Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Special Edition: War in Iraq Part IV
Aired April 05, 2003 - 14:00 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: Good afternoon to our viewers in North America. Good evening from here from Kuwait City, where it is just after 10:00 p.m. It's just after 11:00 p.m. in Baghdad, where the news is being made this Saturday, April 5. More explosions under way right now in the Iraqi capital. We're watching those explosions. It's been continuing nonstop.
Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting tonight from Kuwait City. Coming up this hour, inside Baghdad. Coalition forces are in the Iraqi capital. So what's there? And who's staying in town? We will take you to the front lines in just 60 seconds.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN's studios in Washington, I'm Judy Woodruff. Also this hour, paying for homeland security. Baltimore's daily bill is $35,000. And guess what, they need more. The story from our Jeanne Meserve.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And from CNN's World Headquarters, I am Miles O'Brien. Also this hour, hours in isolation. Little food or water, physical, mental abuse. We will take you inside the mind of a prisoner of war. See what they go through. But first, back to Wolf in Kuwait City.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Miles. We're standing by for a news conference from West Virginia. The parents of Private First Class Jessica Lynch expected to speak to reporters momentarily. We'll have live coverage. They're heading out of West Virginia. They'll be flying to Washington, D.C. and then onto Germany, specifically to the Ramstein Air base and the Landstuhl Hospital. That's where their daughter, 19-year-old U.S. Army First Class Jessica Lynch rescued, a POW in Iraq. She is recuperating from serious injuries. They understandably want to be with their daughter. We will have live coverage as soon as they come to the microphones.
In the meantime, here's the latest news coming out of Baghdad. Sources in Baghdad say U.S. forces are as close to the city's center as Baghdad University. About a mile from Saddam Hussein's presidential palace. They were also seen at Rasheed Air base, an Iraqi military site east of Baghdad. Sources inside the Iraqi capital also say U.S. forces were snapping a checkpoint six miles north of Baghdad on a major highway. And CNN's Martin Savidge, he is with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines, says that unit was approaching the southern suburbs of Baghdad Saturday afternoon.
Let's go to CNN's Miles O'Brien in Atlanta. He has the situation report, what's unfolding right now -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Wolf. To get us through the situation as we know it right now, we will turn to General Wesley Clark, the retired supreme NATO commander. General -- and of the United States Army, retired.
Good to have you with us, General Clark from Little Rock today. I appreciate you taking some time. First of all, big picture for just a moment here. What is your sense of what the unfolding strategy is here from the coalition perspective? Is the goal here to seize as much turf as possible in Baghdad or simply to declare to the Iraqis and to the Saddam Hussein regime that they can travel through these streets and pick targets at will?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think the strategy is sort of calculated ambiguousness; that is to say, they don't want to disclose their hand. It may be to wait outside, build up forces to pick apart Baghdad -- in the meantime, to seize.
O'BRIEN: General Clark, we are watching live pictures right now from Baghdad. It appears to be renewed bombing activity. And let's pick up on that point. How do the rules of engagement, how does the air package, if you will, change now that it is known that there are U.S. coalition troops in close proximity to what are we seeing unfold right now?
CLARK: Well, it means the bombings are to proceed for the close air support essentially. They'll have to make sure there is no coalition troops there in or around the preplanned targets. And so there's a lot more air ground coordination necessary in certain areas of Baghdad right now.
O'BRIEN: It's a risky thing, isn't it, keeping the friendly apart from those who are being attacked, correct?
CLARK: It is. I mean, you really have to work the coordination on this. It means that people back in the central air organization have to know the locations of the ground units in Baghdad.
O'BRIEN: Friendly fires of course, that stubborn unfortunate consequence of war, which no matter all of the technology that the U.S. holds, still a reality. Let's -- I interrupted your discussion about this ambiguity that you are talking about. Deliberate ambiguity. The idea, of course, to keep the Iraqis on their heals.
CLARK: Exactly. I think they are going to be opportunistic and if there are times and places where we can take or destroy key objectives, we would do so. But remember, Miles, we are facing -- despite the overwhelming strength of the American forces there, we are facing actually an inferiority on the ground infantry strength. Which means, if we were simply to go in and try to hold buildings, we could conceivably, if the Iraqis still had the command and control and the will to do it, we could conceivably be surrounded and be outnumbered in those areas and be cut off.
And so we want to pick and choose our times of attack. We want to get the most strategic targets. We want to let the Baghdad regime crumble. We want to unravel its command in control and its confidence and take it apart piece by piece.
O'BRIEN: So I guess it would be simplistic to envision -- and I don't know if we want to step away from the live images -- but if you can imagine that airport on the western part of town, 10 miles from the picture you are seeing right now, sort of concentric circles or a push toward Baghdad at behind, which is 100 percent U.S. coalition- controlled turf. The number of people required to do that just not present in theater, as they say?
CLARK: Well, it depends on the level of resistance that you have from the Iraqis, and that's what has to be determined. If you had tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers still in command in control in there, and they want to fight for every building and they had RPGs and heavy machine guns and so forth, yes, it could be a tough fight. But what has to be determined is we have to do reconnaissance to find out what is their plan? How much fight do they have? This is what the 3rd Infantry Division did in last night's raid. It was checking out the Iraqi defenses. They don't look that impressive.
So it may turn out that we have adequate combat power in there. That is really something that has to be determined through an interaction with the enemy rather than from a map calculation. But we want to be careful.
O'BRIEN: As I am zooming down here, we'll take you through parts of the airport which we are just exploring here, some anti-aircraft batteries there. Presumably they aren't a threat anymore. Still is it safe to say, some of this integrated anti-aircraft network -- and when we say integrated it's not just shooting willie-nillie is what are we talking about. Does it exist, despite the fact that this key installation now, we can presume to be in coalition control?
CLARK: Well, one has to presume it exists, because the Iraqis will have learned they must have redundant command and control system, and so there must be backup bunkers and backups to the backups, and some of these anti-aircraft networks still have to be assumed to be operational. Many are being employed, many of the cannon and machine guns are probably employed against ground forces, but somewhere the missiles may be active; some of them may be infrared guided. And so coalition aircraft still have to exercise caution over Baghdad in the area just north of Baghdad.
O'BRIEN: All right, General Wesley Clark, thank you very much. When we see you in about 30 minutes' time, we will talk about Saddam Hussein and what might be on his mind. You wrote a great column in "The Times of London," which says he might think of this in terms of the Alamo. We will leave it at that and we'll talk about that in a little bit. So stay with us for that. We'll send it over to Judy now.
WOODRUFF: Thanks, Miles. A very unpleasant picture General Clark painting on the Iraqi side of using canons and so forth against ground forces. We'll certainly see how all of that unfolds.
Well, Baghdad isn't only place seeing military action today. To the north, and the town of Mosul, coalition warplanes continue to pound Iraqi forces who are scattered on the hillsides, or said to be. These pictures are from the crew with CNN's Ben Wedeman. Kurdish fighters who are helping coalition forces are said to be within 18 miles of this key Iraqi stronghold.
In central Iraq, U.S. troops are finding even more weapons to arm Iraqi forces. We'll be talking with CNN's Ryan Chilcote who is with the 101st Airborne in just a few minutes.
And to the south, and the stronghold of Basra, two coalition aircraft have destroyed the home of the man known as "Chemical Ali." There is no word on his fate or whether he was there. He's a cousin of Saddam Hussein, and the man coalition commanders say ordered the chemical attack against Iraqi Kurds 15 years ago.
Well, now for the bigger picture, if you will. The Pentagon is saying that the Baghdad portion of the war plan has officially begun. Joining us now with details, CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, how much are they saying about this Baghdad part of the campaign?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word here is flexibility on this new element of campaign. Both on the ground and in the air. Now, we saw the first ground probe earlier today coming up from the south, moving west to the airport. An armored element of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. They ran into some very fierce fighting along the way. We have been told that there will be continued ground probes throughout the city on all sides.
These probes will be for several reasons. They will send a message to the Iraqi leadership that they are no longer in charge of their capital, but they will also be an intelligence and reconnaissance-gathering mission for the U.S. forces on the ground inside Baghdad. They will be able to gauge the reaction from the neighborhoods that they moved through and they will be able to gather intelligence about where the Iraqis might have placed weapons in the city.
And to that end, there is another new element that has now unfolded. It is called urban close air support. Officials saying that as of today, there will be 24/7 air patrols over Baghdad. Very specialized missions. Fighters and bombers loaded out with munitions that will be effective against key targets inside the city. Against radar, anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missile launchers, surface-to-surface missile launchers and ground artilleries. The types of weapons that the U.S. believes that Special Republican Guard and the security services have placed inside Baghdad and these air patrols will be in the sky, on call; ready to move against these targets, as these U.S. ground probes continue through the city.
So air cover as U.S. troops continue to proceed through Baghdad and take away, they say, the control of Saddam Hussein from his capital bit by bit -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Barbara, we want to continue talking to you. And we also need to get to Charleston, West Virginia, where the family of Jessica Lynch talking to reporters before they fly off to Germany. Let's listen.
GREGORY LYNCH SR., FATHER: ... meeting up with our daughter over there and get her back here.
QUESTION: Do you consider this a happy occasion, a sad occasion? How are you looking at this in that term?
G. LYNCH: Well, it's a happy occasion in a way.
DEE LYNCH, MOTHER: I'm real happy about it. You know what I mean? I can't wait. It's going to be sad, too, because of the circumstances, but no, I'm happy to see her. I can't wait.
QUESTION: The details came out today, Greg, that the rest of 507th, those listed as missing, their status was changed to killed in action, eight soldiers. That word came out today. I know that you have talked all along about those families as well, those soldiers. Can you talk more about not only Jessie but her unit and the sacrifices made?
G. LYNCH: I wasn't aware of this, but OK. Our hearts are really saddened for her other troop members, and the other families.
WOODRUFF: This has to be so hard for the family of Jessica Lynch. Their joy at the fact that she survived. She survived obviously with some very tough injuries, bones broken in her legs and her arms, but her father broke down just then, as you can see, Greg Lynch when he was asked about the other members of the troop, the 507th Maintenance Regiment, most of whom were killed and the bodies that were found near that hospital where Jessica Lynch was found alive, the other troop members' bodies were found buried in a shallow grave outside, and the U.S. has just within the last day identified them. Their families have been notified. And it's -- it has to be very, very difficult. Wolf, even as they are celebrating their daughter's survival to know that everyone else she was serving with is gone.
BLITZER: You know, Judy, I know I speak for you -- I speak I think for all of us that our hearts simply go out to those families. It doesn't get much sadder than that. We are going to continue to watch this story of Private First Class Jessica Lynch. She's fortunately recuperating from her injuries at a hospital, an excellent hospital, a U.S. military hospital, Landstuhl Hospital near Ramstein Air base in Germany. We will watch the family, we'll watch them go over there. I know that they are anxious to be with their daughter and that is certainly understandable.
Let's move on and continue to cover the war, though. Just south of Baghdad, the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division confiscated Iraqi weapons earlier today. That isn't much news in and of itself, but as he displayed the captured weapons, a U.S. Army sergeant along on the raid expressed surprise at where they came from. He spoke with CNN's Ryan Chilcote in Karbala. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Can you show us what you have been finding today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. This is about a third cache that we have found today. We've been finding them nonstop and it's a real tedious affair. I've got an assortment of weapons here, ranging from AK-47s, to over here behind them, you will see motor sights (ph), 60 mm and 81, on the far left, you will see a second-generation star scope. Kind of outdated but still works. If you keep shifting over, you will see stabilizer fins for mortar rounds. On the back here, you will see both 60 and 82 mm mortars.
CHILCOTE: Well-equipped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very well equipped. Definitely put up a fight. Rocket-propelled grenades. We've been finding a lot of these lately. These could take out a jeep or a Humvee in a heartbeat.
CHILCOTE: You said that you had seen a lot of weapons caches recently found. Is this a large cache?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, this is about a medium cache.
CHILCOTE: This looks like a lot of weapons?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like a lot of weapons but it is really not. Technically this is probably out for the platoon or whatever they are...
CHILCOTE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going on, this is a little bit more advanced. These are 25-mm shells and each one of those silver boxes you see behind them holds 50 of these shells. That's a little bit above us. That is actually going into mechanized and armor.
CHILCOTE: All right. And you were talking about the makers, where some these weapons are coming from, and you were expressing surprise to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Majority of these are coming from -- this box, both Jordan and France. We have very scattered limited and Russian equipment. But like I said, France and Jordan are the main suppliers right here.
CHILCOTE: Now, for your guys, this is dangerous work?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, extremely dangerous because once you enter these buildings, we found actually enemy guarding these sites. Don't know if they are going to be booby-trapped. Don't know what is going to be there. So very tedious. You have to be careful about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Very interesting. Thanks to CNN's Ryan Chilcote with the 101st Airborne Division. Still to come, much more to come. We're watching what's happening in Baghdad and also watching what's happening on the home front. Keeping the homeland safe and paying for it. Is a daily $35,000 bill worth it? Our Jeanne Meserve and the plate of one city, namely, Baltimore and what it's doing to make ends meet? You are watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. We are standing by watching what's happening in Baghdad right now. Clearly major developments unfolding. The southern parts of the city, of the outskirts. U.S. Marines, U.S. Army soldiers moving quickly, moving to consolidate their positions, not only at the international airport, Baghdad International as it's been renamed, but elsewhere in those corridors leading to city, they're also moving elsewhere, including in the northern parts of the Iraqi capital.
We're watching all of this within the past hour or so, more explosions rocked the Iraqi capital. No doubt, serious developments unfolding at this new stage in this war. Possibly leading to significant urban warfare as it gets off the ground.
Back in the United States, meanwhile, the war on terror is continuing to take a price. Footing the bill, namely, who's going it pay for fighting potential terrorism? CNN's Jeanne Meserve is following this story. She has more now on the challenges facing one city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the water, in the air, as well as on the ground, Baltimore police have stepped up patrols of critical infrastructure: the port, fuel tanks, chemical plants, rail yards, bridges, tunnels and highways.
KEVIN CLARK, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: Our budget is off the Richter scale right now.
MESERVE: At threat level orange, the city is spending $35,000 a day on homeland security, a bill of more than $400,000 since the war in Iraq began.
Since 9/11, the city calculates it has spent close to $15 million on homeland security. It has received $2.5 million from the state and federal government, less than half of that appropriated since September 11.
MARTIN O'MALLEY, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: We cannot do more unless our federal government helps us.
MESERVE: The city's mayor, Martin O'Malley, has been waging a war of his own to boost the federal contribution. Otherwise, he says, the current freeze on city hiring may not be enough to balance the budget. O'MALLEY: As strange as it sounds, we asked our fire and police to figure out how they can cut 2 percent to 4 percent off their budget at the very same time we're trying to put more fire and police out there and to better equip them. So it's a real Hobson's choice that we have at the local level.
MESERVE: At a central Baltimore firehouse: a sampling of the weaponry for the war on terror.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have Tyvek suits for exposure, rubber gloves, the infamous duct tape.
MESERVE: Weapons of mass destruction kits carried on every piece of equipment, radiation detectors from the 1960s refurbished and recalibrated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much, if that detects something, we're in deep trouble.
MESERVE: A trailer full of supplies for a mass-casualty incident, decontamination tents, all of this obtained since 9/11 with donations, general operating funds and a small amount of grant money.
Administration officials say state and local governments are going to have to shoulder some security costs, but more federal funds are on the way. Chief Goodwin jokes, he'll probably be retired by the time the money makes it through the government bureaucracy.
WILLIAM GOODWIN, BALTIMORE FIRE CHIEF: If I told you that your paycheck was going to go to that person over there, he'll take his cut out of it and decide how much you get and where you can spend it, that's what we're facing.
MESERVE: Police Commissioner Clark, a member of the New York City Police Department when the World Trade Center was hit, urges everyone to remember that lives, as well as money, are at stake.
CLARK: We have to have the right stuff in place. This costs money. This money has to come from somewhere.
MESERVE: The question is, from where, Washington or Baltimore?
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: From here at home to Iraq, where in the northern part of the country, U.S. Special Forces are fighting alongside Kurdish troops. They're now planning a drive to Baghdad from the northeast. CNN's Brent Sadler is with the Special Forces in the north, and he's with us now. Brent, you've been describing a lot of action in that area in the last 24 hours.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, Judy. We've seen some significant moves here in the northeastern sector of the northern front, which has been pounded as we know for the last couple of weeks, but we're seeing some really specific targets now being hit on a key corridor to the northeastern part of it, Baghdad.
Remember that the U.S. forces are encircling most parts of the capital from the south and from the west, but now we seem to be seeing the beginning of action, perhaps targeting a corridor leading to the Iraqi capital from the northeast.
Now within the past hours, I have been out with Special Forces with one of their forward air control units. We've just come back with some exclusive video of what it's like to be with one of these Special Forces units, working in the dark, under difficult conditions, not far from Iraqi lines. I can't say for operational security, but clearly we saw the way they were bringing in F-15s and a B-52 bomber, a high altitude strike against Iraqi front line positions in this sector of the northern front. Massive explosions.
To give you, Judy, the kind of ordnance raining down on a small area where several fortifications are dug in on a ridge line, there were four strikes, air strikes against the hills. Each strike had seven 500-pound bombs, 28 bombs in about an hour, and 14,000 pounds in weight of explosive against these positions. After that, F-15's striking the same hill ridges and other areas in this northern front. That's an awful lot of firepower raining down against Saddam Hussein's air forces in one sector of the northern front, and it's happening in other areas.
What it is not so far doing is creating a collapse, a total collapse of Saddam Hussein's army in the north. Remember that those key northern cities are Kirkuk, Mosul are still under Saddam Hussein's control. Still fighting, we understand, according to CNN's Ben Wedeman, on one sector of the front on a road leading to Mosul, but here certainly significant movement.
What's really interesting to see, Judy, is the way these Iraqi Kurds are working, hand in glove with the U.S. Special Forces, helping them to understand the terrain, helping them point out Iraqi positions, which are the more fortified areas, where they think the heavy guns might be, where the heavy ammo might be and also armored tanks.
We also heard reports coming in of perhaps armor tanks moving, air strikes came down, and I could see the B-52 before sunset flying high overhead, identifying targets and then heavy ordnance raining down. It's really incredible to see the way these forces are working together -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Brent, I could barely do the math, in fact I could not do the math as you were describing how much ammunition is packed into each one of those strikes. I do want to ask you about the U.S.-Kurd cooperation. Are they literally working as one right now in this war?
SADLER: Well, the U.S. is supporting the Kurds on the ground by way of these air strikes, close air support. The idea is to really gradually degrade Iraq's fighting strength along the northern front. Remember, Judy, there's no U.S. ground force presence, insignificant numbers on the ground here in the north. No heavy armor, no heavy U.S. artillery. So really all that can be done so far as the U.S. is concerned is to pummel these front line positions in the hope that they will crack and collapse at the same time as the head of the regime is being cut off in Baghdad. That might create a domino effect and we'd see the collapse of these fortifications around those two towns of Kirkuk and Mosul, very important cities for the coalition to get hold of, as far as the north's concerned and its oil wealth.
As far as the Kurds on the ground are concerned, under the umbrella of the Iraqi opposition they say they can contribute even more than they are contributing now, by fermenting popular rebellions, in particular in Kirkuk, which has a large Kurdish population, and also elsewhere south of line that are being bombed today. That's not happening, but it is possible that there may be a chance for Iraqi Kurds under the umbrella of the Iraqi opposition that there is some groups to perhaps liberate Iraqi soil by Iraqis and that could be a very important psychological boon for the coalition battlefield as a whole -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: No doubt, Brent Sadler. Thank you very much. Brent painting a very clear picture for us of what the situation is like in the north. Thank you, Brent.
Well, still to come this hour, soldiers to citizens. How the military might be the answer to some immigrants looking for citizenship. CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as we saw a short time ago, Jessica Lynch's parents have boarded a plane in Charleston, West Virginia; they're going off now to meet her daughter in Germany, where she is recovering in a U.S. military hospital. Earlier today the story of private Lynch added yet another intriguing layer as discovered by CNN's Jason Bellini in the city where she was captured.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They found this dog tag again inside, what they believe is a Baath Party member's residence, inside a building they were clearing. I hope that you can see this. I brought it up close here. I am covering up now her Social Security number. She doesn't want to see that on national television. What I'm told is going to happen is I'm going to give this back to the commander, and then he's going to be forwarding it back to her. So she will get this back. I've just borrowed it for a few minutes so we could show this to you -- Leon.
HARRIS: Jason, let me ask you this is the thinking then there if they found these dog tags in this Baath Party's official's residence, is the thinking that she was actually there before she was in the hospital? And if she was, is there any evidence that something happened to her there?
BELLINI: That's the theory. They -- they don't know for sure what exactly happened, but they do believe that's where she was.
HARRIS: All right. Here's what we are working on the next hour here on CNN. Military doctors close to the front lines, working to save the lives of both American and Iraqi soldiers. We'll go live to a mobile hospital as close to the battlefront and check on things there.
And then, when will the mercury drop? Triple-digit temperatures keeping the weather sizzling in parts of Iraq. Our forecast is coming up.
Plus, demonstrators take into the streets across the U.S., some to denounce the war, others to support the troops. And now, we troop on, CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues, with Miles O'Brien -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Hello, I'm Miles O'Brien at CNN Center. Let's get a situation report, and a little sense of what Saddam Hussein might be thinking. To do that, we turn to General Wesley Clark, retired United States Army, former supreme NATO commander. General Clark, let's talk about a little bit of what might be on Saddam Hussein's mind, what his strategy might be. You wrote a very interesting column today in "The Times of London." You can get on online if you want to see it. Where you compared Saddam Hussein to perhaps Sam Houston at the Alamo, or at least that's what he thinks. Where does that come from?
CLARK: I think Saddam must understand at this point, he cannot stand on the battlefield, not even in Baghdad and fight against the combined strength of the United States and the coalition. Our air power, our ground power, our leadership, our troops, we're too good. We are too powerful. But maybe he has a political military strategy in mind. Maybe he figures if he can delay us long enough in seizing Baghdad, if he can impose on us enough U.S. casualties, or if he can make us tear up enough infrastructure and kill enough Iraqi civilians then he can look like a hero in the Arab world and somehow he can salvage his reputation, he can bring in support from Arab countries and maybe even one of them will take him in and give him a government in exile position, or maybe he thinks that he can storm back and retake Iraq from us covertly at some point.
O'BRIEN: I have done a split screen here as we look as pictures of what purports to be Saddam Hussein in Baghdad the other day. You talk about the tunnels beneath the Iraqi capital. You talk about ambushes and mines and you talk about one other thing that's interesting, and that is the sheer numbers, which the coalition cannot match on Iraqi soldiers. I'm curious about that number issue, though. What if they just don't show up?
CLARK: Well, that's his problem. He's got plenty of manpower in there in the city of 4.5, five million people and apparently he has distributed some weapons and many of these people don't like Saddam. Many people are Shiites. We don't know exactly how the issue of the Baath Party versus Iraqi nationalism is playing out inside Baghdad. But presumably he can muster 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 infantry fighters, and you know our forces are strong but they're not that strong in infantrymen. So that's his advantage. O'BRIEN: Boots on the ground. Let's zoom on a satellite image of the Baghdad Airport. Of course, satellite imagery, that's a U.S. advantage. One of the things we're talking about here and you mentioned in your article is, for example, the use of UAVs, unmanned area vehicles, air power in general with precision weapons and then lots of armor, M1A1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and night vision capability, when you put all of this against of what you highlight for Saddam Hussein, who wins?
CLARK: Well, you know, the conventional thinking is that the defender has a big advantage in a city, because he knows it and can use the terrain to negate the advantages of an attack. But in this case, we've got some incredible technology, we've got some extraordinarily well-trained soldiers and Marines who know how to fight in built-up areas, I would say we have the advantage.
O'BRIEN: Let's zoom in on this presidential palace compound that we focus so much on of late. I want to show you an animation. We don't know where the Saddam Hussein bunker is, obviously. We can sort of make some guesses. Let's look at an animation that we put together to show you what it might be all about. This would be Saddam Hussein's Alamo down here in this bunker. One hundred fifty feet below. A complex, which includes everything including the kitchen sink. Water, the capability of withstanding for quite some time. What if he just hunkers down, General Clark? At what point does that matter, at what point does he become just irrelevant there in the basement?
CLARK: Well, I think as the battle has gone on, I would raise my my -- my valuation of taking Saddam personally. And so even though he may become irrelevant, I think as a symbol we are going to go in there and get him. If he hunkers down there, we will find him. It may take a week, it may take another 10 days, but we'll find him.
O'BRIEN: General Wes Clark, we will check in with you later. Thanks for your insights as always and once again that's a good column worth reading in the "Times of London." You'll find it online. Let's go to Wolf in Kuwait City.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Miles and General Clark. An investigation is now under way after a gruesome discovery by British troops at an Iraqi military base in southern Iraq. Tim Ewart of ITV News reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM EWART, ITV NEWS (voice-over): It was a discovery that horrified the soldiers who made it. The remains of hundreds of men were found in plastic bags and unsealed hardboard coffins. British troops found the bodies at an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of Az Zubayr. The evidence suggested it was the scene of appalling atrocities. The teeth in many of the skulls were broken and bones appeared to be wrapped in strips of military uniform. It's not clear how long the bodies were laying here, but they were clearly not from this war. CAPT. JACK KEMP, ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY: You come to expect everything in war fighting. The coffins were there. It was a bit more of a surprise when we discovered the bags with human remains inside.
EWART: Inside a neighboring building, there was evidences of cells, and a catalogue of photographs of the dead. Most had died from gunshot wounds to the head. Others were mutilated beyond recognition. Their faces burned and swollen.
Outside, soldiers discovered what they described as a purpose- built shooting gallery. The brickwork behind it riddled with bullets.
Identity cards revealed the names of some of the dead. Forensics specialists will now visit the scene and hope to establish the truth of what happened here and when.
(on camera): Today's discovery seems to provide shocking evidence of atrocities under Saddam Hussein's regime. Most people are afraid to talk openly about what's been happening here. But when they do, British soldiers believe more horrors will come to light.
Tim Ewart, ITV News, Az Zubayr.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Still to come this hour, solders to citizens, a new program that's making a road to citizenship a little bit easier for resident aliens. Our Thelma Gutierrez has the story from California.
Also ahead, the plight of a POW. How would you react to being isolated, malnourished and abused? Our Elizabeth Cohen, and the psychology of being a prisoner as CNN's special coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOODRUFF: For all of progress that has been made, coalition forces still face some formidable challenges, Republican Guard troops, sniper fire and the heat. Temperatures are expected to hover around 100 degrees today in central Iraq. Our Orelon Sidney has been tracking the forecast from the weather center in Atlanta. She is with us now -- Orelon.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Judy, thanks a lot. There is some good news on the horizon even as early as tomorrow; we will start to see some cloudiness moving in. Temperatures will stop dropping as we go on through the early part of next week. It still is very warm, though, 84 degrees in Baghdad. That still is going to be warm for folks in chemical-protected suits. If you want to get an idea of what it should be like this time of year, Baghdad has the same type of April temperatures as Phoenix. So kind a relation for you. You can see how much warmer has been indeed than the normal temperatures. But as disturbance comes through, things will be getting back it normal. Though, still on the warm side.
Chance of rain, too is in the forecast. You can see that right now it's just very quiet. There is a forecast though, at least I am saying so I think for tomorrow, of the winds going up to about 25 miles an hour. Just to the north of the front. This little stationary front here to the north of it around Baghdad, you will find some blowing sand, maybe some blowing dust.
So that will cut the visibilities a bit. Put that together but still warm temperatures tomorrow. That's going to be very uncomfortable, not only do you have the chemical protection but some protection on for your face as well. Warm and humid down to the south. This is where the front's not going to make it. You are still going to be very hot, 97, the forecast temperature through much of the early part of week in Basra and 98 degrees with the flow off of the Persian Gulf. Still going to be very warm in Kuwait. The next couple of days, sunny in Basra, temperatures still hover near 100 -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Orelon, quickly, sand storms don't get enhanced in a city like Baghdad, we assume?
SIDNEY: Probably not as intense in areas where you don't have any obstruction but the problem there is going to be the winds funneling through streets. Whenever you narrow the wind flow, you actually speed it up, so in some respects it could actually be a little more uncomfortable especially areas of exposed skin.
WOODRUFF: All right, Orelon Sidney, with us from the Weather Center in Atlanta. Thank you.
Another story to tell you about, they were willing to fight for our country that was not their own. Now, 18 U.S. service members are also American citizens. They were sworn in at a ceremony in Dallas, Texas, yesterday. An executive order signed by President Bush last year puts legal U.S. residents who enlist on the fast track for American citizenship.
There are tens of thousands of other legal residents who are members of U.S. military. Many hope that by signing up, they'll be able to realize the American dream. Our Thelma Gutierrez talked to a young Mexican woman in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's old- fashioned recruiting...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're a single mom?
Are you ready, man?
GUTIERREZ: ... in time of war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys citizens?
GUTIERREZ: Now, the U.S. government has sweetened a deal for non-citizens willing to enlist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And one other reason to probably join the Army is to get your citizenship.
GUTIERREZ: It's the ultimate price for 17-year-old Elsa Jaime. She's a Mexican citizen who has lived in Los Angeles legally since she was a baby. But she's always dreamed of becoming a U.S. citizen.
ELSA JAIME, POTENTIAL RECRUIT: My mom struggled to get me here as an immigrant. She crossed the border running, and now we're here. So she struggled, and now I should thank America for everything it's gave me.
GUTIERREZ: If Elsa joins up, she'll be on the fast-track toward citizenship, but the offer is only open to legal residents, those who have green cards, not the undocumented.
The Executive Order was signed by the president last year.
HARRY PACHON, THOMAS RIVERA POLICY INSTITUTE: It's a significant factor when you consider that there's maybe like close to 4 percent of the nation's armed forces are green card soldiers. So it is about 40,000 troops right now are green card holders and not U.S. citizens.
GUTIERREZ: Another advantage to a enlisting? A college education for Elsa, one she cannot afford.
JAIME: I would like to enlist. I'm a little bit scared about the war that's going on and stuff, but I would like to enlist for one of the main reasons to go to Pepperdine University.
GUTIERREZ: A picture of the private university hangs on her wall.
(on camera): It looks as though you have these things up in your room to kind of remind you of what your goals are.
JAIME: Yes, they do. They show me what I'm going towards every morning that I wake up.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Perhaps the dream of citizenship and a better life were reasons Private 1st Class Jose Gutierrez, a Guatemalan citizen, and Jose Garibay of Mexico enlisted. Both died in the war and have been granted citizenship posthumously.
CHRYSTAL GARIBAY, SISTER: Yes, they made by brother a citizen. Everybody is happy. But we know he deserved it.
GUTIERREZ: Elsa knows the danger and that she, too, could make the ultimate sacrifice. She says it's a risk she's willing to take for her dreams of becoming somebody in this country.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WOODRUFF: That is some story, and we want to tell you right now, that Reuters is reporting that Iraqi television right now is showing pictures, showing video of Saddam Hussein meeting with his sons, Uday and Qusay. We have not seen the video yet ourselves. We are attempting right now to get it, and as soon as we are able too, we will show it with you. Once again, Reuters saying that Iraqi state television, right now, showing video of Saddam Hussein meeting with his two sons, and of course as always, we're not able to tell you whether the tape was shot today, or when, and it's the question that hangs over all of us, but as soon as we can get those pictures to you we will share them.
Still to come this hour, an update on former POW Jessica Lynch. Her parents spoke briefly to the news media today on their way to Germany. Her story after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Relatives of Jessica Lynch are on their way to Germany right now. She is recovering, as most of you know at a U.S. Military Hospital there from a host of injuries after her unit was ambushed last month by Iraqi forces.
Doctors say she suffered multiple broken bones, and several gunshot wounds. Minutes ago, just before departing the airport, Jessica's father broke down when he learned eight members of her unit were killed in that ambush. A sad confirmation today, the bodies of nine soldiers found during the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch are those of American soldiers. They were part of a convoy ambushed March 23 near Nasiriya. Eight were members of Lynch's 507th Maintenance Company based in Fort Blitz, Texas. Private First Class Maryann Hyastola (ph), first American female soldier killed in the war among them.
Ed Lavandera is covering this story for us, in Fort Bliss, Texas. That is the home of the 507 -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf, well, almost two weeks here, the military community and then also the city of El Paso has been waiting and hoping for the best news possible to come out of this situation, and the headline today in the local paper here reads, the worst news possible has come out of this as Private Jessica Lynch was the only female soldier, and the only soldier to have survived, making the list of those missing in action. There were -- the names of seven soldiers, plus another soldier that was listed on that, not part of the 507th company but parted with that group the day it was ambush near the town, An Nasiriyah. March 23.
The soldiers range in age from the age of 18 that would be Private Ruben Estrella-Soto, of El Paso, he is 18 years old. And the oldest member of this 507th Maintenance Company that was discovered dead recently was Master Sergeant Robert Dowdy. Military officials say that on Wednesday when Jessica live was rescued from the hospital there in Iraq, that bodies of the others nine soldiers were found in a buried nearby that hospital and the military official saying that Special Forces used their bare hands to big up those bodies to bring them home, to be able to bring them home to their families.
So you might imagine as these stories trickle home here to Fort Bliss, that there is an emotional -- extremely emotional sense for the military community here that this base, which had been holding out hope. We are told by officials here that there will be a church service tomorrow, which is regularly scheduled for a Sunday but there is also a special memorial service that is being planned for some time later on next week. The details of that still haven't been released as the military officials here continue to work on that.
Wolf, you also mentioned Lori Ann Piestewa. We have a video of her from her deployment day, back in February here at Fort Bliss. She had a smile on her face. She was surrounded by her family, which lives in Arizona and her brother saying earlier today, that they were very proud of her and the mission that she was participating in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are very proud of Lori, our family is very proud of her. We know she's our hero, as you've heard before. We are continuing to believe that, we are going to hold that in our hearts, forever. And she will not be forgotten. And it gives us comfort to know that she is at peace right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Just a short while ago, we had a chance to speak with a family member of Private Ruben Estrella-Soto who's family lives here in El Paso, their family saying that he'll be missed very much and putting in a paper statement just a short while ago. Here in the next couple of hours bring you more details on that, Wolf.
But clearly all of the family members as they have learned the news over the course of the last day, what has happened, very emotional times for all these families but at the same time, a force I think if you will, that brings all of these families together. Many families coming out and expressing their pleasure and their thoughts of being proud of their family members for what it was they were doing. And that they were all together doing this mission that they very much believed in -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much, from Fort Bliss, Texas. A community deeply saddened by these events. Confirmation of the worst fears, I suspect many these family members suspected the worse and they were hoping for better news. Ed Lavandera, thanks very much.
Jessica's Lynch's parents are heading to Germany right now to be with their daughter while she mends. But the physical battle is just part of the story. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen asked the military psychologist what kinds of mental hurdles Private First Class Lynch might face.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even if Jessica Lynch were physically healthy, she wouldn't be going home right away to her family. Military psychiatrists say released POWs need time, time in military lingo, to decompress after being held prisoner.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they come from that environment and they go to an environment that there are well-wishers and stimuli and light and sound, that can just implode upon them, and they can actually become disoriented and confused.
COHEN: Colonel Elswood Richy (ph) is a psychiatrist who helped Army Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Haul (ph) after his release from North Korea in 1994. Part of the therapy, simply talking about what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They may feel bad because some of their fellow soldiers got killed. They may feel that they could have, should have done something to get away. And so we want to reassure them, and give them a chance to talk about these feelings that they may not really want to talk about with family or the outside world.
COHEN: Another hurdle for POWs? The media spotlight. She might not be ready for the attention her family's already receiving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She asked if she made the local paper, and my mom said, yes, you made the local paper and I lot more. So she has no idea what kind of stir she has raised right now.
COHEN: And how do POWs fare psychologically in the long term? That all depends. Dr Richy (ph), an expert on Korean War veteran, says for some of them, their lives were ruined by the experience, but that's not true for everyone. After more than five years in the Hanoi Hilton, John McCain went on to become a senator and presidential candidate. Lieutenant Colonel Dale Storr spent 33 days in Iraqi captivity in the first Gulf War.
LT. COL. DALE STORR, HELD IN CAPTIVITY FOR 33 DAYS: I hoped it changed me for the better, and maybe it'll make her a stronger person. In fact, I am sure of it. She sounds like she was a pretty tough kid to begin with, and I think this is only going to make her better.
COHEN: Each POW has a different experience. Much of how they respond depends on how they were treated while in captivity. Those are some of the details Jessica Lynch will discuss with military therapists as part of her decompression.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Tough process. Well, that's all of the time we have now for this hour of CNN's coverage of the strike on Iraq. Our coverage continues with a look of the headlines at this hour right after this quick break. Wolf and I will be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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 April 5, 2003 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon to our viewers in North America. Good evening from here from Kuwait City, where it is just after 10:00 p.m. It's just after 11:00 p.m. in Baghdad, where the news is being made this Saturday, April 5. More explosions under way right now in the Iraqi capital. We're watching those explosions. It's been continuing nonstop.
Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting tonight from Kuwait City. Coming up this hour, inside Baghdad. Coalition forces are in the Iraqi capital. So what's there? And who's staying in town? We will take you to the front lines in just 60 seconds.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN's studios in Washington, I'm Judy Woodruff. Also this hour, paying for homeland security. Baltimore's daily bill is $35,000. And guess what, they need more. The story from our Jeanne Meserve.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And from CNN's World Headquarters, I am Miles O'Brien. Also this hour, hours in isolation. Little food or water, physical, mental abuse. We will take you inside the mind of a prisoner of war. See what they go through. But first, back to Wolf in Kuwait City.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Miles. We're standing by for a news conference from West Virginia. The parents of Private First Class Jessica Lynch expected to speak to reporters momentarily. We'll have live coverage. They're heading out of West Virginia. They'll be flying to Washington, D.C. and then onto Germany, specifically to the Ramstein Air base and the Landstuhl Hospital. That's where their daughter, 19-year-old U.S. Army First Class Jessica Lynch rescued, a POW in Iraq. She is recuperating from serious injuries. They understandably want to be with their daughter. We will have live coverage as soon as they come to the microphones.
In the meantime, here's the latest news coming out of Baghdad. Sources in Baghdad say U.S. forces are as close to the city's center as Baghdad University. About a mile from Saddam Hussein's presidential palace. They were also seen at Rasheed Air base, an Iraqi military site east of Baghdad. Sources inside the Iraqi capital also say U.S. forces were snapping a checkpoint six miles north of Baghdad on a major highway. And CNN's Martin Savidge, he is with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines, says that unit was approaching the southern suburbs of Baghdad Saturday afternoon.
Let's go to CNN's Miles O'Brien in Atlanta. He has the situation report, what's unfolding right now -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Wolf. To get us through the situation as we know it right now, we will turn to General Wesley Clark, the retired supreme NATO commander. General -- and of the United States Army, retired.
Good to have you with us, General Clark from Little Rock today. I appreciate you taking some time. First of all, big picture for just a moment here. What is your sense of what the unfolding strategy is here from the coalition perspective? Is the goal here to seize as much turf as possible in Baghdad or simply to declare to the Iraqis and to the Saddam Hussein regime that they can travel through these streets and pick targets at will?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think the strategy is sort of calculated ambiguousness; that is to say, they don't want to disclose their hand. It may be to wait outside, build up forces to pick apart Baghdad -- in the meantime, to seize.
O'BRIEN: General Clark, we are watching live pictures right now from Baghdad. It appears to be renewed bombing activity. And let's pick up on that point. How do the rules of engagement, how does the air package, if you will, change now that it is known that there are U.S. coalition troops in close proximity to what are we seeing unfold right now?
CLARK: Well, it means the bombings are to proceed for the close air support essentially. They'll have to make sure there is no coalition troops there in or around the preplanned targets. And so there's a lot more air ground coordination necessary in certain areas of Baghdad right now.
O'BRIEN: It's a risky thing, isn't it, keeping the friendly apart from those who are being attacked, correct?
CLARK: It is. I mean, you really have to work the coordination on this. It means that people back in the central air organization have to know the locations of the ground units in Baghdad.
O'BRIEN: Friendly fires of course, that stubborn unfortunate consequence of war, which no matter all of the technology that the U.S. holds, still a reality. Let's -- I interrupted your discussion about this ambiguity that you are talking about. Deliberate ambiguity. The idea, of course, to keep the Iraqis on their heals.
CLARK: Exactly. I think they are going to be opportunistic and if there are times and places where we can take or destroy key objectives, we would do so. But remember, Miles, we are facing -- despite the overwhelming strength of the American forces there, we are facing actually an inferiority on the ground infantry strength. Which means, if we were simply to go in and try to hold buildings, we could conceivably, if the Iraqis still had the command and control and the will to do it, we could conceivably be surrounded and be outnumbered in those areas and be cut off.
And so we want to pick and choose our times of attack. We want to get the most strategic targets. We want to let the Baghdad regime crumble. We want to unravel its command in control and its confidence and take it apart piece by piece.
O'BRIEN: So I guess it would be simplistic to envision -- and I don't know if we want to step away from the live images -- but if you can imagine that airport on the western part of town, 10 miles from the picture you are seeing right now, sort of concentric circles or a push toward Baghdad at behind, which is 100 percent U.S. coalition- controlled turf. The number of people required to do that just not present in theater, as they say?
CLARK: Well, it depends on the level of resistance that you have from the Iraqis, and that's what has to be determined. If you had tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers still in command in control in there, and they want to fight for every building and they had RPGs and heavy machine guns and so forth, yes, it could be a tough fight. But what has to be determined is we have to do reconnaissance to find out what is their plan? How much fight do they have? This is what the 3rd Infantry Division did in last night's raid. It was checking out the Iraqi defenses. They don't look that impressive.
So it may turn out that we have adequate combat power in there. That is really something that has to be determined through an interaction with the enemy rather than from a map calculation. But we want to be careful.
O'BRIEN: As I am zooming down here, we'll take you through parts of the airport which we are just exploring here, some anti-aircraft batteries there. Presumably they aren't a threat anymore. Still is it safe to say, some of this integrated anti-aircraft network -- and when we say integrated it's not just shooting willie-nillie is what are we talking about. Does it exist, despite the fact that this key installation now, we can presume to be in coalition control?
CLARK: Well, one has to presume it exists, because the Iraqis will have learned they must have redundant command and control system, and so there must be backup bunkers and backups to the backups, and some of these anti-aircraft networks still have to be assumed to be operational. Many are being employed, many of the cannon and machine guns are probably employed against ground forces, but somewhere the missiles may be active; some of them may be infrared guided. And so coalition aircraft still have to exercise caution over Baghdad in the area just north of Baghdad.
O'BRIEN: All right, General Wesley Clark, thank you very much. When we see you in about 30 minutes' time, we will talk about Saddam Hussein and what might be on his mind. You wrote a great column in "The Times of London," which says he might think of this in terms of the Alamo. We will leave it at that and we'll talk about that in a little bit. So stay with us for that. We'll send it over to Judy now.
WOODRUFF: Thanks, Miles. A very unpleasant picture General Clark painting on the Iraqi side of using canons and so forth against ground forces. We'll certainly see how all of that unfolds.
Well, Baghdad isn't only place seeing military action today. To the north, and the town of Mosul, coalition warplanes continue to pound Iraqi forces who are scattered on the hillsides, or said to be. These pictures are from the crew with CNN's Ben Wedeman. Kurdish fighters who are helping coalition forces are said to be within 18 miles of this key Iraqi stronghold.
In central Iraq, U.S. troops are finding even more weapons to arm Iraqi forces. We'll be talking with CNN's Ryan Chilcote who is with the 101st Airborne in just a few minutes.
And to the south, and the stronghold of Basra, two coalition aircraft have destroyed the home of the man known as "Chemical Ali." There is no word on his fate or whether he was there. He's a cousin of Saddam Hussein, and the man coalition commanders say ordered the chemical attack against Iraqi Kurds 15 years ago.
Well, now for the bigger picture, if you will. The Pentagon is saying that the Baghdad portion of the war plan has officially begun. Joining us now with details, CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, how much are they saying about this Baghdad part of the campaign?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word here is flexibility on this new element of campaign. Both on the ground and in the air. Now, we saw the first ground probe earlier today coming up from the south, moving west to the airport. An armored element of tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. They ran into some very fierce fighting along the way. We have been told that there will be continued ground probes throughout the city on all sides.
These probes will be for several reasons. They will send a message to the Iraqi leadership that they are no longer in charge of their capital, but they will also be an intelligence and reconnaissance-gathering mission for the U.S. forces on the ground inside Baghdad. They will be able to gauge the reaction from the neighborhoods that they moved through and they will be able to gather intelligence about where the Iraqis might have placed weapons in the city.
And to that end, there is another new element that has now unfolded. It is called urban close air support. Officials saying that as of today, there will be 24/7 air patrols over Baghdad. Very specialized missions. Fighters and bombers loaded out with munitions that will be effective against key targets inside the city. Against radar, anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missile launchers, surface-to-surface missile launchers and ground artilleries. The types of weapons that the U.S. believes that Special Republican Guard and the security services have placed inside Baghdad and these air patrols will be in the sky, on call; ready to move against these targets, as these U.S. ground probes continue through the city.
So air cover as U.S. troops continue to proceed through Baghdad and take away, they say, the control of Saddam Hussein from his capital bit by bit -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Barbara, we want to continue talking to you. And we also need to get to Charleston, West Virginia, where the family of Jessica Lynch talking to reporters before they fly off to Germany. Let's listen.
GREGORY LYNCH SR., FATHER: ... meeting up with our daughter over there and get her back here.
QUESTION: Do you consider this a happy occasion, a sad occasion? How are you looking at this in that term?
G. LYNCH: Well, it's a happy occasion in a way.
DEE LYNCH, MOTHER: I'm real happy about it. You know what I mean? I can't wait. It's going to be sad, too, because of the circumstances, but no, I'm happy to see her. I can't wait.
QUESTION: The details came out today, Greg, that the rest of 507th, those listed as missing, their status was changed to killed in action, eight soldiers. That word came out today. I know that you have talked all along about those families as well, those soldiers. Can you talk more about not only Jessie but her unit and the sacrifices made?
G. LYNCH: I wasn't aware of this, but OK. Our hearts are really saddened for her other troop members, and the other families.
WOODRUFF: This has to be so hard for the family of Jessica Lynch. Their joy at the fact that she survived. She survived obviously with some very tough injuries, bones broken in her legs and her arms, but her father broke down just then, as you can see, Greg Lynch when he was asked about the other members of the troop, the 507th Maintenance Regiment, most of whom were killed and the bodies that were found near that hospital where Jessica Lynch was found alive, the other troop members' bodies were found buried in a shallow grave outside, and the U.S. has just within the last day identified them. Their families have been notified. And it's -- it has to be very, very difficult. Wolf, even as they are celebrating their daughter's survival to know that everyone else she was serving with is gone.
BLITZER: You know, Judy, I know I speak for you -- I speak I think for all of us that our hearts simply go out to those families. It doesn't get much sadder than that. We are going to continue to watch this story of Private First Class Jessica Lynch. She's fortunately recuperating from her injuries at a hospital, an excellent hospital, a U.S. military hospital, Landstuhl Hospital near Ramstein Air base in Germany. We will watch the family, we'll watch them go over there. I know that they are anxious to be with their daughter and that is certainly understandable.
Let's move on and continue to cover the war, though. Just south of Baghdad, the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division confiscated Iraqi weapons earlier today. That isn't much news in and of itself, but as he displayed the captured weapons, a U.S. Army sergeant along on the raid expressed surprise at where they came from. He spoke with CNN's Ryan Chilcote in Karbala. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Can you show us what you have been finding today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. This is about a third cache that we have found today. We've been finding them nonstop and it's a real tedious affair. I've got an assortment of weapons here, ranging from AK-47s, to over here behind them, you will see motor sights (ph), 60 mm and 81, on the far left, you will see a second-generation star scope. Kind of outdated but still works. If you keep shifting over, you will see stabilizer fins for mortar rounds. On the back here, you will see both 60 and 82 mm mortars.
CHILCOTE: Well-equipped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very well equipped. Definitely put up a fight. Rocket-propelled grenades. We've been finding a lot of these lately. These could take out a jeep or a Humvee in a heartbeat.
CHILCOTE: You said that you had seen a lot of weapons caches recently found. Is this a large cache?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, this is about a medium cache.
CHILCOTE: This looks like a lot of weapons?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like a lot of weapons but it is really not. Technically this is probably out for the platoon or whatever they are...
CHILCOTE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going on, this is a little bit more advanced. These are 25-mm shells and each one of those silver boxes you see behind them holds 50 of these shells. That's a little bit above us. That is actually going into mechanized and armor.
CHILCOTE: All right. And you were talking about the makers, where some these weapons are coming from, and you were expressing surprise to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Majority of these are coming from -- this box, both Jordan and France. We have very scattered limited and Russian equipment. But like I said, France and Jordan are the main suppliers right here.
CHILCOTE: Now, for your guys, this is dangerous work?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, extremely dangerous because once you enter these buildings, we found actually enemy guarding these sites. Don't know if they are going to be booby-trapped. Don't know what is going to be there. So very tedious. You have to be careful about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Very interesting. Thanks to CNN's Ryan Chilcote with the 101st Airborne Division. Still to come, much more to come. We're watching what's happening in Baghdad and also watching what's happening on the home front. Keeping the homeland safe and paying for it. Is a daily $35,000 bill worth it? Our Jeanne Meserve and the plate of one city, namely, Baltimore and what it's doing to make ends meet? You are watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Iraq. We are standing by watching what's happening in Baghdad right now. Clearly major developments unfolding. The southern parts of the city, of the outskirts. U.S. Marines, U.S. Army soldiers moving quickly, moving to consolidate their positions, not only at the international airport, Baghdad International as it's been renamed, but elsewhere in those corridors leading to city, they're also moving elsewhere, including in the northern parts of the Iraqi capital.
We're watching all of this within the past hour or so, more explosions rocked the Iraqi capital. No doubt, serious developments unfolding at this new stage in this war. Possibly leading to significant urban warfare as it gets off the ground.
Back in the United States, meanwhile, the war on terror is continuing to take a price. Footing the bill, namely, who's going it pay for fighting potential terrorism? CNN's Jeanne Meserve is following this story. She has more now on the challenges facing one city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the water, in the air, as well as on the ground, Baltimore police have stepped up patrols of critical infrastructure: the port, fuel tanks, chemical plants, rail yards, bridges, tunnels and highways.
KEVIN CLARK, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: Our budget is off the Richter scale right now.
MESERVE: At threat level orange, the city is spending $35,000 a day on homeland security, a bill of more than $400,000 since the war in Iraq began.
Since 9/11, the city calculates it has spent close to $15 million on homeland security. It has received $2.5 million from the state and federal government, less than half of that appropriated since September 11.
MARTIN O'MALLEY, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: We cannot do more unless our federal government helps us.
MESERVE: The city's mayor, Martin O'Malley, has been waging a war of his own to boost the federal contribution. Otherwise, he says, the current freeze on city hiring may not be enough to balance the budget. O'MALLEY: As strange as it sounds, we asked our fire and police to figure out how they can cut 2 percent to 4 percent off their budget at the very same time we're trying to put more fire and police out there and to better equip them. So it's a real Hobson's choice that we have at the local level.
MESERVE: At a central Baltimore firehouse: a sampling of the weaponry for the war on terror.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have Tyvek suits for exposure, rubber gloves, the infamous duct tape.
MESERVE: Weapons of mass destruction kits carried on every piece of equipment, radiation detectors from the 1960s refurbished and recalibrated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much, if that detects something, we're in deep trouble.
MESERVE: A trailer full of supplies for a mass-casualty incident, decontamination tents, all of this obtained since 9/11 with donations, general operating funds and a small amount of grant money.
Administration officials say state and local governments are going to have to shoulder some security costs, but more federal funds are on the way. Chief Goodwin jokes, he'll probably be retired by the time the money makes it through the government bureaucracy.
WILLIAM GOODWIN, BALTIMORE FIRE CHIEF: If I told you that your paycheck was going to go to that person over there, he'll take his cut out of it and decide how much you get and where you can spend it, that's what we're facing.
MESERVE: Police Commissioner Clark, a member of the New York City Police Department when the World Trade Center was hit, urges everyone to remember that lives, as well as money, are at stake.
CLARK: We have to have the right stuff in place. This costs money. This money has to come from somewhere.
MESERVE: The question is, from where, Washington or Baltimore?
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: From here at home to Iraq, where in the northern part of the country, U.S. Special Forces are fighting alongside Kurdish troops. They're now planning a drive to Baghdad from the northeast. CNN's Brent Sadler is with the Special Forces in the north, and he's with us now. Brent, you've been describing a lot of action in that area in the last 24 hours.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, Judy. We've seen some significant moves here in the northeastern sector of the northern front, which has been pounded as we know for the last couple of weeks, but we're seeing some really specific targets now being hit on a key corridor to the northeastern part of it, Baghdad.
Remember that the U.S. forces are encircling most parts of the capital from the south and from the west, but now we seem to be seeing the beginning of action, perhaps targeting a corridor leading to the Iraqi capital from the northeast.
Now within the past hours, I have been out with Special Forces with one of their forward air control units. We've just come back with some exclusive video of what it's like to be with one of these Special Forces units, working in the dark, under difficult conditions, not far from Iraqi lines. I can't say for operational security, but clearly we saw the way they were bringing in F-15s and a B-52 bomber, a high altitude strike against Iraqi front line positions in this sector of the northern front. Massive explosions.
To give you, Judy, the kind of ordnance raining down on a small area where several fortifications are dug in on a ridge line, there were four strikes, air strikes against the hills. Each strike had seven 500-pound bombs, 28 bombs in about an hour, and 14,000 pounds in weight of explosive against these positions. After that, F-15's striking the same hill ridges and other areas in this northern front. That's an awful lot of firepower raining down against Saddam Hussein's air forces in one sector of the northern front, and it's happening in other areas.
What it is not so far doing is creating a collapse, a total collapse of Saddam Hussein's army in the north. Remember that those key northern cities are Kirkuk, Mosul are still under Saddam Hussein's control. Still fighting, we understand, according to CNN's Ben Wedeman, on one sector of the front on a road leading to Mosul, but here certainly significant movement.
What's really interesting to see, Judy, is the way these Iraqi Kurds are working, hand in glove with the U.S. Special Forces, helping them to understand the terrain, helping them point out Iraqi positions, which are the more fortified areas, where they think the heavy guns might be, where the heavy ammo might be and also armored tanks.
We also heard reports coming in of perhaps armor tanks moving, air strikes came down, and I could see the B-52 before sunset flying high overhead, identifying targets and then heavy ordnance raining down. It's really incredible to see the way these forces are working together -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Brent, I could barely do the math, in fact I could not do the math as you were describing how much ammunition is packed into each one of those strikes. I do want to ask you about the U.S.-Kurd cooperation. Are they literally working as one right now in this war?
SADLER: Well, the U.S. is supporting the Kurds on the ground by way of these air strikes, close air support. The idea is to really gradually degrade Iraq's fighting strength along the northern front. Remember, Judy, there's no U.S. ground force presence, insignificant numbers on the ground here in the north. No heavy armor, no heavy U.S. artillery. So really all that can be done so far as the U.S. is concerned is to pummel these front line positions in the hope that they will crack and collapse at the same time as the head of the regime is being cut off in Baghdad. That might create a domino effect and we'd see the collapse of these fortifications around those two towns of Kirkuk and Mosul, very important cities for the coalition to get hold of, as far as the north's concerned and its oil wealth.
As far as the Kurds on the ground are concerned, under the umbrella of the Iraqi opposition they say they can contribute even more than they are contributing now, by fermenting popular rebellions, in particular in Kirkuk, which has a large Kurdish population, and also elsewhere south of line that are being bombed today. That's not happening, but it is possible that there may be a chance for Iraqi Kurds under the umbrella of the Iraqi opposition that there is some groups to perhaps liberate Iraqi soil by Iraqis and that could be a very important psychological boon for the coalition battlefield as a whole -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: No doubt, Brent Sadler. Thank you very much. Brent painting a very clear picture for us of what the situation is like in the north. Thank you, Brent.
Well, still to come this hour, soldiers to citizens. How the military might be the answer to some immigrants looking for citizenship. CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as we saw a short time ago, Jessica Lynch's parents have boarded a plane in Charleston, West Virginia; they're going off now to meet her daughter in Germany, where she is recovering in a U.S. military hospital. Earlier today the story of private Lynch added yet another intriguing layer as discovered by CNN's Jason Bellini in the city where she was captured.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They found this dog tag again inside, what they believe is a Baath Party member's residence, inside a building they were clearing. I hope that you can see this. I brought it up close here. I am covering up now her Social Security number. She doesn't want to see that on national television. What I'm told is going to happen is I'm going to give this back to the commander, and then he's going to be forwarding it back to her. So she will get this back. I've just borrowed it for a few minutes so we could show this to you -- Leon.
HARRIS: Jason, let me ask you this is the thinking then there if they found these dog tags in this Baath Party's official's residence, is the thinking that she was actually there before she was in the hospital? And if she was, is there any evidence that something happened to her there?
BELLINI: That's the theory. They -- they don't know for sure what exactly happened, but they do believe that's where she was.
HARRIS: All right. Here's what we are working on the next hour here on CNN. Military doctors close to the front lines, working to save the lives of both American and Iraqi soldiers. We'll go live to a mobile hospital as close to the battlefront and check on things there.
And then, when will the mercury drop? Triple-digit temperatures keeping the weather sizzling in parts of Iraq. Our forecast is coming up.
Plus, demonstrators take into the streets across the U.S., some to denounce the war, others to support the troops. And now, we troop on, CNN's coverage of the war in Iraq continues, with Miles O'Brien -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Hello, I'm Miles O'Brien at CNN Center. Let's get a situation report, and a little sense of what Saddam Hussein might be thinking. To do that, we turn to General Wesley Clark, retired United States Army, former supreme NATO commander. General Clark, let's talk about a little bit of what might be on Saddam Hussein's mind, what his strategy might be. You wrote a very interesting column today in "The Times of London." You can get on online if you want to see it. Where you compared Saddam Hussein to perhaps Sam Houston at the Alamo, or at least that's what he thinks. Where does that come from?
CLARK: I think Saddam must understand at this point, he cannot stand on the battlefield, not even in Baghdad and fight against the combined strength of the United States and the coalition. Our air power, our ground power, our leadership, our troops, we're too good. We are too powerful. But maybe he has a political military strategy in mind. Maybe he figures if he can delay us long enough in seizing Baghdad, if he can impose on us enough U.S. casualties, or if he can make us tear up enough infrastructure and kill enough Iraqi civilians then he can look like a hero in the Arab world and somehow he can salvage his reputation, he can bring in support from Arab countries and maybe even one of them will take him in and give him a government in exile position, or maybe he thinks that he can storm back and retake Iraq from us covertly at some point.
O'BRIEN: I have done a split screen here as we look as pictures of what purports to be Saddam Hussein in Baghdad the other day. You talk about the tunnels beneath the Iraqi capital. You talk about ambushes and mines and you talk about one other thing that's interesting, and that is the sheer numbers, which the coalition cannot match on Iraqi soldiers. I'm curious about that number issue, though. What if they just don't show up?
CLARK: Well, that's his problem. He's got plenty of manpower in there in the city of 4.5, five million people and apparently he has distributed some weapons and many of these people don't like Saddam. Many people are Shiites. We don't know exactly how the issue of the Baath Party versus Iraqi nationalism is playing out inside Baghdad. But presumably he can muster 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 infantry fighters, and you know our forces are strong but they're not that strong in infantrymen. So that's his advantage. O'BRIEN: Boots on the ground. Let's zoom on a satellite image of the Baghdad Airport. Of course, satellite imagery, that's a U.S. advantage. One of the things we're talking about here and you mentioned in your article is, for example, the use of UAVs, unmanned area vehicles, air power in general with precision weapons and then lots of armor, M1A1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and night vision capability, when you put all of this against of what you highlight for Saddam Hussein, who wins?
CLARK: Well, you know, the conventional thinking is that the defender has a big advantage in a city, because he knows it and can use the terrain to negate the advantages of an attack. But in this case, we've got some incredible technology, we've got some extraordinarily well-trained soldiers and Marines who know how to fight in built-up areas, I would say we have the advantage.
O'BRIEN: Let's zoom in on this presidential palace compound that we focus so much on of late. I want to show you an animation. We don't know where the Saddam Hussein bunker is, obviously. We can sort of make some guesses. Let's look at an animation that we put together to show you what it might be all about. This would be Saddam Hussein's Alamo down here in this bunker. One hundred fifty feet below. A complex, which includes everything including the kitchen sink. Water, the capability of withstanding for quite some time. What if he just hunkers down, General Clark? At what point does that matter, at what point does he become just irrelevant there in the basement?
CLARK: Well, I think as the battle has gone on, I would raise my my -- my valuation of taking Saddam personally. And so even though he may become irrelevant, I think as a symbol we are going to go in there and get him. If he hunkers down there, we will find him. It may take a week, it may take another 10 days, but we'll find him.
O'BRIEN: General Wes Clark, we will check in with you later. Thanks for your insights as always and once again that's a good column worth reading in the "Times of London." You'll find it online. Let's go to Wolf in Kuwait City.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Miles and General Clark. An investigation is now under way after a gruesome discovery by British troops at an Iraqi military base in southern Iraq. Tim Ewart of ITV News reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM EWART, ITV NEWS (voice-over): It was a discovery that horrified the soldiers who made it. The remains of hundreds of men were found in plastic bags and unsealed hardboard coffins. British troops found the bodies at an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of Az Zubayr. The evidence suggested it was the scene of appalling atrocities. The teeth in many of the skulls were broken and bones appeared to be wrapped in strips of military uniform. It's not clear how long the bodies were laying here, but they were clearly not from this war. CAPT. JACK KEMP, ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY: You come to expect everything in war fighting. The coffins were there. It was a bit more of a surprise when we discovered the bags with human remains inside.
EWART: Inside a neighboring building, there was evidences of cells, and a catalogue of photographs of the dead. Most had died from gunshot wounds to the head. Others were mutilated beyond recognition. Their faces burned and swollen.
Outside, soldiers discovered what they described as a purpose- built shooting gallery. The brickwork behind it riddled with bullets.
Identity cards revealed the names of some of the dead. Forensics specialists will now visit the scene and hope to establish the truth of what happened here and when.
(on camera): Today's discovery seems to provide shocking evidence of atrocities under Saddam Hussein's regime. Most people are afraid to talk openly about what's been happening here. But when they do, British soldiers believe more horrors will come to light.
Tim Ewart, ITV News, Az Zubayr.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Still to come this hour, solders to citizens, a new program that's making a road to citizenship a little bit easier for resident aliens. Our Thelma Gutierrez has the story from California.
Also ahead, the plight of a POW. How would you react to being isolated, malnourished and abused? Our Elizabeth Cohen, and the psychology of being a prisoner as CNN's special coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOODRUFF: For all of progress that has been made, coalition forces still face some formidable challenges, Republican Guard troops, sniper fire and the heat. Temperatures are expected to hover around 100 degrees today in central Iraq. Our Orelon Sidney has been tracking the forecast from the weather center in Atlanta. She is with us now -- Orelon.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Judy, thanks a lot. There is some good news on the horizon even as early as tomorrow; we will start to see some cloudiness moving in. Temperatures will stop dropping as we go on through the early part of next week. It still is very warm, though, 84 degrees in Baghdad. That still is going to be warm for folks in chemical-protected suits. If you want to get an idea of what it should be like this time of year, Baghdad has the same type of April temperatures as Phoenix. So kind a relation for you. You can see how much warmer has been indeed than the normal temperatures. But as disturbance comes through, things will be getting back it normal. Though, still on the warm side.
Chance of rain, too is in the forecast. You can see that right now it's just very quiet. There is a forecast though, at least I am saying so I think for tomorrow, of the winds going up to about 25 miles an hour. Just to the north of the front. This little stationary front here to the north of it around Baghdad, you will find some blowing sand, maybe some blowing dust.
So that will cut the visibilities a bit. Put that together but still warm temperatures tomorrow. That's going to be very uncomfortable, not only do you have the chemical protection but some protection on for your face as well. Warm and humid down to the south. This is where the front's not going to make it. You are still going to be very hot, 97, the forecast temperature through much of the early part of week in Basra and 98 degrees with the flow off of the Persian Gulf. Still going to be very warm in Kuwait. The next couple of days, sunny in Basra, temperatures still hover near 100 -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Orelon, quickly, sand storms don't get enhanced in a city like Baghdad, we assume?
SIDNEY: Probably not as intense in areas where you don't have any obstruction but the problem there is going to be the winds funneling through streets. Whenever you narrow the wind flow, you actually speed it up, so in some respects it could actually be a little more uncomfortable especially areas of exposed skin.
WOODRUFF: All right, Orelon Sidney, with us from the Weather Center in Atlanta. Thank you.
Another story to tell you about, they were willing to fight for our country that was not their own. Now, 18 U.S. service members are also American citizens. They were sworn in at a ceremony in Dallas, Texas, yesterday. An executive order signed by President Bush last year puts legal U.S. residents who enlist on the fast track for American citizenship.
There are tens of thousands of other legal residents who are members of U.S. military. Many hope that by signing up, they'll be able to realize the American dream. Our Thelma Gutierrez talked to a young Mexican woman in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's old- fashioned recruiting...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're a single mom?
Are you ready, man?
GUTIERREZ: ... in time of war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys citizens?
GUTIERREZ: Now, the U.S. government has sweetened a deal for non-citizens willing to enlist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And one other reason to probably join the Army is to get your citizenship.
GUTIERREZ: It's the ultimate price for 17-year-old Elsa Jaime. She's a Mexican citizen who has lived in Los Angeles legally since she was a baby. But she's always dreamed of becoming a U.S. citizen.
ELSA JAIME, POTENTIAL RECRUIT: My mom struggled to get me here as an immigrant. She crossed the border running, and now we're here. So she struggled, and now I should thank America for everything it's gave me.
GUTIERREZ: If Elsa joins up, she'll be on the fast-track toward citizenship, but the offer is only open to legal residents, those who have green cards, not the undocumented.
The Executive Order was signed by the president last year.
HARRY PACHON, THOMAS RIVERA POLICY INSTITUTE: It's a significant factor when you consider that there's maybe like close to 4 percent of the nation's armed forces are green card soldiers. So it is about 40,000 troops right now are green card holders and not U.S. citizens.
GUTIERREZ: Another advantage to a enlisting? A college education for Elsa, one she cannot afford.
JAIME: I would like to enlist. I'm a little bit scared about the war that's going on and stuff, but I would like to enlist for one of the main reasons to go to Pepperdine University.
GUTIERREZ: A picture of the private university hangs on her wall.
(on camera): It looks as though you have these things up in your room to kind of remind you of what your goals are.
JAIME: Yes, they do. They show me what I'm going towards every morning that I wake up.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Perhaps the dream of citizenship and a better life were reasons Private 1st Class Jose Gutierrez, a Guatemalan citizen, and Jose Garibay of Mexico enlisted. Both died in the war and have been granted citizenship posthumously.
CHRYSTAL GARIBAY, SISTER: Yes, they made by brother a citizen. Everybody is happy. But we know he deserved it.
GUTIERREZ: Elsa knows the danger and that she, too, could make the ultimate sacrifice. She says it's a risk she's willing to take for her dreams of becoming somebody in this country.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WOODRUFF: That is some story, and we want to tell you right now, that Reuters is reporting that Iraqi television right now is showing pictures, showing video of Saddam Hussein meeting with his sons, Uday and Qusay. We have not seen the video yet ourselves. We are attempting right now to get it, and as soon as we are able too, we will show it with you. Once again, Reuters saying that Iraqi state television, right now, showing video of Saddam Hussein meeting with his two sons, and of course as always, we're not able to tell you whether the tape was shot today, or when, and it's the question that hangs over all of us, but as soon as we can get those pictures to you we will share them.
Still to come this hour, an update on former POW Jessica Lynch. Her parents spoke briefly to the news media today on their way to Germany. Her story after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Relatives of Jessica Lynch are on their way to Germany right now. She is recovering, as most of you know at a U.S. Military Hospital there from a host of injuries after her unit was ambushed last month by Iraqi forces.
Doctors say she suffered multiple broken bones, and several gunshot wounds. Minutes ago, just before departing the airport, Jessica's father broke down when he learned eight members of her unit were killed in that ambush. A sad confirmation today, the bodies of nine soldiers found during the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch are those of American soldiers. They were part of a convoy ambushed March 23 near Nasiriya. Eight were members of Lynch's 507th Maintenance Company based in Fort Blitz, Texas. Private First Class Maryann Hyastola (ph), first American female soldier killed in the war among them.
Ed Lavandera is covering this story for us, in Fort Bliss, Texas. That is the home of the 507 -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf, well, almost two weeks here, the military community and then also the city of El Paso has been waiting and hoping for the best news possible to come out of this situation, and the headline today in the local paper here reads, the worst news possible has come out of this as Private Jessica Lynch was the only female soldier, and the only soldier to have survived, making the list of those missing in action. There were -- the names of seven soldiers, plus another soldier that was listed on that, not part of the 507th company but parted with that group the day it was ambush near the town, An Nasiriyah. March 23.
The soldiers range in age from the age of 18 that would be Private Ruben Estrella-Soto, of El Paso, he is 18 years old. And the oldest member of this 507th Maintenance Company that was discovered dead recently was Master Sergeant Robert Dowdy. Military officials say that on Wednesday when Jessica live was rescued from the hospital there in Iraq, that bodies of the others nine soldiers were found in a buried nearby that hospital and the military official saying that Special Forces used their bare hands to big up those bodies to bring them home, to be able to bring them home to their families.
So you might imagine as these stories trickle home here to Fort Bliss, that there is an emotional -- extremely emotional sense for the military community here that this base, which had been holding out hope. We are told by officials here that there will be a church service tomorrow, which is regularly scheduled for a Sunday but there is also a special memorial service that is being planned for some time later on next week. The details of that still haven't been released as the military officials here continue to work on that.
Wolf, you also mentioned Lori Ann Piestewa. We have a video of her from her deployment day, back in February here at Fort Bliss. She had a smile on her face. She was surrounded by her family, which lives in Arizona and her brother saying earlier today, that they were very proud of her and the mission that she was participating in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are very proud of Lori, our family is very proud of her. We know she's our hero, as you've heard before. We are continuing to believe that, we are going to hold that in our hearts, forever. And she will not be forgotten. And it gives us comfort to know that she is at peace right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Just a short while ago, we had a chance to speak with a family member of Private Ruben Estrella-Soto who's family lives here in El Paso, their family saying that he'll be missed very much and putting in a paper statement just a short while ago. Here in the next couple of hours bring you more details on that, Wolf.
But clearly all of the family members as they have learned the news over the course of the last day, what has happened, very emotional times for all these families but at the same time, a force I think if you will, that brings all of these families together. Many families coming out and expressing their pleasure and their thoughts of being proud of their family members for what it was they were doing. And that they were all together doing this mission that they very much believed in -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much, from Fort Bliss, Texas. A community deeply saddened by these events. Confirmation of the worst fears, I suspect many these family members suspected the worse and they were hoping for better news. Ed Lavandera, thanks very much.
Jessica's Lynch's parents are heading to Germany right now to be with their daughter while she mends. But the physical battle is just part of the story. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen asked the military psychologist what kinds of mental hurdles Private First Class Lynch might face.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even if Jessica Lynch were physically healthy, she wouldn't be going home right away to her family. Military psychiatrists say released POWs need time, time in military lingo, to decompress after being held prisoner.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they come from that environment and they go to an environment that there are well-wishers and stimuli and light and sound, that can just implode upon them, and they can actually become disoriented and confused.
COHEN: Colonel Elswood Richy (ph) is a psychiatrist who helped Army Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Haul (ph) after his release from North Korea in 1994. Part of the therapy, simply talking about what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They may feel bad because some of their fellow soldiers got killed. They may feel that they could have, should have done something to get away. And so we want to reassure them, and give them a chance to talk about these feelings that they may not really want to talk about with family or the outside world.
COHEN: Another hurdle for POWs? The media spotlight. She might not be ready for the attention her family's already receiving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She asked if she made the local paper, and my mom said, yes, you made the local paper and I lot more. So she has no idea what kind of stir she has raised right now.
COHEN: And how do POWs fare psychologically in the long term? That all depends. Dr Richy (ph), an expert on Korean War veteran, says for some of them, their lives were ruined by the experience, but that's not true for everyone. After more than five years in the Hanoi Hilton, John McCain went on to become a senator and presidential candidate. Lieutenant Colonel Dale Storr spent 33 days in Iraqi captivity in the first Gulf War.
LT. COL. DALE STORR, HELD IN CAPTIVITY FOR 33 DAYS: I hoped it changed me for the better, and maybe it'll make her a stronger person. In fact, I am sure of it. She sounds like she was a pretty tough kid to begin with, and I think this is only going to make her better.
COHEN: Each POW has a different experience. Much of how they respond depends on how they were treated while in captivity. Those are some of the details Jessica Lynch will discuss with military therapists as part of her decompression.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Tough process. Well, that's all of the time we have now for this hour of CNN's coverage of the strike on Iraq. Our coverage continues with a look of the headlines at this hour right after this quick break. Wolf and I will be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
