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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S. Troops Will Begin Operation Internal Look Tomorrow

Aired December 08, 2002 - 08:03   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Qatar, U.S. troops are rehearsing for war. It's called Operation Internal Look and it begins tomorrow. General Tommy Franks and his team testing the control network that links the U.S. Central Command to ground troops, war ships and combat jets. For some insight on the war games and the situation there in general, we turn to our military analyst, Major General Don Shepperd, who is in Qatar. Good to see you, general.
MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Help us understand what they're simulating here.

SHEPPERD: Well, as you can see, it's dawn in Doha, another beautiful day in Qatar in the Persian Gulf. It's not all that exciting over there at Asaliyah (ph) military base, where the exercise is getting set to kick off. Rather than airplanes and ships and troops taking part in exercise, they're sitting down at computers, and electrons are starting to flow.

The purpose of this exercise is to test out command, control and connectivity, to make sure that General Franks can talk to and command his forces throughout the area should the military action be necessary. So it's not all that exciting, but it's very, very important.

O'BRIEN: Sounds like a little construction is under way there, too, general. Let me ask you this, if he's trying to test his communications that implies somebody's got to be on the other end. Are there people out in the field with radios and computers and so forth to see if all that stuff works?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, absolutely, Miles. Remember, he needs to be able to talk to his ships at sea. He needs to be able to talk to his carrier battle groups, and he has to be able to talk to all of the Air Force bases to deploy troops on the field. And he's got them all over this region.

So the idea behind this is to make sure that through the satellites, through the radio connections, through the telephone, he can talk secure to all of these pieces that he will need if he puts together military action.

And remember also, northern watch, southern watch and Afghanistan are going on at the same time this exercise is going on. So this is no small deal. It's very, very important, Miles. O'BRIEN: Now, by and large through the Afghanistan campaign, General Franks remained in Tampa, Florida, where Central Command is still officially based. There is a move afoot to put Central Command right where you are now. And I don't know where that stands specifically right at the moment, but give us a sense if there's any real significant difference in the way General Franks would do his job being in Qatar versus Tampa.

SHEPPERD: The whole idea is to make sure that there is no difference, that he can pick up his staff from Tampa and move it to Qatar or move it to Saudi Arabia or move it to anywhere else in this 25 nation area of responsibility, and operate exactly like he does in Tampa. It's called reach back. And you can reach back to Tampa, you can reach back to Qatar, reach back to Saudi Arabia. You can be near the troops or you can be far away and have a seamless connectivity and ability to command control. That's what this is about. And hopefully, it works. It's new, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, if it's so seamless, why wouldn't he stay put in Tampa? Why move into the region? What's the advantage?

SHEPPERD: Well, every military commander wants to be closer to the front. General Franks, of course, it's necessary for him to meet face to face with his commanders. He spends a lot of time traveling back and forth between Tampa. I can tell you from firsthand experience, Qatar is a long, long way from anything. So it reduces travel time, it puts him closer to the subordinate commanders that are in the field, ability to talk to them and work with them.

There's also a political message in this. There have been some questions about whether or not Saudi Arabia will allow us to use their bases and their air space. General Franks needs alternatives, and this is one alternative that he's testing out now.

O'BRIEN: As we look at a map of the region, there is a tremendous buildup that has occurred. By one count, "New York Times" this morning, 60,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines now generally poised for a possible incursion into Iraq. Give us a sense, how close is the U.S. to being ready based on what you've seen?

SHEPPERD: Well, as you know, Miles, the U.S. can strike any time from the United States and with forces that are in the area. But if you're going to do what is rumored to be taking place in Iraq, in other words, if you want to take Iraq, if you want to change the regime, if you want to get Saddam Hussein out, it's going to take somewhere around 250,000 troops, and we're a long way from having that.

The signs that we are serious in going to military action would be the callup of the reserves and the alert of active duty forces in the United States and in Europe and the movement to the area. None of that's taken place. It will probably take 30 to 60 days to get those people in place.

Another sign is the carrier that is supposed to rotate home would stay. None of that's taken place. So my judgment is we're not real close to combat right now, but all the pieces are in place. And if the president decides on military action, they can be moved quickly to the area and they can go to work. They're well trained and well equipped, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. One final question for you, General Shepperd. This simulation, as you put it, is just moving a series of electrons around. The military could do this very well without telling us a peep about it. The fact that it's been made publicly known, is that all part of the effort here?

SHEPPERD: Well, I think there's a strong political message in this exercise. The timing and the place of it to a lot of people. First of all to Saddam Hussein, obviously. Also to the United Nations, keeping pressure on them. To the American people, of course. And there's a message, a subtle message to Saudi Arabia that we have other alternatives.

All of those are pieces of the puzzle, and you'll just have to put them together, and depending on where you stand, what you're looking at you can pick the message, Miles.

O'BRIEN: We didn't get a chance to talk about Saudi Arabia. We'll leave that for our next conversation. General Don Shepperd, enjoy the sunny weather at Doha. And we'll see you again soon, we hope.

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 December 8, 2002 - 08:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Qatar, U.S. troops are rehearsing for war. It's called Operation Internal Look and it begins tomorrow. General Tommy Franks and his team testing the control network that links the U.S. Central Command to ground troops, war ships and combat jets. For some insight on the war games and the situation there in general, we turn to our military analyst, Major General Don Shepperd, who is in Qatar. Good to see you, general.
MAJ. GEN. DONALD SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Help us understand what they're simulating here.

SHEPPERD: Well, as you can see, it's dawn in Doha, another beautiful day in Qatar in the Persian Gulf. It's not all that exciting over there at Asaliyah (ph) military base, where the exercise is getting set to kick off. Rather than airplanes and ships and troops taking part in exercise, they're sitting down at computers, and electrons are starting to flow.

The purpose of this exercise is to test out command, control and connectivity, to make sure that General Franks can talk to and command his forces throughout the area should the military action be necessary. So it's not all that exciting, but it's very, very important.

O'BRIEN: Sounds like a little construction is under way there, too, general. Let me ask you this, if he's trying to test his communications that implies somebody's got to be on the other end. Are there people out in the field with radios and computers and so forth to see if all that stuff works?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, absolutely, Miles. Remember, he needs to be able to talk to his ships at sea. He needs to be able to talk to his carrier battle groups, and he has to be able to talk to all of the Air Force bases to deploy troops on the field. And he's got them all over this region.

So the idea behind this is to make sure that through the satellites, through the radio connections, through the telephone, he can talk secure to all of these pieces that he will need if he puts together military action.

And remember also, northern watch, southern watch and Afghanistan are going on at the same time this exercise is going on. So this is no small deal. It's very, very important, Miles. O'BRIEN: Now, by and large through the Afghanistan campaign, General Franks remained in Tampa, Florida, where Central Command is still officially based. There is a move afoot to put Central Command right where you are now. And I don't know where that stands specifically right at the moment, but give us a sense if there's any real significant difference in the way General Franks would do his job being in Qatar versus Tampa.

SHEPPERD: The whole idea is to make sure that there is no difference, that he can pick up his staff from Tampa and move it to Qatar or move it to Saudi Arabia or move it to anywhere else in this 25 nation area of responsibility, and operate exactly like he does in Tampa. It's called reach back. And you can reach back to Tampa, you can reach back to Qatar, reach back to Saudi Arabia. You can be near the troops or you can be far away and have a seamless connectivity and ability to command control. That's what this is about. And hopefully, it works. It's new, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, if it's so seamless, why wouldn't he stay put in Tampa? Why move into the region? What's the advantage?

SHEPPERD: Well, every military commander wants to be closer to the front. General Franks, of course, it's necessary for him to meet face to face with his commanders. He spends a lot of time traveling back and forth between Tampa. I can tell you from firsthand experience, Qatar is a long, long way from anything. So it reduces travel time, it puts him closer to the subordinate commanders that are in the field, ability to talk to them and work with them.

There's also a political message in this. There have been some questions about whether or not Saudi Arabia will allow us to use their bases and their air space. General Franks needs alternatives, and this is one alternative that he's testing out now.

O'BRIEN: As we look at a map of the region, there is a tremendous buildup that has occurred. By one count, "New York Times" this morning, 60,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines now generally poised for a possible incursion into Iraq. Give us a sense, how close is the U.S. to being ready based on what you've seen?

SHEPPERD: Well, as you know, Miles, the U.S. can strike any time from the United States and with forces that are in the area. But if you're going to do what is rumored to be taking place in Iraq, in other words, if you want to take Iraq, if you want to change the regime, if you want to get Saddam Hussein out, it's going to take somewhere around 250,000 troops, and we're a long way from having that.

The signs that we are serious in going to military action would be the callup of the reserves and the alert of active duty forces in the United States and in Europe and the movement to the area. None of that's taken place. It will probably take 30 to 60 days to get those people in place.

Another sign is the carrier that is supposed to rotate home would stay. None of that's taken place. So my judgment is we're not real close to combat right now, but all the pieces are in place. And if the president decides on military action, they can be moved quickly to the area and they can go to work. They're well trained and well equipped, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. One final question for you, General Shepperd. This simulation, as you put it, is just moving a series of electrons around. The military could do this very well without telling us a peep about it. The fact that it's been made publicly known, is that all part of the effort here?

SHEPPERD: Well, I think there's a strong political message in this exercise. The timing and the place of it to a lot of people. First of all to Saddam Hussein, obviously. Also to the United Nations, keeping pressure on them. To the American people, of course. And there's a message, a subtle message to Saudi Arabia that we have other alternatives.

All of those are pieces of the puzzle, and you'll just have to put them together, and depending on where you stand, what you're looking at you can pick the message, Miles.

O'BRIEN: We didn't get a chance to talk about Saudi Arabia. We'll leave that for our next conversation. General Don Shepperd, enjoy the sunny weather at Doha. And we'll see you again soon, we hope.

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