Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Analysis With Kelly McCann

Aired June 30, 2003 - 14:02   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: As we told you at the top of our news, Operation Sidewinder, the attempt by the U.S. military to crackdown on terrorist activity aimed at U.S. troops and British troops, as well.
Joining us to talk a little bit about it and what lies ahead is CNN's Kelly McCann, our security analyst. Kelly, good to have you with us.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Miles.

O'BRIEN: First of all the concept of going out and conducting a huge sweep. On the face of it, probably seems like a good idea. Could be a backlash, though, couldn't there?

MCCANN: Most certainly. I mean as you start to try to lessen your footprint of looking like an occupier and start to win hearts and minds, etc. But you have to enforce more stringent self-protection, security measures. It works at odds with the overall mission.

The other thing, quite frankly, is none of these mission, people should know, that none of these missions are undertaken without intelligence. In other words, this sweep, this Sidewinder operation isn't just done based on somebody's best guess. It's done on intelligence that the S-2, the intelligence officers obviously make available to the operating units.

So there is a purpose here, whether it was signals intelligence footprint or whether it was human reports of people moving with materials, etc. and then suddenly there was an attack. You know, there was a line drawn in conjunction with that then that would make the most sense. So it is a planned operation, not something that's just taken underhand at will.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about geography for a minute. Where are the hot spots? Where is Sidewinder focused?

MCCANN: Well, it's being run -- or the troops, the strength is coming out of a small town, Baquava (ph), which is northeast of Baghdad by about 55 kilometers. And the region, if you can imagine, as you look here at the map, just north of Baghdad central and to the east, it kind of runs from east to west on an arc up into the Tikrit region, the Tikriti region all throughout that kind of Ba'athist strong hold region.

It's not urban like we show here, Miles, as much as it is semidetached housing. It's more village. It would be easier for people to move in and out of that region. Stockpiles would be harder to find. So it is a challenge but one that the military certainly can take in stride.

O'BRIEN: All right. But the point is, though, maybe we're making a mistake here, assuming that these pockets of opposition are focused in particular areas. Is it more accurate to say they are all over Iraq? It's very difficult to find them. And this is a classic case -- the term you use is asymmetrical which means big force versus terrorist-type activity where they could be anywhere.

MCCANN: The whole idea behind it is exactly what is playing out, Miles, which is they don't present any mass target. So then anything that we could use for artillery, for mortar, for massing troops against them is kind of inadequate. It really goes to intelligence, it goes to, generally across the board, raising security measures at fixed point checkpoints, things like that, where troops become vulnerable because they have to execute a schedule. There has to be troop placement and removal. There's a changing of the gaurd. Logistically, they have to be watered and fed.

All of that goes to routine which then becomes vulnerable when observed by the pockets and then taken for an attack. So it's a difficult situation but similar to in some ways what we saw in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, places like that.

O'BRIEN: All right. Drawing on the lessons learned from those places, then, is it logical to assume that perhaps more troops need to be there? And should it be an international force or should the U.S. continue to, along with the British, go it alone?

MCCANN: Once again you have crystallized my thought, Miles O'Brien.

The bottom linei s you are exactly right. There needs to be more troops there. What kind of troops is the big question.

Iraqi troops would be the best thing to have on the ground and they're making great strides, the administration is trying to, to get them on the ground. Certainly an international kind of peace keeping situation would favor people, as well. It would reduce our role as an occupier. And then perhaps more focus could be put on humanitarian effort.

O'BRIEN: All right. And finally, though, maybe what we should be sending over there, a lot people who are civil engineers -- is that something -- of course, if it's going to be sabotaged that infrastructure is going to be sabotaged you're wasting your time. But nevertheless that has to happen at the same time, doesn't it?

MCCANN: It does, Miles. And I'll leave you one analogy. The other day there was a public affairs officer shot in the neck as he looked at some DVDs and CDs in a local market amidst a fair amount of people. A person came through the crowd, pointed a pistol at his neck and shot him through the neck. and then was able to make good his escape. If people's bellies were full and they felt good and had electricity and sir condition and the road system was back in check and there was debris removed, don't you think someone would have intervened? Don't you think the crowd would have grabbed that person? Instead he was able to make the escape. So I think that might be an indcation of what we're talking about here.

O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann posing some good and vexing questions. Thank you very much. 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 June 30, 2003 - 14:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you at the top of our news, Operation Sidewinder, the attempt by the U.S. military to crackdown on terrorist activity aimed at U.S. troops and British troops, as well.
Joining us to talk a little bit about it and what lies ahead is CNN's Kelly McCann, our security analyst. Kelly, good to have you with us.

J. KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, Miles.

O'BRIEN: First of all the concept of going out and conducting a huge sweep. On the face of it, probably seems like a good idea. Could be a backlash, though, couldn't there?

MCCANN: Most certainly. I mean as you start to try to lessen your footprint of looking like an occupier and start to win hearts and minds, etc. But you have to enforce more stringent self-protection, security measures. It works at odds with the overall mission.

The other thing, quite frankly, is none of these mission, people should know, that none of these missions are undertaken without intelligence. In other words, this sweep, this Sidewinder operation isn't just done based on somebody's best guess. It's done on intelligence that the S-2, the intelligence officers obviously make available to the operating units.

So there is a purpose here, whether it was signals intelligence footprint or whether it was human reports of people moving with materials, etc. and then suddenly there was an attack. You know, there was a line drawn in conjunction with that then that would make the most sense. So it is a planned operation, not something that's just taken underhand at will.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about geography for a minute. Where are the hot spots? Where is Sidewinder focused?

MCCANN: Well, it's being run -- or the troops, the strength is coming out of a small town, Baquava (ph), which is northeast of Baghdad by about 55 kilometers. And the region, if you can imagine, as you look here at the map, just north of Baghdad central and to the east, it kind of runs from east to west on an arc up into the Tikrit region, the Tikriti region all throughout that kind of Ba'athist strong hold region.

It's not urban like we show here, Miles, as much as it is semidetached housing. It's more village. It would be easier for people to move in and out of that region. Stockpiles would be harder to find. So it is a challenge but one that the military certainly can take in stride.

O'BRIEN: All right. But the point is, though, maybe we're making a mistake here, assuming that these pockets of opposition are focused in particular areas. Is it more accurate to say they are all over Iraq? It's very difficult to find them. And this is a classic case -- the term you use is asymmetrical which means big force versus terrorist-type activity where they could be anywhere.

MCCANN: The whole idea behind it is exactly what is playing out, Miles, which is they don't present any mass target. So then anything that we could use for artillery, for mortar, for massing troops against them is kind of inadequate. It really goes to intelligence, it goes to, generally across the board, raising security measures at fixed point checkpoints, things like that, where troops become vulnerable because they have to execute a schedule. There has to be troop placement and removal. There's a changing of the gaurd. Logistically, they have to be watered and fed.

All of that goes to routine which then becomes vulnerable when observed by the pockets and then taken for an attack. So it's a difficult situation but similar to in some ways what we saw in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, places like that.

O'BRIEN: All right. Drawing on the lessons learned from those places, then, is it logical to assume that perhaps more troops need to be there? And should it be an international force or should the U.S. continue to, along with the British, go it alone?

MCCANN: Once again you have crystallized my thought, Miles O'Brien.

The bottom linei s you are exactly right. There needs to be more troops there. What kind of troops is the big question.

Iraqi troops would be the best thing to have on the ground and they're making great strides, the administration is trying to, to get them on the ground. Certainly an international kind of peace keeping situation would favor people, as well. It would reduce our role as an occupier. And then perhaps more focus could be put on humanitarian effort.

O'BRIEN: All right. And finally, though, maybe what we should be sending over there, a lot people who are civil engineers -- is that something -- of course, if it's going to be sabotaged that infrastructure is going to be sabotaged you're wasting your time. But nevertheless that has to happen at the same time, doesn't it?

MCCANN: It does, Miles. And I'll leave you one analogy. The other day there was a public affairs officer shot in the neck as he looked at some DVDs and CDs in a local market amidst a fair amount of people. A person came through the crowd, pointed a pistol at his neck and shot him through the neck. and then was able to make good his escape. If people's bellies were full and they felt good and had electricity and sir condition and the road system was back in check and there was debris removed, don't you think someone would have intervened? Don't you think the crowd would have grabbed that person? Instead he was able to make the escape. So I think that might be an indcation of what we're talking about here.

O'BRIEN: Kelly McCann posing some good and vexing questions. Thank you very much. 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