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Powell Arrived in Baghdad Yesterday
Aired September 15, 2003 - 10:32 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell visited a mass grave to remind a war-weary public of Saddam Hussein's brutality. Let's get the latest now from Baghdad. Our senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers checks in.
Hello, Walt.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
There was more than a little deliberate symbolism in Secretary of State Colin Powell's last day, his visit to the northern Kurdish areas of Iraq. Recall that the Kurds were the people who were extremely brutally persecuted and murdered by Saddam Hussein. So Colin Powell went up there because he knew he would get a good reception. The hallmark of his visit up there was the Kurdish town of Halajjah (ph). Halajjah Its is area in which 1988, Saddam Hussein did, indeed, use weapons of mass destruction, butchering over 5,000 Kurdish people by the gas, the poison and chemical gas, which was used against the Kurds by the Saddam regime.
Yesterday, in Baghdad, however, Secretary Powell had a somewhat cooler reception, then he met with Iraqi Shiites, the Muslim sect, which is the -- which comprises the greatest number of people here in Iraq. The Iraqi Shiites are far more skeptical wary and less trusting of the United States, and perhaps for good reason. They claim that in the period right after the first Gulf War, that they were brutally butchered by Saddam Hussein. They say the first Bush administration urged them to rise up against Saddam, and were abandoned by the Bush administration, according to the Shias, so Mr. Powell, the U.S. secretary of state, had some selling to do to overcome the skepticism.
Here in Baghdad, overnight, yet another U.S. army soldier was killed, this in a rocket propelled grenade attack in the Baghdad suburbs. It was about 1:30 in the morning. The soldier was out in patrol in an unarmored Humvee. That Humvee was struck by a deadly rocket-propelled grenade. The soldier was taken to hospital. Mortally wounded, he died a few hours later. It was yet another dead American in a zone where we're seeing almost one dead American nearly every day -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Walt, as the secretary of state Colin Powell continues his visit to the country, I'm curious about the conversations he's having there with the leaders about the timetable for the turnover of authority for that country back to its own people. Has he said anything at all about that? And what is he saying there about his efforts to get nor international help? I should say the efforts that have not been very productive up to this point? RODGERS: That's true, Leon. And remember, the first thing he said is the French plan is not going to fly with the Americans, which is to say a rapid turnover of authority here in Iraq, to France, to the United Nations. Powell says the United States wants involvement of other people, other countries in Iraq in the reconstruction, but what he's been very clear to say throughout all this is that he wants it done gradually, because if the Americans were to pull out too quickly, pull up their stakes and go, Iraq would collapse, and more importantly, he said in the context of Iraq and its security, it's going to be sometime before the Iraqis themselves are capable of depending themselves, policing themselves -- Leon.
HARRIS: Walter Rodgers, reporting live for us from Baghdad. Thanks, Walt. Be careful. We'll see you soon.
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 15, 2003 - 10:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell visited a mass grave to remind a war-weary public of Saddam Hussein's brutality. Let's get the latest now from Baghdad. Our senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers checks in.
Hello, Walt.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
There was more than a little deliberate symbolism in Secretary of State Colin Powell's last day, his visit to the northern Kurdish areas of Iraq. Recall that the Kurds were the people who were extremely brutally persecuted and murdered by Saddam Hussein. So Colin Powell went up there because he knew he would get a good reception. The hallmark of his visit up there was the Kurdish town of Halajjah (ph). Halajjah Its is area in which 1988, Saddam Hussein did, indeed, use weapons of mass destruction, butchering over 5,000 Kurdish people by the gas, the poison and chemical gas, which was used against the Kurds by the Saddam regime.
Yesterday, in Baghdad, however, Secretary Powell had a somewhat cooler reception, then he met with Iraqi Shiites, the Muslim sect, which is the -- which comprises the greatest number of people here in Iraq. The Iraqi Shiites are far more skeptical wary and less trusting of the United States, and perhaps for good reason. They claim that in the period right after the first Gulf War, that they were brutally butchered by Saddam Hussein. They say the first Bush administration urged them to rise up against Saddam, and were abandoned by the Bush administration, according to the Shias, so Mr. Powell, the U.S. secretary of state, had some selling to do to overcome the skepticism.
Here in Baghdad, overnight, yet another U.S. army soldier was killed, this in a rocket propelled grenade attack in the Baghdad suburbs. It was about 1:30 in the morning. The soldier was out in patrol in an unarmored Humvee. That Humvee was struck by a deadly rocket-propelled grenade. The soldier was taken to hospital. Mortally wounded, he died a few hours later. It was yet another dead American in a zone where we're seeing almost one dead American nearly every day -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Walt, as the secretary of state Colin Powell continues his visit to the country, I'm curious about the conversations he's having there with the leaders about the timetable for the turnover of authority for that country back to its own people. Has he said anything at all about that? And what is he saying there about his efforts to get nor international help? I should say the efforts that have not been very productive up to this point? RODGERS: That's true, Leon. And remember, the first thing he said is the French plan is not going to fly with the Americans, which is to say a rapid turnover of authority here in Iraq, to France, to the United Nations. Powell says the United States wants involvement of other people, other countries in Iraq in the reconstruction, but what he's been very clear to say throughout all this is that he wants it done gradually, because if the Americans were to pull out too quickly, pull up their stakes and go, Iraq would collapse, and more importantly, he said in the context of Iraq and its security, it's going to be sometime before the Iraqis themselves are capable of depending themselves, policing themselves -- Leon.
HARRIS: Walter Rodgers, reporting live for us from Baghdad. Thanks, Walt. Be careful. We'll see you soon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
