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Media Staying in Iraq Despite Looming War
Aired March 17, 2003 - 13:40 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go to Baghdad now. The U.N. inspectors that we have been hearing are expected to pull out on Tuesday. A number of news organizations, today are ordering their staffers out.
CNN's Nic Robertson, though, remains in the city for now. He joins us with the very latest. Nic, we're hearing about all of these foreign nationals who are leaving. Maybe I should start by asking you, who's staying behind?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly a lot of the British news organizations are staying behind. The BBC, ITN, Skies News Organization. A number of American broadcasters are also staying here as of now. CNN and CBS, to our knowledge.
But I think the real focus of attention today has certainly been on the U.N. weapons inspectors. They say they're expecting to pull out early Tuesday morning. They have 56 inspectors in country, 134 staff associated with that mission total. They expect to be able to fly them out to Larnaca in Cyprus. They say have an aircraft on standby already at the main international airport just on the outskirts of Baghdad.
When they go, likely many of other U.N. staff that are currently on other missions in Baghdad and around Iraq, they will also leave. That is going to give the Iraqi people the very clear impression. They've seen this before back in 1998, when the U.N. staff pulled out, Operation Desert Fox began soon after. Iraqi people will certainly get the idea that war may very well be coming soon.
We've seen indications of that today, people clearing out their shops. Not just high-quality products like electronics good stores, but even the fruit and vegetable stands. Those store keepers closing down, battening down the hatches.
One perhaps interesting piece of information this evening from Iraq's news agency, Iraq's news agency reports that in the last 24 hours, there have been 280 sorties by allied aircraft over the northern and southern no-fly zones. Now they say 266 of those sorties have been in the South. One of the cities in the South they've been flying over and above is Hiller (ph), that is about 65 miles south of Baghdad.
Clearly Iraq's news agency getting the impression from the figures that they're presenting, that there's a great deal of interest by coalition aircraft in the South at this moment rather than the North. So perhaps for Iraq's military planners this is something they'll be looking at the this time -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Nic I want to ask you about a report just a few minutes ago from Barbara Starr at Pentagon and that is military officials getting some intelligence, they don't know whether it's true or not, they don't have hard evidence, that Saddam Hussein may have ordered his military to use chemical weapons and they are taking this -- these munitions south of Baghdad. Are you hearing anything about that there?
ROBERTSON: All we know about President Saddam Hussein and his offensive capability at this time is that over the weekend, when he divided up the country into four different military regions, putting them under the control of key lieutenants, President Saddam Hussein kept control of the Air Force, the military aircraft -- that means helicopters here -- surface-to-air missiles and ground-to-ground missiles.
Now it is in the ground-to-ground missiles that coalition forces believe that Iraq's biological and chemical capability, should it have it -- should it have those things, will be used to attack coalition targets that are waiting in Kuwait.
So perhaps the very fact these are under control by President Saddam Hussein, an indication that these are very, very, very key assets, very critical to Iraq at this time. But absolutely no indication for us see here in Baghdad and certainly no Iraqi government officials giving us an indication of what the military preparations and plans may be -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right. Nic Robertson reporting from Baghdad. Whereas you just heard, people are leaving by the hundreds on this day and we expect many more to leave tomorrow.
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 March 17, 2003 - 13:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go to Baghdad now. The U.N. inspectors that we have been hearing are expected to pull out on Tuesday. A number of news organizations, today are ordering their staffers out.
CNN's Nic Robertson, though, remains in the city for now. He joins us with the very latest. Nic, we're hearing about all of these foreign nationals who are leaving. Maybe I should start by asking you, who's staying behind?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly a lot of the British news organizations are staying behind. The BBC, ITN, Skies News Organization. A number of American broadcasters are also staying here as of now. CNN and CBS, to our knowledge.
But I think the real focus of attention today has certainly been on the U.N. weapons inspectors. They say they're expecting to pull out early Tuesday morning. They have 56 inspectors in country, 134 staff associated with that mission total. They expect to be able to fly them out to Larnaca in Cyprus. They say have an aircraft on standby already at the main international airport just on the outskirts of Baghdad.
When they go, likely many of other U.N. staff that are currently on other missions in Baghdad and around Iraq, they will also leave. That is going to give the Iraqi people the very clear impression. They've seen this before back in 1998, when the U.N. staff pulled out, Operation Desert Fox began soon after. Iraqi people will certainly get the idea that war may very well be coming soon.
We've seen indications of that today, people clearing out their shops. Not just high-quality products like electronics good stores, but even the fruit and vegetable stands. Those store keepers closing down, battening down the hatches.
One perhaps interesting piece of information this evening from Iraq's news agency, Iraq's news agency reports that in the last 24 hours, there have been 280 sorties by allied aircraft over the northern and southern no-fly zones. Now they say 266 of those sorties have been in the South. One of the cities in the South they've been flying over and above is Hiller (ph), that is about 65 miles south of Baghdad.
Clearly Iraq's news agency getting the impression from the figures that they're presenting, that there's a great deal of interest by coalition aircraft in the South at this moment rather than the North. So perhaps for Iraq's military planners this is something they'll be looking at the this time -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Nic I want to ask you about a report just a few minutes ago from Barbara Starr at Pentagon and that is military officials getting some intelligence, they don't know whether it's true or not, they don't have hard evidence, that Saddam Hussein may have ordered his military to use chemical weapons and they are taking this -- these munitions south of Baghdad. Are you hearing anything about that there?
ROBERTSON: All we know about President Saddam Hussein and his offensive capability at this time is that over the weekend, when he divided up the country into four different military regions, putting them under the control of key lieutenants, President Saddam Hussein kept control of the Air Force, the military aircraft -- that means helicopters here -- surface-to-air missiles and ground-to-ground missiles.
Now it is in the ground-to-ground missiles that coalition forces believe that Iraq's biological and chemical capability, should it have it -- should it have those things, will be used to attack coalition targets that are waiting in Kuwait.
So perhaps the very fact these are under control by President Saddam Hussein, an indication that these are very, very, very key assets, very critical to Iraq at this time. But absolutely no indication for us see here in Baghdad and certainly no Iraqi government officials giving us an indication of what the military preparations and plans may be -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right. Nic Robertson reporting from Baghdad. Whereas you just heard, people are leaving by the hundreds on this day and we expect many more to leave tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
