Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
#10 on Iraqi Most Wanted List Turns Himself In
Aired May 17, 2003 - 14:07 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Moving now to Iraq. U.S. Central Command says the man listed as number 10 on the most wanted list in Iraq has turned himself in. He is the former head of the Iraqi Republican Guard. For more, let's go and turn to CNN's Chris Plante at the Pentagon now for the very latest. Hi, Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. That's right, the general in charge of not only the Republican Guard but also the feared Special Republican Guard now in coalition custody. He is number 10 on the most wanted list. He is the queen of clubs in the now famous deck of cards, and his name is General Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al- Tikriti, now in U.S. custody. It is hoped that he'll able to help the coalition in leading them to weapons of mass destruction sites.
He is the 23rd out of 55 people in that deck of cards to be taken into custody -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Chris, just wondering if the recent bombings that we've been talking about all morning in Saudi Arabia and Morocco are possibly distracting the Bush administration in any way from the war on terrorism?
PLANTE: Well, that's certainly an accusation that's been leveled against the administration, primarily by Democratic politicians. The administration and people here in the Pentagon claim that it is not a distraction, that they are capable, as one official said to me earlier in the week, of walking and chewing gum at the same time. But they have to continue to point out that they expect that this is going to be a very long campaign, this war on terrorism, but it's not at all like the campaign against the government in control of Afghanistan or the war on Iraq even, that it's more like a campaign against crime or racism a couple of comparisons that have been made, and you can expect it to go in some form or another for decades -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Tell us also, Chris, if you would, what is the very latest on the investigation into all of the looting that we have heard so much about during the war.
PLANTE: Well, it appears that the early reports of looting at the main museum in Baghdad appear to have been very dramatically overstated. The initial reports indicated that approximately 170,000 items were missing from the museum. Now, museum officials have been contacted and debriefed on the situation. It turns out that most of these relics were squirreled away long before the U.S. troops even made it to downtown Baghdad, stored in safes inside the museum, in the Central Bank in Baghdad, and at a third location where the museum officials say they swore on the Quran they would not be able to reveal that location, but they insist U.S. officials that they are stored away, and it appears now that the number of missing items may be as small as 42, that's 42 rather than 170,000, a rather significant differences in the situation there.
COLLINS: Indeed. All right, CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Plante. Thanks so much for the update, Chris.
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 May 17, 2003 - 14:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Moving now to Iraq. U.S. Central Command says the man listed as number 10 on the most wanted list in Iraq has turned himself in. He is the former head of the Iraqi Republican Guard. For more, let's go and turn to CNN's Chris Plante at the Pentagon now for the very latest. Hi, Chris.
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. That's right, the general in charge of not only the Republican Guard but also the feared Special Republican Guard now in coalition custody. He is number 10 on the most wanted list. He is the queen of clubs in the now famous deck of cards, and his name is General Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al- Tikriti, now in U.S. custody. It is hoped that he'll able to help the coalition in leading them to weapons of mass destruction sites.
He is the 23rd out of 55 people in that deck of cards to be taken into custody -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Chris, just wondering if the recent bombings that we've been talking about all morning in Saudi Arabia and Morocco are possibly distracting the Bush administration in any way from the war on terrorism?
PLANTE: Well, that's certainly an accusation that's been leveled against the administration, primarily by Democratic politicians. The administration and people here in the Pentagon claim that it is not a distraction, that they are capable, as one official said to me earlier in the week, of walking and chewing gum at the same time. But they have to continue to point out that they expect that this is going to be a very long campaign, this war on terrorism, but it's not at all like the campaign against the government in control of Afghanistan or the war on Iraq even, that it's more like a campaign against crime or racism a couple of comparisons that have been made, and you can expect it to go in some form or another for decades -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Tell us also, Chris, if you would, what is the very latest on the investigation into all of the looting that we have heard so much about during the war.
PLANTE: Well, it appears that the early reports of looting at the main museum in Baghdad appear to have been very dramatically overstated. The initial reports indicated that approximately 170,000 items were missing from the museum. Now, museum officials have been contacted and debriefed on the situation. It turns out that most of these relics were squirreled away long before the U.S. troops even made it to downtown Baghdad, stored in safes inside the museum, in the Central Bank in Baghdad, and at a third location where the museum officials say they swore on the Quran they would not be able to reveal that location, but they insist U.S. officials that they are stored away, and it appears now that the number of missing items may be as small as 42, that's 42 rather than 170,000, a rather significant differences in the situation there.
COLLINS: Indeed. All right, CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Plante. Thanks so much for the update, Chris.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
