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American Morning

Celebrations, Looting Abound in Baghdad

Aired April 09, 2003 - 08:45   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier today, when day broke in Baghdad, we were told the streets were largely quiet. However, we saw on the eastern part of the city, a massive celebration that looked rather impromptu, and with that celebration, quite a considerable amount of looting as well.
More perspective on Baghdad, Christiane Amanpour joins me now live in Kuwait City. Your thoughts on seeing this, Bradley fighting vehicles, M1A1 tanks rolling through the center of the Iraqi capital.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is incredible, and that is the Palestine Hotel that they are outside. That is where a lot of the journalists are and you can see in the pictures with the wide shots, that there are a lot of journalists who have come out of that hotel, and are filming and greeting as well. Of course, yesterday, that was the scene of some fire by U.S. tanks on the hotel there, so obviously a lot people relieved now to see the Marines there. You remember the Abu Dhabi reporters were calling to be rescued from there.

But in any event, U.S. Marines now there. There is that statue of Saddam Hussein in the middle. That apparently was built last year on his birthday, and it remains to be seen how long it will be until that is torn down.

HEMMER: April 28.

AMANPOUR: Indeed, indeed. We saw in Saddam City earlier this morning when reports of no police, no government officials, the people came out, they were cheering, they were looting. There is a lot of talk about all of the looting, obviously. This is not something that people like to see in these occasions. The British certainly had that when they went into Basra over the weekend and Basra fell. And their reaction was, Well, all these years, the people have been pent up, bottled up, let's give them their head, so to speak, let's let them let off a little steam. I heard the same comments about what was going on in Baghdad today.

But on the other side, some of the people also calling for some law and order, and I think that remains part of the challenge, part of the challenge still, presumably, would be to secure the whole of Baghdad now, but part also to see how the policing will or won't go in the days after this. But clearly now, this is the waning hours of what's going on there.

HEMMER: And I think the British military saw the flare-up on Monday and again on Tuesday. The reports we get, at least at this point today is that it is much quieter today in Basra, perhaps Baghdad follows a similar tune, we do not know. But from a military standpoint, if you listen to some of the comments from the commanders on the ground, they are moving at will through the Iraqi capital. They are saying the majority of Iraqi forces have essentially given up, and Walt Rodgers saying sometime in the next 24 to 48 hours, you can see the U.S. presence there double from its standpoint right now.

AMANPOUR: Yes, and that is one thing that they do need to get up there, more troops to be able to not just take the city militarily, but to be able to control it, and control the law and order as well. There's been a lot of discussion about whether there were enough troops in the field to do this job. There is another division, the 4th Infantry Division that was heading up that way, and they are going to be reinforced, and we know also that there are a lot of flights going up from Kuwait to the various airfields around Baghdad to bring up more people and especially ammunition, supplies, and the like, just in case they need that.

HEMMER: When the Army took the airport, Baghdad International, as it has now been renamed by the U.S. military, cargo flights, C-17s, C-130s were landing as early as Monday night. Quickly after the word had spread out that the airport was secure and stable. And you can expect and anticipate that to continue for quite some time. Once the military feels it has fortified this air strip, and will run a number of operations from the Army's standpoint on the west side, and the Marines took the Rashid military base on the east side.

AMANPOUR: Exactly. And that is going on in terms of flying up supplies from here to an air base actually somewhat south of the Rashid to certainly resupply the Marines up there. But it's moving dramatically quickly, and it is incredible to see some of these pictures.

HEMMER: We will continue to watch it, the images coming from downtown 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 April 9, 2003 - 08:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier today, when day broke in Baghdad, we were told the streets were largely quiet. However, we saw on the eastern part of the city, a massive celebration that looked rather impromptu, and with that celebration, quite a considerable amount of looting as well.
More perspective on Baghdad, Christiane Amanpour joins me now live in Kuwait City. Your thoughts on seeing this, Bradley fighting vehicles, M1A1 tanks rolling through the center of the Iraqi capital.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is incredible, and that is the Palestine Hotel that they are outside. That is where a lot of the journalists are and you can see in the pictures with the wide shots, that there are a lot of journalists who have come out of that hotel, and are filming and greeting as well. Of course, yesterday, that was the scene of some fire by U.S. tanks on the hotel there, so obviously a lot people relieved now to see the Marines there. You remember the Abu Dhabi reporters were calling to be rescued from there.

But in any event, U.S. Marines now there. There is that statue of Saddam Hussein in the middle. That apparently was built last year on his birthday, and it remains to be seen how long it will be until that is torn down.

HEMMER: April 28.

AMANPOUR: Indeed, indeed. We saw in Saddam City earlier this morning when reports of no police, no government officials, the people came out, they were cheering, they were looting. There is a lot of talk about all of the looting, obviously. This is not something that people like to see in these occasions. The British certainly had that when they went into Basra over the weekend and Basra fell. And their reaction was, Well, all these years, the people have been pent up, bottled up, let's give them their head, so to speak, let's let them let off a little steam. I heard the same comments about what was going on in Baghdad today.

But on the other side, some of the people also calling for some law and order, and I think that remains part of the challenge, part of the challenge still, presumably, would be to secure the whole of Baghdad now, but part also to see how the policing will or won't go in the days after this. But clearly now, this is the waning hours of what's going on there.

HEMMER: And I think the British military saw the flare-up on Monday and again on Tuesday. The reports we get, at least at this point today is that it is much quieter today in Basra, perhaps Baghdad follows a similar tune, we do not know. But from a military standpoint, if you listen to some of the comments from the commanders on the ground, they are moving at will through the Iraqi capital. They are saying the majority of Iraqi forces have essentially given up, and Walt Rodgers saying sometime in the next 24 to 48 hours, you can see the U.S. presence there double from its standpoint right now.

AMANPOUR: Yes, and that is one thing that they do need to get up there, more troops to be able to not just take the city militarily, but to be able to control it, and control the law and order as well. There's been a lot of discussion about whether there were enough troops in the field to do this job. There is another division, the 4th Infantry Division that was heading up that way, and they are going to be reinforced, and we know also that there are a lot of flights going up from Kuwait to the various airfields around Baghdad to bring up more people and especially ammunition, supplies, and the like, just in case they need that.

HEMMER: When the Army took the airport, Baghdad International, as it has now been renamed by the U.S. military, cargo flights, C-17s, C-130s were landing as early as Monday night. Quickly after the word had spread out that the airport was secure and stable. And you can expect and anticipate that to continue for quite some time. Once the military feels it has fortified this air strip, and will run a number of operations from the Army's standpoint on the west side, and the Marines took the Rashid military base on the east side.

AMANPOUR: Exactly. And that is going on in terms of flying up supplies from here to an air base actually somewhat south of the Rashid to certainly resupply the Marines up there. But it's moving dramatically quickly, and it is incredible to see some of these pictures.

HEMMER: We will continue to watch it, the images coming from downtown 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