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CNN Live At Daybreak
U.S. Civil Administrator is Dissolving Iraqi Armed Forces
Aired May 23, 2003 - 06:08 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: Paul Jerry Bremer is moving fast. The civilian administrator in Iraq is dissolving the Iraqi armed forces. It means 350,000 soldiers will be out of work.
We take you live to Baghdad and Jane Arraf.
Jane -- why is Mr. Bremer doing this?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, the short answer, in their words, is they want to show that they are eradicating Saddam Hussein's regime forever.
Now, that obviously was an essential pillar of the armed forces. And with this order not only is the army dissolved, it's also the Republican Guard, all of those security organizations and the information ministry. It essentially means they do not exist. The people who worked for them no longer have any legal entity to work for.
And it does, as you said, throw out of work up to 400,000 soldiers, many of them still with the guns that they had while they were in the military. Now, there is no new army to replace them, but the U.S. says that it intends to pump a lot of money in the economy to try to keep people busy.
The other thing, of course, that it's concentrating on is trying to move forward to get that interim Iraqi government into place to replace the U.S. and Britain. And they've been doing things like meeting with local politicians and meeting with tribal sheiks in an area called Ramadi, an area that is still unsettled, not too far from Baghdad.
Now, this is an effort to build, they say, a representative government, not just one that's dominated by the Iraqi opposition or any one group, but something that really does represent the new Iraq -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jane Arraf bringing us up-to-date 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 23, 2003 - 06:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Paul Jerry Bremer is moving fast. The civilian administrator in Iraq is dissolving the Iraqi armed forces. It means 350,000 soldiers will be out of work.
We take you live to Baghdad and Jane Arraf.
Jane -- why is Mr. Bremer doing this?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, the short answer, in their words, is they want to show that they are eradicating Saddam Hussein's regime forever.
Now, that obviously was an essential pillar of the armed forces. And with this order not only is the army dissolved, it's also the Republican Guard, all of those security organizations and the information ministry. It essentially means they do not exist. The people who worked for them no longer have any legal entity to work for.
And it does, as you said, throw out of work up to 400,000 soldiers, many of them still with the guns that they had while they were in the military. Now, there is no new army to replace them, but the U.S. says that it intends to pump a lot of money in the economy to try to keep people busy.
The other thing, of course, that it's concentrating on is trying to move forward to get that interim Iraqi government into place to replace the U.S. and Britain. And they've been doing things like meeting with local politicians and meeting with tribal sheiks in an area called Ramadi, an area that is still unsettled, not too far from Baghdad.
Now, this is an effort to build, they say, a representative government, not just one that's dominated by the Iraqi opposition or any one group, but something that really does represent the new Iraq -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jane Arraf bringing us up-to-date 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.
