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CNN Live At Daybreak
Look Into Military Operations Center
Aired February 25, 2004 - 05:07 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: We are examining intelligence failures this week. It comes in all shapes and sizes. During the Iraq war, CNN had a crew embedded inside the war room at ground forces headquarters. They captured a particular example of how intelligence can go awry, even with the most advanced technology.
Here's our Mike Boettcher.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody get MTIs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two hundred.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like they're stretched out across the roads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, they're saying that they're convoys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the Seaflic (ph) operations center, there's a hot lead.
COL. BOB GUDYAR, U.S. ARMY: Alls we know right now is that there could possibly be over 200 vehicles.
BOETTCHER: A special surveillance aircraft, J-Stars, also known as Joint Stars, have spotted MTIs, moving target indicators, lots of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing we know is that the Joint Stars has identified those. Fifteen minutes ago, there was nothing on the indicators.
BOETTCHER: Colonel Bob Gudyar (ph) and Lieutenant Colonel George Fields suspect it might be a convoy of Iraqi paramilitaries moving south from Baghdad joining the attack against American troops. They also know J-Stars can sometimes give out what are known as false positives, misleading information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got 252s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do have A10s?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A10s and rising.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
GUDYAR: Close air support now is coming in on station. They see it. They're going to just whack 'em.
BOETTCHER: The stakes are high. The headlong rush to Baghdad is coming to a halt until they can reduce the attacks now coming at them along their supply lines. They're also fighting through bad weather. A sandstorm has blinded most of their eyes in the sky, including the unmanned Predator. It's one of the U.S. military's high tech advantages, when the skies are clear. Not today.
GUDYAR: It's not going to probably see anything because of the clouds.
BOETTCHER: In the field and back in the operations center, there's too little hard information and too much speculation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be a deception, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't make any sense. There's no way they're going to counterattack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess the best defense is a good offense.
BOETTCHER: It even makes CNN.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major column of Iraqi elite troops are moving south. There are said to be a thousand vehicles in that convoy.
BOETTCHER: All the speculation coming at Internet speed. The younger intelligence officers in the operations center are using chat rooms to communicate with each other, comparing notes about the convoy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's 70 vehicles. There's another 60 vehicles...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All they have right now is 10 probable vehicles.
LT. COL. GEORGE FIELDS, U.S. ARMY: They're looking at about 15, 16 chat rooms at one time and gleaning little nuggets. What we have to do, though, is we have to police it up and make sure they're not taking rumor or hearsay and changing it into actionable intelligence.
BOETTCHER: Tonight, there is no actionable intelligence, nothing to schwack (ph). When they can finally get planes to fly low enough to see the convoy, nothing is there.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After hours of looking for it, Pentagon officials are beginning to suggest to us that maybe it doesn't exist, maybe it was a false report.
BOETTCHER: The convoy has disappeared into what they call the fog of war. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Mike Boettcher reporting.
Our next look at intelligence failures will focus on homeland security -- can it be trusted? It's a huge issue as terror alert warnings go up and down from yellow to orange. So don't miss that report. That airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
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 February 25, 2004 - 05:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We are examining intelligence failures this week. It comes in all shapes and sizes. During the Iraq war, CNN had a crew embedded inside the war room at ground forces headquarters. They captured a particular example of how intelligence can go awry, even with the most advanced technology.
Here's our Mike Boettcher.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody get MTIs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two hundred.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like they're stretched out across the roads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, they're saying that they're convoys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the Seaflic (ph) operations center, there's a hot lead.
COL. BOB GUDYAR, U.S. ARMY: Alls we know right now is that there could possibly be over 200 vehicles.
BOETTCHER: A special surveillance aircraft, J-Stars, also known as Joint Stars, have spotted MTIs, moving target indicators, lots of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing we know is that the Joint Stars has identified those. Fifteen minutes ago, there was nothing on the indicators.
BOETTCHER: Colonel Bob Gudyar (ph) and Lieutenant Colonel George Fields suspect it might be a convoy of Iraqi paramilitaries moving south from Baghdad joining the attack against American troops. They also know J-Stars can sometimes give out what are known as false positives, misleading information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got 252s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do have A10s?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A10s and rising.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
GUDYAR: Close air support now is coming in on station. They see it. They're going to just whack 'em.
BOETTCHER: The stakes are high. The headlong rush to Baghdad is coming to a halt until they can reduce the attacks now coming at them along their supply lines. They're also fighting through bad weather. A sandstorm has blinded most of their eyes in the sky, including the unmanned Predator. It's one of the U.S. military's high tech advantages, when the skies are clear. Not today.
GUDYAR: It's not going to probably see anything because of the clouds.
BOETTCHER: In the field and back in the operations center, there's too little hard information and too much speculation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be a deception, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't make any sense. There's no way they're going to counterattack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess the best defense is a good offense.
BOETTCHER: It even makes CNN.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major column of Iraqi elite troops are moving south. There are said to be a thousand vehicles in that convoy.
BOETTCHER: All the speculation coming at Internet speed. The younger intelligence officers in the operations center are using chat rooms to communicate with each other, comparing notes about the convoy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's 70 vehicles. There's another 60 vehicles...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All they have right now is 10 probable vehicles.
LT. COL. GEORGE FIELDS, U.S. ARMY: They're looking at about 15, 16 chat rooms at one time and gleaning little nuggets. What we have to do, though, is we have to police it up and make sure they're not taking rumor or hearsay and changing it into actionable intelligence.
BOETTCHER: Tonight, there is no actionable intelligence, nothing to schwack (ph). When they can finally get planes to fly low enough to see the convoy, nothing is there.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After hours of looking for it, Pentagon officials are beginning to suggest to us that maybe it doesn't exist, maybe it was a false report.
BOETTCHER: The convoy has disappeared into what they call the fog of war. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Mike Boettcher reporting.
Our next look at intelligence failures will focus on homeland security -- can it be trusted? It's a huge issue as terror alert warnings go up and down from yellow to orange. So don't miss that report. That airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
