Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Attacks Against Iraqis Working With U.S. Increasing

Aired November 25, 2003 - 07:32   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq right now and the situation. The Iraqi Governing Council wants the American occupation to end in June of next year and has asked the U.N. to pass a resolution confirming that.
Meanwhile, attacks against Iraqis working with the U.S. are increasing, like the bombing of a police station last month.

The U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, said today it's a pattern of intimidation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: The security situation has changed. In the past, attacks against coalition forces were predominant. Now, terrorist attacks against Iraqis are occurring regularly. This is a repugnant but not unexpected tactic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Meanwhile, the attack on two U.S. soldiers in Mosul, the northern part of Iraq, on Sunday, especially vicious. The soldiers' bodies shot and then apparently dragged from their vehicle and robbed on the street there.

For insight into this, our military analyst, General David Grange is back with us here, Oakbrook, Illinois -- General, good morning to you.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

HEMMER: So much of what we don't know in Mosul happens -- the Iraqis have a story, CENTCOM has a story. If this were just one vehicle traveling through town, does that strike you as unusual?

GRANGE: Well, it does. In normal operations, you would have at least one other vehicle as what they call a wing man or a cover vehicle in case someone gets in trouble. It could just be an accident or a vehicle break down. But usually there are always two. There's either two troops together, two vehicles together, two helicopters together is normal operating procedure.

HEMMER: Yes, and General, you know, there's another report that came out yesterday that said there was a convoy there. And if there were, why weren't other forces there to respond to this crowd? GRANGE: Well, I'm sure that's what's being investigated by the military chain of command, because if there was a convoy, why did the one vehicle get separated? And, if so, why wasn't someone else responding immediately to provide cover and rescue of those particular soldiers?

HEMMER: There was a suggestion that CENTCOM is going out of its way to try and clarify this and explain this. Does that make sense to you? Why would they be doing that?

GRANGE: Well, because there's a lot of talk about it and also they owe it to the relatives, the parents and the spouses involved of these particular soldiers. I mean that's -- the normal procedure is to make sure the truth gets out and the situation is explained properly to those that know the soldiers, to the families.

HEMMER: Do you see -- on the behalf of the insurgency here, do you see this as an expanded strategy or do you see this as a way of trying to stretch the coalition forces?

GRANGE: Yes, let me take up with what Ambassador Bremer was saying, that the strategy of the insurgents, there are three things they must do. One, they must attack, obviously, the coalition forces. Number two, they must attack the alliances. That's like the allies, whether it be British, polish, Italians, to include the U.N., the Red Cross, any institution that's involved in this effort. And the third item is attack the strategy, which is the transition to a democratic type of governance in Iraq.

To do that, you have to deal with the Iraqi people, in other words, convince them that it's not worth it, intimidate them, instill fear. And that's what you're seeing going on right now.

If they just do it in the Sunni Triangle area, then you have the perception that they don't have the ability to do it throughout the entire country. So they're doing this in different places to at least have the perception that they have that capability.

HEMMER: Do you see any evidence that it's working?

GRANGE: Well, it's working a little bit and that's why it's very important that the information piece of this thing is translated properly. That, in fact, the majority of the Iraqi people want to transition to a peaceful nation that's prosperous and a different type of governance. But it's hard to do that unless the message gets out. And I think getting the message out is part of the failure.

HEMMER: One more thought here, if we could. We're getting a report now that at least 17 coalition forces, 17 since April, have committed suicide in Iraq.

Does that strike you, based on your own military experience, as unusually high?

GRANGE: It does appear to be a little bit high. Now, maybe I've been fortunate in the units that I've served, while we, there was very few situations like this. It seems like a high number and, of course, they'll respond, the military will respond with some type of psychological assessment team to try to figure out what the reason is. But it does appear to be high.

HEMMER: Retired Brigadier General David Grange, thanks.

Good to chat with you, as always.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

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 25, 2003 - 07:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq right now and the situation. The Iraqi Governing Council wants the American occupation to end in June of next year and has asked the U.N. to pass a resolution confirming that.
Meanwhile, attacks against Iraqis working with the U.S. are increasing, like the bombing of a police station last month.

The U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, said today it's a pattern of intimidation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. PAUL BREMER, U.S./IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATOR: The security situation has changed. In the past, attacks against coalition forces were predominant. Now, terrorist attacks against Iraqis are occurring regularly. This is a repugnant but not unexpected tactic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Meanwhile, the attack on two U.S. soldiers in Mosul, the northern part of Iraq, on Sunday, especially vicious. The soldiers' bodies shot and then apparently dragged from their vehicle and robbed on the street there.

For insight into this, our military analyst, General David Grange is back with us here, Oakbrook, Illinois -- General, good morning to you.

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, U.S. ARMY (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

HEMMER: So much of what we don't know in Mosul happens -- the Iraqis have a story, CENTCOM has a story. If this were just one vehicle traveling through town, does that strike you as unusual?

GRANGE: Well, it does. In normal operations, you would have at least one other vehicle as what they call a wing man or a cover vehicle in case someone gets in trouble. It could just be an accident or a vehicle break down. But usually there are always two. There's either two troops together, two vehicles together, two helicopters together is normal operating procedure.

HEMMER: Yes, and General, you know, there's another report that came out yesterday that said there was a convoy there. And if there were, why weren't other forces there to respond to this crowd? GRANGE: Well, I'm sure that's what's being investigated by the military chain of command, because if there was a convoy, why did the one vehicle get separated? And, if so, why wasn't someone else responding immediately to provide cover and rescue of those particular soldiers?

HEMMER: There was a suggestion that CENTCOM is going out of its way to try and clarify this and explain this. Does that make sense to you? Why would they be doing that?

GRANGE: Well, because there's a lot of talk about it and also they owe it to the relatives, the parents and the spouses involved of these particular soldiers. I mean that's -- the normal procedure is to make sure the truth gets out and the situation is explained properly to those that know the soldiers, to the families.

HEMMER: Do you see -- on the behalf of the insurgency here, do you see this as an expanded strategy or do you see this as a way of trying to stretch the coalition forces?

GRANGE: Yes, let me take up with what Ambassador Bremer was saying, that the strategy of the insurgents, there are three things they must do. One, they must attack, obviously, the coalition forces. Number two, they must attack the alliances. That's like the allies, whether it be British, polish, Italians, to include the U.N., the Red Cross, any institution that's involved in this effort. And the third item is attack the strategy, which is the transition to a democratic type of governance in Iraq.

To do that, you have to deal with the Iraqi people, in other words, convince them that it's not worth it, intimidate them, instill fear. And that's what you're seeing going on right now.

If they just do it in the Sunni Triangle area, then you have the perception that they don't have the ability to do it throughout the entire country. So they're doing this in different places to at least have the perception that they have that capability.

HEMMER: Do you see any evidence that it's working?

GRANGE: Well, it's working a little bit and that's why it's very important that the information piece of this thing is translated properly. That, in fact, the majority of the Iraqi people want to transition to a peaceful nation that's prosperous and a different type of governance. But it's hard to do that unless the message gets out. And I think getting the message out is part of the failure.

HEMMER: One more thought here, if we could. We're getting a report now that at least 17 coalition forces, 17 since April, have committed suicide in Iraq.

Does that strike you, based on your own military experience, as unusually high?

GRANGE: It does appear to be a little bit high. Now, maybe I've been fortunate in the units that I've served, while we, there was very few situations like this. It seems like a high number and, of course, they'll respond, the military will respond with some type of psychological assessment team to try to figure out what the reason is. But it does appear to be high.

HEMMER: Retired Brigadier General David Grange, thanks.

Good to chat with you, as always.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

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