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Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Arrives in Iraq

Aired September 04, 2003 - 11:05   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has arrived in Iraq. He says he wants to get a firsthand sense of the situation as U.S. troops face continued guerrilla attacks.
Our Ben Wedeman joins us from Baghdad with more on Rumsfeld's visit.

Ben, hello.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Daryn.

Well, Secretary Rumsfeld is in Baghdad now. He says he's going to be meeting with political leaders, civilian leaders, as well the troops.

Now as the British are debating whether to increase their garrison in Iraq by as much as 5,000, Secretary Rumsfeld is sticking to his guns, so to speak, insisting what is needed here is not more U.S. troops, but more Iraqi security forces. At this point, there are more than 50,000 Iraqis working and the police keeping law and order, guarding the borders and protecting critical infrastructure and ministries.

And today, in fact, a new -- there was a police graduation ceremony, 250 new policemen who have gone through a training course organized by the coalition, which raised their awareness about such things as human rights, and that's the sort of thing they probably didn't spend much time with under Saddam's regime.

Now, during his visit, Mr. Rumsfeld, obviously, is going to see how the troops are doing. The troops, obviously, are having some occasional difficult time in Tikrit, the hometown of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. There was something of an intense firefight up there after the U.S. base in Tikrit came under a volley of mortar rounds. No casualties in that instance, but what ensued was intense gun battle, as you can hear. And no casualties, as I said, but one house was set on fire.

Afterwards, U.S. troops went out to control the area. They found, according to U.S. military services, four men who it appears were involved in making IEDs. Those are those improvised explosive devices which have caused so much trouble for U.S. forces -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And, Ben, what about this presence of Donald Rumsfeld and this visit? Is this somebody that Iraqis are familiar with, and is it a big deal to Iraqis that he's come to visit, or this just more of an American story? WEDEMAN: Well, it's something that concerns most Iraqis. I was out on the streets for the last three hours at a demonstration that had nothing to do with Mr. Rumsfeld's visit. When I asked people if they knew about it, most of them did not, and they are well aware of Mr. Rumsfeld's role in the war, but many people sort of passed on from that phase. They say we appreciate what they did to liberate the country, but now they want to get back to life as normal. They say there's still problems with electricity, that the United States never lived up to its promises to provide food and medicine. So he's coming to a country that is increasingly restive under U.S. control, or rather U.S.-led coalition control, and they're beginning to say, we want to see results -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Ben Wedeman in Baghdad. Thank you for that.

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 September 4, 2003 - 11:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has arrived in Iraq. He says he wants to get a firsthand sense of the situation as U.S. troops face continued guerrilla attacks.
Our Ben Wedeman joins us from Baghdad with more on Rumsfeld's visit.

Ben, hello.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hello, Daryn.

Well, Secretary Rumsfeld is in Baghdad now. He says he's going to be meeting with political leaders, civilian leaders, as well the troops.

Now as the British are debating whether to increase their garrison in Iraq by as much as 5,000, Secretary Rumsfeld is sticking to his guns, so to speak, insisting what is needed here is not more U.S. troops, but more Iraqi security forces. At this point, there are more than 50,000 Iraqis working and the police keeping law and order, guarding the borders and protecting critical infrastructure and ministries.

And today, in fact, a new -- there was a police graduation ceremony, 250 new policemen who have gone through a training course organized by the coalition, which raised their awareness about such things as human rights, and that's the sort of thing they probably didn't spend much time with under Saddam's regime.

Now, during his visit, Mr. Rumsfeld, obviously, is going to see how the troops are doing. The troops, obviously, are having some occasional difficult time in Tikrit, the hometown of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. There was something of an intense firefight up there after the U.S. base in Tikrit came under a volley of mortar rounds. No casualties in that instance, but what ensued was intense gun battle, as you can hear. And no casualties, as I said, but one house was set on fire.

Afterwards, U.S. troops went out to control the area. They found, according to U.S. military services, four men who it appears were involved in making IEDs. Those are those improvised explosive devices which have caused so much trouble for U.S. forces -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And, Ben, what about this presence of Donald Rumsfeld and this visit? Is this somebody that Iraqis are familiar with, and is it a big deal to Iraqis that he's come to visit, or this just more of an American story? WEDEMAN: Well, it's something that concerns most Iraqis. I was out on the streets for the last three hours at a demonstration that had nothing to do with Mr. Rumsfeld's visit. When I asked people if they knew about it, most of them did not, and they are well aware of Mr. Rumsfeld's role in the war, but many people sort of passed on from that phase. They say we appreciate what they did to liberate the country, but now they want to get back to life as normal. They say there's still problems with electricity, that the United States never lived up to its promises to provide food and medicine. So he's coming to a country that is increasingly restive under U.S. control, or rather U.S.-led coalition control, and they're beginning to say, we want to see results -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Ben Wedeman in Baghdad. Thank you for that.

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