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CNN Live Today

Update on Battlefield Developments in Iraq

Aired April 08, 2003 - 10:43   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 an update on battlefield developments in Iraq. Joining us from the CNN Center, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, a former U.S. Army deputy, chief of staff for intelligence.
Good morning. I think this is first time I had a chance to chat with you.

Welcome.

LT. GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.

ZAHN: Let's start off by talking about the impact of these 2,000-pound bombs that were dropped last night in this Monsoor (ph) district of Baghdad.

KENNEDY: Well, those bombs were very powerful. They created a 60-foot crater, destroyed about four buildings, and I'm sure it was an enormous explosion.

ZAHN: Now officials are telling us today that this site was based on time-sensitive intelligence. How quickly do you think special-ops forces had to react in order to strike and get that information to the bombers overhead?

KENNEDY: These reports are believed to have come from special operations units who have been building relationships with people on the ground, and who may have had some observation of the pattern of travel of this leadership. And so, it sort of depends on how quickly they thought the change in location might take place. I understand that it was about a 25-minute time interval between the time the information was developed and reported until the time the bombs landed.

ZAHN: Is that sort of the narrowest of margins you can work by? Or was decapitation strike an even tighter margin, the first night of the war?

KENNEDY: You know, I don't know what the timeline was in that decapitation strike earlier, and I think it must have been a very hastily developed bit of information.

It's so important for us to go ahead and act as soon as we get these reports, because really, it's impossible to know with complete certainty that someone enters a building will be out in how much time. It's just impossible to know that sort of thing. KENNEDY: Now, the one point David Ensor has been making this morning, our national security correspondent, is because coalition forces aren't in control of that particular residential neighborhood, they can't confirm whether Saddam has been killed or not. If he has been killed, though, how will that affect ongoing military strategy?

KENNEDY: Paula, I think that the strategy will remain stable, because it's a strategy that's based on a degree of agility about reacting to developments as they occur on ground.

So once you have decapitated the top-level leadership, you go to the next level, and much of that next level may already have been destroyed, but there are core commanders out there who do have the authority to use chemical weapons, and there are other people in the cabinet around Saddam Hussein that need to be dealt with.

Lieutenant General, we'll have to end this, because we have breaking news out of the Pentagon. Again, thanks for your time.

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 8, 2003 - 10:43   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 an update on battlefield developments in Iraq. Joining us from the CNN Center, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, a former U.S. Army deputy, chief of staff for intelligence.
Good morning. I think this is first time I had a chance to chat with you.

Welcome.

LT. GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.

ZAHN: Let's start off by talking about the impact of these 2,000-pound bombs that were dropped last night in this Monsoor (ph) district of Baghdad.

KENNEDY: Well, those bombs were very powerful. They created a 60-foot crater, destroyed about four buildings, and I'm sure it was an enormous explosion.

ZAHN: Now officials are telling us today that this site was based on time-sensitive intelligence. How quickly do you think special-ops forces had to react in order to strike and get that information to the bombers overhead?

KENNEDY: These reports are believed to have come from special operations units who have been building relationships with people on the ground, and who may have had some observation of the pattern of travel of this leadership. And so, it sort of depends on how quickly they thought the change in location might take place. I understand that it was about a 25-minute time interval between the time the information was developed and reported until the time the bombs landed.

ZAHN: Is that sort of the narrowest of margins you can work by? Or was decapitation strike an even tighter margin, the first night of the war?

KENNEDY: You know, I don't know what the timeline was in that decapitation strike earlier, and I think it must have been a very hastily developed bit of information.

It's so important for us to go ahead and act as soon as we get these reports, because really, it's impossible to know with complete certainty that someone enters a building will be out in how much time. It's just impossible to know that sort of thing. KENNEDY: Now, the one point David Ensor has been making this morning, our national security correspondent, is because coalition forces aren't in control of that particular residential neighborhood, they can't confirm whether Saddam has been killed or not. If he has been killed, though, how will that affect ongoing military strategy?

KENNEDY: Paula, I think that the strategy will remain stable, because it's a strategy that's based on a degree of agility about reacting to developments as they occur on ground.

So once you have decapitated the top-level leadership, you go to the next level, and much of that next level may already have been destroyed, but there are core commanders out there who do have the authority to use chemical weapons, and there are other people in the cabinet around Saddam Hussein that need to be dealt with.

Lieutenant General, we'll have to end this, because we have breaking news out of the Pentagon. Again, thanks for your time.

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