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American Morning

Is Iraq Safe?

Aired May 28, 2003 - 09:16   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Scott Wilson is a foreign correspondent for "The Washington Post," and he is filing stories on the safety of post-war Iraq. We were just watching Donald Rumsfeld speak to the Council on Foreign Relations.
I want to hear about that from you, Scott.

You have been there for a few weeks now. Has daily life improved for the average Iraqi citizen?

SCOTT WILSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think it's probably a pretty mixed result so far. It started off very badly in Baghdad, in particular. But in the last week or so, with a big influx of U.S. troops, things have started getting better. There are still very long gas lines, there's still no electricity in much of the city, and Iraqis are getting increasingly frustrated.

By and large, most of the people say they are pleased that Saddam Hussein noise longer running the government, but they really want to see some concrete improvements in their live as quickly as possible, and an Iraqi-led government as quickly as possible.

COLLINS: Paul Bremer's been in the headlines quite a bit, the head of the U.S. Civilian Authority. He said earlier this week that his agency is close to restoring civil order there. Is that true, from what you see?

WILSON: Again, day to day; it's difficult to say. As you noted in the introduction, since Monday, four U.S. troops have been killed in attacks just outside of Iraq to the north and northwest, to the west and northwest of Baghdad. And so it's difficult to say that things are completely under control.

Baghdad still, it's a city of five million without power. So as much civil authority as there can be under circumstances like that, it's hard to say. I know they're trying to look forward and put some other programs into place. He's talking about the economy now. Hopefully that will get things going, they believe.

But so far, from the ground it still looks like there's a lot of work to be done, just to be able to get the city back up and running in any kind of normal way.

COLLINS: In fact, there have been several reports that Iraqi people are hearing gunfire all night long, and are actually trying to stay awake in order to guard their homes. Are there parts of Baghdad where this is actually happening, where things are that out of control?

WILSON: It's -- there are those places in Baghdad, there's no question about it. I don't go out after dark. None of my colleagues go out after dark. There is frequent gunfire at night. It's hard to say what it is, whether it's looters, whether it's celebratory fire, which is a custom here. But there is quite a bit of gunfire. It's less than when I first arrived about a month ago, but it's still prevalent. The U.S. is hoping to do something about this by confiscating guns starting Sunday. Everybody has a gun in Iraq, and some of them have very big guns in Iraq.

And so the U.S. officials advising the police department and the U.S. military are going to start taking big guns away, cleaning out the gun markets, and they believe that that's going to make some kind of difference. Iraqis themselves are suspect whether or not that's going to matter much, though.

COLLINS: What more do you think it will take to get control? Are Iraqi police going to be able to do it?

WILSON: Well, alongside U.S. Forces, they've been making some progress, at least in the city of Baghdad. They started with -- at a very low level. And so almost anything was going to be an improvement from where they began.

You know, the other thing that is a large question right now is that Iraqis want to see an Iraqi-led government. And the longer the United States stays here as the occupying power is a frustration to them. So I think those two things, I think U.S. Officials are trying to get those two things moving in the same direction at the same time. And -- but it's a real challenge, and the political process in forming a new government is taking longer than U.S. officials expected.

COLLINS: All right, Scott Wilson with "The Washington Post" this morning. We do appreciate your insight. Thanks, Scott.

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 May 28, 2003 - 09:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Scott Wilson is a foreign correspondent for "The Washington Post," and he is filing stories on the safety of post-war Iraq. We were just watching Donald Rumsfeld speak to the Council on Foreign Relations.
I want to hear about that from you, Scott.

You have been there for a few weeks now. Has daily life improved for the average Iraqi citizen?

SCOTT WILSON, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think it's probably a pretty mixed result so far. It started off very badly in Baghdad, in particular. But in the last week or so, with a big influx of U.S. troops, things have started getting better. There are still very long gas lines, there's still no electricity in much of the city, and Iraqis are getting increasingly frustrated.

By and large, most of the people say they are pleased that Saddam Hussein noise longer running the government, but they really want to see some concrete improvements in their live as quickly as possible, and an Iraqi-led government as quickly as possible.

COLLINS: Paul Bremer's been in the headlines quite a bit, the head of the U.S. Civilian Authority. He said earlier this week that his agency is close to restoring civil order there. Is that true, from what you see?

WILSON: Again, day to day; it's difficult to say. As you noted in the introduction, since Monday, four U.S. troops have been killed in attacks just outside of Iraq to the north and northwest, to the west and northwest of Baghdad. And so it's difficult to say that things are completely under control.

Baghdad still, it's a city of five million without power. So as much civil authority as there can be under circumstances like that, it's hard to say. I know they're trying to look forward and put some other programs into place. He's talking about the economy now. Hopefully that will get things going, they believe.

But so far, from the ground it still looks like there's a lot of work to be done, just to be able to get the city back up and running in any kind of normal way.

COLLINS: In fact, there have been several reports that Iraqi people are hearing gunfire all night long, and are actually trying to stay awake in order to guard their homes. Are there parts of Baghdad where this is actually happening, where things are that out of control?

WILSON: It's -- there are those places in Baghdad, there's no question about it. I don't go out after dark. None of my colleagues go out after dark. There is frequent gunfire at night. It's hard to say what it is, whether it's looters, whether it's celebratory fire, which is a custom here. But there is quite a bit of gunfire. It's less than when I first arrived about a month ago, but it's still prevalent. The U.S. is hoping to do something about this by confiscating guns starting Sunday. Everybody has a gun in Iraq, and some of them have very big guns in Iraq.

And so the U.S. officials advising the police department and the U.S. military are going to start taking big guns away, cleaning out the gun markets, and they believe that that's going to make some kind of difference. Iraqis themselves are suspect whether or not that's going to matter much, though.

COLLINS: What more do you think it will take to get control? Are Iraqi police going to be able to do it?

WILSON: Well, alongside U.S. Forces, they've been making some progress, at least in the city of Baghdad. They started with -- at a very low level. And so almost anything was going to be an improvement from where they began.

You know, the other thing that is a large question right now is that Iraqis want to see an Iraqi-led government. And the longer the United States stays here as the occupying power is a frustration to them. So I think those two things, I think U.S. Officials are trying to get those two things moving in the same direction at the same time. And -- but it's a real challenge, and the political process in forming a new government is taking longer than U.S. officials expected.

COLLINS: All right, Scott Wilson with "The Washington Post" this morning. We do appreciate your insight. Thanks, Scott.

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