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CNN Live At Daybreak
New Man in Charge of Reconstructing Iraq in Capital City
Aired April 21, 2003 - 05:33 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: It's about 1:30 in the afternoon in Baghdad and the new man in charge of reconstructing the new Iraq is now in the capital city.
CNN's Rula Amin joins us live from Baghdad with the latest on General Jay Garner -- good morning, Rula.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Lieutenant General Jay Garner got to Baghdad this morning. He flew from Kuwait and his first stop was an Iraqi hospital here in the capital. And he spoke to reporters. His first comment was that his priority was to restore basic services to the residents of Iraq and as soon as possible, he said. This is going to be a challenging task, because people, whether it's U.S. troops or Iraqi electricians, have been trying to restore power and electricity to the capital for the past two weeks. And so far only a few neighborhoods have electricity. Other neighborhoods still without power, still without running water and medical services are very poor.
So frustration is growing among residents here in Iraq and they are looking for, looking towards the U.S. troops here, holding them responsible for restoring these basic services because they say they were the ones who removed Saddam Hussein and now they want them to help in rebuilding Iraq. At the same time, we are hearing other voices calling on the troops to leave.
Just now behind me there's a demonstration. It's not huge. It's not thousands. But, however, it's been persistent. Every day we have been seeing similar demos, coming here to the Palestine Hotel, where many of the journalists are based, calling on the U.S. troops to leave, calling on the U.S. troops to let Iraqis rule themselves and decide their future and their destiny.
And this is another thing that's going to face Garner. There's a lot of skepticism here on what is his mission here. He says he's only here on a temporary basis until there is a new Iraqi government in place. Some Iraqis are saying for how long? What will be, what will he be in control of? How, what role will Iraqis have in trying to decide where Iraq goes from here?
Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, General Garner says it may be temporary, but over the weekend, U.S. officials say his presence in Iraq may last up to five years. AMIN: Well, we heard yesterday from one of the Iraqi opposition leaders, Ahmed Chalabi. He said that the U.S. presence here may need to last at least for two years, until there is democracy and democratic elections in Iraq.
Now, for some Iraqis, this may seem a bit too long because they are anxious and eager to take matters into their own hands. They want to make sure that they are the ones who make the decisions.
And there's another issue at stake. It's the oil. And they wonder who will control Iraq's oil sales -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I understand.
Rula Amin reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
For more new developments in the new Iraq, we turn to CNN's senior international editor Eli Flournoy -- good morning, Eli.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning.
Well, as Rula was reporting there, things are very complicated now in Iraq, as we transition our coverage from the intense battles and the war itself to now the aftermath and see, you know, who's in charge, who's going to control in Iraq. These questions are very difficult because even amongst the...
COSTELLO: And there are so many difficult questions. Even the question of electricity, because you would think they could just get the electricity back on. And it's somewhat of a mystery as to why they can't.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. Well, there may be answers for those things, but the Iraqis are asking those questions every day, about where, you know, where's the electricity, where's the water, where are the basic services, even before you get to the questions of a new democratic government and who's going to rule.
There are so many different groups with competing interests in Iraq.
COSTELLO: And what seems to be the most organized groups are the Shiites.
FLOURNOY: The Shiites, yes, the majority population in Iraq. They are looking now to -- religious leaders have started to take control of different services and trying to stop looting. They've made many calls to, for people to stop looting. They've gathered up some stuff that's been looted and are redistributing it.
COSTELLO: And they've had much success. For example, in Karbala, there's very little looting and the Shiites are sort of trying to make that as a model of what they can accomplish if they're in charge.
FLOURNOY: Yes. Yes. They have, indeed. In Karbala, as we were hearing earlier from Karl Penhaul, who is in Karbala now, the Shiite pilgrimage going to Karbala is going on right now with literally hundreds of thousands of Shiites walking to Karbala. They're going to be having the pilgrimage there. The issue of concern there, though, is for U.S. forces and the U.S. presence and even for Western journalists who are there, is that Shiite leaders have been calling on this pilgrimage and these marches to act as a demonstration against the U.S. presence there.
So they didn't want Saddam Hussein, but they also don't want the U.S. presence there.
So it's a very tricky balance for U.S. forces and the coalition.
COSTELLO: And, of course, if they're successful in setting up a government, it would be an Islamic government, and that's probably the last thing the United States would want.
FLOURNOY: Well, that's right. The -- it's very tricky because Sharia law, Islamic government is what many people in Iraq are calling for. And as far as whether that would be a democratic government or not, there are many questions about that.
COSTELLO: Many, many questions.
Eli Flournoy, thanks very much.
We'll check back with you at six o'clock.
FLOURNOY: All right, thanks.
COSTELLO: Remember to check out the special report, "The New Iraq," on our Web site. You can find out about life after the war, the transition of power, rebuilding and more, all at cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
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 21, 2003 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's about 1:30 in the afternoon in Baghdad and the new man in charge of reconstructing the new Iraq is now in the capital city.
CNN's Rula Amin joins us live from Baghdad with the latest on General Jay Garner -- good morning, Rula.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Lieutenant General Jay Garner got to Baghdad this morning. He flew from Kuwait and his first stop was an Iraqi hospital here in the capital. And he spoke to reporters. His first comment was that his priority was to restore basic services to the residents of Iraq and as soon as possible, he said. This is going to be a challenging task, because people, whether it's U.S. troops or Iraqi electricians, have been trying to restore power and electricity to the capital for the past two weeks. And so far only a few neighborhoods have electricity. Other neighborhoods still without power, still without running water and medical services are very poor.
So frustration is growing among residents here in Iraq and they are looking for, looking towards the U.S. troops here, holding them responsible for restoring these basic services because they say they were the ones who removed Saddam Hussein and now they want them to help in rebuilding Iraq. At the same time, we are hearing other voices calling on the troops to leave.
Just now behind me there's a demonstration. It's not huge. It's not thousands. But, however, it's been persistent. Every day we have been seeing similar demos, coming here to the Palestine Hotel, where many of the journalists are based, calling on the U.S. troops to leave, calling on the U.S. troops to let Iraqis rule themselves and decide their future and their destiny.
And this is another thing that's going to face Garner. There's a lot of skepticism here on what is his mission here. He says he's only here on a temporary basis until there is a new Iraqi government in place. Some Iraqis are saying for how long? What will be, what will he be in control of? How, what role will Iraqis have in trying to decide where Iraq goes from here?
Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, General Garner says it may be temporary, but over the weekend, U.S. officials say his presence in Iraq may last up to five years. AMIN: Well, we heard yesterday from one of the Iraqi opposition leaders, Ahmed Chalabi. He said that the U.S. presence here may need to last at least for two years, until there is democracy and democratic elections in Iraq.
Now, for some Iraqis, this may seem a bit too long because they are anxious and eager to take matters into their own hands. They want to make sure that they are the ones who make the decisions.
And there's another issue at stake. It's the oil. And they wonder who will control Iraq's oil sales -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I understand.
Rula Amin reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
For more new developments in the new Iraq, we turn to CNN's senior international editor Eli Flournoy -- good morning, Eli.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning.
Well, as Rula was reporting there, things are very complicated now in Iraq, as we transition our coverage from the intense battles and the war itself to now the aftermath and see, you know, who's in charge, who's going to control in Iraq. These questions are very difficult because even amongst the...
COSTELLO: And there are so many difficult questions. Even the question of electricity, because you would think they could just get the electricity back on. And it's somewhat of a mystery as to why they can't.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. Well, there may be answers for those things, but the Iraqis are asking those questions every day, about where, you know, where's the electricity, where's the water, where are the basic services, even before you get to the questions of a new democratic government and who's going to rule.
There are so many different groups with competing interests in Iraq.
COSTELLO: And what seems to be the most organized groups are the Shiites.
FLOURNOY: The Shiites, yes, the majority population in Iraq. They are looking now to -- religious leaders have started to take control of different services and trying to stop looting. They've made many calls to, for people to stop looting. They've gathered up some stuff that's been looted and are redistributing it.
COSTELLO: And they've had much success. For example, in Karbala, there's very little looting and the Shiites are sort of trying to make that as a model of what they can accomplish if they're in charge.
FLOURNOY: Yes. Yes. They have, indeed. In Karbala, as we were hearing earlier from Karl Penhaul, who is in Karbala now, the Shiite pilgrimage going to Karbala is going on right now with literally hundreds of thousands of Shiites walking to Karbala. They're going to be having the pilgrimage there. The issue of concern there, though, is for U.S. forces and the U.S. presence and even for Western journalists who are there, is that Shiite leaders have been calling on this pilgrimage and these marches to act as a demonstration against the U.S. presence there.
So they didn't want Saddam Hussein, but they also don't want the U.S. presence there.
So it's a very tricky balance for U.S. forces and the coalition.
COSTELLO: And, of course, if they're successful in setting up a government, it would be an Islamic government, and that's probably the last thing the United States would want.
FLOURNOY: Well, that's right. The -- it's very tricky because Sharia law, Islamic government is what many people in Iraq are calling for. And as far as whether that would be a democratic government or not, there are many questions about that.
COSTELLO: Many, many questions.
Eli Flournoy, thanks very much.
We'll check back with you at six o'clock.
FLOURNOY: All right, thanks.
COSTELLO: Remember to check out the special report, "The New Iraq," on our Web site. You can find out about life after the war, the transition of power, rebuilding and more, all at cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com