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American Morning

Inside the War Room

Aired May 30, 2003 - 07:17   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: During the Iraq war, embedded reporters brought us unprecedented live access to combat on the front lines, but there was a potentially dangerous incident behind the lines that we never knew about until now.
Mike Boettcher is part of a team that has put together a CNN documentary called, "Inside the War Room," and he joins us now from CNN Center this morning.

Good morning to you -- Mike.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Heidi.

The documentary will take you someplace no one has ever been before, inside the command operation center during a war where the generals are directing the action. Now, in this segment it's March 23. The United States had already tried to decapitate Iraqi's leadership, and now the Iraqis were coming back at U.S. military leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ready, General?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just received a report that they are shooting civilians trying to flee An-Najaf.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): A report from the front lines during the morning BUA -- the Battlefield Update Assessment. Suddenly, the headquarters in the rear is on the front lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A missile launched from Iraq area has missed Kuwait. Lightning, lightning, lightning.

BOETTCHER: In a war that began with a strike aimed at killing Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi high command, the Iraqis are launching a counter-attack.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And it was Saddam's decapitation attempt.

BOETTCHER: Inside the operation center, General McKiernan and his crew keep going with their update, gas masks and all, the Patriots on their way to intercept the Iraqi missile, a dull roar overhead.

LT. GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN, GROUND FORCES COMMANDER: The idea is just to, first of all, try to maintain a little calmness and continue on. And by God that Patriot knocked the missile down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All missiles are down. All missiles are down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we had debris actually fall on this building.

BOETTCHER: At the Air Missile Defense Command in the building next to the Operations Center, they plot the trajectory of the Iraqi missile and realize it came within seconds of wiping out the war room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This right here is the building you're standing in where the arrow is. That was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) headquarters.

BOETTCHER: General Webster believes the Iraqis have chosen their target and time carefully and had very good intelligence.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEBSTER, GROUND FORCES DEP. COMMANDER: We've been operating out of these two buildings for 10 years, and so there's been a long time for that information to get back from agents to Saddam, and for him to lay that grid into his weapon systems and prepare to shoot it.

BOETTCHER: Now, it's the coalition's turn to hunt for the Iraqi missile crew.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And hunt they do. In the documentary, you'll see how they go after the Iraqi missile crew they call "5:00 Charlie," and you'll see many other segments, a behind-the-scenes look never seen before in history of how generals are fighting the war, directing hundreds of thousands of troops -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Mike, we will certainly look forward to that, amazing story. Thanks so much for bringing it to us. Appreciate it.

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 30, 2003 - 07:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: During the Iraq war, embedded reporters brought us unprecedented live access to combat on the front lines, but there was a potentially dangerous incident behind the lines that we never knew about until now.
Mike Boettcher is part of a team that has put together a CNN documentary called, "Inside the War Room," and he joins us now from CNN Center this morning.

Good morning to you -- Mike.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Heidi.

The documentary will take you someplace no one has ever been before, inside the command operation center during a war where the generals are directing the action. Now, in this segment it's March 23. The United States had already tried to decapitate Iraqi's leadership, and now the Iraqis were coming back at U.S. military leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ready, General?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just received a report that they are shooting civilians trying to flee An-Najaf.

BOETTCHER (voice-over): A report from the front lines during the morning BUA -- the Battlefield Update Assessment. Suddenly, the headquarters in the rear is on the front lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A missile launched from Iraq area has missed Kuwait. Lightning, lightning, lightning.

BOETTCHER: In a war that began with a strike aimed at killing Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi high command, the Iraqis are launching a counter-attack.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And it was Saddam's decapitation attempt.

BOETTCHER: Inside the operation center, General McKiernan and his crew keep going with their update, gas masks and all, the Patriots on their way to intercept the Iraqi missile, a dull roar overhead.

LT. GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN, GROUND FORCES COMMANDER: The idea is just to, first of all, try to maintain a little calmness and continue on. And by God that Patriot knocked the missile down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All missiles are down. All missiles are down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we had debris actually fall on this building.

BOETTCHER: At the Air Missile Defense Command in the building next to the Operations Center, they plot the trajectory of the Iraqi missile and realize it came within seconds of wiping out the war room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This right here is the building you're standing in where the arrow is. That was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) headquarters.

BOETTCHER: General Webster believes the Iraqis have chosen their target and time carefully and had very good intelligence.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEBSTER, GROUND FORCES DEP. COMMANDER: We've been operating out of these two buildings for 10 years, and so there's been a long time for that information to get back from agents to Saddam, and for him to lay that grid into his weapon systems and prepare to shoot it.

BOETTCHER: Now, it's the coalition's turn to hunt for the Iraqi missile crew.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And hunt they do. In the documentary, you'll see how they go after the Iraqi missile crew they call "5:00 Charlie," and you'll see many other segments, a behind-the-scenes look never seen before in history of how generals are fighting the war, directing hundreds of thousands of troops -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Mike, we will certainly look forward to that, amazing story. Thanks so much for bringing it to us. Appreciate it.

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