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CNN Live Saturday
Interview with David Isby
Aired August 23, 2003 - 14:27 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: The blast in Baghdad Tuesday and the continued attacks on coalition forces suggest there is a security problem in Iraq. We are going discuss this with defense and terrorism analyst David Isby.
David thanks for being with us.
DAVID ISBY, TERRORISM ANALYST: Good afternoon.
SAN MIGUEL: So, up until now, it's been for the forces, the coalition, going after those in the so-called deck of cards, the former leaders of the regime, as well as routing out the Saddam loyal lists who have been staging these attacks, considering what's happened in the last week, what due think needs to change with the strategy?
ISBY: We certainly need to keep doing that. New factors are being brought in first outside sources possibly associated with al Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam, other groups such as the ones that have claimed responsibility for the blast. So there are outside factors being added to the equation, as well.
SAN MIGUEL: Is the need to track down Saddam, does that play into that as well?
If they track him down that will remove the fear from the populous and basically maybe help the people there to start to give up information about where these outside terrorists are?
ISBY: Absolutely. Getting Saddam is key and it's hard to project real progress until you do that. Until Saddam is physically totally dead. Many intelligent Iraqis are going to bed, at the end of the day, the Americans are going to go home and Saddam is going to come back. So, he has to be dead for the world to get better.
SAN MIGUEL: You mentioned al Qaeda, if it's in country there. We have not heard anything from Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, to say that he's going to send more troops. He thinks region has enough as it is.
Will special operations forces be retargeted to track down al Qaeda and the other terrorist, will that bee enough to do the job?
ISBY: Not enough, but special operations are key. Not only in hunting people down, but because the U.S. special forces also are specialists in training and building friendly military forces such as we're going to need in Iraq and Afghanistan to conduct the war against terror in those countries. So it's very hard. You can't improvise these forces. They take years to be created. But it's the special forces, special operations forces that we need more of, more than battalions of infantry and armor, but those are important too.
SAN MIGUEL: What about the situation with Iran and Syria. U.S. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer says foreign fighters are coming over from that border, and he's focused today on trying to secure the borders and putting more troops there.
What about putting pressure on Tehran and Damascus as well.
ISBY: That's very important that the terrorist have no outside sanctuary. Now there has been years for them to build a smuggling infrastructure, years of sanctions. Lots of smuggling from Syria and Iran. So we need to make sure that Syrians, Iranians do not allow terrorist to use this existing infrastructure.
SAN MIGUEL: We'll have to leave it there, David Isby, defense and terrorism analyst. Thank you so much for joining us. We do appreciate your time.
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 August 23, 2003 - 14:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: The blast in Baghdad Tuesday and the continued attacks on coalition forces suggest there is a security problem in Iraq. We are going discuss this with defense and terrorism analyst David Isby.
David thanks for being with us.
DAVID ISBY, TERRORISM ANALYST: Good afternoon.
SAN MIGUEL: So, up until now, it's been for the forces, the coalition, going after those in the so-called deck of cards, the former leaders of the regime, as well as routing out the Saddam loyal lists who have been staging these attacks, considering what's happened in the last week, what due think needs to change with the strategy?
ISBY: We certainly need to keep doing that. New factors are being brought in first outside sources possibly associated with al Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam, other groups such as the ones that have claimed responsibility for the blast. So there are outside factors being added to the equation, as well.
SAN MIGUEL: Is the need to track down Saddam, does that play into that as well?
If they track him down that will remove the fear from the populous and basically maybe help the people there to start to give up information about where these outside terrorists are?
ISBY: Absolutely. Getting Saddam is key and it's hard to project real progress until you do that. Until Saddam is physically totally dead. Many intelligent Iraqis are going to bed, at the end of the day, the Americans are going to go home and Saddam is going to come back. So, he has to be dead for the world to get better.
SAN MIGUEL: You mentioned al Qaeda, if it's in country there. We have not heard anything from Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, to say that he's going to send more troops. He thinks region has enough as it is.
Will special operations forces be retargeted to track down al Qaeda and the other terrorist, will that bee enough to do the job?
ISBY: Not enough, but special operations are key. Not only in hunting people down, but because the U.S. special forces also are specialists in training and building friendly military forces such as we're going to need in Iraq and Afghanistan to conduct the war against terror in those countries. So it's very hard. You can't improvise these forces. They take years to be created. But it's the special forces, special operations forces that we need more of, more than battalions of infantry and armor, but those are important too.
SAN MIGUEL: What about the situation with Iran and Syria. U.S. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer says foreign fighters are coming over from that border, and he's focused today on trying to secure the borders and putting more troops there.
What about putting pressure on Tehran and Damascus as well.
ISBY: That's very important that the terrorist have no outside sanctuary. Now there has been years for them to build a smuggling infrastructure, years of sanctions. Lots of smuggling from Syria and Iran. So we need to make sure that Syrians, Iranians do not allow terrorist to use this existing infrastructure.
SAN MIGUEL: We'll have to leave it there, David Isby, defense and terrorism analyst. Thank you so much for joining us. We do appreciate your time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
