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American Morning
Unrest in Iraq
Aired June 30, 2003 - 07:18 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: More than 60 people have been detained in Iraq during a massive U.S. military operation known as Operation Sidewinder. It's designed to crush insurgents, capture senior figures from the ousted regime, and stop the wave of deadly attacks on U.S. troops.
We get more now from Baghdad and our bureau chief there, Jane Arraf.
Good morning -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Renay.
Well, that operation named, as you noted, Sidewinder, after the desert snake, is centered really from north of Baghdad all the way up to the Iranian border, and it centers around Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, which is where U.S. military officials describe a center of potential operations, the center of support for these continuing attacks on U.S. and British soldiers.
Now, as you mentioned, dozens of suspects have been detained. Not clear yet whether they've netted any high-level ones. But they've also confiscated weapons, including mortar rounds and heavy machine guns.
Now, this is an ongoing operation. There is no fixed timetable, but they do describe it as the biggest operation of its kind so far, and it comes after a week of varied and intensive attacks on U.S. soldiers around Baghdad and the surrounding areas.
CENTCOM also announcing that last night there was a new attack near the troubled town of Fallujah. That was a rocked-propelled grenade launched against what they describe as an air defense vehicle. There was one person hurt, and that person was a journalist who is embedded with the unit. No other casualties apparently in that attack that occurred late last night in Fallujah -- Renay.
MIGUEL: Jane Arraf live from Baghdad. Thanks so much for the report.
So, what does Operation Sidewinder need to do to crack down on insurgents and protect U.S. troops in Iraq?
Our guest now is CNN analyst Ken Pollack from the Saban Center at Brookings.
Ken, thanks for joining us this morning. KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Thank you, Renay.
MIGUEL: So, we have now found out from documents that have been confiscated in searches that these attacks, these post-regime attacks, if you will, were planned during the final stages of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad. What does that tell you about his strategy all along?
POLLACK: Well, I don't think that we should go too far into what he may have thought all along, but certainly it does indicate that there was planning at some point during the war for operations beyond Baghdad. There was a recognition that the regime would not be able to hold Baghdad, and that therefore they were going to have to move this struggle out into Iraq's countryside, out into the Sunni Hinter (ph) lands, the area where the main Sunni tribes, which were the greatest supporters of Saddam Hussein's regime, were located, where Saddam might be able to mount some kind of a resistance to the U.S. even after his capital had fallen.
MIGUEL: Central Command has always maintained that these attacks against U.S. interests were not centrally organized. But yesterday on CNN's "LATE EDITION," Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, seemed to disagree. Let's listen to what he had to say and then I'll get your thoughts on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMED CHALABI, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS: He is giving orders, and he doesn't appear very often he issues these orders. And he had a plan. You see, Saddam I said had -- did not have a serious military plan against the U.S. But he had a post-defeat plan, and that is being implemented right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIGUEL: So, what do you think? Is Saddam Hussein actually calling the shots in these post-regime attacks?
POLLACK: Well, look, I'll be honest with you, Renay. I see no reason to believe Ahmad Chalabi over U.S. Central Command. As you suggested earlier, U.S. Central Command, which probably has the best intelligence of anyone in Iraq, which is located in Iraq, has set up widespread intelligence gathering facilities throughout there, believes that the attacks are not centrally planned. They believe that there are a number of different groups who are mounting these attacks largely independently. Some of them are being controlled by former regime figures, possibly Saddam himself. Others are being controlled by Sunni tribes and other groups who simply don't like the American presence.
Ahmad Chalabi is in Iraq. He may have some information, but there is no reason I think that we should necessarily think that he or any other particular Iraqi is going to have better information than U.S. Central Command. Sitting here in Washington, I have no particular reason to second-guess the U.S. military, which has the best intelligence gathering apparatus in Iraq right now. MIGUEL: So, why do you think L. Paul Bremer said yesterday on all of the news shows that the U.S. has to kill or capture Saddam in order for these attacks to end?
POLLACK: Well, I think clearly there are some elements of the Iraqi resistance which are centered around Saddam Hussein, and certainly there are others who believe that Saddam might be able to come back into power. They certainly would welcome him coming back into power because their own privileges, their own position was all predicated on Saddam's rule. And so, certainly it would be more beneficial to them.
But by the same token, I don't think that we should get obsessed with Saddam Hussein. Because, as Central Command has indicated, they don't believe that these attacks are necessarily all centrally controlled, because they believe that there are many different groups who are organizing these attacks. We shouldn't assume that just getting rid of Saddam Hussein is going to get rid of all of these problems.
MIGUEL: Ken Pollack with the Saban Center at Brookings, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate your time.
POLLACK: Thank you, Renay.
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 June 30, 2003 - 07:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: More than 60 people have been detained in Iraq during a massive U.S. military operation known as Operation Sidewinder. It's designed to crush insurgents, capture senior figures from the ousted regime, and stop the wave of deadly attacks on U.S. troops.
We get more now from Baghdad and our bureau chief there, Jane Arraf.
Good morning -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Renay.
Well, that operation named, as you noted, Sidewinder, after the desert snake, is centered really from north of Baghdad all the way up to the Iranian border, and it centers around Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, which is where U.S. military officials describe a center of potential operations, the center of support for these continuing attacks on U.S. and British soldiers.
Now, as you mentioned, dozens of suspects have been detained. Not clear yet whether they've netted any high-level ones. But they've also confiscated weapons, including mortar rounds and heavy machine guns.
Now, this is an ongoing operation. There is no fixed timetable, but they do describe it as the biggest operation of its kind so far, and it comes after a week of varied and intensive attacks on U.S. soldiers around Baghdad and the surrounding areas.
CENTCOM also announcing that last night there was a new attack near the troubled town of Fallujah. That was a rocked-propelled grenade launched against what they describe as an air defense vehicle. There was one person hurt, and that person was a journalist who is embedded with the unit. No other casualties apparently in that attack that occurred late last night in Fallujah -- Renay.
MIGUEL: Jane Arraf live from Baghdad. Thanks so much for the report.
So, what does Operation Sidewinder need to do to crack down on insurgents and protect U.S. troops in Iraq?
Our guest now is CNN analyst Ken Pollack from the Saban Center at Brookings.
Ken, thanks for joining us this morning. KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Thank you, Renay.
MIGUEL: So, we have now found out from documents that have been confiscated in searches that these attacks, these post-regime attacks, if you will, were planned during the final stages of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad. What does that tell you about his strategy all along?
POLLACK: Well, I don't think that we should go too far into what he may have thought all along, but certainly it does indicate that there was planning at some point during the war for operations beyond Baghdad. There was a recognition that the regime would not be able to hold Baghdad, and that therefore they were going to have to move this struggle out into Iraq's countryside, out into the Sunni Hinter (ph) lands, the area where the main Sunni tribes, which were the greatest supporters of Saddam Hussein's regime, were located, where Saddam might be able to mount some kind of a resistance to the U.S. even after his capital had fallen.
MIGUEL: Central Command has always maintained that these attacks against U.S. interests were not centrally organized. But yesterday on CNN's "LATE EDITION," Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, seemed to disagree. Let's listen to what he had to say and then I'll get your thoughts on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMED CHALABI, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS: He is giving orders, and he doesn't appear very often he issues these orders. And he had a plan. You see, Saddam I said had -- did not have a serious military plan against the U.S. But he had a post-defeat plan, and that is being implemented right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIGUEL: So, what do you think? Is Saddam Hussein actually calling the shots in these post-regime attacks?
POLLACK: Well, look, I'll be honest with you, Renay. I see no reason to believe Ahmad Chalabi over U.S. Central Command. As you suggested earlier, U.S. Central Command, which probably has the best intelligence of anyone in Iraq, which is located in Iraq, has set up widespread intelligence gathering facilities throughout there, believes that the attacks are not centrally planned. They believe that there are a number of different groups who are mounting these attacks largely independently. Some of them are being controlled by former regime figures, possibly Saddam himself. Others are being controlled by Sunni tribes and other groups who simply don't like the American presence.
Ahmad Chalabi is in Iraq. He may have some information, but there is no reason I think that we should necessarily think that he or any other particular Iraqi is going to have better information than U.S. Central Command. Sitting here in Washington, I have no particular reason to second-guess the U.S. military, which has the best intelligence gathering apparatus in Iraq right now. MIGUEL: So, why do you think L. Paul Bremer said yesterday on all of the news shows that the U.S. has to kill or capture Saddam in order for these attacks to end?
POLLACK: Well, I think clearly there are some elements of the Iraqi resistance which are centered around Saddam Hussein, and certainly there are others who believe that Saddam might be able to come back into power. They certainly would welcome him coming back into power because their own privileges, their own position was all predicated on Saddam's rule. And so, certainly it would be more beneficial to them.
But by the same token, I don't think that we should get obsessed with Saddam Hussein. Because, as Central Command has indicated, they don't believe that these attacks are necessarily all centrally controlled, because they believe that there are many different groups who are organizing these attacks. We shouldn't assume that just getting rid of Saddam Hussein is going to get rid of all of these problems.
MIGUEL: Ken Pollack with the Saban Center at Brookings, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate your time.
POLLACK: Thank you, Renay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
