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American Morning

WMDs Not Yet Found

Aired April 10, 2003 - 09:34   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: As coalition forces gain control over more ground in Iraq, the big question that led to this war remains unanswered. What about the weapons of mass destruction? Tom Mintier has more on this from Central Command headquarters in Qatar. He joins us now from Doha -- good morning, Tom.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. It was an allegation before this conflict began, and every day that it has been underway, it has been the question here at CENTCOM, the briefing, they call it the "WMD question," or weapons of mass destruction. It, of course, came today, but it had a bit of a different answer. They say as they got closer to Baghdad, they may find it, but they say they still haven't found it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. VICTOR RENUART, CENTCOM: And so as we move into that area and establish more and more control, we hope to gain access to more and more of the facilities that may yield some of that information. I think also it's important to say that many of the places where WMD might be hidden are not going to be obvious to the eye, and we're going to have to use some detailed intelligence study, and then some very detailed detective work to identify some of these locations and then exploit them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: Part of that detective work may involve talking to people who were involved in the program, who are no longer with the regime -- Paula.

ZAHN: Tom Mintier, share with us some of the other headlines coming out of that briefing this morning not related to WMD.

MINTIER: Well, the main quote out of the briefing is that Baghdad is still an ugly place. While we have seen pictures of the statues coming down, we are often reminded by the military here that only miles away, there are people shooting at each other. Yesterday afternoon at the exact moment when people were out dancing in the streets, a few miles away at Baghdad University, U.S. Marines were exchanging heavy fire with a force inside the University. Then, this morning as people were still celebrating, there was a great deal of fire returned at Marines once again near a mosque. So what military planners here say is that it's a far cry from being over, it is still a dangerous city. What you see on television of the rejoicing is fine, but they say in other areas of the city, it is not fine. ZAHN: And Tom, did CENTCOM give you much information on how these U.S. forces are expected to kind of morph from this combat mission into more of this policing role?

MINTIER: They say that they're trained for all missions, whether it be a combat role, a humanitarian role. They don't like to use the word "policing" role -- "Civil affairs" is the way they call it -- but they say that their troops are trained for that. They can go from fighting street to street to controlling movement in the street. So they say that they are very adaptable. They can quickly change over from an aggressive combat stance to a very peaceful, peace keeper stance.

ZAHN: You've covered a lot of territory there. Thanks so much, Tom, see you a little bit later on today.

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 10, 2003 - 09:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: As coalition forces gain control over more ground in Iraq, the big question that led to this war remains unanswered. What about the weapons of mass destruction? Tom Mintier has more on this from Central Command headquarters in Qatar. He joins us now from Doha -- good morning, Tom.
TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. It was an allegation before this conflict began, and every day that it has been underway, it has been the question here at CENTCOM, the briefing, they call it the "WMD question," or weapons of mass destruction. It, of course, came today, but it had a bit of a different answer. They say as they got closer to Baghdad, they may find it, but they say they still haven't found it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. VICTOR RENUART, CENTCOM: And so as we move into that area and establish more and more control, we hope to gain access to more and more of the facilities that may yield some of that information. I think also it's important to say that many of the places where WMD might be hidden are not going to be obvious to the eye, and we're going to have to use some detailed intelligence study, and then some very detailed detective work to identify some of these locations and then exploit them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: Part of that detective work may involve talking to people who were involved in the program, who are no longer with the regime -- Paula.

ZAHN: Tom Mintier, share with us some of the other headlines coming out of that briefing this morning not related to WMD.

MINTIER: Well, the main quote out of the briefing is that Baghdad is still an ugly place. While we have seen pictures of the statues coming down, we are often reminded by the military here that only miles away, there are people shooting at each other. Yesterday afternoon at the exact moment when people were out dancing in the streets, a few miles away at Baghdad University, U.S. Marines were exchanging heavy fire with a force inside the University. Then, this morning as people were still celebrating, there was a great deal of fire returned at Marines once again near a mosque. So what military planners here say is that it's a far cry from being over, it is still a dangerous city. What you see on television of the rejoicing is fine, but they say in other areas of the city, it is not fine. ZAHN: And Tom, did CENTCOM give you much information on how these U.S. forces are expected to kind of morph from this combat mission into more of this policing role?

MINTIER: They say that they're trained for all missions, whether it be a combat role, a humanitarian role. They don't like to use the word "policing" role -- "Civil affairs" is the way they call it -- but they say that their troops are trained for that. They can go from fighting street to street to controlling movement in the street. So they say that they are very adaptable. They can quickly change over from an aggressive combat stance to a very peaceful, peace keeper stance.

ZAHN: You've covered a lot of territory there. Thanks so much, Tom, see you a little bit later on today.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com