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Air War Over Iraq Decreasing Dramatically, No More Major Ground Battles Anticipated

Aired April 14, 2003 - 14:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well as we just heard at the Pentagon from General Stanley McChrystal, this -- the air war over Iraq decreasing dramatically. No more major ground battles anticipated.
So as I turn it over to Miles O'Brien in Atlanta for a look at the big picture -- Miles, it is a changing war.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is indeed, Judy. And it's difficult to keep track of it sometimes. That's why we turn to our retired Lieutenant General -- Major General Don Shepperd. Didn't mean to lower you in rank sir. After all this, should give you a promotion. Thank very much.

First of all, let's talk about this, Stanley McChrystal, general at the Pentagon, seemed to -- he didn't throw water on it. But it appears that CNN might be a little ahead of the information flow here.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They are being very guarded not to go out there and cry wolf. They don't want to say something and define and then have later on found out this is not true. Being very careful.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now, of course Secretary Powell February 5 went the United Nations and laid out the U.S. case on the possibility of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And you remember this day. I believe it was valentine's day -- no, this was February 5, actually, which led up to that famous Valentine's Day vote.

In any case, one of the things here released at this time, if we go to the Web right now -- you can find it on this Web at the Department of State Web site -- is some depictions of these mobile production facilities. Just going clockwise from upper left, it's sort of a semi-trailer kind of thing there, railcar. And what that depicts beneath it would be inside. And in essence, what we're talking about here are mobile production facilities. And the key is production of the stuff right when you need it.

SHEPPERD: In deed. And the word ConEx, Container Express, that's what these things are hidden in. They're put on flatbed trucks. And dual use, that's the word we're hitting.

This is very suspicious, buried. Why would they bury something like this? It's very expensive. And it doesn't make a lot of sense -- Miles. O'BRIEN: All right. Now looking at this slide from once again from Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations, what this shows is three semi-trailers put together and the three of them together actually make a factory.

SHEPPERD: And they do indeed. And again, over each one of these would be the ConEx, the Container Express or the box that sits on the back of the flatbed.

O'BRIEN: Yeas, this is sort of a cut-away.

SHEPPERD: You would -- this is a manufacturing facility for chemical or biological weapons and could be used. And it was presented by our Secretary of State. There had to be some substance behind this, at least our government thought.

O'BRIEN: It seems to me if you wanted to thwart an inspection campaign this would be a good way to do it. First of all, you don't make this stuff in advance. Secondly, you disperse the actual production facility, make it all kind of a fluid thing.

SHEPPERD: You bury it then, and then you call it dual use, as well. And then you put it next to a Medina Division and artillery and people that have chemical suits so you can deploy it. It all kind of adds up to very suspicious.

O'BRIEN: General Don Shepperd, thanks very much.

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






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Aired April 14, 2003 - 14:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well as we just heard at the Pentagon from General Stanley McChrystal, this -- the air war over Iraq decreasing dramatically. No more major ground battles anticipated.
So as I turn it over to Miles O'Brien in Atlanta for a look at the big picture -- Miles, it is a changing war.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is indeed, Judy. And it's difficult to keep track of it sometimes. That's why we turn to our retired Lieutenant General -- Major General Don Shepperd. Didn't mean to lower you in rank sir. After all this, should give you a promotion. Thank very much.

First of all, let's talk about this, Stanley McChrystal, general at the Pentagon, seemed to -- he didn't throw water on it. But it appears that CNN might be a little ahead of the information flow here.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They are being very guarded not to go out there and cry wolf. They don't want to say something and define and then have later on found out this is not true. Being very careful.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now, of course Secretary Powell February 5 went the United Nations and laid out the U.S. case on the possibility of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And you remember this day. I believe it was valentine's day -- no, this was February 5, actually, which led up to that famous Valentine's Day vote.

In any case, one of the things here released at this time, if we go to the Web right now -- you can find it on this Web at the Department of State Web site -- is some depictions of these mobile production facilities. Just going clockwise from upper left, it's sort of a semi-trailer kind of thing there, railcar. And what that depicts beneath it would be inside. And in essence, what we're talking about here are mobile production facilities. And the key is production of the stuff right when you need it.

SHEPPERD: In deed. And the word ConEx, Container Express, that's what these things are hidden in. They're put on flatbed trucks. And dual use, that's the word we're hitting.

This is very suspicious, buried. Why would they bury something like this? It's very expensive. And it doesn't make a lot of sense -- Miles. O'BRIEN: All right. Now looking at this slide from once again from Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations, what this shows is three semi-trailers put together and the three of them together actually make a factory.

SHEPPERD: And they do indeed. And again, over each one of these would be the ConEx, the Container Express or the box that sits on the back of the flatbed.

O'BRIEN: Yeas, this is sort of a cut-away.

SHEPPERD: You would -- this is a manufacturing facility for chemical or biological weapons and could be used. And it was presented by our Secretary of State. There had to be some substance behind this, at least our government thought.

O'BRIEN: It seems to me if you wanted to thwart an inspection campaign this would be a good way to do it. First of all, you don't make this stuff in advance. Secondly, you disperse the actual production facility, make it all kind of a fluid thing.

SHEPPERD: You bury it then, and then you call it dual use, as well. And then you put it next to a Medina Division and artillery and people that have chemical suits so you can deploy it. It all kind of adds up to very suspicious.

O'BRIEN: General Don Shepperd, thanks very much.

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






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