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How Psychological Operations Play Out; First Fighting 101st Airborne Has Seen Inside Iraq

Aired March 31, 2003 - 15:32   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.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight live from Kuwait City. Not all that far away, in central Iraq, CNN's Mike Boettcher. He's one of our embedded journalists. He's embedded with U.S. Special Operations Forces on a specific mission. What can you tell us about that, Mike?
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we were invited along by special operations to watch their psychological operations on the outskirts of Basra. Tonight, there has been some heavy artillery barrages that are occurring now and have occurred for the past 30 minutes. But beyond that, there is a lot that is happening out there after dark.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): When the sun sets over Basra and the temperature cools, the war heats up. Or does it? U.S. Special Operations Forces consider themselves a force multiplier. And tonight, they will literally be.

Their strategy: Add one special operations Humvee with a loud speaker mounted on top to one British tank and four armored vehicles, and suddenly this tiny force sounds like an invading division. It is called psychological operations, or psyops, part of the U.S. Special Forces repertoire.

Their speaker blares the music of disinformation and confusion, broadcast at ear-splitting decibels. The audiotape of recorded tank sounds plays for more than an hour; a show meant for the ears of Iraqi forces in Basra, a short distance away. Adding to the realism, flares are fired to illuminate Iraqi positions. And British tanks fire occasional rounds at Iraqi targets.

The man orchestrating the racket, a 50-year-old special operations veteran who calls this war his last rodeo, turns the speak ner several directions to add to the illusion of a massive frontal attack. Occasionally, Iraqi combatants fire back with mortars, machine guns and artillery. The coalition hopes this grand deception will force the Iraqis to move troops where they don't need to be moved, make them look where they don't need to look. Around Basra, the battlefield has become a true twilight zone, where fact and fiction are indistinguishable in the inky blackness of a moonless night.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BOETTCHER: That video was shot by David Rust (ph). Now this evening, during that report, in the last two minutes, there have been more explosions. I'm seeing explosions in all directions around Basra: east, west, north and south.

It comes and goes. But in the last 30 to 45 minutes it's been heavy. It was eerily quiet all night long. It hasn't been that quiet in a long time. And then all of a sudden things opened up. But it appears that there is no large offensive operation underway.

There's goes a flare now overhead; several of them. So, once again, night operations underway here at Basra -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Does that look like artillery or bombs that are going off? And if you can't tell us, don't.

BOETTCHER: Well I believe most of it is artillery. But we're being illuminated from our end now over us. There are flares overhead at the current time, but no artillery barrage.

The reason I believe it's artillery, you hear a thud from artillery firing, and then you hear the flash, and then a few seconds later you hear the explosion. So after a while here you get the feel for what's artillery and what's aerial bombardment, because a lot of it's going on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mike Boettcher. He's embedded with the Special Operations Forces. A difficult assignment for everyone concerned. Mike, thanks very much. Thank Dave Rust (ph), your excellent photographer, for us as well.

Judy, back to you.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, interesting the special operations folks are letting us see that part of what they do. Mike Boettcher was reporting from southern Iraq near Basra. Elsewhere in southern Iraq, perhaps around the Najaf area -- we're going to find out right now -- CNN's Ryan Chilcote has been with thes 101st Airborne. Ryan, tell us what the 101st has been running into today.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm actually with the 327th Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Battalion of the 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. And earlier today, they took the An Najaf airfield just in the outskirts of Najaf. The 101st Airborne -- this is basically the first fighting that the 101st Airborne has seen inside of Iraq, and they have been moving forces in this direction for the last couple days.

Now with me, I have Lieutenant Colonel Ed Paleks. He is the commander of the 3rd Battalion, and he can tell us a little bit about today and what happened. If you could, taking the airfield, what was it like?

LT. COL. ED PALEKS, 1ST BRIGADE, 101ST AIRBORNE: We were expecting some potential enemy mortar, snipers and mines on the airfield. And what we found were the airfield was obstacles, but no mines. And we did have some mortar fire, but it was ineffective, and did not find any enemy forces securing the actual runway or the buildings on the airfield.

CHILCOTE: What's the significance of this airfield?

PALEKS: The significance of the airfield, I think, is one, as we continue the attack, I believe it could provide some humanitarian aid to this area. And second, since it also can be used for further staging of our forces as we continue the attack wherever we're told.

CHILCOTE: Now I know that, initially, the 101st and, in general, the U.S. Army didn't want to move into Najaf. This is a very important place for Shia Muslims. Tell me about why that changed.

PALEKS: Well, there's enemy forces operating in this area that need to be contained. And so to effectively do our operations, we've got to secure the terrain that we need with minimal effect. In other words, the cities, towns and whatever. So you know we're not actually in the town; we're on an airfield.

CHILCOTE: Sure. And in the last couple of days if you could describe -- I know there was a lot that led up to this.

PALEKS: This plan came together in about eight hours. It started with the leaders' recon, developed the concept, put together forces enough to accomplish the mission. And this morning at 03 Zulu Time, which is...

CHILCOTE: Just before dawn?

PALEKS: Right, about dawn. We started the attack on the airfield.

CHILCOTE: There's a lot of talk about the Fedayeen fighters here that have basically been using Najaf. Can you describe what they are as a fighting force?

PALEKS: Fedayeen are I guess a paramilitary kind of group, very devout to the ruling party, would not -- would use such tactics as using a local populous to force them to fight, use them as human shields to push them in front, hide amongst the local populous. So, you know, I don't know if you want to call it a terrorist kind of group, a paramilitary force. They don't wear uniforms.

Some of them are devoutly loyal and are suicide kind of attackers. So it's an unconventional...

CHILCOTE: We saw that just a few days ago.

PALEKS: I did not, so I don't know what you're talking about on that one.

CHILCOTE: Sure. OK. Well that was Lieutenant Colonel Ed Paeks. He's the battalion commander for 3rd Battalion of 327th Infantry Regiment, also known as the 1st Brigade or the Bastone Brigade of the 101st Airborne. And what I was referring to is, just a few days ago there was a car bombing inside Najaf , killing four U.S. servicemen. Basically a taxi driver drove up with a bomb inside, that bomb went out off. A suicide bombing killing four U.S. servicemen.

This is a real significant development. This is a large airfield that can be used for helicopters, it can be used for military transport planes. And it is the beginning of the 101st Airborne's footprint inside -- or in, at least, the outskirts of Najaf. Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Ryan, just quickly, we know there was some very, very difficult fighting for that area around Najaf. Getting back to what you were asking him about how they are avoiding striking some of these holy sites in and around this city, how do they take care not to destroy some of these important shrines to the Shia Muslim population?

CHILCOTE: Well, they know exactly where they are. I can tell you I've seen somewhat -- what I've -- the time I've spent with the commanders, they know exactly where these sites are, and they are very careful not to go into them or to strike them with any kind of force. I think that the goal here isn't necessary to occupy the city of Najaf, at least without going in to any kind of future operations. That has not been the case at this point.

They're simply showing force in the outskirts of Najaf. A lot of those sites that you're talking about are on the west side of the city. There's a very holy shrine, home to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Mohammed Ali (ph). Also, there is a large cemetery on the west side that takes up roughly a fifth of the entire city.

The U.S. military is very sensitive to going near those areas, and I think they're going to do their best to stay out of them. Now one of the problems, and one of the things they've talked about, is that they got basically drawn in here because, according to them, this area was being used as a safe haven for these Fedayeen irregular forces. And in order to protect U.S. soldiers in this area or passing through this area, they really had to safeguard it by doing things like taking this airfield and other things that they're doing in the outskirts of the city.

Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Ryan Chilcote is with the 327th Infantry. He called it the 1st Brigade, part of the 101st Airborne of the Army. And, Wolf, we know how tough that fighting was in the area. There were earlier reports that two U.S. soldiers had been killed in that fighting over the last day. So this was not an easy move by a long shot for U.S. forces.

BLITZER: If you listen, Judy, to General Franks and General Myers, they say the fighting is going to get much more intense as the U.S. moves closer towards Baghdad. So that may just be the beginning.

We've been watching the bombing in Baghdad over the past hour or so. Quite intense, huge explosions. But there are also huge explosions being heard in northern Iraq. When we come back, we'll go up to the northern part of Iraq to see precisely what's going on up there.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





101st Airborne Has Seen Inside Iraq>


Aired March 31, 2003 - 15:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight live from Kuwait City. Not all that far away, in central Iraq, CNN's Mike Boettcher. He's one of our embedded journalists. He's embedded with U.S. Special Operations Forces on a specific mission. What can you tell us about that, Mike?
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we were invited along by special operations to watch their psychological operations on the outskirts of Basra. Tonight, there has been some heavy artillery barrages that are occurring now and have occurred for the past 30 minutes. But beyond that, there is a lot that is happening out there after dark.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): When the sun sets over Basra and the temperature cools, the war heats up. Or does it? U.S. Special Operations Forces consider themselves a force multiplier. And tonight, they will literally be.

Their strategy: Add one special operations Humvee with a loud speaker mounted on top to one British tank and four armored vehicles, and suddenly this tiny force sounds like an invading division. It is called psychological operations, or psyops, part of the U.S. Special Forces repertoire.

Their speaker blares the music of disinformation and confusion, broadcast at ear-splitting decibels. The audiotape of recorded tank sounds plays for more than an hour; a show meant for the ears of Iraqi forces in Basra, a short distance away. Adding to the realism, flares are fired to illuminate Iraqi positions. And British tanks fire occasional rounds at Iraqi targets.

The man orchestrating the racket, a 50-year-old special operations veteran who calls this war his last rodeo, turns the speak ner several directions to add to the illusion of a massive frontal attack. Occasionally, Iraqi combatants fire back with mortars, machine guns and artillery. The coalition hopes this grand deception will force the Iraqis to move troops where they don't need to be moved, make them look where they don't need to look. Around Basra, the battlefield has become a true twilight zone, where fact and fiction are indistinguishable in the inky blackness of a moonless night.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BOETTCHER: That video was shot by David Rust (ph). Now this evening, during that report, in the last two minutes, there have been more explosions. I'm seeing explosions in all directions around Basra: east, west, north and south.

It comes and goes. But in the last 30 to 45 minutes it's been heavy. It was eerily quiet all night long. It hasn't been that quiet in a long time. And then all of a sudden things opened up. But it appears that there is no large offensive operation underway.

There's goes a flare now overhead; several of them. So, once again, night operations underway here at Basra -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Does that look like artillery or bombs that are going off? And if you can't tell us, don't.

BOETTCHER: Well I believe most of it is artillery. But we're being illuminated from our end now over us. There are flares overhead at the current time, but no artillery barrage.

The reason I believe it's artillery, you hear a thud from artillery firing, and then you hear the flash, and then a few seconds later you hear the explosion. So after a while here you get the feel for what's artillery and what's aerial bombardment, because a lot of it's going on -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mike Boettcher. He's embedded with the Special Operations Forces. A difficult assignment for everyone concerned. Mike, thanks very much. Thank Dave Rust (ph), your excellent photographer, for us as well.

Judy, back to you.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, interesting the special operations folks are letting us see that part of what they do. Mike Boettcher was reporting from southern Iraq near Basra. Elsewhere in southern Iraq, perhaps around the Najaf area -- we're going to find out right now -- CNN's Ryan Chilcote has been with thes 101st Airborne. Ryan, tell us what the 101st has been running into today.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm actually with the 327th Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Battalion of the 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. And earlier today, they took the An Najaf airfield just in the outskirts of Najaf. The 101st Airborne -- this is basically the first fighting that the 101st Airborne has seen inside of Iraq, and they have been moving forces in this direction for the last couple days.

Now with me, I have Lieutenant Colonel Ed Paleks. He is the commander of the 3rd Battalion, and he can tell us a little bit about today and what happened. If you could, taking the airfield, what was it like?

LT. COL. ED PALEKS, 1ST BRIGADE, 101ST AIRBORNE: We were expecting some potential enemy mortar, snipers and mines on the airfield. And what we found were the airfield was obstacles, but no mines. And we did have some mortar fire, but it was ineffective, and did not find any enemy forces securing the actual runway or the buildings on the airfield.

CHILCOTE: What's the significance of this airfield?

PALEKS: The significance of the airfield, I think, is one, as we continue the attack, I believe it could provide some humanitarian aid to this area. And second, since it also can be used for further staging of our forces as we continue the attack wherever we're told.

CHILCOTE: Now I know that, initially, the 101st and, in general, the U.S. Army didn't want to move into Najaf. This is a very important place for Shia Muslims. Tell me about why that changed.

PALEKS: Well, there's enemy forces operating in this area that need to be contained. And so to effectively do our operations, we've got to secure the terrain that we need with minimal effect. In other words, the cities, towns and whatever. So you know we're not actually in the town; we're on an airfield.

CHILCOTE: Sure. And in the last couple of days if you could describe -- I know there was a lot that led up to this.

PALEKS: This plan came together in about eight hours. It started with the leaders' recon, developed the concept, put together forces enough to accomplish the mission. And this morning at 03 Zulu Time, which is...

CHILCOTE: Just before dawn?

PALEKS: Right, about dawn. We started the attack on the airfield.

CHILCOTE: There's a lot of talk about the Fedayeen fighters here that have basically been using Najaf. Can you describe what they are as a fighting force?

PALEKS: Fedayeen are I guess a paramilitary kind of group, very devout to the ruling party, would not -- would use such tactics as using a local populous to force them to fight, use them as human shields to push them in front, hide amongst the local populous. So, you know, I don't know if you want to call it a terrorist kind of group, a paramilitary force. They don't wear uniforms.

Some of them are devoutly loyal and are suicide kind of attackers. So it's an unconventional...

CHILCOTE: We saw that just a few days ago.

PALEKS: I did not, so I don't know what you're talking about on that one.

CHILCOTE: Sure. OK. Well that was Lieutenant Colonel Ed Paeks. He's the battalion commander for 3rd Battalion of 327th Infantry Regiment, also known as the 1st Brigade or the Bastone Brigade of the 101st Airborne. And what I was referring to is, just a few days ago there was a car bombing inside Najaf , killing four U.S. servicemen. Basically a taxi driver drove up with a bomb inside, that bomb went out off. A suicide bombing killing four U.S. servicemen.

This is a real significant development. This is a large airfield that can be used for helicopters, it can be used for military transport planes. And it is the beginning of the 101st Airborne's footprint inside -- or in, at least, the outskirts of Najaf. Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Ryan, just quickly, we know there was some very, very difficult fighting for that area around Najaf. Getting back to what you were asking him about how they are avoiding striking some of these holy sites in and around this city, how do they take care not to destroy some of these important shrines to the Shia Muslim population?

CHILCOTE: Well, they know exactly where they are. I can tell you I've seen somewhat -- what I've -- the time I've spent with the commanders, they know exactly where these sites are, and they are very careful not to go into them or to strike them with any kind of force. I think that the goal here isn't necessary to occupy the city of Najaf, at least without going in to any kind of future operations. That has not been the case at this point.

They're simply showing force in the outskirts of Najaf. A lot of those sites that you're talking about are on the west side of the city. There's a very holy shrine, home to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Mohammed Ali (ph). Also, there is a large cemetery on the west side that takes up roughly a fifth of the entire city.

The U.S. military is very sensitive to going near those areas, and I think they're going to do their best to stay out of them. Now one of the problems, and one of the things they've talked about, is that they got basically drawn in here because, according to them, this area was being used as a safe haven for these Fedayeen irregular forces. And in order to protect U.S. soldiers in this area or passing through this area, they really had to safeguard it by doing things like taking this airfield and other things that they're doing in the outskirts of the city.

Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Ryan Chilcote is with the 327th Infantry. He called it the 1st Brigade, part of the 101st Airborne of the Army. And, Wolf, we know how tough that fighting was in the area. There were earlier reports that two U.S. soldiers had been killed in that fighting over the last day. So this was not an easy move by a long shot for U.S. forces.

BLITZER: If you listen, Judy, to General Franks and General Myers, they say the fighting is going to get much more intense as the U.S. moves closer towards Baghdad. So that may just be the beginning.

We've been watching the bombing in Baghdad over the past hour or so. Quite intense, huge explosions. But there are also huge explosions being heard in northern Iraq. When we come back, we'll go up to the northern part of Iraq to see precisely what's going on up there.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





101st Airborne Has Seen Inside Iraq>