Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
'International News Desk'
Aired December 04, 2003 - 05:36 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: Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are overseas this morning.
For the agenda, we turn to our senior international editor, David Clinch.
I know we just got those pictures in from Afghanistan of Donald Rumsfeld.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Donald Rumsfeld, fresh from his foot and mouth award, in Afghanistan today, and his counterpart at the State Department, Colin Powell, in Brussels at NATO today.
But it's essentially the same mission. Here's where we start. The United States has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. They have 100,000 plus in Iraq. They can't stay there forever. Finances, if nothing else, dictate that. They can't afford to keep them there forever. Also, the problem, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq, no new constitution in either country yet, although Afghanistan is close to forming one; no official new government, therefore, because the constitution has to come first.
COSTELLO: And in Afghanistan, they're having problems with the Taliban again.
CLINCH: Absolutely. So we have Rumsfeld in Afghanistan today talking to President Karzai. We expect to hear from him, actually, perhaps in a live press conference in the next hour, about security issues as they get ready to form this new constitution. One of the main security issues in Afghanistan, not dissimilar from Iraq, is that local governors, also known as warlords, control large parts of the country and they have their own military, they have their own armed guards, they have their own armies. Not dissimilar from a pattern we see in Iraq, where local groups have their own armies.
Well, something we saw emerging in Iraq in the last couple of days or so is a plan to merge some of those militias, if you want to call them that, into an Iraqi army, or at least supervised by the U.S. Not exactly the same pattern in Afghanistan.
But to a certain degree, a recognition of the fact that those governors/warlords are not going to get rid of those armies, and so they have to deal with them in some way.
Some of those armies have started to hand in some of their arms in advance of this new constitution, sort of calming the situation down a little bit in Afghanistan so that President Karzai can, in a more peaceful environment, form that new constitution.
Well, it remains to be seen exactly how peaceful that will be.
COSTELLO: Well, it'll be interesting to hear what Donald Rumsfeld has to say in what, about an hour?
CLINCH: Yes.
COSTELLO: You also have...
CLINCH: We'll watch out for that.
COSTELLO: You have a story of a miracle child in Bethlehem.
CLINCH: Yes, and interesting, miracle baby in Bethlehem, but not what you would think. This is a Palestinian baby by the name of Ala. And if you look closely at the pictures of the baby, he has a birthmark on the side of his face which in Arabic -- we have a close- up.
COSTELLO: Oh, there's the baby. We have to take the banner away there.
CLINCH: A close-up of the marking, which spells out the name of his uncle, who was a militant, a Palestinian militant killed by the Israelis a few months ago, not too long before the baby was born.
Palestinians seeing this marking, which spells out his uncle's name, describing this baby as a miracle. Also, the baby born, apparently, on a very special day in the Muslim calendar. Apparently hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians have turned up at this family's house to view this so-called miracle baby. So we'll get a little bit more on that later in the day with some better pictures.
COSTELLO: That is pretty strange if it really -- I mean we couldn't see the birthmark well enough to really see it, not that we could read Arabic.
CLINCH: No, but our Arabic speakers here have been wowed by it in the sense that it does spell out the uncle's name and it is pretty clear.
So a very interesting story.
I've got another Israeli story for six and we'll talk a little bit more about Rumsfeld, as well.
COSTELLO: All right, David, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
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 4, 2003 - 05:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are overseas this morning.
For the agenda, we turn to our senior international editor, David Clinch.
I know we just got those pictures in from Afghanistan of Donald Rumsfeld.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Right. Donald Rumsfeld, fresh from his foot and mouth award, in Afghanistan today, and his counterpart at the State Department, Colin Powell, in Brussels at NATO today.
But it's essentially the same mission. Here's where we start. The United States has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. They have 100,000 plus in Iraq. They can't stay there forever. Finances, if nothing else, dictate that. They can't afford to keep them there forever. Also, the problem, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq, no new constitution in either country yet, although Afghanistan is close to forming one; no official new government, therefore, because the constitution has to come first.
COSTELLO: And in Afghanistan, they're having problems with the Taliban again.
CLINCH: Absolutely. So we have Rumsfeld in Afghanistan today talking to President Karzai. We expect to hear from him, actually, perhaps in a live press conference in the next hour, about security issues as they get ready to form this new constitution. One of the main security issues in Afghanistan, not dissimilar from Iraq, is that local governors, also known as warlords, control large parts of the country and they have their own military, they have their own armed guards, they have their own armies. Not dissimilar from a pattern we see in Iraq, where local groups have their own armies.
Well, something we saw emerging in Iraq in the last couple of days or so is a plan to merge some of those militias, if you want to call them that, into an Iraqi army, or at least supervised by the U.S. Not exactly the same pattern in Afghanistan.
But to a certain degree, a recognition of the fact that those governors/warlords are not going to get rid of those armies, and so they have to deal with them in some way.
Some of those armies have started to hand in some of their arms in advance of this new constitution, sort of calming the situation down a little bit in Afghanistan so that President Karzai can, in a more peaceful environment, form that new constitution.
Well, it remains to be seen exactly how peaceful that will be.
COSTELLO: Well, it'll be interesting to hear what Donald Rumsfeld has to say in what, about an hour?
CLINCH: Yes.
COSTELLO: You also have...
CLINCH: We'll watch out for that.
COSTELLO: You have a story of a miracle child in Bethlehem.
CLINCH: Yes, and interesting, miracle baby in Bethlehem, but not what you would think. This is a Palestinian baby by the name of Ala. And if you look closely at the pictures of the baby, he has a birthmark on the side of his face which in Arabic -- we have a close- up.
COSTELLO: Oh, there's the baby. We have to take the banner away there.
CLINCH: A close-up of the marking, which spells out the name of his uncle, who was a militant, a Palestinian militant killed by the Israelis a few months ago, not too long before the baby was born.
Palestinians seeing this marking, which spells out his uncle's name, describing this baby as a miracle. Also, the baby born, apparently, on a very special day in the Muslim calendar. Apparently hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians have turned up at this family's house to view this so-called miracle baby. So we'll get a little bit more on that later in the day with some better pictures.
COSTELLO: That is pretty strange if it really -- I mean we couldn't see the birthmark well enough to really see it, not that we could read Arabic.
CLINCH: No, but our Arabic speakers here have been wowed by it in the sense that it does spell out the uncle's name and it is pretty clear.
So a very interesting story.
I've got another Israeli story for six and we'll talk a little bit more about Rumsfeld, as well.
COSTELLO: All right, David, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
