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American Morning

Operation Swarmer in its Second Day; Pentagon Briefing; American Opinion of War in Iraq

Aired March 17, 2006 - 08:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

U.S. troops in a massive operation in the insurgents' back yard. We'll hear from CNN's Nic Robertson, the only reporter on the ground there.

Three years after the war started, Americans have their say about Iraq. We'll hear from some of them this hour.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, the devastation that has been left by those wildfires in Texas. Ranchers ruined, thousands of cattle lost. We'll tell you about that.

And then there's this. Oh, a horrific crash on a highway all caught on tape by a special onboard camera. Is this technology going to make a difference in the way we all drive?

M. O'BRIEN: St. Patrick's Day a great day for the O'Briens and anybody else who wants to be Irish, at least for the day.

We'll meet Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien -- that's "a" Miles O'Brien. They don't look like us, but they're interesting, nonetheless.

A developing story out of Iraq. Day two and counting for what is being called Operation Swarmer. That's that joint U.S.-Iraqi military operation north of Baghdad. It's aimed at insurgents and foreign fighters around Samarra, about 75 miles north of Baghdad.

We expect to hear from the Pentagon momentarily, and as soon as that Pentagon briefing -- as you can see, they're getting ready, warming up for that briefing right now. We will go to it live.

In the meantime, our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson was the only television reporter on the ground near Samarra.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we have seen, what we've been shown is Iraqi troops and U.S. troops working side by side. We're seeing helicopters re-supplying troops, taking more troops into the field.

We've been able to see the slow, painstaking work of looking for the weapons caches. Six caches so far we've been told have been discovered.

What we saw as we flew past some of these ongoing operations, we could see the soldiers fanned out, walking through the fields. A very thorough search of fields, of sand berms, looking for weapons caches. We've been told AK-47s, explosive -- parts of improvised explosive devices, bomb-making equipment has been found in some of these weapons caches.

We've also been told that there have been about 50 people detained. We've been told as well during this operations there's still elements of the operation going on here.

Up on the top of the hill here, we saw an Iraqi soldier looking out with binoculars. When he was looking out with the binoculars, he spotted a vehicle going across the horizon. Then he called for his interpreter. He said, "Tell the Americans get a helicopter over there, get them to look at that vehicle. We think it's trying to get away from this particular area."

That's the way we've seen the operations being conducted here, 1,500 troops, 800 Iraqis, 700 U.S. troops involved. There's no information at all about high-value targets here, although there is some specific information perhaps linking in the -- linking in the people responsible for blowing up the holy shrine in Samarra a few weeks ago that precipitated much of the sectarian violence.

We've been told that the perpetrators of that attack lived in this area, although the planning for this operation, Operation Swarmer, we're told, began before, before that attack on the shrine in Samarra. They tell us that they hope that this is a warning for the insurgents so they can now see the Iraqi security forces can move with U.S. support in fast-moving and large operations.

Nic Robertson, north of Samarra, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: The Pentagon is briefing right now. Let's go to Army Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, who is in the theater.

There you see the reporters at the Pentagon as they listen to a teleconference.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

LT. GEN. PETER CHIARELLI, U.S. ARMY: ... that are being reported. Most of the events are a combination of the work of Al Qaeda in Iraq, insurgent attacks designed to prevent progress in building the government, and pure, unadulterated crime.

I want to lay out some facts and figures for you just to put this in perspective.

In the days immediately following the Samarra bombing, the press was actively tracking and reporting every single mosque attack, but the vast majority of the reporting was off the mark. I recall reports of hundreds of mosques attacked and 30 mosques burning in Baghdad one night. These reports were terribly inaccurate.

As we received reports of mosque attacks, we sent forces out to physically check the mosques for damage. We received 81 reports of mosques being attacked from sources other than our subordinate units.

Of these 81 mosque reports, 17 had light damage such as bullet holes or broken glass, and six had medium damage repairable within six months. Only two mosques were completely destroyed and none were burned.

Keep in mind these reports are for a country that has thousands of mosques. And as I watched the news, I thought that every mosque in Iraq was being attacked.

Again, I'm not making light of the tragedy of the violence that has occurred, but I remain convinced that the resiliency and optimism of the Iraqi people will keep Iraqi moving in the right direction.

Yesterday was a historic day for Iraq with the seating of the council of representatives. A significant step toward a democratic unity government.

This is clear progress in the area of governance, which is just one of the several non-kinetic areas we are focusing on. Other non- kinetic areas including economics, infrastructure and communications. All have to work simultaneously to move Iraq forward.

The progress I see in the Iraqi security forces since I left 11 months ago is absolutely amazing. The Iraqi army is increasingly taking the lead in operations and taking over responsibility for battles faced. They did a phenomenal job in providing security around the country following the Samarra bombing.

They demonstrated a true understanding of their role in a democratic government. They were Iraqis first, dedicated to securing their country without regard for their religious or tribal affiliations.

This is also the year of the police, where we are providing police training teams and partnerships and mentoring to help develop the capability of the police force, much as we have with the army. Once trained, these police forces will take responsibility for securing urban areas, allowing the army to move out of the cities for more of a focus on national security.

We are working with the Iraqi government to assist in building ministerial capacities so that the government can provide the necessary essential services for all Iraqis. We are developing provincial reconstruction teams to work with provincial governments in developing economic systems and building infrastructure so that the Iraqis can have clean water, electricity, fuel, proper sewage systems and trash removal.

All of these non-kinetic aspects are being worked simultaneously to move Iraq forward as the country.

While the emphasis may be on the non-kinetic aspects of our operations in renewing Iraq, the kinetic fight has not been forgotten. Operations such as Operation Swarmer yesterday and the ongoing operation scales of justice to reinforce security measures around Baghdad by repositioning forces and bringing a battalion taskforce from Kuwait demonstrate our commitment and ability to bring forces to bear in tracking down and capturing or killing insurgents -- insurgent supporters, foreign fighters and the members of al Qaeda.

Finally, last month's allegations that possible violations of rules of engagement were brought to the attention of U.S. officials by a reporter. I immediately initiated a preliminary investigation into the events surrounding insurgent attacks in Haditha on November 19, 2005. On that day, Marines assigned to the Marine Expeditionary Force responded to an IED and small arms fire on their convoy.

The initial findings of the preliminary investigation were presented to me on March 9, and I directed further review of the incident. We take these allegations of potential misconduct seriously, and they will be thoroughly investigated.

I really can't comment any further on this incident because of the ongoing investigation.

I now would be happy to take your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: General, thank you for that overview. And we'll get right into some questions here.

Mr. Burns.

BOB BURNS, ASSOCIATED PRESS: General, this is Bob Burns from AP. I would like to ask you a question about Swarmer.

Is there a reconstruction economic development piece that goes hand in hand with this operation, or is it strictly an offensive operation? And also, has it at this early stage revealed anything to you about the Zarqawi operation in that area?

CHIARELLI: There's a -- we work all lines of operation in every single operation we conduct. And I think Swarmer will be no different from any other one.

We consider that an essential part of what we're doing. And I think you can tell by Swarmer it was conducting -- conducted in the desert for all practical purposes in an area about 10 miles by 10 miles. It was -- it was a large operation consisting of Iraqis and U.S. forces.

Again, it's one of those changes that has taken place since I came back to Iraq. Had we tried to accomplish a mission like this 11 months ago, it would have been primarily U.S. forces. But in this case, I think you have all seen the numbers, as we had primarily Iraqi forces supported by U.S. and coalition forces. And I can tell you that we will work all lines of operation, including reconstruction, in support of the Iraqi people in that area at the completion of the operation.

BURNS: One more question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead.

BURNS: Could you address the second part of my question about whether you have learned anything additional about the Zarqawi operation as a result?

CHIARELLI: Every single -- I think every single one of our operations takes us a little closer to putting that puzzle together, and this operation is no different. This operation was a follow-on to additional operations that had been conducted prior to this in that general area.

We conducted one about three weeks ago called Katrina which gave us a lot of information about some of those cells and those operations. And we will continue to conduct those operations in that area and anywhere else in Iraq where the intelligence leads us to possibly being able to work the al Qaeda issue.

TOM SHANKER, "NEW YORK TIMES": General, it's Tom Shanker from "The New York Times."

You mentioned the Iraq security forces, and certainly the weeks since the Samarra mosque bombing have been an extreme test of them. I'm just curious what you've learned about the Iraqi army and the police, their performance that will influence how they are deployed in the weeks and months ahead, and maybe ways they shouldn't be deployed in the weeks and months ahead.

CHIARELLI: Well, for me, this is probably the greatest change I have seen. I know you know, Tom, I was here in April of 2004, when in Baghdad we had seven Iraqi National Guard battalions. And I will tell you, those battalions, after the events of the 4th of April, went from a strength of 800 down to 100 in a matter of days. And we literally had to begin again rebuilding those battalions.

That whole process for us began in almost the first of May of 2004. And since then, we've seen this steady progress.

As I left Iraq -- and I can only speak of Baghdad -- and, in fact, I think Baghdad was the only location in Iraq in March of 2004 where we had actually turned over battle space to Iraqis. We had a brigade headquarters and two battalions inside Baghdad. I come back to Iraq with what you all see every day, us turning more and more battle space. Hard for me to even keep track of it on a daily basis over to Iraqis to the point where by this summer about 75 percent of Iraq will be in -- that battle space will be owned by Iraqi units.

We're finding Iraqi units with our support can be used in just about any operation we do in a counterinsurgency role. This is a force we have built and the Iraqis have built for that counterinsurgency fight. And I think they are particularly well prepared, well trained and have the ability to do that in just about any area, both in the cities, and as you saw in Swarmer, out in the middle of the desert, where there is little population. And we're looking for other things such as caches, weapons, and some of the things that we found out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: General Chiarelli, Barbara Starr from CNN.

Sir, I understand your reluctance to discuss ongoing investigations, but is there any way you can help us out by simply placing the Haditha matter into some sort of context and perspective? In other words, how serious is this situation? Although I understand your reluctance to discuss the specifics.

CHIARELLI: Well, I'm glad you understand that, because I really can't say any more than I have already said, ma'am. And I appreciate the question, but I'm just going to leave it at what I indicated in my prepared statement.

This is an investigation. It's an ongoing investigation. And it is only fair for all parties that I leave it right where I put it in my prepared statement.

Thank you.

QUESTION: General, this is (INAUDIBLE) with Reuters.

Regarding your comment you just made about...

S. O'BRIEN: We've been listening to Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli. He is the commander of the multinational corps in Iraq, taking questions from reporters this morning. And you heard dodging questions, in some cases, from reporters this morning, as well.

Update on security operations in Iraq. Obviously, he's been talking a lot about Operation Swarmer. We've been talking about that operation as well this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: How many American troops and for how long? It's a question being asked by more and more Americans.

Meanwhile, according to a CNN-"USA-Today"-Gallup poll, six in 10 Americans say things are going poorly for the U.S. In Iraq.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken is in Annapolis, Maryland, this morning.

Good morning, Bob. What are people telling you there this morning?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an interesting place to be, Miles. You can see behind me a tavern that was originally opened in 1750 before the Revolutionary War. Now, 256 years later, a nation has formed and there are concerns about the Iraq war. This is a community that was founded as a tradition of being a community -- a sailing community, and it's a tradition formed on the Chesapeake Bay, where the U.S. Naval Academy is. But even with all that rich American tradition, there is still a real ambivalence about the war in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY EKLOL, ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, RESIDENT: I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but I think if I can speak for most of the country, the carnage should be over. And we should try to make our best way out of -- out of Iraq as soon as we can.

ANNE WINTERS, ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, RESIDENT: Well, I'm a real conservative right-wing Catholic, and I have a strong allegiance to the pope and his statements. And I think Pope John Paul Ii that just died had a very accurate and very clear statement when he said that we should not be involved in the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: I mentioned a moment ago that Annapolis is, as we all know, the home of the Naval Academy. And we're speaking now with Jack Godwin.

Your son is a graduate of the Naval Academy.

JACK GODWIN, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Yes, that's right.

FRANKEN: And so, as a result of being in the military, being somebody who is looked upon as a military leader, you and he must have some very strong views about the war in Iraq.

GODWIN: We do.

FRANKEN: Have they evolved over three years?

GODWIN: I don't know whether they have evolved as much as they've spiraled downward. I have been against the war from the beginning. I always felt that it was a war of choice and not of necessity.

I think we did the right thing going to Afghanistan and going after the Taliban and al Qaeda, but I think we took our eye off the ball. I think it's something that the administration has always wanted to do, to go to Iraq, and I think we're now reaping the results of that.

FRANKEN: Can you characterize your son's point of view about that? Is it -- does it differ somewhat from yours?

GODWIN: Not very much, surprisingly. I would say that that's probably not the general view of military people, but, no, I think he and I feel very much the same.

I think, you know, we feel very badly about the 2,600 American boys and girls who have been killed and the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

I don't know where we're going. I think many of the experts that I read knew that we were going to potentially get into a kind of quagmire. They talked about the different factions over there, much like Yugoslavia. And I think that's why the first President Bush and Brent Scowcroft didn't want any part of it and why they didn't want to go into Baghdad originally.

FRANKEN: But what about the point of view that the president has? What about your son's colleagues and your son, for that matter? Are they sympathetic to the point of view that it's a necessary component of the war -- war on terrorism?

GODWIN: Well, I can't speak for the military. But I think he feels very much the way I do, that it's not necessarily a component for the war on terrorism.

I think -- I think that Saddam Hussein was self-contained. You know, I think we had the U.N. and the inspectors going in. And I think -- I think we could have stopped there.

FRANKEN: What we've seen this morning in Annapolis is what we see in the polls, what we see around the country, is an evolving view on the -- on the war in Iraq. Some people have been against it from the start. Some have become more nervous about it. Others continue to support it strongly. It's what we see around the nation -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Thank you.

Still to come on the program, a terrible highway accident. Take a look at this piece of video.

A tractor trailer -- but thanks to -- well, actually this is not the video that we're going to be showing. But anyway, we will show you incredible dashboard camera video of an accident. We'll tell you about the system that it's all part of which can actually provide an added level of safety for parents, among others.

S. O'BRIEN: Plus, we'll talk about what one school is doing to try to fight the growing obesity epidemic in kids.

And then later, we're going to honor our Irish lineage. I'm going to meet this lady right here. This is the other Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: She doesn't look like you there.

S. O'BRIEN: She looks exactly like me in silhouette.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, this is on New York's Long Island. A horrifying crash is all caught on videotape. Take a look.

A truck plows into the median, then the bus which has the camera in it slams -- or the truck slams into the bus, really. Fortunately, no life-threatening injuries to those on the bus. Another interesting detail, of course, is we're able to see it because of this new technology.

Joining us this morning is Bruce Moeller. He is the CEO of DriveCam. That's the company that makes the camera.

Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.

BRUCE MOELLER, CEO, DRIVECAM INC.: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

S. O'BRIEN: I guess it's the whole point of this camera, isn't it, so you can see visions like the one we just showed right there. The camera was installed on the bus and able to see exactly what happened when the struck slammed right -- came right across the highway there and slammed into the folks on the bus.

Tell me a little bit about the technology in DriveCam.

MOELLER: So, the whole point of the camera is to avoid those kinds of things from happening in the first place, because any time somebody makes a risky driving maneuver, it's not the first time they have ever done that. They've probably been doing it unconsciously or doing it because they think they can get away with it.

So we see those things before they become accidents, and then we coach the driver and show him or her what they are doing incorrectly. And that allows them to avoid those accidents in the first place.

S. O'BRIEN: Things doing incorrectly. In this case -- let me just jump in there, Bruce, if I can. Sixteen thousand pounds we're told that that semi was over-weighted with in this particular case. So I think you're probably right about some of those issues, you know, maybe not the first time necessarily.

But tell me how you trigger it. I mean, you obviously don't have the camera rolling all the time in the vehicle, would you?

MOELLER: Yes, that's a great question. Actually, the camera is rolling 24/7, whether the vehicle is on and whether you're in the car or not on. So it's always protecting you and it's giving a video inside of the car and outside of the car, and audio as well. But, it would be boring to look at all that footage.

S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say.

MOELLER: And so we tell the camera -- yes. So we tell the camera, why don't you tell us when something significant happens, and something significant is triggered by a G force. So, if you set the G force at a .4, or whatever you choose to set it at, that's what we regard as something significant. If you had to rearrange your vehicle and you had to change your direction, or you had to swerve or you had to slam on the brakes or something hit you, and it caused the G force trigger to happen, the camera then says, you know, what, this is pretty important. So for the 10 seconds before the G force happened and for the 10 seconds after the G force, I'm going to save that to flash memory and we'll download it to a computer later and we'll take a look at that and investigate what really did happen.

S. O'BRIEN: The bus, as we mentioned, was equipped with this. And I guess that's why we could see it, because the 10 seconds before was really the critical, when the driver then slammed on the brake, triggered, you know, the red flag for something important that's happening here.

Who -- how many people have this right now in their vehicles? And who could get this for their vehicle?

MOELLER: So, we've been in business for about eight years now. And we've got over 1,200 companies with over 35,000 vehicles equipped with DriveCam. And in every single incidence, we have always had a minimum of a 30 percent reduction in accidents and incidents and up to a 90 percent reduction. Most come in around 50 or 60 percent.

Most of them are commercial vehicle fleets. They're transit buses, they're distribution fleets, or they're service fleets, although everyone wants to know, are parents going to require teenagers to have this in their cars? And it would make an obvious application for them because the parent can't always be there to coach and to watch what the teenager is doing.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

MOELLER: And more...

S. O'BRIEN: My kids aren't -- you know, my kids are nowhere near old enough to drive, but I could see a lot of parents of teenagers doing exactly that.

Bruce Moeller, we could talk about this forever but we're out of time.

He's the CEO of DriveCam.

Thank you for talking with us. Fascinating technology.

MOELLER: Thank you. Thank you so much.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It doesn't seem to add up. School phys ed programs getting smaller. And we've been telling you about this terrible epidemic of obese children in this country. So, what's to be done? Well, we'll show you one neighborhood that has a creative way of dealing with the crisis. And a band of protesters walking to New Orleans, trying to draw attention to both the war and to Katrina relief. We'll see how far they have come, literally and figuratively ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: We've told you a lot about the epidemic of obese children in this country. While fast food and sugary sodas have a lot to do with it, a lack of exercise is also a big factor. And yet, many schools are taking P.E. off the schedule.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us what one Michigan town is doing about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Now here's an exercise you don't expect to see a P.E. teacher do. But, you see, it's taco day, and with resources tight in the Grand Rapids school district, the gym at Madison Park Elementary doubles as a lunchroom.

HELEN SMITH, P.E. TEACHER: So we need to walk in, go to our spot and sit down quietly. OK? The floor may be wet.

GUPTA: Helen Smith, like many P.E. teachers here, goes above and beyond trying to help fight what their district labels a youth obesity crisis.

SMITH: You know if you need a big scooter or not. Get a big scooter if you need one.

GUPTA: But it is tough. Kids here get a mere 35 minutes of physical education not per day, but per week.

SMITH: Get the ball.

GUPTA: And that's pretty typical for Michigan schools.

SMITH: We definitely have a childhood obesity problem. I mean, it's huge. It's 20 to 25 percent of kids are overweight, 9 to 15- year-olds. It's an epidemic, and it's only going to get worse if we don't do something about it.

GUPTA: So, Smith maximizes every minute she has. She has to. Four different elementary schools call her their P.E. teacher. Rushing from school to school carrying her own equipment, she become as blur of activity, cramming in as much as possible into class.

SMITH: Run over those, Lume (ph). Run over them.

GUPTA: If quantity isn't part of the game plan, Smith hopes the quality of fitness her students get will encourage exercise outside of class.

SMITH: It's not all about athletics. It's about moving, getting them off the couch, getting them doing different things, getting them involved, having a good time while they are doing it. Not thinking it's work.

GUPTA: Seeing the gap in kids' fitness options, other groups in Grand Rapids step in to help. This is the YMCA's Healthy U, a two- year-old program it hopes to bring to other communities. The Y brings its trainers and equipment to the schools for its after school programs two times a week. The other day it picks them up after school and takes them to the Y's state-of-the-art facilities.

That means these kids get about four and a half extra hours of fitness and nutrition activities a week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you know what? That is so good for your heart.

GUPTA: All for free, thanks to grants and corporate sponsorships. There's kid-size exercise equipment, fitness classes, yoga.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feel the breath as it enters your body and fills up your lungs.

GUPTA: When the kids started the program, 21 percent of them already had high blood pressure, 97 percent scored poor on flexibility tests. Now both are significantly better.

JAN WIERENGA, YMCA: We know that the program works. Obviously, how we feel, it's great. But we also see that the need is much greater than what we're able to do. And so, while we've been able to impact 3,000 kids, we see the need as 100,000 kids.

GUPTA: And our phys ed teacher, Helen Smith, agrees.

SMITH: We have a lot of couch potatoes, I think. So hopefully we can get away from that.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's take you to some business news now as we watch for the opening bell. It's about to ring on Wall Street.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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