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CNN Live At Daybreak
War in Iraq: CENTCOM Update
Aired April 09, 2003 - 05:49 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: Let's go to Doha, Qatar now to CENTCOM and Tom Mintier always has new tidbits of information for us. What have you got?
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well we're sensing a feeling of cautious optimism. They say that what we're seeing on the streets of Baghdad, the jubilation, people going into regime locations and taking out what they wanted scenes, say this is just a small picture in a larger mosaic, that there is still fighting in areas of the country. They don't have a total picture of celebration.
Interesting when you look at these pictures, apparently it turned so rapidly, some people are still carrying their guns while they're dancing and celebrating, which could be a very dangerous thing to have happen. I saw at least two pictures of men out in the street cheering still having their Kalashikov over their shoulders and several pictures of men without their shirts, apparently, or possibly taking their uniform off and casting it aside and joining in the celebration that's going on in Baghdad.
But again, here at CENTCOM, they are being very, very cautious about the images that you're seeing, saying that this is maybe not representative of everything that's going on in the country, that it is in a localized area, that there are still hostilities going on, there are still shots being exchanged.
But we saw these pictures from Erbil a little while ago, it seems that this melting away that we've heard over the past week of the Republican Guard has gone to other parts of the regime. Reporters in Baghdad saying that their minders, who have shown up for work every single day and are with them constantly, simply did not show up to work today. And that was seen as a sign that possibly the regime has vacated the building, if you will. Other signs on the streets, policemen not out in plain sight anywhere, people driving the wrong way on one-way streets, not stopping for street lights. We saw this in Basra just a couple of days ago.
So again, it is a chaotic situation where people who have been held down under the boot of Saddam Hussein, as they like to call it here at CENTCOM, finally casting off those chains and rising up on the streets and a bit of celebration and a lot of looting. But again, the officials here at CENTCOM say that this may not be representative of what is going on totally inside Iraq, that they're still concerned about hostilities.
Carol, back to you. COSTELLO: And, Tom, just a question for you, you know these large crowds and they're celebrating and they're joyous, but at some point somebody's going to have to take control of this area of Baghdad and will that be U.S. troops? It probably will be, right?
MINTIER: Well we've heard that the force inside Baghdad is going to double in the next 48 hours. And with what we've seen in Basra, they were going in and loading up trucks and buses and tractor trailers with food stuffs that the regime had held in their warehouses. The British troops stopping them on the edge of town, unloading the trucks and then trying to find a proper way to distribute the food to those who need it. We may be seeing the same scenes from the warehouses in Baghdad later in the day once those are located and people go in and start emptying those out.
What remains to be seen is whether they have the ability, the American troops on the ground in Baghdad, to take control of the situation, if it indeed starts to turn chaotic. Again, this increase in force may be an indicator that somebody may have seen this coming and the need to exert civil control may replace military control very quickly.
COSTELLO: Understand. Tom Mintier, thanks for the update from CENTCOM.
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 9, 2003 - 05:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to Doha, Qatar now to CENTCOM and Tom Mintier always has new tidbits of information for us. What have you got?
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well we're sensing a feeling of cautious optimism. They say that what we're seeing on the streets of Baghdad, the jubilation, people going into regime locations and taking out what they wanted scenes, say this is just a small picture in a larger mosaic, that there is still fighting in areas of the country. They don't have a total picture of celebration.
Interesting when you look at these pictures, apparently it turned so rapidly, some people are still carrying their guns while they're dancing and celebrating, which could be a very dangerous thing to have happen. I saw at least two pictures of men out in the street cheering still having their Kalashikov over their shoulders and several pictures of men without their shirts, apparently, or possibly taking their uniform off and casting it aside and joining in the celebration that's going on in Baghdad.
But again, here at CENTCOM, they are being very, very cautious about the images that you're seeing, saying that this is maybe not representative of everything that's going on in the country, that it is in a localized area, that there are still hostilities going on, there are still shots being exchanged.
But we saw these pictures from Erbil a little while ago, it seems that this melting away that we've heard over the past week of the Republican Guard has gone to other parts of the regime. Reporters in Baghdad saying that their minders, who have shown up for work every single day and are with them constantly, simply did not show up to work today. And that was seen as a sign that possibly the regime has vacated the building, if you will. Other signs on the streets, policemen not out in plain sight anywhere, people driving the wrong way on one-way streets, not stopping for street lights. We saw this in Basra just a couple of days ago.
So again, it is a chaotic situation where people who have been held down under the boot of Saddam Hussein, as they like to call it here at CENTCOM, finally casting off those chains and rising up on the streets and a bit of celebration and a lot of looting. But again, the officials here at CENTCOM say that this may not be representative of what is going on totally inside Iraq, that they're still concerned about hostilities.
Carol, back to you. COSTELLO: And, Tom, just a question for you, you know these large crowds and they're celebrating and they're joyous, but at some point somebody's going to have to take control of this area of Baghdad and will that be U.S. troops? It probably will be, right?
MINTIER: Well we've heard that the force inside Baghdad is going to double in the next 48 hours. And with what we've seen in Basra, they were going in and loading up trucks and buses and tractor trailers with food stuffs that the regime had held in their warehouses. The British troops stopping them on the edge of town, unloading the trucks and then trying to find a proper way to distribute the food to those who need it. We may be seeing the same scenes from the warehouses in Baghdad later in the day once those are located and people go in and start emptying those out.
What remains to be seen is whether they have the ability, the American troops on the ground in Baghdad, to take control of the situation, if it indeed starts to turn chaotic. Again, this increase in force may be an indicator that somebody may have seen this coming and the need to exert civil control may replace military control very quickly.
COSTELLO: Understand. Tom Mintier, thanks for the update from CENTCOM.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
