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CNN Live Today
Military Analysis
Aired April 08, 2003 - 11:48 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There is no organized military resistance. but there are still military missions to undertake there. To find out what's going on there in Iraq, and for that, we turn to Renay San Miguel, who's joined by Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, a former member of the U.S. Army, a former U.S. Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, by the way.
Good to have both of you with us.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Leon.
And because Lieutenant General Kennedy was indeed deputy chief of staff for intelligence for the Army, we're going to be focusing on the intel side of things. We have some satellite imagery to show you of the neighborhood in Baghdad where intelligence informed the military that there may be a meeting of Saddam Hussein and his sons and other leadership. so let's go ahead and zoom in on that.
This satellite imagery, as always courtesy of earth earthviewer.com and digitalglobe.com.
And, general, from the time that somebody tipped off the military that somewhere in here in a restaurant, maybe Saddam Hussein and his two sons were there, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes later, there were bombs being dropped on that. The speed of that turnaround, did that surprise you?
LT. GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it was a great testimony to how much confidence we had investigate information. And what that tells me is there were multiple sources of the information, not only by people on the ground such as special operations soldiers, but also possibly imagery, or signaled intelligence or other ways of taking a look.
SAN MIGUEL: When we talk about vetting the sources, we have heard maybe a single source, maybe there were multiple sources. But what goes on when you're trying to figure out if it is a credible source of information?
KENNEDY: There may have been some earlier reports that were confirmed by certain sources. And then at this critical reporting period, people look at that and say, well this is proving to be true in the past, let's go with it.
SAN MIGUEL: The damage that was done, four 2,000-pounds dropped on this area. And we have heard from CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon that the first two were penetrating target bombs, and then these other two had very, very short time delays, thinking that they knew there was a bunker somewhere underneath there.
KENNEDY: It sounds like it. It sounds like they knew that they needed to really go in, hit it very, very hard, and make sure that they did the job in one operation.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. Now, even if -- let's say for the sake of argument, nobody really knows for sure. They may not know because they don't have any forensic teams at the site, and you can see the damage. I mean, there would be an awful lot to go through. But let's say for the sake of argument, Saddam Hussein and his two sons are dead. The job is really not over for the coalition forces, is it?
KENNEDY: That's right, Renay. It's a matter of going in, and making sure we've accounted for the entire top team that belonged to Saddam Hussein, and making sure that the core commanders are accounted for. And as the Iraqis see more capitulation and more destruction of the top leadership of that terrible regime, it's more likely will get help from them. They'll come out from cover and give us more information that will help us speed up the pace of this complete destruction of a regime that has done so much damage.
SAN MIGUEL: Getting back to the gathering of intelligence, a couple Baath party officials taken into custody, according to Vince Brooks, and that's more intelligence sources right there.
KENNEDY: That's right. That's right.
SAN MIGUEL: Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, thanks for your time. We'll be talking to you in the next hour.
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 - 11:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There is no organized military resistance. but there are still military missions to undertake there. To find out what's going on there in Iraq, and for that, we turn to Renay San Miguel, who's joined by Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, a former member of the U.S. Army, a former U.S. Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, by the way.
Good to have both of you with us.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Leon.
And because Lieutenant General Kennedy was indeed deputy chief of staff for intelligence for the Army, we're going to be focusing on the intel side of things. We have some satellite imagery to show you of the neighborhood in Baghdad where intelligence informed the military that there may be a meeting of Saddam Hussein and his sons and other leadership. so let's go ahead and zoom in on that.
This satellite imagery, as always courtesy of earth earthviewer.com and digitalglobe.com.
And, general, from the time that somebody tipped off the military that somewhere in here in a restaurant, maybe Saddam Hussein and his two sons were there, anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes later, there were bombs being dropped on that. The speed of that turnaround, did that surprise you?
LT. GEN. CLAUDIA KENNEDY, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it was a great testimony to how much confidence we had investigate information. And what that tells me is there were multiple sources of the information, not only by people on the ground such as special operations soldiers, but also possibly imagery, or signaled intelligence or other ways of taking a look.
SAN MIGUEL: When we talk about vetting the sources, we have heard maybe a single source, maybe there were multiple sources. But what goes on when you're trying to figure out if it is a credible source of information?
KENNEDY: There may have been some earlier reports that were confirmed by certain sources. And then at this critical reporting period, people look at that and say, well this is proving to be true in the past, let's go with it.
SAN MIGUEL: The damage that was done, four 2,000-pounds dropped on this area. And we have heard from CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon that the first two were penetrating target bombs, and then these other two had very, very short time delays, thinking that they knew there was a bunker somewhere underneath there.
KENNEDY: It sounds like it. It sounds like they knew that they needed to really go in, hit it very, very hard, and make sure that they did the job in one operation.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. Now, even if -- let's say for the sake of argument, nobody really knows for sure. They may not know because they don't have any forensic teams at the site, and you can see the damage. I mean, there would be an awful lot to go through. But let's say for the sake of argument, Saddam Hussein and his two sons are dead. The job is really not over for the coalition forces, is it?
KENNEDY: That's right, Renay. It's a matter of going in, and making sure we've accounted for the entire top team that belonged to Saddam Hussein, and making sure that the core commanders are accounted for. And as the Iraqis see more capitulation and more destruction of the top leadership of that terrible regime, it's more likely will get help from them. They'll come out from cover and give us more information that will help us speed up the pace of this complete destruction of a regime that has done so much damage.
SAN MIGUEL: Getting back to the gathering of intelligence, a couple Baath party officials taken into custody, according to Vince Brooks, and that's more intelligence sources right there.
KENNEDY: That's right. That's right.
SAN MIGUEL: Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, thanks for your time. We'll be talking to you in the next hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
