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American Morning
President Moments Away From Getting Detailed Update on Latest Developments
Aired March 24, 2003 - 08:35 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: Now to the White House, where John King is standing by with the latest from there.
Good morning John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Paula. The president just moments away from getting a detailed update on the latest developments from the war scene. Members of his National Security Council arriving at the White House, including the Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and the top two generals from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chairman, General Richard Myers and the Deputy, Marine General Pete Pace have arrived just in the last few minutes.
We also will get today, and perhaps it seems secondary, as we monitor the fighting, but we will get today the first official estimate from the White House as to how much this war will cost. CNN is told the president will ask Congress for about $75 billion in emergency spending, that is to pay for the war now underway, the first wave of humanitarian and reconstruction efforts as well, as well as some additional foreign aid that goes into this emergency war budget, that will come this afternoon when the president meets with key members of Congress.
His focus this morning is on the national security team and getting the latest update on the war effort. Everyone here at the White House says the president believes things are going extremely well so far. But there is a concern at the White House that with the mounting reports of the casualties, that perhaps the American people are not conditioned for this because of the success in the last Persian Gulf War, where only some 130 Americans died in that conflict.
The strikes in Kosovo, the strikes in Afghanistan, the reliance on air superiority, there is a concern here at the White House that the American people are not conditioned for casualties and that's one of the reasons we are told we will see the president quite a bit this week, including most likely a visit to a U.S. military base here in the United States where the president and everyone on down here at the White House will make the case that they believe things are going well, but this could go on longer than many anticipated and it could be quite dangerous.
Paula.
ZAHN: All right John, lots more questions to ask you. We're going to get to them a little bit later on this morning. Thanks so much for the update. Back now to Bill in Kuwait City. Bill? BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right Paula, Lisa Rose Weaver, one of our many CNN journalists embedded with the U.S. military, she's with the army 5th corps, I believe she's in Iraq. Not quite sure, but Lisa joins us by way of telephone.
How goes it?
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN REPORTER: Yes Bill, I'm in central Iraq, I'm with the 52nd Air Defense Artillery, and in the last 45 minutes, we took one hit of mortar round. It hit about 100 meters away from the main part of this camp. Nobody was injured. Nobody was killed. It would have all the appearance obviously at this point of being from the opposing Iraqi forces. Authorities here have called in helicopter support, that has not arrived yet.
At the moment, the troops here - actually they prepared earlier today for this kind of eventuality a few hours ago, they were digging trenches and putting up barbed wire barricades around the camp and those came in very handy indeed, because they're using them now. The U.S. forces here have not returned fire. A number of vehicles have been seen in the broad perimeter around us, but they're trying to verify who those vehicles are, what their identification is before firing.
A lot of discipline here about being very careful of the I.D. But before firing. So no return fire, and obviously, no return mortar rounds. (INAUDIBLE) Iraqi forces, but as you can imagine, extremely high level and everyone has got their flag - and helmets on and are crouched behind cars, including myself.
Bill?
HEMMER: All right, stay safe, Lisa. Check back again. Check in again with if you get more. Lisa Rose Weaver again embedded in Iraq with the Army's 5th Corps.
Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much Bill. A Syrian bus carrying civilians trying to get out of Iraq was hit by a U.S. missile. Five Syrians were killed, fifteen hurt according to the Syrian government. For more on that, let's get to Matthew Chance who joins us from Jordan.
Matthew, what are you hearing?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN REPORTER: Thank you very much Paula. We're covering this story out of Jordan because it's one of those stories that really underlines the dangers being faced by civilians inside Iraq, trying to flee the fighting there as it intensifies. The latest information we have comes to us from the official Syrian news agency, Sunah (ph).
They say that a bus carrying 37 Syrian nationals was traveling through Iraq, carrying its nationals towards the Syrian border, when in the words of the Syrian news agency, it came under missile attack. The missile, they say, fired by an American war plane, that is the words of the news agency confirmed by Syrian officials.
You've been seeing pictures as well of the coffins being taken into Syria by the Syrian authorities coming through us from Damascus. The authorities there saying that five people were killed as a result of that attack, another 10 were injured.
This, a very sensitive area of western Iraq. It's an area where coalition forces have already moved into secure a strategic air strips that they could possibly use for operations later on as this conflict unfolds. It's also the area where during the last Gulf War, the Iraqi government used to fire its Scud missiles into Israel. So, again, it is a very sensitive area and a story that really does underline the danger of the civilians escaping the conflict.
Paula.
ZAHN: Yeah, can you give us a better sense - I don't know that there are official numbers on this - of what kind of movement of people you see now trying to escape this war?
CHANCE: Well, there is a great deal of movement of what are being called third country nationals. Not people from Iraq, but people who have been living and working and studying in Iraq with their families, have been taking this opportunity over the last few days of this conflict to come out of the country. Many of them coming here to Jordan, several hundred passing through, being processed in camps here.
What we have not been seeing, and this is very interesting, is that we have not been seeing the sort of large scale exodus of Iraqi citizens that was widely anticipated here, even though there are facilities that have been organized by the Jordanian authorities here and in other countries around the region to take in this influx, we just haven't been seeing Iraqi refugees coming out.
Paula.
ZAHN: Very interesting point. Matthew Chance, thank you for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired March 24, 2003 - 08:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the White House, where John King is standing by with the latest from there.
Good morning John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Paula. The president just moments away from getting a detailed update on the latest developments from the war scene. Members of his National Security Council arriving at the White House, including the Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and the top two generals from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chairman, General Richard Myers and the Deputy, Marine General Pete Pace have arrived just in the last few minutes.
We also will get today, and perhaps it seems secondary, as we monitor the fighting, but we will get today the first official estimate from the White House as to how much this war will cost. CNN is told the president will ask Congress for about $75 billion in emergency spending, that is to pay for the war now underway, the first wave of humanitarian and reconstruction efforts as well, as well as some additional foreign aid that goes into this emergency war budget, that will come this afternoon when the president meets with key members of Congress.
His focus this morning is on the national security team and getting the latest update on the war effort. Everyone here at the White House says the president believes things are going extremely well so far. But there is a concern at the White House that with the mounting reports of the casualties, that perhaps the American people are not conditioned for this because of the success in the last Persian Gulf War, where only some 130 Americans died in that conflict.
The strikes in Kosovo, the strikes in Afghanistan, the reliance on air superiority, there is a concern here at the White House that the American people are not conditioned for casualties and that's one of the reasons we are told we will see the president quite a bit this week, including most likely a visit to a U.S. military base here in the United States where the president and everyone on down here at the White House will make the case that they believe things are going well, but this could go on longer than many anticipated and it could be quite dangerous.
Paula.
ZAHN: All right John, lots more questions to ask you. We're going to get to them a little bit later on this morning. Thanks so much for the update. Back now to Bill in Kuwait City. Bill? BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right Paula, Lisa Rose Weaver, one of our many CNN journalists embedded with the U.S. military, she's with the army 5th corps, I believe she's in Iraq. Not quite sure, but Lisa joins us by way of telephone.
How goes it?
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN REPORTER: Yes Bill, I'm in central Iraq, I'm with the 52nd Air Defense Artillery, and in the last 45 minutes, we took one hit of mortar round. It hit about 100 meters away from the main part of this camp. Nobody was injured. Nobody was killed. It would have all the appearance obviously at this point of being from the opposing Iraqi forces. Authorities here have called in helicopter support, that has not arrived yet.
At the moment, the troops here - actually they prepared earlier today for this kind of eventuality a few hours ago, they were digging trenches and putting up barbed wire barricades around the camp and those came in very handy indeed, because they're using them now. The U.S. forces here have not returned fire. A number of vehicles have been seen in the broad perimeter around us, but they're trying to verify who those vehicles are, what their identification is before firing.
A lot of discipline here about being very careful of the I.D. But before firing. So no return fire, and obviously, no return mortar rounds. (INAUDIBLE) Iraqi forces, but as you can imagine, extremely high level and everyone has got their flag - and helmets on and are crouched behind cars, including myself.
Bill?
HEMMER: All right, stay safe, Lisa. Check back again. Check in again with if you get more. Lisa Rose Weaver again embedded in Iraq with the Army's 5th Corps.
Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much Bill. A Syrian bus carrying civilians trying to get out of Iraq was hit by a U.S. missile. Five Syrians were killed, fifteen hurt according to the Syrian government. For more on that, let's get to Matthew Chance who joins us from Jordan.
Matthew, what are you hearing?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN REPORTER: Thank you very much Paula. We're covering this story out of Jordan because it's one of those stories that really underlines the dangers being faced by civilians inside Iraq, trying to flee the fighting there as it intensifies. The latest information we have comes to us from the official Syrian news agency, Sunah (ph).
They say that a bus carrying 37 Syrian nationals was traveling through Iraq, carrying its nationals towards the Syrian border, when in the words of the Syrian news agency, it came under missile attack. The missile, they say, fired by an American war plane, that is the words of the news agency confirmed by Syrian officials.
You've been seeing pictures as well of the coffins being taken into Syria by the Syrian authorities coming through us from Damascus. The authorities there saying that five people were killed as a result of that attack, another 10 were injured.
This, a very sensitive area of western Iraq. It's an area where coalition forces have already moved into secure a strategic air strips that they could possibly use for operations later on as this conflict unfolds. It's also the area where during the last Gulf War, the Iraqi government used to fire its Scud missiles into Israel. So, again, it is a very sensitive area and a story that really does underline the danger of the civilians escaping the conflict.
Paula.
ZAHN: Yeah, can you give us a better sense - I don't know that there are official numbers on this - of what kind of movement of people you see now trying to escape this war?
CHANCE: Well, there is a great deal of movement of what are being called third country nationals. Not people from Iraq, but people who have been living and working and studying in Iraq with their families, have been taking this opportunity over the last few days of this conflict to come out of the country. Many of them coming here to Jordan, several hundred passing through, being processed in camps here.
What we have not been seeing, and this is very interesting, is that we have not been seeing the sort of large scale exodus of Iraqi citizens that was widely anticipated here, even though there are facilities that have been organized by the Jordanian authorities here and in other countries around the region to take in this influx, we just haven't been seeing Iraqi refugees coming out.
Paula.
ZAHN: Very interesting point. Matthew Chance, thank you for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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