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U.S. Troops Not Authorized to Shoot Looters on Sight
Aired May 14, 2003 - 14:07 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: Let's shift our attention now to Baghdad where U.S. troops are aggressively targeting looters, but contrary to a report in today's "New York Times," they are not authorized to shoot those looters on sight, though they can shoot if they are threatened. That is the refined word from a coalition commander in Iraq.
More on the security situation now from CNN's Karl Penhaul, who joins us from the Iraqi capital. Karl, can you sort this out for us and give us a sense. The U.S. wants to go tough, but they don't want to be accused of shoot to kill for looters, necessarily.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. I think the indications are that coalition forces are certainly getting very frustrated at the difficulties in reestablishing law and order to Baghdad. Senior civilian officials within the coalition administration now running the country are privately admitting that they really didn't bargain for this scale of unrest.
But in a press conference this afternoon, two of the top generals running this theater of operations did outline the plans to batten down the hatches and to have a greater presence of soldiers on the street, so they're bringing more soldiers into the capital. Also, more armored assets, so more tanks, more armored vehicles one would expect to see coming into the capital. Those should be in place, they told us, within about the next two weeks.
And certainly as you suggest there, they did clarify earlier reports. In fact, they scotched earlier reports that there was somehow a shoot on sight policy that had been put in place as regards to looters and violent criminals. General Blount clarified the situation for us in these terms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. BUFORD BLOUNT, CMDR., 3RD INFANTRY: Unless the soldier's life is threatened, we're not going out aggressively shooting looters, no. Now, do we have that right? We have the right to defend ourselves. We have the right to arrest the looters. And if the looter puts up resistance or has a weapon and points it at the soldier, then it's up to the soldier to make that judgment, whether he feels threatened or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: Certainly, the security situation is very fluid here. Last night, we had a crew out with one of the U.S. Army patrols roving the city. It was the exception rather than the rule. It was a very quiet night that they had.
That said, while they were out on patrol, back here where we are at the hotel in downtown Baghdad, gunfire all around for quite some time into the early hours of this morning. So what really now facing the challenge is for these soldiers, even if there are more soldiers coming onto the streets, their skills -- their strength may be in urban warfare, but not necessarily in policing a city with 5 or 6 million inhabitants.
O'BRIEN: Karl, it's probably worth reminding our viewers the backdrop against which all of this occurs. Still not much electricity, water intermittent. It's hot, and Iraqis predominantly are well armed. It's a very volatile recipe, isn't it?
PENHAUL: Certainly. There are many factors there. You touched on the gun situation. In fact, in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, we understand that some of the military barracks were looted and weapons were taken away from there. Numerous gun markets now flourishing on the streets of Baghdad that the coalition forces have tried to intercept, haven't had much luck. You can see guns being traded for just a few dollars on the streets of Baghdad.
Also, the issues of water, basic utilities, electricity not being back on. And against all that, the backdrop of poverty. About 60 percent of the Iraqi population estimated to live in poverty. Certainty, some of the looters that I've talked to over the last few days say that they haven't been looting to then resell equipment, but they've been breaking into buildings simply to try and get some kind of firewood that they can then fuel cookers and cook something hot for their families.
O'BRIEN: Guess there is no point looting a television if you don't even have any electricity. Karl Penhaul, thanks very much, live from Baghdad.
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 May 14, 2003 - 14:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's shift our attention now to Baghdad where U.S. troops are aggressively targeting looters, but contrary to a report in today's "New York Times," they are not authorized to shoot those looters on sight, though they can shoot if they are threatened. That is the refined word from a coalition commander in Iraq.
More on the security situation now from CNN's Karl Penhaul, who joins us from the Iraqi capital. Karl, can you sort this out for us and give us a sense. The U.S. wants to go tough, but they don't want to be accused of shoot to kill for looters, necessarily.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. I think the indications are that coalition forces are certainly getting very frustrated at the difficulties in reestablishing law and order to Baghdad. Senior civilian officials within the coalition administration now running the country are privately admitting that they really didn't bargain for this scale of unrest.
But in a press conference this afternoon, two of the top generals running this theater of operations did outline the plans to batten down the hatches and to have a greater presence of soldiers on the street, so they're bringing more soldiers into the capital. Also, more armored assets, so more tanks, more armored vehicles one would expect to see coming into the capital. Those should be in place, they told us, within about the next two weeks.
And certainly as you suggest there, they did clarify earlier reports. In fact, they scotched earlier reports that there was somehow a shoot on sight policy that had been put in place as regards to looters and violent criminals. General Blount clarified the situation for us in these terms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. BUFORD BLOUNT, CMDR., 3RD INFANTRY: Unless the soldier's life is threatened, we're not going out aggressively shooting looters, no. Now, do we have that right? We have the right to defend ourselves. We have the right to arrest the looters. And if the looter puts up resistance or has a weapon and points it at the soldier, then it's up to the soldier to make that judgment, whether he feels threatened or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: Certainly, the security situation is very fluid here. Last night, we had a crew out with one of the U.S. Army patrols roving the city. It was the exception rather than the rule. It was a very quiet night that they had.
That said, while they were out on patrol, back here where we are at the hotel in downtown Baghdad, gunfire all around for quite some time into the early hours of this morning. So what really now facing the challenge is for these soldiers, even if there are more soldiers coming onto the streets, their skills -- their strength may be in urban warfare, but not necessarily in policing a city with 5 or 6 million inhabitants.
O'BRIEN: Karl, it's probably worth reminding our viewers the backdrop against which all of this occurs. Still not much electricity, water intermittent. It's hot, and Iraqis predominantly are well armed. It's a very volatile recipe, isn't it?
PENHAUL: Certainly. There are many factors there. You touched on the gun situation. In fact, in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, we understand that some of the military barracks were looted and weapons were taken away from there. Numerous gun markets now flourishing on the streets of Baghdad that the coalition forces have tried to intercept, haven't had much luck. You can see guns being traded for just a few dollars on the streets of Baghdad.
Also, the issues of water, basic utilities, electricity not being back on. And against all that, the backdrop of poverty. About 60 percent of the Iraqi population estimated to live in poverty. Certainty, some of the looters that I've talked to over the last few days say that they haven't been looting to then resell equipment, but they've been breaking into buildings simply to try and get some kind of firewood that they can then fuel cookers and cook something hot for their families.
O'BRIEN: Guess there is no point looting a television if you don't even have any electricity. Karl Penhaul, thanks very much, live from Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
