Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

War Recap

Aired April 15, 2003 - 14:24   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: 6:16 a.m. CNN's John Vause reports from near Nasiriyah that a U.S.-sponsored meeting there today sparked a protest by local Shiite Muslims. The meeting brings together Iraqi opposition leaders to talk about the country's future. The protesters are worried their group won't be included.
7:10 a.m., U.S. Central Command says troops continue to find large weapons and ammunition stockpiles in various parts of Iraq, often based on tips from Iraqi civilians.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks also says Centcom did not anticipate that Baghdad's cultural antiquities and museum pieces would be looted and the looting happened during what he called a void in security while U.S. troops were busy with combat.

7:54 a.m., CNN's Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon a CIA operative played a key role in the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch. Sources tell her that before the rescue mission an Iraqi on the CIA payroll videotaped the hospital where Lynch was being held prisoner.

11:23 a.m., President Bush says just a month ago Iraq was a prison to its people. Now he says Iraqi people are regaining control. He told a Rose Garden audience that a free Iraq should be an example to all in the Middle East.

11:49 a.m., Secretary of State Colin Powell says while coalition forces still are battling remnants of Iraqi forces, most attention now is being focused on humanitarian aid. Powell says security is being restored to hospitals and repair of public buildings will soon be underway.

Now, Centcom says U.S. special operations have found about 80 surface-to-air missiles and a weapons cache with 91 cases of TNT and plastic explosives, six homemade bombs and 23 rocket-propelled grenades. That was this morning's briefing.

And just of late, our Major General Don Shepperd and military analyst for CNN had some conversations with some high-ranking folks at the Pentagon.

And before we talk about these weapons caches and what's to be done with them, let's get a quick situation update on what's in control -- I think we might have had the perception yesterday and today that pretty much the entire country is one way or another under the control of U.S. forces. Not necessarily so. Why don't you explain? MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Not totally true. The Marines have moved north of Tikrit now. There is a city named Bajri (ph) on the Euphrates River, much bigger than Tikrit. A city of about 200,000, Tikrit being about 28,000. It is not yet under control.

Now, they do not see any organized resistance being organized there, if you will, but it has to be taken. And so all of the cities south of Mosul in the northwestern part and nor north of this town of Al Qaim, which has now fallen, by the way, or handed over in a declaration, all of this western area not yet totally under control as the southern and southeastern parts.

O'BRIEN: And Qaim was a very important one because of the border crossing issue there. Obviously, that's why they wanted to put it at the top of the list. Would you categorize this as mop-up operations or could there be some significant fighting as they go through these towns?

SHEPPERD: It could be significant firefights, let's put it that way. I would consider it not mop-up but continuing to clean out the rest of the area so that the coalition forces essentially control the entire country. It's going to take some time.

O'BRIEN: Be interesting to see any Baathist loyalists in that area, as well.

Let's talk about -- because undoubtedly as they go through the area they're going to find more of what we were talking about in the lead-in to all of this, and that is these caches of weapons.

We got some great pictures, which Marty Savidge fed in at one point near Nasiriyah. When the Marines are faced with this cache, what do you do with it? What is the scenario. One of the ways that you contend with it is you take an armored vehicle and you just drive over it. Now let's just go through the scenarios here.

SHEPPERD: You've got to take a look at what you find and find out, first of all, if it's useful to the people or if it's destructive. If you're on the move fast you just have to destroy it like this armored personnel carrier tank is essentially laying out weapons. They don't have time to secure them, they don't have time to destroy them, roll over them with a tank and make them useless and destroy them.

You may not want to do that with everything because it may be useful to fixing the local community or fixing things. Here's the armory. You could guard that armory and put everything under lock and key if you wanted or you may bypass it and destroy it.

O'BRIEN: So what would be the theory, though, for preserving the weapons? Someday when you have a government that is in place allowing them to militarize.

SHEPPERD: This reconstituted company needs a military for the future so you don't want to destroy everything that's there. A lot of the tanks, armored personnel carriers, that type of thing, you may not want to blow those up. You want to keep them so it will be useful, first to a police force, then to a militia, then to a formal Army.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look. We have some video, I believe, of these tanks blowing up. They already have blown some of these Soviet era tanks up, which of course -- that's the same thing we saw a moment ago -- but which proved to be no match, of course, for the U.S. Abrams tanks.

Would you preserve some of the armor as part of that what you just said?

SHEPPERD: You would in this sense. First of all, if you're fighting it and you bypass on the battlefield, you're going to blow it up. You don't want someone with a useful battle tank behind you. On the other hand, when you come up to places like Tikrit, we saw lines and lines of armored personnel carriers, some useful, or some in commission, some not.

You don't want to destroy a big cache like that with bombs, which you could do. That kind of thing, you want preserve.

O'BRIEN: All right. This, by the way, is the town of Barji (ph) we were talking about. We just found it through -- actually that's Tikrit. We're talking about a town that is about 30 miles north of it.

SHEPPERD: North up the river, right.

O'BRIEN: And we're talking about that northwest area here right in this region. Is their focus of attention.

Let's look quickly. One of the things that -- And not to down play. We sort of buried the lead on the weapons caches: 80 SA-2s and SA-3s. These are surface-to-air missiles. Heat seekers or radar guided?

SHEPPERD: These are all radar guided.

O'BRIEN: Radar guided missiles. These are very -- serious weapons, anti-aircraft weapons. Describe the significance of 80 of these. That's a big find.

SHEPPERD: That's a big find. That's a lot of missiles. It can do a lot of damage. It's very important to take something like this.

And again, you have to make a decision: are we going to destroy this now or are we going to keep it for the air defense of the new country out there? Because these are very lethal missiles, and in the case of the SA-3, it's a mobile missile, it can be moved around. SA-2 is a transportable missile. It's a fixed sight, if you will.

O'BRIEN: And once again, going back to your discussion a moment ago, save them or destroy them?

SHEPPERD: You always have to decide and I'm not sure what the decision will be. They probably will save some anti-aircraft weapons and some missiles for the new army of Iraq, the new Iraq. O'BRIEN: Boy, it can be a tough decision, can't it?

SHEPPERD: It really could be, yes.

O'BRIEN: There are so many tough decisions in this country right now.

SHEPPERD: Anything you leave can kill you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Major General Don Shepperd. You're on your way back home. We'll miss you. And thank you very much for being with us. We'll check in with you from time to time from Tucson.

SHEPPERD: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: All right.

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 - 14:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: 6:16 a.m. CNN's John Vause reports from near Nasiriyah that a U.S.-sponsored meeting there today sparked a protest by local Shiite Muslims. The meeting brings together Iraqi opposition leaders to talk about the country's future. The protesters are worried their group won't be included.
7:10 a.m., U.S. Central Command says troops continue to find large weapons and ammunition stockpiles in various parts of Iraq, often based on tips from Iraqi civilians.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks also says Centcom did not anticipate that Baghdad's cultural antiquities and museum pieces would be looted and the looting happened during what he called a void in security while U.S. troops were busy with combat.

7:54 a.m., CNN's Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon a CIA operative played a key role in the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch. Sources tell her that before the rescue mission an Iraqi on the CIA payroll videotaped the hospital where Lynch was being held prisoner.

11:23 a.m., President Bush says just a month ago Iraq was a prison to its people. Now he says Iraqi people are regaining control. He told a Rose Garden audience that a free Iraq should be an example to all in the Middle East.

11:49 a.m., Secretary of State Colin Powell says while coalition forces still are battling remnants of Iraqi forces, most attention now is being focused on humanitarian aid. Powell says security is being restored to hospitals and repair of public buildings will soon be underway.

Now, Centcom says U.S. special operations have found about 80 surface-to-air missiles and a weapons cache with 91 cases of TNT and plastic explosives, six homemade bombs and 23 rocket-propelled grenades. That was this morning's briefing.

And just of late, our Major General Don Shepperd and military analyst for CNN had some conversations with some high-ranking folks at the Pentagon.

And before we talk about these weapons caches and what's to be done with them, let's get a quick situation update on what's in control -- I think we might have had the perception yesterday and today that pretty much the entire country is one way or another under the control of U.S. forces. Not necessarily so. Why don't you explain? MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Not totally true. The Marines have moved north of Tikrit now. There is a city named Bajri (ph) on the Euphrates River, much bigger than Tikrit. A city of about 200,000, Tikrit being about 28,000. It is not yet under control.

Now, they do not see any organized resistance being organized there, if you will, but it has to be taken. And so all of the cities south of Mosul in the northwestern part and nor north of this town of Al Qaim, which has now fallen, by the way, or handed over in a declaration, all of this western area not yet totally under control as the southern and southeastern parts.

O'BRIEN: And Qaim was a very important one because of the border crossing issue there. Obviously, that's why they wanted to put it at the top of the list. Would you categorize this as mop-up operations or could there be some significant fighting as they go through these towns?

SHEPPERD: It could be significant firefights, let's put it that way. I would consider it not mop-up but continuing to clean out the rest of the area so that the coalition forces essentially control the entire country. It's going to take some time.

O'BRIEN: Be interesting to see any Baathist loyalists in that area, as well.

Let's talk about -- because undoubtedly as they go through the area they're going to find more of what we were talking about in the lead-in to all of this, and that is these caches of weapons.

We got some great pictures, which Marty Savidge fed in at one point near Nasiriyah. When the Marines are faced with this cache, what do you do with it? What is the scenario. One of the ways that you contend with it is you take an armored vehicle and you just drive over it. Now let's just go through the scenarios here.

SHEPPERD: You've got to take a look at what you find and find out, first of all, if it's useful to the people or if it's destructive. If you're on the move fast you just have to destroy it like this armored personnel carrier tank is essentially laying out weapons. They don't have time to secure them, they don't have time to destroy them, roll over them with a tank and make them useless and destroy them.

You may not want to do that with everything because it may be useful to fixing the local community or fixing things. Here's the armory. You could guard that armory and put everything under lock and key if you wanted or you may bypass it and destroy it.

O'BRIEN: So what would be the theory, though, for preserving the weapons? Someday when you have a government that is in place allowing them to militarize.

SHEPPERD: This reconstituted company needs a military for the future so you don't want to destroy everything that's there. A lot of the tanks, armored personnel carriers, that type of thing, you may not want to blow those up. You want to keep them so it will be useful, first to a police force, then to a militia, then to a formal Army.

O'BRIEN: Let's take a look. We have some video, I believe, of these tanks blowing up. They already have blown some of these Soviet era tanks up, which of course -- that's the same thing we saw a moment ago -- but which proved to be no match, of course, for the U.S. Abrams tanks.

Would you preserve some of the armor as part of that what you just said?

SHEPPERD: You would in this sense. First of all, if you're fighting it and you bypass on the battlefield, you're going to blow it up. You don't want someone with a useful battle tank behind you. On the other hand, when you come up to places like Tikrit, we saw lines and lines of armored personnel carriers, some useful, or some in commission, some not.

You don't want to destroy a big cache like that with bombs, which you could do. That kind of thing, you want preserve.

O'BRIEN: All right. This, by the way, is the town of Barji (ph) we were talking about. We just found it through -- actually that's Tikrit. We're talking about a town that is about 30 miles north of it.

SHEPPERD: North up the river, right.

O'BRIEN: And we're talking about that northwest area here right in this region. Is their focus of attention.

Let's look quickly. One of the things that -- And not to down play. We sort of buried the lead on the weapons caches: 80 SA-2s and SA-3s. These are surface-to-air missiles. Heat seekers or radar guided?

SHEPPERD: These are all radar guided.

O'BRIEN: Radar guided missiles. These are very -- serious weapons, anti-aircraft weapons. Describe the significance of 80 of these. That's a big find.

SHEPPERD: That's a big find. That's a lot of missiles. It can do a lot of damage. It's very important to take something like this.

And again, you have to make a decision: are we going to destroy this now or are we going to keep it for the air defense of the new country out there? Because these are very lethal missiles, and in the case of the SA-3, it's a mobile missile, it can be moved around. SA-2 is a transportable missile. It's a fixed sight, if you will.

O'BRIEN: And once again, going back to your discussion a moment ago, save them or destroy them?

SHEPPERD: You always have to decide and I'm not sure what the decision will be. They probably will save some anti-aircraft weapons and some missiles for the new army of Iraq, the new Iraq. O'BRIEN: Boy, it can be a tough decision, can't it?

SHEPPERD: It really could be, yes.

O'BRIEN: There are so many tough decisions in this country right now.

SHEPPERD: Anything you leave can kill you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Major General Don Shepperd. You're on your way back home. We'll miss you. And thank you very much for being with us. We'll check in with you from time to time from Tucson.

SHEPPERD: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: All right.

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