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CNN Live Today
Lisa Rose Weaver Reports from Baghdad Airport
Aired April 07, 2003 - 10:35 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: We're going to try to get a better idea of what exactly is going on now at the Baghdad Airport.
Lisa Rose Weaver is there. She joins us now by telephone.
Lisa, good morning.
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, from where I am, about 10 kilometers away from Baghdad, at the perimeter of the airport, I can hear clearly consistent and sometimes very heavy artillery off in the distance. This is nothing that I can see, but I can hear it.
Meanwhile, I am with an air defense unit, which has arrived here, it's set up, it's intended to protect the airport itself, particularly from SCUD missile attacks coming from outside Baghdad at some distance. So far, nothing of the sort has happened.
Earlier, I was with one of the security captains here as he looked at some abandoned bunkers. We don't how long ago the Republican National Guard left these bunkers. They apparently leave in quite a hurry. There was a lot of unused ammunition, clothes left haphazardly on floor, even a couple of gas masks and some food items.
Interestingly, they found baby formula, which the military here is speculating, may have been what guards were eating for nutrition. Apparently all else they had to eat were bread and potatoes. Obviously no way to confirm that. But some very interesting details that the Republican National Guard left behind -- Paula.
ZAHN: What else can you tell us about how long, without violating any rules here, how long you might be in place there and what the goal is in the next couple of days?
WEAVER: Well, this the beginning of a fairly permanent presence by air defense in the area. Again, it's designed to protect the airport itself, the area outside the airport from attack, from outside the airport, because Patriot missiles need high trajectory, need to be at some distance from incoming missiles to really intercept this.
In the next coming days, this air defense will probably be de- bolstered, and it's quite interesting that they've come this far is unusual for Patriot missiles to operate so far, rather so close to the front line here. They're usually static. They don't move around very much. These missiles have driven into this country... ZAHN: We are losing our signal with -- all right, we pause for a second to see if we could get Lisa Rose Weaver back, Bill, giving us an excellent description of what is going down now at the airport, and some of the efforts taking place to make sure that the airport is not vulnerable to some missile attacks.
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 April 7, 2003 - 10:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to try to get a better idea of what exactly is going on now at the Baghdad Airport.
Lisa Rose Weaver is there. She joins us now by telephone.
Lisa, good morning.
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, from where I am, about 10 kilometers away from Baghdad, at the perimeter of the airport, I can hear clearly consistent and sometimes very heavy artillery off in the distance. This is nothing that I can see, but I can hear it.
Meanwhile, I am with an air defense unit, which has arrived here, it's set up, it's intended to protect the airport itself, particularly from SCUD missile attacks coming from outside Baghdad at some distance. So far, nothing of the sort has happened.
Earlier, I was with one of the security captains here as he looked at some abandoned bunkers. We don't how long ago the Republican National Guard left these bunkers. They apparently leave in quite a hurry. There was a lot of unused ammunition, clothes left haphazardly on floor, even a couple of gas masks and some food items.
Interestingly, they found baby formula, which the military here is speculating, may have been what guards were eating for nutrition. Apparently all else they had to eat were bread and potatoes. Obviously no way to confirm that. But some very interesting details that the Republican National Guard left behind -- Paula.
ZAHN: What else can you tell us about how long, without violating any rules here, how long you might be in place there and what the goal is in the next couple of days?
WEAVER: Well, this the beginning of a fairly permanent presence by air defense in the area. Again, it's designed to protect the airport itself, the area outside the airport from attack, from outside the airport, because Patriot missiles need high trajectory, need to be at some distance from incoming missiles to really intercept this.
In the next coming days, this air defense will probably be de- bolstered, and it's quite interesting that they've come this far is unusual for Patriot missiles to operate so far, rather so close to the front line here. They're usually static. They don't move around very much. These missiles have driven into this country... ZAHN: We are losing our signal with -- all right, we pause for a second to see if we could get Lisa Rose Weaver back, Bill, giving us an excellent description of what is going down now at the airport, and some of the efforts taking place to make sure that the airport is not vulnerable to some missile attacks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
