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U.S. Marines Sweep Through Palestine Hotel in Baghdad
Aired April 15, 2003 - 14:14 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Marines swept through the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad today, looking for what a military source calls unauthorized weapons and people not friendly to the United States. A number of arrests were made in all of this.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Baghdad, joining us now with the latest on all of this.
Christiane, was your door knocked open?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was, but I wasn't in it. And of course here we're sharing with all our colleagues and things, so my colleague at CNN was in the room and she had the Marine with the M-16. I was out here on the roof reporting, fortunately for myself.
But of course, it was quite a scary experience, as you can imagine, for all of those who had their rooms searched and their I.D.'s demanded and their passports looked at by Marines who were masked and wielding their weapons.
As I said, it happened earlier this morning and the Marines saying that they were looking for, quote, "unfriendlies" or, indeed, weapons caches. And what they did find -- not in the hotel but away from the hotel in another building later on today, was a weapons cache. Quite a few cases of weapons and ammunition.
And this has been quite a recurring pattern over the last week or so. There have been quite significant stashes of weapons found around this city in various buildings.
Now, also, the Marines have been out on patrol. They have been trying to sort of help bring more order to the city. They have divided most of the city into separate sectors and they're responsible for all sorts of different sectors.
They've been trying to get the Iraqi police out, as well. But that hasn't exactly happened yet. There have been a couple of Iraqi patrol cars, which have been surrounded and are protected by armed Marine vehicles, but the -- getting the police onto the streets is not going quite as fast as they would hope.
Now, Marines also, as I say, doing a lot of the civil administration work, as well, or at least trying to fill what is a big political and security vacuum here. And they are being billeted in various places around the city, including today, we discovered, at one of the palaces of one of Saddam's former wives.
So they are out and about. Things are trying to get now more under control. But it's still fairly insecure, still quite a lot of challenges to the Marines themselves. Indeed, they put out a message today, urging Iraqis to stay inside in the darkness hours. And whenever they approach the Marines, to be very careful not to look threatening, to announce themselves, not to look as though they're carrying anything that could be mistaken for a weapon.
So there's quite a lot of tension still in this city even as slowly, slowly things try to be put back together. But a political vacuum that still needs to be filled and a security vacuum that is only gradually being filled -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Christiane, I think it's worth reminding people how big a city Baghdad is, five million plus. The scope of the problem is tremendous and trying to -- I can't remember how many sectors and zones they divided it into -- the military. It's got to be very difficult.
Certainly, the military is spread thing, but this nascent new police force, it's got to be impossible for them to police every corner.
AMANPOUR: Well, it is, exactly. Not only are the Marines and the Army stretched thin, there are a few thousand in the city compared to five million residents. But also the police, there were 40,000 before the war, before the fall of Saddam's regime, and now about 2,000 or 3,000 have reported back to work. But they're not on the streets yet because it's taking time to screen them and to do the appropriate pre-work before one gets them back onto the streets. So it is quite difficult.
And then added to that, you've got this massive amenity breakdown. Still no electricity. Water, they're still trying to get up and fully functioning. Telephones still not working. Most of the shops and businesses still closed although slowly, slowly, some are trying to open.
But the overriding concern, obviously, is security. And from that, then, they hope all things will then flow -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Sounds like nation building from the ground up. Christiane, thank you very much.
AMANPOUR: Well, it is, yes.
O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.
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 15, 2003 - 14:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Marines swept through the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad today, looking for what a military source calls unauthorized weapons and people not friendly to the United States. A number of arrests were made in all of this.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Baghdad, joining us now with the latest on all of this.
Christiane, was your door knocked open?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was, but I wasn't in it. And of course here we're sharing with all our colleagues and things, so my colleague at CNN was in the room and she had the Marine with the M-16. I was out here on the roof reporting, fortunately for myself.
But of course, it was quite a scary experience, as you can imagine, for all of those who had their rooms searched and their I.D.'s demanded and their passports looked at by Marines who were masked and wielding their weapons.
As I said, it happened earlier this morning and the Marines saying that they were looking for, quote, "unfriendlies" or, indeed, weapons caches. And what they did find -- not in the hotel but away from the hotel in another building later on today, was a weapons cache. Quite a few cases of weapons and ammunition.
And this has been quite a recurring pattern over the last week or so. There have been quite significant stashes of weapons found around this city in various buildings.
Now, also, the Marines have been out on patrol. They have been trying to sort of help bring more order to the city. They have divided most of the city into separate sectors and they're responsible for all sorts of different sectors.
They've been trying to get the Iraqi police out, as well. But that hasn't exactly happened yet. There have been a couple of Iraqi patrol cars, which have been surrounded and are protected by armed Marine vehicles, but the -- getting the police onto the streets is not going quite as fast as they would hope.
Now, Marines also, as I say, doing a lot of the civil administration work, as well, or at least trying to fill what is a big political and security vacuum here. And they are being billeted in various places around the city, including today, we discovered, at one of the palaces of one of Saddam's former wives.
So they are out and about. Things are trying to get now more under control. But it's still fairly insecure, still quite a lot of challenges to the Marines themselves. Indeed, they put out a message today, urging Iraqis to stay inside in the darkness hours. And whenever they approach the Marines, to be very careful not to look threatening, to announce themselves, not to look as though they're carrying anything that could be mistaken for a weapon.
So there's quite a lot of tension still in this city even as slowly, slowly things try to be put back together. But a political vacuum that still needs to be filled and a security vacuum that is only gradually being filled -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Christiane, I think it's worth reminding people how big a city Baghdad is, five million plus. The scope of the problem is tremendous and trying to -- I can't remember how many sectors and zones they divided it into -- the military. It's got to be very difficult.
Certainly, the military is spread thing, but this nascent new police force, it's got to be impossible for them to police every corner.
AMANPOUR: Well, it is, exactly. Not only are the Marines and the Army stretched thin, there are a few thousand in the city compared to five million residents. But also the police, there were 40,000 before the war, before the fall of Saddam's regime, and now about 2,000 or 3,000 have reported back to work. But they're not on the streets yet because it's taking time to screen them and to do the appropriate pre-work before one gets them back onto the streets. So it is quite difficult.
And then added to that, you've got this massive amenity breakdown. Still no electricity. Water, they're still trying to get up and fully functioning. Telephones still not working. Most of the shops and businesses still closed although slowly, slowly, some are trying to open.
But the overriding concern, obviously, is security. And from that, then, they hope all things will then flow -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Sounds like nation building from the ground up. Christiane, thank you very much.
AMANPOUR: Well, it is, yes.
O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
