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CNN Live At Daybreak
International Wrap, Eye on World
Aired November 17, 2003 - 06:37 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: I want to turn back to Iraq for a minute now and the U.S. military's increased use of force, plus President Bush's trip to London tomorrow -- his very controversial trip.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here to tell us more about those topics.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol. Yes, well, a lot of stuff is swirling around in Iraq at the moment, and it's hard to sort of keep up with exactly where our focus is on our coverage.
But we got a little bit of help from the Bush administration over the weekend, focusing now clearly in the next few months on the idea that the U.S. intends to hand over political power, at least some political power, to the Iraqi Governing Council in June. Some big questions there.
Now, you know, there were a bunch of critics saying, you know, they've got to hurry up and hand over power. Well, now a new bunch of critics is out saying, wait, hold on, too quick, you know, you can't hand over power that quickly. So, we're -- you know, its like the game where you sort of hit people on the head.
We're trying to look through the critics at the real point of whether there will be an Iraqi government and an Iraqi leader or leadership that will be worth handing over power to in June. So, that's a focus of our coverage in the coming months.
And some interesting military aspects, too, to our coverage today and going forward. We are seeing a lot of this new aggression in military tactics. Around Baghdad, they're sweeping two areas, looking for people, following up on intelligence.
And here are some pictures, some spectacular pictures from Tikrit, blowing up homes belonging to suspects. But here's the interesting thing that, again, we have to sort of look behind what we're seeing here. In some cases, at least in some cases in Tikrit, these were homes belonging to suspects they arrested days ago or weeks ago from attacks in early November. They got the suspects. They know where they live. They pulled everybody away from where they lived, and then they blew up the houses.
COSTELLO: Well, and in some cases, they actually went into the homes to make sure no one was there, or to warn people to get out. CLINCH: Absolutely. Definitely. And, you know, a new tactic, not the first time the U.S. has ever done anything like that certainly, but in this intensity, this level of intensity, pulling people away from targets where they know nobody is living, blowing them up. We shoot it, everybody else shoots it, the pictures go on air. It's an interesting tactic. The idea, of course: to deter attacks on the U.S. military and on Iraqis.
It remains to be seen whether that tactic works, but there are also some questions about the whole ethics, if you want to put it that way, of putting pictures on air of things being blown up, where there is obviously no target other than the political goal and the military goal of deterring future attacks.
So, that's an interesting thing we have to...
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Just a couple of quick words about President Bush's pending trip to Great Britain.
CLINCH: Right. Well, first of all, obviously he gave an interview. The most interesting thing today is that President Bush has chosen to give an interview to the tabloid, the leading tabloid in Britain, the "Sun" -- an interesting choice there. And we're hearing reports from London that he was advised by Prime Minister Blair to give this interview.
COSTELLO: That is not the "Sun," by the way.
CLINCH: No, that's the "Mirror," and that's an interesting thing as well, another tabloid, the "Daily Mirror," "Chicken George," saying he withdrew from an address to the joint houses of parliament. Well, there was never a scheduled address to the joint houses of parliament, but, of course, the truth never gets in the way of a good tabloid headline.
But, separately, he gave an interview to the "Sun" today -- an interesting choice. The reports from London are that he's trying to address the British public at the level that they want to be addressed in the tabloids that they read and make a connection to them before he arrives tomorrow.
COSTELLO: Well, we'll be talking a lot about this throughout the day on CNN.
CLINCH: That's going to be a big story this week.
COSTELLO: Yes. David Clinch, many thanks.
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 November 17, 2003 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I want to turn back to Iraq for a minute now and the U.S. military's increased use of force, plus President Bush's trip to London tomorrow -- his very controversial trip.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here to tell us more about those topics.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol. Yes, well, a lot of stuff is swirling around in Iraq at the moment, and it's hard to sort of keep up with exactly where our focus is on our coverage.
But we got a little bit of help from the Bush administration over the weekend, focusing now clearly in the next few months on the idea that the U.S. intends to hand over political power, at least some political power, to the Iraqi Governing Council in June. Some big questions there.
Now, you know, there were a bunch of critics saying, you know, they've got to hurry up and hand over power. Well, now a new bunch of critics is out saying, wait, hold on, too quick, you know, you can't hand over power that quickly. So, we're -- you know, its like the game where you sort of hit people on the head.
We're trying to look through the critics at the real point of whether there will be an Iraqi government and an Iraqi leader or leadership that will be worth handing over power to in June. So, that's a focus of our coverage in the coming months.
And some interesting military aspects, too, to our coverage today and going forward. We are seeing a lot of this new aggression in military tactics. Around Baghdad, they're sweeping two areas, looking for people, following up on intelligence.
And here are some pictures, some spectacular pictures from Tikrit, blowing up homes belonging to suspects. But here's the interesting thing that, again, we have to sort of look behind what we're seeing here. In some cases, at least in some cases in Tikrit, these were homes belonging to suspects they arrested days ago or weeks ago from attacks in early November. They got the suspects. They know where they live. They pulled everybody away from where they lived, and then they blew up the houses.
COSTELLO: Well, and in some cases, they actually went into the homes to make sure no one was there, or to warn people to get out. CLINCH: Absolutely. Definitely. And, you know, a new tactic, not the first time the U.S. has ever done anything like that certainly, but in this intensity, this level of intensity, pulling people away from targets where they know nobody is living, blowing them up. We shoot it, everybody else shoots it, the pictures go on air. It's an interesting tactic. The idea, of course: to deter attacks on the U.S. military and on Iraqis.
It remains to be seen whether that tactic works, but there are also some questions about the whole ethics, if you want to put it that way, of putting pictures on air of things being blown up, where there is obviously no target other than the political goal and the military goal of deterring future attacks.
So, that's an interesting thing we have to...
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Just a couple of quick words about President Bush's pending trip to Great Britain.
CLINCH: Right. Well, first of all, obviously he gave an interview. The most interesting thing today is that President Bush has chosen to give an interview to the tabloid, the leading tabloid in Britain, the "Sun" -- an interesting choice there. And we're hearing reports from London that he was advised by Prime Minister Blair to give this interview.
COSTELLO: That is not the "Sun," by the way.
CLINCH: No, that's the "Mirror," and that's an interesting thing as well, another tabloid, the "Daily Mirror," "Chicken George," saying he withdrew from an address to the joint houses of parliament. Well, there was never a scheduled address to the joint houses of parliament, but, of course, the truth never gets in the way of a good tabloid headline.
But, separately, he gave an interview to the "Sun" today -- an interesting choice. The reports from London are that he's trying to address the British public at the level that they want to be addressed in the tabloids that they read and make a connection to them before he arrives tomorrow.
COSTELLO: Well, we'll be talking a lot about this throughout the day on CNN.
CLINCH: That's going to be a big story this week.
COSTELLO: Yes. David Clinch, many thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
