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American Morning

Military Update

Aired April 11, 2003 - 09:10   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: So the big question this morning is where are America's prisoners of war being held and by whom? The Pentagon is increasingly worried about those questions as days go by without any word about the fate of the POWs.
We are joined from CNN Center by Air Force Major General Don Shepperd, a CNN military analyst. General Shepperd, what are your concerns about our POWs right now and do you think they're still alive?

RET. MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I certainly hope they're still alive, Paula. I don't have any inside information. But you can be assured that there are teams on the ground racing to follow-up every lead that can be gained from prisoners being interrogated, from leads anywhere. They're really out searching for these people.

The good news is whoever has these people would curry great favor with coalition forces if they turned them over, especially if they turned them over quickly and in good health. This is very, very troublesome and we're on the lookout. But we simply don't know where they are yet, Paula.

ZAHN: Are there any more details you could share with us about you -- how you would possibly go about trying to find these POWs? Because it's -- I would imagine you're relying a lot on Iraqi citizens for your information like was the case in Jessica Lynch's.

SHEPPERD: Yes, indeed.

If you saw the Jessica Lynch and followed that, obviously, they had a team well organized in a very short period of time, less than a day to go do it. They've been even better organized since then as the coalition to form small teams and go out in a mission. We've had CIA and Special Forces operators throughout the city for a long time period of time watching and listening. They simply don't have the key lead that says, yes, they're there right now. As soon as they get that key lead, I'm positive they have teams organized to go in just like they did for Jessica Lynch, secure the facility and get the POWs out soon. Hopefully that will happen soon, Paula.

ZAHN: We all hope that will happen soon.

General Shepperd, I -- I guess those of us watching this coverage pretty closely are -- are just beginning to understand the magnitude of what coalition forces are up against in Iraq. We've seen the massive looting going on, Nic Robertson describing some parts of the country as being in a state of anarchy. And then you have that issue of that suicide bombing yesterday. Just explain to us how CENTCOM has to calibrate its war plan to react to all of this.

SHEPPERD: Very difficult, Paula. The dog has caught the car. What do you do when you catch a car?

Basically, war is fairly straightforward. Military operations, you have objectives, you have intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. You know what to do to take those objectives and you go do it. But running a country and setting up the political -- the political processes to run that country, things such as currency, banking, law and order is extremely difficult. And the transition between the military operations and setting up the society and following it on with the people who will continue on, especially when there are a lot of dirty hands involved throughout the country and throughout the process, particularly in Baghdad, is just difficult and it's going to take some time. This chaos will -- will go on for a few more days certainly, but the Iraqi society is so organized that perhaps we'll see a shorter period of time than we've seen in other countries in the past, Paula.

ZAHN: General, just have about 10 seconds left. Barbara Starr saying from the Pentagon even they can see they don't have enough boots on the ground. What difference will it really make to have more U.S. forces there given the massive looting problem you have going on right now.

SHEPPERD: Yes, right now, I don't think you could have enough forces to do everything you need to do, the military operations and the police operations. The Iraqis have to take over police operations and we're confident they'll do that as soon as they feel secure, Paula.

ZAHN: General Don Shepperd, thanks so much. And that could come as soon as 24 hours in some parts of Baghdad, according to our own Walt Rodgers. Back to Daryn now in Kuwait City. Thanks again, General.

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 11, 2003 - 09:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: So the big question this morning is where are America's prisoners of war being held and by whom? The Pentagon is increasingly worried about those questions as days go by without any word about the fate of the POWs.
We are joined from CNN Center by Air Force Major General Don Shepperd, a CNN military analyst. General Shepperd, what are your concerns about our POWs right now and do you think they're still alive?

RET. MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I certainly hope they're still alive, Paula. I don't have any inside information. But you can be assured that there are teams on the ground racing to follow-up every lead that can be gained from prisoners being interrogated, from leads anywhere. They're really out searching for these people.

The good news is whoever has these people would curry great favor with coalition forces if they turned them over, especially if they turned them over quickly and in good health. This is very, very troublesome and we're on the lookout. But we simply don't know where they are yet, Paula.

ZAHN: Are there any more details you could share with us about you -- how you would possibly go about trying to find these POWs? Because it's -- I would imagine you're relying a lot on Iraqi citizens for your information like was the case in Jessica Lynch's.

SHEPPERD: Yes, indeed.

If you saw the Jessica Lynch and followed that, obviously, they had a team well organized in a very short period of time, less than a day to go do it. They've been even better organized since then as the coalition to form small teams and go out in a mission. We've had CIA and Special Forces operators throughout the city for a long time period of time watching and listening. They simply don't have the key lead that says, yes, they're there right now. As soon as they get that key lead, I'm positive they have teams organized to go in just like they did for Jessica Lynch, secure the facility and get the POWs out soon. Hopefully that will happen soon, Paula.

ZAHN: We all hope that will happen soon.

General Shepperd, I -- I guess those of us watching this coverage pretty closely are -- are just beginning to understand the magnitude of what coalition forces are up against in Iraq. We've seen the massive looting going on, Nic Robertson describing some parts of the country as being in a state of anarchy. And then you have that issue of that suicide bombing yesterday. Just explain to us how CENTCOM has to calibrate its war plan to react to all of this.

SHEPPERD: Very difficult, Paula. The dog has caught the car. What do you do when you catch a car?

Basically, war is fairly straightforward. Military operations, you have objectives, you have intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. You know what to do to take those objectives and you go do it. But running a country and setting up the political -- the political processes to run that country, things such as currency, banking, law and order is extremely difficult. And the transition between the military operations and setting up the society and following it on with the people who will continue on, especially when there are a lot of dirty hands involved throughout the country and throughout the process, particularly in Baghdad, is just difficult and it's going to take some time. This chaos will -- will go on for a few more days certainly, but the Iraqi society is so organized that perhaps we'll see a shorter period of time than we've seen in other countries in the past, Paula.

ZAHN: General, just have about 10 seconds left. Barbara Starr saying from the Pentagon even they can see they don't have enough boots on the ground. What difference will it really make to have more U.S. forces there given the massive looting problem you have going on right now.

SHEPPERD: Yes, right now, I don't think you could have enough forces to do everything you need to do, the military operations and the police operations. The Iraqis have to take over police operations and we're confident they'll do that as soon as they feel secure, Paula.

ZAHN: General Don Shepperd, thanks so much. And that could come as soon as 24 hours in some parts of Baghdad, according to our own Walt Rodgers. Back to Daryn now in Kuwait City. Thanks again, General.

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