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CNN Live At Daybreak

'International News Desk'

Aired December 01, 2003 - 05:35   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: Now, by the way, was the deadliest month yet in Iraq. What are U.S. troops doing about the worsening security situation?
For some answers, we turn now to our senior international editor, David Clinch -- good morning, David.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Carol, good morning.

Bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news. It's not all bad news. You know, obviously we have a very tough job in covering Iraq. We have to and will go to these events when they happen, as has happened in Samarra, a massive attack on U.S. forces which they have repelled and apparently killed a lot of Iraqis. We need to be there. We need to find out what happened. We need to get both sides of the story. We need to be there.

We need to cover the Spanish reaction to their soldiers or intelligence officers being killed; Japan, Korea.

We need to be there and we will tell that aspect of the story.

It is a lot more difficult to also be at every school that's reopened. It's a lot more difficult to be -- in fact, probably impossible to be at all of the Iraqi coalition Governing Council meetings where they're discussing and planning the process of the Iraqis taking over their own government, of moving back to the Iraqification of the country.

It's much harder to do that, but we will do our best, even as Nic goes down there to cover the events in Samarra and we get the information from the local Iraqis. We obviously make an effort to find out, also, from the U.S. military what they're saying. But also reflecting something that we're told by the U.S. military again and again -- and we do see evidence of this -- is that the more progress that is made, the more violent these attacks become; the more these soft targets like Spanish, like South Korean diplomats, like Japanese diplomats that are there -- the more those targets are going to be hit.

We know that is going to happen. And, again, we will cover that. It is part of the story. Much harder to sort of given an impression of the progress that's being made in other areas.

COSTELLO: We were going to talk, too, about the added security or different security measures that coalition forces were going to take. What else can they do to protect the soldiers?

CLINCH: All right, well, I'll give you an example. I mean not only their own soldiers, not only U.S. soldiers -- clearly, they were able to defend themselves with tanks. But here's an interesting question. The Japanese, who've basically more or less changed their constitution to allow for troops to go to Iraq in the first place, allowed them to go to only non-combat areas.

Apparently no such thing in Iraq anymore and obviously the question then arrives, if those troops are going to go, Japanese troops are going to go, will the U.S. have to literally sort of follow them around protecting them the whole time, in some ways, negating their use? A very interesting question as we go forward.

The Spaniards, Koreans, even the British, the question of how much protection you need even for your own troops as part of the coalition. A very interesting question.

But certainly the U.S. quite proud of the fact, in some ways, that they were able to defend themselves and not only defend themselves, but hit back hard at the attackers in Samarra yesterday.

COSTELLO: Certainly did, 54 killed.

David Clinch, many thanks.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: You'll join us in the next hour.

CLINCH: Yes.

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 December 1, 2003 - 05:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now, by the way, was the deadliest month yet in Iraq. What are U.S. troops doing about the worsening security situation?
For some answers, we turn now to our senior international editor, David Clinch -- good morning, David.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Carol, good morning.

Bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news. It's not all bad news. You know, obviously we have a very tough job in covering Iraq. We have to and will go to these events when they happen, as has happened in Samarra, a massive attack on U.S. forces which they have repelled and apparently killed a lot of Iraqis. We need to be there. We need to find out what happened. We need to get both sides of the story. We need to be there.

We need to cover the Spanish reaction to their soldiers or intelligence officers being killed; Japan, Korea.

We need to be there and we will tell that aspect of the story.

It is a lot more difficult to also be at every school that's reopened. It's a lot more difficult to be -- in fact, probably impossible to be at all of the Iraqi coalition Governing Council meetings where they're discussing and planning the process of the Iraqis taking over their own government, of moving back to the Iraqification of the country.

It's much harder to do that, but we will do our best, even as Nic goes down there to cover the events in Samarra and we get the information from the local Iraqis. We obviously make an effort to find out, also, from the U.S. military what they're saying. But also reflecting something that we're told by the U.S. military again and again -- and we do see evidence of this -- is that the more progress that is made, the more violent these attacks become; the more these soft targets like Spanish, like South Korean diplomats, like Japanese diplomats that are there -- the more those targets are going to be hit.

We know that is going to happen. And, again, we will cover that. It is part of the story. Much harder to sort of given an impression of the progress that's being made in other areas.

COSTELLO: We were going to talk, too, about the added security or different security measures that coalition forces were going to take. What else can they do to protect the soldiers?

CLINCH: All right, well, I'll give you an example. I mean not only their own soldiers, not only U.S. soldiers -- clearly, they were able to defend themselves with tanks. But here's an interesting question. The Japanese, who've basically more or less changed their constitution to allow for troops to go to Iraq in the first place, allowed them to go to only non-combat areas.

Apparently no such thing in Iraq anymore and obviously the question then arrives, if those troops are going to go, Japanese troops are going to go, will the U.S. have to literally sort of follow them around protecting them the whole time, in some ways, negating their use? A very interesting question as we go forward.

The Spaniards, Koreans, even the British, the question of how much protection you need even for your own troops as part of the coalition. A very interesting question.

But certainly the U.S. quite proud of the fact, in some ways, that they were able to defend themselves and not only defend themselves, but hit back hard at the attackers in Samarra yesterday.

COSTELLO: Certainly did, 54 killed.

David Clinch, many thanks.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: You'll join us in the next hour.

CLINCH: Yes.

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