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CNN Live At Daybreak
International Roundup
Aired December 12, 2003 - 05:37 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now among the items in our international roundup, the Pentagon questions possible price gouging for gasoline in Iraq.
Our senior international editor, Eli Flournoy, joins us now -- good morning, Eli.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
LIN: We're, of course, talking about Halliburton perhaps over charging for gasoline brought into Iraq from Kuwait?
FLOURNOY: Exactly. It's actually a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, that is accused possibly of overcharging by as much as $61 million for gas, as you say, brought in from Kuwait. Now this compares to contracts that were coming in from Turkey, other military contracts which were charged about half the price. They were charging about $2.26 per gallon for gas brought in from Kuwait and that, again, is about twice as much as some other contracts that were in.
Its' important to note, though, that Halliburton themselves is not accused of profiting from this. It's a matter of their subsidiary and whether or not the government will then pay out for this contract or whether Halliburton will have to go back to the subsidiary.
LIN: So has the government actually paid the bill yet?
FLOURNOY: No, these bills are yet to be paid and so that's part of this audit that's going on. Now, this is a preliminary report. The final audit report is expected by the end of the month. So we'll have to wait and see what the final word is on that.
LIN: OK.
What about -- you know, I feel like I'm sitting up really high and I'm really not that tall. So I'm going to come down here.
What about this report about human rights violations by the U.S. military?
FLOURNOY: Well, there's a report by the Human Rights Watch group out of London which is criticizing the U.S. and the British military for using cluster bombs specifically in their targeting of high profile Iraqi targets -- Saddam Hussein, his top generals -- during the war effort. They said that that, using these specific types of weapons in those situations caused hundreds of civilians to be killed.
LIN: How do they work?
FLOURNOY: Well, because the cluster bombs come down, they then release many other bombs. Essentially millions of small bombs were released in these some 13,000 cluster bombs that were used. Many of those bombs are still unexploded. They now litter the landscape around Iraq, around Baghdad, other places where they were trying to target against Saddam Hussein, other top generals that they were trying to hit.
It's important to note that the report does criticize the Iraqis, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces, for hiding in civilian areas, for using civilian type of targets for cover, using human shields and so forth to perpetuate this kind of scenario. But it says that there were other methods that could have been used that would have been much more successful, other methods that the military, the U.S. military itself did use in other scenarios.
But in the targeting of -- attempting to target Saddam Hussein and other high profile targets that they caused unnecessarily hundreds of civilian casualties.
LIN: OK, a lot of news coming out of Baghdad.
I know you're still working on these explosions that were heard in the city so.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. We heard a couple explosions. We've got teams out in Baghdad investigating these. This comes on the heels of the other explosions that happened overnight in the green zone that we've already been reporting on. So we'll get back to you as soon as we hear more about that.
LIN: OK. Yes, and I know it's very tough for our teams to be moving around the city because of the security situation in the city so.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. It's a very, very tight security continuing in Baghdad.
LIN: OK, we'll get the news as soon as you get it.
FLOURNOY: Right.
LIN: Thanks, Eli.
FLOURNOY: Thanks, Carol.
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 12, 2003 - 05:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now among the items in our international roundup, the Pentagon questions possible price gouging for gasoline in Iraq.
Our senior international editor, Eli Flournoy, joins us now -- good morning, Eli.
ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
LIN: We're, of course, talking about Halliburton perhaps over charging for gasoline brought into Iraq from Kuwait?
FLOURNOY: Exactly. It's actually a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, that is accused possibly of overcharging by as much as $61 million for gas, as you say, brought in from Kuwait. Now this compares to contracts that were coming in from Turkey, other military contracts which were charged about half the price. They were charging about $2.26 per gallon for gas brought in from Kuwait and that, again, is about twice as much as some other contracts that were in.
Its' important to note, though, that Halliburton themselves is not accused of profiting from this. It's a matter of their subsidiary and whether or not the government will then pay out for this contract or whether Halliburton will have to go back to the subsidiary.
LIN: So has the government actually paid the bill yet?
FLOURNOY: No, these bills are yet to be paid and so that's part of this audit that's going on. Now, this is a preliminary report. The final audit report is expected by the end of the month. So we'll have to wait and see what the final word is on that.
LIN: OK.
What about -- you know, I feel like I'm sitting up really high and I'm really not that tall. So I'm going to come down here.
What about this report about human rights violations by the U.S. military?
FLOURNOY: Well, there's a report by the Human Rights Watch group out of London which is criticizing the U.S. and the British military for using cluster bombs specifically in their targeting of high profile Iraqi targets -- Saddam Hussein, his top generals -- during the war effort. They said that that, using these specific types of weapons in those situations caused hundreds of civilians to be killed.
LIN: How do they work?
FLOURNOY: Well, because the cluster bombs come down, they then release many other bombs. Essentially millions of small bombs were released in these some 13,000 cluster bombs that were used. Many of those bombs are still unexploded. They now litter the landscape around Iraq, around Baghdad, other places where they were trying to target against Saddam Hussein, other top generals that they were trying to hit.
It's important to note that the report does criticize the Iraqis, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces, for hiding in civilian areas, for using civilian type of targets for cover, using human shields and so forth to perpetuate this kind of scenario. But it says that there were other methods that could have been used that would have been much more successful, other methods that the military, the U.S. military itself did use in other scenarios.
But in the targeting of -- attempting to target Saddam Hussein and other high profile targets that they caused unnecessarily hundreds of civilian casualties.
LIN: OK, a lot of news coming out of Baghdad.
I know you're still working on these explosions that were heard in the city so.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. We heard a couple explosions. We've got teams out in Baghdad investigating these. This comes on the heels of the other explosions that happened overnight in the green zone that we've already been reporting on. So we'll get back to you as soon as we hear more about that.
LIN: OK. Yes, and I know it's very tough for our teams to be moving around the city because of the security situation in the city so.
FLOURNOY: Exactly. It's a very, very tight security continuing in Baghdad.
LIN: OK, we'll get the news as soon as you get it.
FLOURNOY: Right.
LIN: Thanks, Eli.
FLOURNOY: Thanks, Carol.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
