As for any tug of war within the administration, most senior officials inside the White House say this is grossly exaggerated, and you have people outside the White House, because of some skirmishes, some would say setbacks in the first ten days of the war. A tug of war, if you will, criticism of the plan.

Senior officials say this is, for sure, this is a president who does not like hand wringing, and he has told everyone in his administration, from senior staff people to cabinet officers to focus on the objective, and not to snipe about any disagreements or questions about the plan.

ZAHN: Finally, John, when administration officials talk about the plan they make it very clear there was limited access to the plan. Do we have any idea who actually has seen these plans, who was exposed to it?

KING: Well, we know the entire war council was, that includes the president, the vice president, obviously Secretary Rumsfeld and his top deputies, the top military commanders, especially General Franks, who is the chief author of the plan, Secretary Powell was involved in the discussions, the CIA director was involved in the discussions, National Security Adviser Rice, and their deputy, so it is not a tiny group, but it is certainly not a very large, significant group.

ZAHN: John King, thanks so much, as always. Appreciate all that new information. Back to Bill now in Kuwait City.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Paula. Thanks.

Want to get a military assessment right now. Jon Fynes with the British Royal Air Force, who has been a spokesperson for that unit ever since this conflict began, actually.

Good to see you again. Good evening to you. Quickly, a couple of things here I want to tick off here. The fighter jets flying lower in the north, flying lower over Baghdad indicates what on the ground?

GROUP CAPTAIN JON FYNES, RAF SPOKESMAN: Over Baghdad, I'm not sure. I wasn't aware of that, but over the other areas, it is the close air support we are giving to our troops. The way we do it, the coalition, Brits and the Americans, have aircraft up holding in what we call the "cab rank," and as the front line troops need some assistance, we get called in and we go out and attack the target.

HEMMER: So you are loitering in the skies, essentially. Does that mean anti-aircraft is less, is it weakened, is the radar knocked out, or is it still there, or just less effective or not?

FYNES: We tend not to come down to the lower levels until we have suppressed the air defense in that area. So what we do is we would attack the air defense assets, and once we are satisfied an area is clear, then we are more willing to come low down.

HEMMER: Let's talk about Basra in the southeast right now. What is the status right now in terms of the British trying to gain control of this town, that you well know has been very stubborn from the beginning?

FYNES: It is something the British have been doing for literally decades.

HEMMER: Doing what?

FYNES: Well, getting the hearts and minds, persuading the people in a city that's got other -- in this case, militants in it. To persuade them that we are there to stay, we are not there to harm them. Of course, we could take Basra very quickly by severe use of force, but we don't want to do that. We don't want to harm the individual Iraqi people. We don't want to lay waste to what is a historic city.

So what we call it is the the softly-softly (ph) approach, the hearts and minds.

HEMMER: What was that?

FYNES: The softly-softly (ph) approach. So what we do is we come outside, we leave the entrances open, so they can come in, they can come out. They realize we are not there to harm the individuals. We are putting the water back on. The people who come out get humanitarian aid, and when we want to, in our time scale we go straight to the center of the city and take out something military just to prove a point.

HEMMER: Day 12, going to day 13. What is the measure of success right now in Basra? How do you know you have made any inroads in that town?

FYNES: It is very difficult to assess, but we are beginning to see the positive signs.

HEMMER: Where?

FYNES: Some of the Shiite flags have appeared in the odd window. That hasn't been seen for at least 12 years. The people, four days ago, wouldn't come out and those that did were attacked by the Iraqi soldiers. Now they are come out in the thousands to meet us each day, and then going back in. They are beginning to realize, actually, we're friends outside. We don't want to harm their city. We just want to get rid of those irregular soldiers in there, but we are not going to lay waste to a city to do that. We will do it slowly in our own time.

HEMMER: How much patience, how much time?

FYNES: As much as is needed.

HEMMER: Weeks, months?

FYNES: I don't really want to talk time scales, but as I say, we have been doing this for decades. Look at Bosnia, look at Afghanistan, look in the Balkans, what we did there. It is very, very similar work to us. We are used to it, and we are good at it.

HEMMER: I want to move to a different part of the theater right now. You say the Republican Guard south of Iraq, south of Baghdad, rather, have been, in your words now, have been pounded right now by air strikes. Where is the evidence, how much degradation is happening?

FYNES: We are not going to talk about exactly how much degradation, but we are hitting them as a coalition, and that includes the Air Force daily. In the last 24 hours, over 500 air sorties just against those Republican Guard units.

The Harriers of ours are going off laden, and a lot of them are coming back empty, but we are doing it carefully. Even some of our aircraft are coming back with the bombs on because they weren't sure the targets were the military targets. So it is fierce, it is very, very detrimental to his forces, but we are doing that carefully as well.

HEMMER: I'm out of time. Are they hiding in cities, or are they out in the open right now?

FYNES: They are basically out in the open towards the outskirts of Baghdad.

HEMMER: Jon Fynes, thanks. We'll talk again tomorrow, OK? Appreciate you stopping by here.

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 31, 2003 - 10:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to get the view from the White House right now. That is exactly where we find our senior White House correspondent John King, who has just returned from an off-camera briefing -- good morning, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula. President Bush here at the White House. This morning, his normal round of briefings. An emphasis by the White House on the home front today, but still the war front if you will. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge among those here to brief the president this morning, and he will travel with the president this afternoon.

Mr. Bush will go to the port of Philadelphia. He will deliver remarks there to about 700 Coast Guard officers, saluting the Coast Guard's role not only in domestic terrorism, the fight against domestic terrorism, but also the Coast Guard operations in the Persian Gulf region. You see Secretary Ridge there leaving the White House this morning. Mr. Bush, during that speech in Philadelphia, we are told, will deliver an update on Operation Iraqi Freedom, and great deal -- over the weekend a great deal of media accounts about apparent possible divisions in the administration, possible questions about the war plan. Ari Fleischer telling us just moments ago the president remains quite confident in the plan. We know from other sources that he directly endorsed the plan, and urged Secretary Rumsfeld to keep on the press for Baghdad in the weekend conversations, and Ari saying that the president believes he has the full support of the American people as this war goes on, a war Ari Fleischer yet again this morning reminding reporters could go on for quite some time, as the toughest battles, he said, are yet to come -- Paula.

ZAHN: John, share with us some of those divisions that we have heard play out in various accounts over the weekend in his administration.

KING: Well, one division we know about is a philosophical division about the use of military force. When Colin Powell, now secretary of state, was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he came up with what they call the Powell Doctrine, which meant that any time you go into military action, you use overwhelming force. Secretary Rumsfeld has changed that, some would say challenged that by saying you can have a small force, or a smaller force, and then back it up as we are seeing now, a rolling start as they called it, bringing in additional force as it goes on. That is one philosophical difference.

As for any tug of war within the administration, most senior officials inside the White House say this is grossly exaggerated, and you have people outside the White House, because of some skirmishes, some would say setbacks in the first ten days of the war. A tug of war, if you will, criticism of the plan.

Senior officials say this is, for sure, this is a president who does not like hand wringing, and he has told everyone in his administration, from senior staff people to cabinet officers to focus on the objective, and not to snipe about any disagreements or questions about the plan.

ZAHN: Finally, John, when administration officials talk about the plan they make it very clear there was limited access to the plan. Do we have any idea who actually has seen these plans, who was exposed to it?

KING: Well, we know the entire war council was, that includes the president, the vice president, obviously Secretary Rumsfeld and his top deputies, the top military commanders, especially General Franks, who is the chief author of the plan, Secretary Powell was involved in the discussions, the CIA director was involved in the discussions, National Security Adviser Rice, and their deputy, so it is not a tiny group, but it is certainly not a very large, significant group.

ZAHN: John King, thanks so much, as always. Appreciate all that new information. Back to Bill now in Kuwait City.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Paula. Thanks.

Want to get a military assessment right now. Jon Fynes with the British Royal Air Force, who has been a spokesperson for that unit ever since this conflict began, actually.

Good to see you again. Good evening to you. Quickly, a couple of things here I want to tick off here. The fighter jets flying lower in the north, flying lower over Baghdad indicates what on the ground?

GROUP CAPTAIN JON FYNES, RAF SPOKESMAN: Over Baghdad, I'm not sure. I wasn't aware of that, but over the other areas, it is the close air support we are giving to our troops. The way we do it, the coalition, Brits and the Americans, have aircraft up holding in what we call the "cab rank," and as the front line troops need some assistance, we get called in and we go out and attack the target.

HEMMER: So you are loitering in the skies, essentially. Does that mean anti-aircraft is less, is it weakened, is the radar knocked out, or is it still there, or just less effective or not?

FYNES: We tend not to come down to the lower levels until we have suppressed the air defense in that area. So what we do is we would attack the air defense assets, and once we are satisfied an area is clear, then we are more willing to come low down.

HEMMER: Let's talk about Basra in the southeast right now. What is the status right now in terms of the British trying to gain control of this town, that you well know has been very stubborn from the beginning?

FYNES: It is something the British have been doing for literally decades.

HEMMER: Doing what?

FYNES: Well, getting the hearts and minds, persuading the people in a city that's got other -- in this case, militants in it. To persuade them that we are there to stay, we are not there to harm them. Of course, we could take Basra very quickly by severe use of force, but we don't want to do that. We don't want to harm the individual Iraqi people. We don't want to lay waste to what is a historic city.

So what we call it is the the softly-softly (ph) approach, the hearts and minds.

HEMMER: What was that?

FYNES: The softly-softly (ph) approach. So what we do is we come outside, we leave the entrances open, so they can come in, they can come out. They realize we are not there to harm the individuals. We are putting the water back on. The people who come out get humanitarian aid, and when we want to, in our time scale we go straight to the center of the city and take out something military just to prove a point.

HEMMER: Day 12, going to day 13. What is the measure of success right now in Basra? How do you know you have made any inroads in that town?

FYNES: It is very difficult to assess, but we are beginning to see the positive signs.

HEMMER: Where?

FYNES: Some of the Shiite flags have appeared in the odd window. That hasn't been seen for at least 12 years. The people, four days ago, wouldn't come out and those that did were attacked by the Iraqi soldiers. Now they are come out in the thousands to meet us each day, and then going back in. They are beginning to realize, actually, we're friends outside. We don't want to harm their city. We just want to get rid of those irregular soldiers in there, but we are not going to lay waste to a city to do that. We will do it slowly in our own time.

HEMMER: How much patience, how much time?

FYNES: As much as is needed.

HEMMER: Weeks, months?

FYNES: I don't really want to talk time scales, but as I say, we have been doing this for decades. Look at Bosnia, look at Afghanistan, look in the Balkans, what we did there. It is very, very similar work to us. We are used to it, and we are good at it.

HEMMER: I want to move to a different part of the theater right now. You say the Republican Guard south of Iraq, south of Baghdad, rather, have been, in your words now, have been pounded right now by air strikes. Where is the evidence, how much degradation is happening?

FYNES: We are not going to talk about exactly how much degradation, but we are hitting them as a coalition, and that includes the Air Force daily. In the last 24 hours, over 500 air sorties just against those Republican Guard units.

The Harriers of ours are going off laden, and a lot of them are coming back empty, but we are doing it carefully. Even some of our aircraft are coming back with the bombs on because they weren't sure the targets were the military targets. So it is fierce, it is very, very detrimental to his forces, but we are doing that carefully as well.

HEMMER: I'm out of time. Are they hiding in cities, or are they out in the open right now?

FYNES: They are basically out in the open towards the outskirts of Baghdad.

HEMMER: Jon Fynes, thanks. We'll talk again tomorrow, OK? Appreciate you stopping by here.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com