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Paul Bremer Arrives in Baghdad as Top U.S. Administrator

Aired May 12, 2003 - 06:02   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: There is a shakeup in the new Iraq. Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner will be coming home, and a new man will take the helm. L. Paul Bremer is now in Iraq ready to take over.
CNN's John Vause live in Baghdad with why and much more.

Good morning -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, we're expecting L. Paul Bremer here in the Iraqi capital at any moment now. We know that the man he is replacing, Jay Garner, traveled to Kuwait to meet with Mr. Bremer, as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. That happened last night. The three men then flew to Kuwait and then on to Basra, the southern city in Iraq.

And in Basra, Jay Garner actually denied that he was leaving early, but Paul Bremer said that the man had done a great job. It certainly sounded by what we heard, by what Bremer was saying that Jay Garner's work here is over, saying that his team and Jay Garner had done a great job. But there are many here in Iraq who would disagree with that assessment.

We know that electricity is unreliable, the garbage isn't being collected, many parts of Baghdad are still very dangerous, there is looting by day. And many Iraqis now feel very disillusioned, and there's growing resentment here towards the United States and their promises of law and order, let alone the promise that they will have a better life.

Now, one of the big problems for Bremer will be to begin paying wages, and we saw that problem today on the streets here in Baghdad, a small demonstration by former Iraqi officers and NCO's (ph). They marched on the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, and they demanded back pay and they demanded their jobs back. And they say that they were promised this in those leaflets that were dropped by coalition aircraft before the war began. They demanded to speak with Jay Garner. They obviously didn't know that he was in Basra. They also didn't know that he no longer has the job -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Mr. Bremer has his work cut out for him.

I wanted to ask you about something else. An Iraqi Shiite cleric is going to arrive in Najaf. I don't know if he's arrived yet or not. Maybe you can tell us that. And why is this a concern for the United States?

VAUSE: Well, we know that he is in Najaf. He is being greeted by tens of thousands -- some reports say hundreds of thousands -- of his supporters. This is his birthplace. It's a holy city. And he's been touring the south and central part of Iraq for the last three days, ever since he returned from exile from Iran. He's been exiled for 23 years.

And the big concern for the United States is that Mohammed al- Hakim, the ayatollah, will try to establish some kind of Islamic theocracy similar to and friendly to the one currently in place in Iran. And already, Washington is hearing what it says are some troubling words from the ayatollah, things like the foreign forces must leave Iraq now, leaving Iraq to be governed by Iraqis.

And it looks as though the ayatollah is positioning himself to become the leader of all of the Shiite Muslim sect. He's stepping down as the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, setting himself up as the spiritual leader, a very influential position when it comes to the Shias here in Iraq -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. John Vause reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

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 May 12, 2003 - 06:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There is a shakeup in the new Iraq. Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner will be coming home, and a new man will take the helm. L. Paul Bremer is now in Iraq ready to take over.
CNN's John Vause live in Baghdad with why and much more.

Good morning -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, we're expecting L. Paul Bremer here in the Iraqi capital at any moment now. We know that the man he is replacing, Jay Garner, traveled to Kuwait to meet with Mr. Bremer, as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. That happened last night. The three men then flew to Kuwait and then on to Basra, the southern city in Iraq.

And in Basra, Jay Garner actually denied that he was leaving early, but Paul Bremer said that the man had done a great job. It certainly sounded by what we heard, by what Bremer was saying that Jay Garner's work here is over, saying that his team and Jay Garner had done a great job. But there are many here in Iraq who would disagree with that assessment.

We know that electricity is unreliable, the garbage isn't being collected, many parts of Baghdad are still very dangerous, there is looting by day. And many Iraqis now feel very disillusioned, and there's growing resentment here towards the United States and their promises of law and order, let alone the promise that they will have a better life.

Now, one of the big problems for Bremer will be to begin paying wages, and we saw that problem today on the streets here in Baghdad, a small demonstration by former Iraqi officers and NCO's (ph). They marched on the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, and they demanded back pay and they demanded their jobs back. And they say that they were promised this in those leaflets that were dropped by coalition aircraft before the war began. They demanded to speak with Jay Garner. They obviously didn't know that he was in Basra. They also didn't know that he no longer has the job -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Mr. Bremer has his work cut out for him.

I wanted to ask you about something else. An Iraqi Shiite cleric is going to arrive in Najaf. I don't know if he's arrived yet or not. Maybe you can tell us that. And why is this a concern for the United States?

VAUSE: Well, we know that he is in Najaf. He is being greeted by tens of thousands -- some reports say hundreds of thousands -- of his supporters. This is his birthplace. It's a holy city. And he's been touring the south and central part of Iraq for the last three days, ever since he returned from exile from Iran. He's been exiled for 23 years.

And the big concern for the United States is that Mohammed al- Hakim, the ayatollah, will try to establish some kind of Islamic theocracy similar to and friendly to the one currently in place in Iran. And already, Washington is hearing what it says are some troubling words from the ayatollah, things like the foreign forces must leave Iraq now, leaving Iraq to be governed by Iraqis.

And it looks as though the ayatollah is positioning himself to become the leader of all of the Shiite Muslim sect. He's stepping down as the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, setting himself up as the spiritual leader, a very influential position when it comes to the Shias here in Iraq -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. John Vause reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

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