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American Morning
Larger Troop Rotation Plan
Aired November 06, 2003 - 08:11 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: As we just mentioned, reservists and National Guard troops getting ready and being told today to get ready for one year duty tours in Iraq and Kuwait. The orders went out last night, part of a larger troop rotation plan.
To the Pentagon for more and Barbara Starr -- Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, we do expect to hear from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld here in the briefing room about midday today, making that official announcement that thousands of additional troops will be headed to Iraq early next year to replace the troops that are now finishing up their one year tour of duty. But a lot of this, of course, because the Bush administration was not able to get the allies to contribute enough troops to form a third multinational division. So U.S. troops will pick up that slack.
Let's take a quick look at the numbers involved. About 100,000 new troops will be called for a one year deployment. This will include forces from all of the services -- Army, Marine Corps, even Air Force and Navy. About 40,000 National Guard and reserve troops already receiving their orders, but also going will be those active duty forces, including the 1st Infantry Division from Germany and the 1st Calvary Division from Texas.
The overall plan, the Bush administration hopes, is to be able to reduce the force level in Iraq from its current state of about 130,000 forces to something like 100,000 forces by early next year, depending on the security situation -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, I want to turn your focus to another story getting a lot of attention last evening and again today, the story about back channel meetings between a Lebanese-American businessman working and acting on behalf of Saddam Hussein, meeting with top Pentagon officials before the war broke out to try and avoid the conflict.
What's the Pentagon saying about the possibility of this happening?
STARR: Well, the basic details are accurate. These meetings did occur with a Pentagon official and a Lebanese-American businessman, and also a very key adviser to the Bush administration, a man named Richard Perle. But what the Pentagon is saying, also what the White House is saying, that although these meetings occurred, that basically these were -- did not turn out to be credible paths, if you will, credible sources of information, and that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government had years of being able to contact the United States and work through credible channels if they were interested in disarmament.
So not a lot of credit being given to this series of meetings -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara Starr, thanks, from the Pentagon this morning.
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 November 6, 2003 - 08:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As we just mentioned, reservists and National Guard troops getting ready and being told today to get ready for one year duty tours in Iraq and Kuwait. The orders went out last night, part of a larger troop rotation plan.
To the Pentagon for more and Barbara Starr -- Barbara, good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
Well, we do expect to hear from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld here in the briefing room about midday today, making that official announcement that thousands of additional troops will be headed to Iraq early next year to replace the troops that are now finishing up their one year tour of duty. But a lot of this, of course, because the Bush administration was not able to get the allies to contribute enough troops to form a third multinational division. So U.S. troops will pick up that slack.
Let's take a quick look at the numbers involved. About 100,000 new troops will be called for a one year deployment. This will include forces from all of the services -- Army, Marine Corps, even Air Force and Navy. About 40,000 National Guard and reserve troops already receiving their orders, but also going will be those active duty forces, including the 1st Infantry Division from Germany and the 1st Calvary Division from Texas.
The overall plan, the Bush administration hopes, is to be able to reduce the force level in Iraq from its current state of about 130,000 forces to something like 100,000 forces by early next year, depending on the security situation -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara, I want to turn your focus to another story getting a lot of attention last evening and again today, the story about back channel meetings between a Lebanese-American businessman working and acting on behalf of Saddam Hussein, meeting with top Pentagon officials before the war broke out to try and avoid the conflict.
What's the Pentagon saying about the possibility of this happening?
STARR: Well, the basic details are accurate. These meetings did occur with a Pentagon official and a Lebanese-American businessman, and also a very key adviser to the Bush administration, a man named Richard Perle. But what the Pentagon is saying, also what the White House is saying, that although these meetings occurred, that basically these were -- did not turn out to be credible paths, if you will, credible sources of information, and that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government had years of being able to contact the United States and work through credible channels if they were interested in disarmament.
So not a lot of credit being given to this series of meetings -- Bill.
HEMMER: Barbara Starr, thanks, from the Pentagon this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
