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American Morning

U.S. Military Officials Acknowledge Huge Stockpiles of Iraqi Ammunition Still Left Unguarded

Aired October 01, 2003 - 08:07   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq now. U.S. military officials acknowledging that huge stockpiles of Iraqi ammunition are still left today unguarded. An estimated 650,000 tons of munitions left unprotected at sites once used by Iraqi security forces. The danger of looting is alarming, as U.S. troops wage a daily battle against insurgents there. Exclusive videotape obtained by the "New York Times" and the Discovery Channel. You just saw a portion of it.
Eric Schmitt, the reporter for the "Times" who obtained that footage and reported on the story for his newspaper, is live with us today in Washington, D.C.

Eric, nice to see you.

Good morning to you.

ERIC SCHMITT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Go back to this videotape. We'll roll it again for our viewers. Describe what we are seeing from this, from the U.S. military. SCHMITT: What you'll see on this videotape, which was taken by an Army helicopter crew back at the end of June, is one of many sprawling sites. It was particularly a big air force installation about 35 miles southwest of Baghdad. What you see are warehouses that have been stripped of their roofing and siding and reveal stacks and stacks of bombs, missiles and other munitions that are basically unguarded, is what this helicopter gunship found when they went over this site.

HEMMER: Is it changed now? Is it guarded now, Eric?

SCHMITT: Well, what the military says is they posted signs, basically, do not, you know, do not trespass signs. They blocked access to this site. But they still do not have a permanent guard there. What they're doing is sending around patrols periodically to try and chase away looters. But we've been told by officials who visited this site within the last month, in fact, that when they arrived on scene, there were people plundering many of these, particularly piles of munitions.

HEMMER: Yes, what we're watching from these aerial shots is perhaps the ammunition that's being used to kill U.S. soldiers, sometimes on a daily basis. A statement from the Pentagon -- we'll put it on the screen for our viewers to see -- stating from the Pentagon, "All known Iraqi munitions sites are being secured by coalition forces." The active words there being "are being secured." How much is there to do in this country?

SCHMITT: Well, the problem, Bill, is enormous. And General John Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, acknowledged this in testimony last week before the Congress. He's the one who cited this figure, 650,000 tons of munitions. Right now, the Army Corps of Engineers has contractors on the ground. Once they get demolition sites up and running, by the end of October, they believe they can do as much as -- destroy as much as 100 tons a day. But even at that rate, you're talking about taking 18 years to destroy all the munitions in Iraq.

HEMMER: This is here -- this country is a giant ammunition dump, isn't it?

SCHMITT: It really is. It's just awash in weaponry. And there's really no way to tell where much of the explosives used for the major bombings or even the near daily attacks against American soldiers is coming from, it's just so prevalent.

HEMMER: Yes, when you think about electricity, when you think about the Iraqi Governing Council getting that up and running, think about the constitution, think about the long list of things the U.S. wants to get done here, where does this rank in terms of priorities right now?

SCHMITT: Well, it's obviously on the minds of commanders in the field as well as the civilian authorities under Paul Bremer in Baghdad. But as General Abizaid acknowledged last week, they just don't have enough forces, whether they're American forces or Iraqis, to guard all these sites. And many of them are huge. The site that you saw in this videotape is almost 10 square miles. It's a large base.

HEMMER: Ten square miles?

SCHMITT: Yes.

HEMMER: Wow.

SCHMITT: It's huge. And this is just one of several thousand that the United States identified. And they're coming across new caches almost every day on patrol.

HEMMER: Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Eric.

Appreciate it.

SCHMITT: You're welcome.

HEMMER: From the "New York Times," it's Eric Schmitt down in our D.C. bureau.

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





Iraqi Ammunition Still Left Unguarded>


Aired October 1, 2003 - 08:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Iraq now. U.S. military officials acknowledging that huge stockpiles of Iraqi ammunition are still left today unguarded. An estimated 650,000 tons of munitions left unprotected at sites once used by Iraqi security forces. The danger of looting is alarming, as U.S. troops wage a daily battle against insurgents there. Exclusive videotape obtained by the "New York Times" and the Discovery Channel. You just saw a portion of it.
Eric Schmitt, the reporter for the "Times" who obtained that footage and reported on the story for his newspaper, is live with us today in Washington, D.C.

Eric, nice to see you.

Good morning to you.

ERIC SCHMITT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: Go back to this videotape. We'll roll it again for our viewers. Describe what we are seeing from this, from the U.S. military. SCHMITT: What you'll see on this videotape, which was taken by an Army helicopter crew back at the end of June, is one of many sprawling sites. It was particularly a big air force installation about 35 miles southwest of Baghdad. What you see are warehouses that have been stripped of their roofing and siding and reveal stacks and stacks of bombs, missiles and other munitions that are basically unguarded, is what this helicopter gunship found when they went over this site.

HEMMER: Is it changed now? Is it guarded now, Eric?

SCHMITT: Well, what the military says is they posted signs, basically, do not, you know, do not trespass signs. They blocked access to this site. But they still do not have a permanent guard there. What they're doing is sending around patrols periodically to try and chase away looters. But we've been told by officials who visited this site within the last month, in fact, that when they arrived on scene, there were people plundering many of these, particularly piles of munitions.

HEMMER: Yes, what we're watching from these aerial shots is perhaps the ammunition that's being used to kill U.S. soldiers, sometimes on a daily basis. A statement from the Pentagon -- we'll put it on the screen for our viewers to see -- stating from the Pentagon, "All known Iraqi munitions sites are being secured by coalition forces." The active words there being "are being secured." How much is there to do in this country?

SCHMITT: Well, the problem, Bill, is enormous. And General John Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, acknowledged this in testimony last week before the Congress. He's the one who cited this figure, 650,000 tons of munitions. Right now, the Army Corps of Engineers has contractors on the ground. Once they get demolition sites up and running, by the end of October, they believe they can do as much as -- destroy as much as 100 tons a day. But even at that rate, you're talking about taking 18 years to destroy all the munitions in Iraq.

HEMMER: This is here -- this country is a giant ammunition dump, isn't it?

SCHMITT: It really is. It's just awash in weaponry. And there's really no way to tell where much of the explosives used for the major bombings or even the near daily attacks against American soldiers is coming from, it's just so prevalent.

HEMMER: Yes, when you think about electricity, when you think about the Iraqi Governing Council getting that up and running, think about the constitution, think about the long list of things the U.S. wants to get done here, where does this rank in terms of priorities right now?

SCHMITT: Well, it's obviously on the minds of commanders in the field as well as the civilian authorities under Paul Bremer in Baghdad. But as General Abizaid acknowledged last week, they just don't have enough forces, whether they're American forces or Iraqis, to guard all these sites. And many of them are huge. The site that you saw in this videotape is almost 10 square miles. It's a large base.

HEMMER: Ten square miles?

SCHMITT: Yes.

HEMMER: Wow.

SCHMITT: It's huge. And this is just one of several thousand that the United States identified. And they're coming across new caches almost every day on patrol.

HEMMER: Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Eric.

Appreciate it.

SCHMITT: You're welcome.

HEMMER: From the "New York Times," it's Eric Schmitt down in our D.C. bureau.

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





Iraqi Ammunition Still Left Unguarded>