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American Morning
Mass Surrender
Aired April 11, 2003 - 08:35 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 go straight to Baghdad now, where Walt Rodgers is following developments there. He joins us from outside the Palestine Hotel, a hotel a lot of international journalists use.
Good morning, Walt.
WALT RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
We've had a lot of journalistic overviews about what is happening and what is not happening. We're going to give you now a commander's view.
Joining us now is United States Marine Corps Colonel Steven Hummer, commander of the 7th Marine Combat Regiment Team.
Colonel Hummer, what is the situation in Baghdad? Is the war over? Talk to us about that and the looting.
COL. STEVEN HUMMER, U.S. MARINES: First, I would say the war is not over. There is still combat action taking place in and around Baghdad.
For our specific zone, I would consider our zone secure, though periodically, there are potshots, maybe some launched RPGs that are lobbed at us. There is some looting going on. We are trying to get the police back to work to be able to assist us with the security.
RODGERS: Any luck with that? Are any of the civilian people, the police, the electrical workers, water pumpers coming back to work?
HUMMER: Today, we had our first meeting with some of the public officials, and it was very -- what I thought was very successful. Not all of them were there. Obviously, people are home and afraid to come to work. As we get the security piece put in, I think people will be more willing to come to work and get things established.
RODGERS: Colonel hummer, one of the things that the U.S. forces seem to be criticized for is permitting the looting. Are you permitting looting, or do you have authority to stop the looting? Can you shoot a looter?
HUMMER: No, we're not allowed to shoot a looter by the rules of engagement. We're still focused on any kind of enemy in the zone. We do not have the security to cover every store, every gas station, every government building. But our presence does prohibit looting, so we're trying to cover absolutely as much as we can. RODGERS: How long do you think it will be before you get a modicum of stability here?
HUMMER: I think in another day or two. I was energized by the meeting, and some of the points of contact that people did know and said that they would contact them. As well, we'll use our information operations to get word out through the various radio stations that the people here do listen to, and tell them that the areas are relatively secure, and they can get back to work.
RODGERS: Colonel Hummer, tell us why your marines cannot police the city and stop the looting under rules of engage engagement?
HUMMER: Actually, we can stop the looting, and that's by our sheer presence. Again, we don't have enough Marines right now to cover every building, every store front, so we're trying to maintain certain areas, hospitals, key infrastructure areas, certain government buildings, things like that.
RODGERS: Colonel Steven Hummer, thank you very much. Pleasure talking to you.
We've been talking to Colonel Steven Hummer, United States Marine Corps, Commander 7th Regimental Combat Team. His is the responsibility for this sector of Baghdad, and he says that within the next 24, perhaps 48 hours, we will see a diminution of the looting, and some restoration of civil order.
Back to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Walt, that's the first time I think we've heard this meeting that took place between Marines and some of the members of what used to be on the Iraqi police force. Very interesting. Thanks for the update. Back to Daryn now in Kuwait City.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, we're going to go ahead and move north where hundreds, possibly thousands of Saddam Hussein soldiers in northern Iraq have dropped their weapons, they've taken off their uniforms and they started a long march toward Baghdad.
Our Brent Sadler came across this amazing site near Kifri (ph), and he spoke to some of the defeated forces, and he's joining us on the phone right now.
Brent, hello.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Yes, indeed, what we saw, bumped into really, was thousands and thousands of former Iraqi soldiers who were not carrying any weapons. Most of them wearing civilian clothing. Some had remnants of fatigues, olive green uniforms, trousers or jackets, walking along a road in a southerly direction.
Now, these men told me that they had been manning frontline divisions. They were part of an infantry unit, and really had told me that their officers had run away under the heavy coalition bombardment about a week earlier, having seized the identification papers, which prevented them traveling. That had the effect, of course, of forcing them to stay in those frontline positions. So this was really a rather dramatic moment, the first time we've seen such a large number of Saddam Hussein soldiers leaving a recently liberated battlefield zone, and these men were telling me they were happy to be alive. It was going to take them about a week to walk home, and many of them were wearing -- were not wearing boots. Had about a seven-day walk to southern Iraq where they said their homes are.
Now I'm just talking to a quickly developing situation on the ground here. I'm trying to get to Tikrit, possibly the last of any remnants of surviving of Saddam Hussein regular or irregular forces, and I'm trying to get to an Arab village, where there has been a gunfight, a shootout between looters and Arabs in this Arab village, and reports here of at least half a dozen people have been shot in the fire, and apparently looters have gone in disguised, masquerading as Peshmerga fighters, have gone in, trying to steal equipment, that triggered a gun battle, and a number of casualties reported here. So we're turning our vehicles around and getting away from this, and what we're seeing as I move around these areas is tremendous hail. I saw U.S. forces moving into an oil facility with Humvees to prevent looting, to prevent further destruction of infrastructure here.
The looting really is not just in the city, it's right across the whole country, and it's going to remain like this until U.S. forces get on the ground and, more importantly, liase with the kind of institutions and authorities that can really re-establish this breakdown of law and order that's going on right now in Iraq -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Brent Sadler, a number of interesting developments there. We'll check back to you as you try to get closer to Tikrit, as you mentioned, what some people believe be the final big battle of Iraq.
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 11, 2003 - 08:35 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 go straight to Baghdad now, where Walt Rodgers is following developments there. He joins us from outside the Palestine Hotel, a hotel a lot of international journalists use.
Good morning, Walt.
WALT RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
We've had a lot of journalistic overviews about what is happening and what is not happening. We're going to give you now a commander's view.
Joining us now is United States Marine Corps Colonel Steven Hummer, commander of the 7th Marine Combat Regiment Team.
Colonel Hummer, what is the situation in Baghdad? Is the war over? Talk to us about that and the looting.
COL. STEVEN HUMMER, U.S. MARINES: First, I would say the war is not over. There is still combat action taking place in and around Baghdad.
For our specific zone, I would consider our zone secure, though periodically, there are potshots, maybe some launched RPGs that are lobbed at us. There is some looting going on. We are trying to get the police back to work to be able to assist us with the security.
RODGERS: Any luck with that? Are any of the civilian people, the police, the electrical workers, water pumpers coming back to work?
HUMMER: Today, we had our first meeting with some of the public officials, and it was very -- what I thought was very successful. Not all of them were there. Obviously, people are home and afraid to come to work. As we get the security piece put in, I think people will be more willing to come to work and get things established.
RODGERS: Colonel hummer, one of the things that the U.S. forces seem to be criticized for is permitting the looting. Are you permitting looting, or do you have authority to stop the looting? Can you shoot a looter?
HUMMER: No, we're not allowed to shoot a looter by the rules of engagement. We're still focused on any kind of enemy in the zone. We do not have the security to cover every store, every gas station, every government building. But our presence does prohibit looting, so we're trying to cover absolutely as much as we can. RODGERS: How long do you think it will be before you get a modicum of stability here?
HUMMER: I think in another day or two. I was energized by the meeting, and some of the points of contact that people did know and said that they would contact them. As well, we'll use our information operations to get word out through the various radio stations that the people here do listen to, and tell them that the areas are relatively secure, and they can get back to work.
RODGERS: Colonel Hummer, tell us why your marines cannot police the city and stop the looting under rules of engage engagement?
HUMMER: Actually, we can stop the looting, and that's by our sheer presence. Again, we don't have enough Marines right now to cover every building, every store front, so we're trying to maintain certain areas, hospitals, key infrastructure areas, certain government buildings, things like that.
RODGERS: Colonel Steven Hummer, thank you very much. Pleasure talking to you.
We've been talking to Colonel Steven Hummer, United States Marine Corps, Commander 7th Regimental Combat Team. His is the responsibility for this sector of Baghdad, and he says that within the next 24, perhaps 48 hours, we will see a diminution of the looting, and some restoration of civil order.
Back to you, Paula.
ZAHN: Walt, that's the first time I think we've heard this meeting that took place between Marines and some of the members of what used to be on the Iraqi police force. Very interesting. Thanks for the update. Back to Daryn now in Kuwait City.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, we're going to go ahead and move north where hundreds, possibly thousands of Saddam Hussein soldiers in northern Iraq have dropped their weapons, they've taken off their uniforms and they started a long march toward Baghdad.
Our Brent Sadler came across this amazing site near Kifri (ph), and he spoke to some of the defeated forces, and he's joining us on the phone right now.
Brent, hello.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Yes, indeed, what we saw, bumped into really, was thousands and thousands of former Iraqi soldiers who were not carrying any weapons. Most of them wearing civilian clothing. Some had remnants of fatigues, olive green uniforms, trousers or jackets, walking along a road in a southerly direction.
Now, these men told me that they had been manning frontline divisions. They were part of an infantry unit, and really had told me that their officers had run away under the heavy coalition bombardment about a week earlier, having seized the identification papers, which prevented them traveling. That had the effect, of course, of forcing them to stay in those frontline positions. So this was really a rather dramatic moment, the first time we've seen such a large number of Saddam Hussein soldiers leaving a recently liberated battlefield zone, and these men were telling me they were happy to be alive. It was going to take them about a week to walk home, and many of them were wearing -- were not wearing boots. Had about a seven-day walk to southern Iraq where they said their homes are.
Now I'm just talking to a quickly developing situation on the ground here. I'm trying to get to Tikrit, possibly the last of any remnants of surviving of Saddam Hussein regular or irregular forces, and I'm trying to get to an Arab village, where there has been a gunfight, a shootout between looters and Arabs in this Arab village, and reports here of at least half a dozen people have been shot in the fire, and apparently looters have gone in disguised, masquerading as Peshmerga fighters, have gone in, trying to steal equipment, that triggered a gun battle, and a number of casualties reported here. So we're turning our vehicles around and getting away from this, and what we're seeing as I move around these areas is tremendous hail. I saw U.S. forces moving into an oil facility with Humvees to prevent looting, to prevent further destruction of infrastructure here.
The looting really is not just in the city, it's right across the whole country, and it's going to remain like this until U.S. forces get on the ground and, more importantly, liase with the kind of institutions and authorities that can really re-establish this breakdown of law and order that's going on right now in Iraq -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Brent Sadler, a number of interesting developments there. We'll check back to you as you try to get closer to Tikrit, as you mentioned, what some people believe be the final big battle of Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
