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American Morning

A Unique View of U.S. Military Psychological Operations

Aired February 05, 2002 - 08:12   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're back at 16 minutes after the hour. Time to turn attention to the conflict in Afghanistan. While bullets and bombs have been used to great effect, the U.S. also has another powerful weapon in its arsenal, but you don't hear much about it. It is psychological warfare. It is certainly not new, but it is being used differently in this war.

Our own Martin Savidge got a unique view of U.S. military psychological operations or psy-ops as it is called. He joins us now from Kandahar to give us a better idea of what this entails. Good morning, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Paula. This story sadly began yesterday, when word came in to the Kandahar Airport here that an Afghani man a couple of miles away from here walking through a field stepped on a land mine. There was a passing U.S. patrol; they attempted to administer life saving aid, including CPR, but the man -- the father of four -- unfortunately died.

Today, we went out with the psy-ops and EOD, Explosive Ordinance Demolition Team. They went into the area, they found more ordinance to be detonated. But first we went to the village, where the wake for the young father 25 years of age was being held. Inside the house, the traditional scene; the family elders gathered around as the Imam (ph) chanted aloud readings from the Koran. It will be something that will go on for three days here, as is custom.

We talked with the villagers, as did the emergency -- or the demolition team. The villagers then pointed out, well, there is a lot more explosive around. In fact, just behind our village, four other mines. It turns out they were not mines that they had at all. The villagers began bringing in 120-millimeter Soviet mortars left over from the Russian war. The EOD team immediately went to work, clearing everyone away. And then when everything was ready, they lit the fuse.

Here is shrapnel flying overhead, almost 50 pounds of explosive. Had it been picked up by any child, had someone tried to play or tamper with those shells, it could have been another tragic incident. Not only are they trying to clean up with psy-ops and EOD from the war currently going on, they're still trying to clean up from wars past -- Paula.

ZAHN: Martin, tell us a little bit more about psy-ops and what kind of training is involved in these missions. SAVIDGE: Well a lot of people may remember psy-ops may remember from the Panama invasion; specifically, when they set up huge speakers around the compound of Manuel Noriega trying to get him to surrender. He eventually did, blasting noise into that compound. They also do a lot of humanitarian work. In this particular case, they go around broadcasting messages on those same speakers moving on these, warning the population about the dangers of unexploded ordinance, of land mines, and other things that may be out there.

They also hand out posters and try to communicate with the village elders to let them know the danger is real; not to pick up, not to play with it. It's a new kinder, gentler sort of role that maybe many people had not been accustomed to when it came to psy-ops. So they have a darker side as well. Right now they're working on the human side, Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Well thank you for that story this morning, Martin Savidge. We're going to go back to Jack now.

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