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American Morning

Two Americans Killed Yesterday Civilians Working for Army Corps of Engineers

Aired November 03, 2003 - 08:08   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two of the 19 Americans killed yesterday in Iraq were civilians working for the Army Corps of Engineers. Some 300 Corps members are in Iraq helping with rebuilding projects.
Joining us this morning from Washington, D.C. is the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, Lieutenant General Robert Flowers.

General Flowers, nice to see you.

Good morning.

LT. GEN. ROBERT FLOWERS, COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Good morning, Soledad.

Good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Give me the circumstances of the -- that surround the deaths of these two men.

FLOWERS: I don't have all of the details, but these two men were contractors working on the destruction of captured enemy ammunition. Both were retired military and my heart goes out to the men and their families.

O'BRIEN: So they were two civilians who were from a Tennessee company who had been brought in to work in Iraq. So give me more specifics of their actual jobs and give me a sense of the kind of protection that they had while they were working in Falluja.

FLOWERS: The contractors generally hire their own, as part of the contract, hire their own security. So they were moving around secure. Their job was to collect and destroy captured enemy ammunition. And there are 650,000 tons or so of that around the country. And so it's a huge job.

Contractors on the battlefield today are a part of how we do business and fight wars. And so a very difficult situation.

O'BRIEN: You said that they hired their own private security. So do you expect any changes to the security now? Do you think that what they have and what they're working, the conditions that they're working under are secure enough and should they change? FLOWERS: We do extensive after action reviews of every incident that occurs and then hopefully improve security each time something happens.

So, yes, I think it will get better.

O'BRIEN: To what degree do you think that these attacks are undermining any kind of efforts that you have, you're trying to make, and progress that you're trying to make in rebuilding and reconstruction?

FLOWERS: Well, certainly it makes the job a little tougher. But I think time is on our side and I think there's a definite tie between the infrastructure, the quality of life for the Iraqi people and security. And as the quality of life gets better for the Iraqi people and the infrastructure gets better, they will become less tolerant of having terrorists come in and attack the Iraqi people and U.S. and coalition forces.

O'BRIEN: How have the attacks affected oil production?

FLOWERS: Actually, oil production is a success story. We've gone almost 20 days now producing over 2.1 million barrels a day. And that bodes very well for the future of the Iraqi economy.

O'BRIEN: Where does that fall in line with the prewar levels? Or do you think you could be producing more if there hadn't been attacks or even sort of sabotage?

FLOWERS: I think we will reach prewar levels very early next year. And, again, I think it's a great good news story for the U.S. and for the Iraqi people.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant General Robert Flowers joining us from Washington, D.C. this morning.

General Flowers, nice to have you.

Thanks for joining us.

FLOWERS: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: Our condolences, of course, to the loss of your team members there. It's sad news.

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





Corps of Engineers>


Aired November 3, 2003 - 08:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two of the 19 Americans killed yesterday in Iraq were civilians working for the Army Corps of Engineers. Some 300 Corps members are in Iraq helping with rebuilding projects.
Joining us this morning from Washington, D.C. is the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, Lieutenant General Robert Flowers.

General Flowers, nice to see you.

Good morning.

LT. GEN. ROBERT FLOWERS, COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Good morning, Soledad.

Good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Give me the circumstances of the -- that surround the deaths of these two men.

FLOWERS: I don't have all of the details, but these two men were contractors working on the destruction of captured enemy ammunition. Both were retired military and my heart goes out to the men and their families.

O'BRIEN: So they were two civilians who were from a Tennessee company who had been brought in to work in Iraq. So give me more specifics of their actual jobs and give me a sense of the kind of protection that they had while they were working in Falluja.

FLOWERS: The contractors generally hire their own, as part of the contract, hire their own security. So they were moving around secure. Their job was to collect and destroy captured enemy ammunition. And there are 650,000 tons or so of that around the country. And so it's a huge job.

Contractors on the battlefield today are a part of how we do business and fight wars. And so a very difficult situation.

O'BRIEN: You said that they hired their own private security. So do you expect any changes to the security now? Do you think that what they have and what they're working, the conditions that they're working under are secure enough and should they change? FLOWERS: We do extensive after action reviews of every incident that occurs and then hopefully improve security each time something happens.

So, yes, I think it will get better.

O'BRIEN: To what degree do you think that these attacks are undermining any kind of efforts that you have, you're trying to make, and progress that you're trying to make in rebuilding and reconstruction?

FLOWERS: Well, certainly it makes the job a little tougher. But I think time is on our side and I think there's a definite tie between the infrastructure, the quality of life for the Iraqi people and security. And as the quality of life gets better for the Iraqi people and the infrastructure gets better, they will become less tolerant of having terrorists come in and attack the Iraqi people and U.S. and coalition forces.

O'BRIEN: How have the attacks affected oil production?

FLOWERS: Actually, oil production is a success story. We've gone almost 20 days now producing over 2.1 million barrels a day. And that bodes very well for the future of the Iraqi economy.

O'BRIEN: Where does that fall in line with the prewar levels? Or do you think you could be producing more if there hadn't been attacks or even sort of sabotage?

FLOWERS: I think we will reach prewar levels very early next year. And, again, I think it's a great good news story for the U.S. and for the Iraqi people.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant General Robert Flowers joining us from Washington, D.C. this morning.

General Flowers, nice to have you.

Thanks for joining us.

FLOWERS: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: Our condolences, of course, to the loss of your team members there. It's sad news.

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





Corps of Engineers>