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2 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Helicopter Crash in Iraq; Bush Visits Army Base

Aired April 11, 2004 - 09:39   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.


ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go live now to Baghdad. Jane Arraf joins us by videophone from just outside the Baghdad airport, with an exclusive update on that crash that we're mentioning -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, we're actually in the Baghdad airport, just on the flight line. We just landed from a point south here and as you mentioned the U.S. military spokesman saying two people from the 1st Cavalry Division have been killed in that helicopter crash, after the helicopter was apparently shot down.

Now, the helicopter from the 1st Cavalry, which is coming over to take over from the 1st Armored Division in perhaps one of the most critical times here, regarding that helicopter, military sources tell us that it appears to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

We've just come from the south, where fighting has eradicated, according to U.S. Military officials there, most of the opposition from the militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr in Kut, that's about 100 miles southeast of here. The streets were calm, major bridges had been taken; major facilities had been taken by the military. But instead of shipping out, as they were going to, and going home, they intend to stay there for some time.

HILL: And Jane, going back real quickly to the crash, anything else in the area that we're hearing now, word that it may have been arms fire that took it down, anything else in the area that could be related to that?

ARRAF: We're actually hearing from military sources that it appears to have been a surface-to-air missile, rather than small arms fire, that took that down. It is an indication that things are particularly active, to say the least. The military's facing threats on several fronts, but it does appear not to be small arms fire. It appears more likely to have been a surface-to-air missile shot at the helicopter, bringing it down, not very far, apparently, from the Baghdad airport west of Baghdad. Erica?

HILL: And the Baghdad airport where you are now, joining us live. Jane Arraf, thank you.

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: Here in the U.S., soldiers at a Texas army base are getting a presidential visit this Easter. President Bush is attending Easter service with troops at Fort Hood. The visit comes during a somber week. At least nine soldiers from the base were killed in Iraq in the past week. There are more than 20,000 Fort Hood troops in Iraq.

The White House releases a briefing memo outlining some of the threats against the U.S. by Al Qaeda. But the bush administration says the threats were not specific or totally accurate. We get more on the administration's decision from CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saturday, the White House declassified the president's top secret briefing he received at his Crawford ranch one month before the September 11 attacks. The August 6, 2001, presidential daily brief, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," lays out the Al Qaeda leader's capability and determination to hit the United States. It warns the CIA and FBI were investigating a tip that a group of Bin Laden supporters were in the U.S. in May, just months before 9/11, and were planning attacks using explosives. It begins, "Bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington. The Millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S."

The brief emphasizes the Al Qaeda leader's resolve, recounting his 1998 attacks against U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that involved years of preparation. The brief says Bin Laden's followers are prevalent in the U.S. "Al Qaeda members, including some who are U.S. citizens, have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks." A source specifically mentions a Bin Laden cell in New York in 1998 that was recruiting young Muslim-Americans to carry out strikes.

The brief lays out Bin Laden's plots. An uncorroborated report that in 1998. "Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to win the release of his comrades in U.S. custody." Ongoing activity from the FBI of "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."

The brief concludes that the FBI was conducting at least 70 investigations in 2001 regarding possible Al Qaeda cells operating in the U.S. A senior White House official says releasing the brief should clear up any myth that the president was warned of the 9/11 attacks, adding that there is nothing in the brief pertaining to the 9/11 plot. He said all threats were aggressively pursued.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: But some commissioners believe that there was at least enough information the administration had, when it came to Al Qaeda's capabilities and intentions, to issue some kind of warning to the public that an attack was possible. Holly.

FIRFER: Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much. HILL: Still to come here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, when we return, we'll be joined by international journalists to take a look at the upcoming week for President Bush and his meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon. More on that just ahead, when CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: President Bush plans to start and end his week meeting with world leaders. Tomorrow, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will join at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. And then on Wednesday is a sit down with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House. On Friday, Mr. Bush is scheduled to talk to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, also in Washington.

Of course, traveling with those leaders are the journalists covering those meetings. Two of them join us this morning. Khaled Dawoud is covering the Mubarak trip for "Al-Ahram" newspaper, based in Egypt. He joins us now from Houston. Gil Tamary is covering the Sharon meeting for Israel's Channel 10 and comes to us now live from Washington. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us this morning.

KHALED DAWOUD, REPORTER, "AL-AHRAM": Thank you.

GIL TAMARY, REPORTER, ISRAEL'S CHANNEL 10: Good morning.

HILL: And I'm going to start with you, Khaled. First of all, we'll start with you, because on Monday it begins with the visit of President Hosni Mubarak at the ranch in Crawford, Texas. What are President Bush and President Mubarak going to focus on?

DAWOUD: I think they have a pretty heavy agenda to speak about. First of all, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Sharon's proposal for unilateral withdraw from Gaza, that's a very important issue for us, because I guess we will be involved in any future arrangements, whether in terms of the border between Egypt and Gaza, or in terms of security arrangements in Gaza itself, and also, to make sure that Gaza first is not Gaza last and that Mr. Sharon is going to implement the road map. And even as President Bush and the U.S. administration says that this is only the beginning of the implementation of the road map, there has to be a plan for the West Bank, too, and ending up with the implementation of President Bush's vision of establishing two states next to each other, Palestine and Israel.

The second issue, of course, is going to be Iraq. Iraq is a very hot topic. Egypt is in the region there. We're very interested in what's happening in Iraq. We want to see calm in Iraq; we want to see stability and sovereignty restored back there.

Finally, I think they're also going to talk about President Bush's recent greater Middle East initiative for political and economic reform and to make a point that any reforms have to come from within the region itself and not to be imposed by outside parties, because that will make him lack credibility. HILL: Gil, turning to you now, Khaled mentioned, of course, this meeting coming up with -- we mentioned the meeting with Ariel Sharon on Wednesday. One of the things that Mubarak and Bush will talk about will be this proposal to withdraw from Gaza and areas in the West Bank. Is that the main purpose of this visit for Ariel Sharon?

TAMARY: Yes, of course. This is the first time that Ariel Sharon coming to Washington, not for just a visit, but he's coming with a real initiative, a real plan, to start to try to diffuse the situation. He will try to gain the Bush support for his plan, disengagement plan, in which he calls for a withdraw from the entire settlements in Gaza and also from some settlement in the West Bank and it's very important to him also from political point of view in Israel to get the president's support. And it seems to be, right now Bush is going to support this...

HILL: And we thank you both for joining us.

(LIVE EVENT)

HILL: We're going to return now to our guests. We are joined by Khaled Dawoud from "Al-Ahram" Egyptian newspaper, and also Gil Tamary from Channel 10 Israel.

We were talking, gentlemen, a little bit earlier about the visits coming up this week. Egyptian President Mubarak on Monday at the ranch in Crawford, Texas. Ariel Sharon coming to the White House on Wednesday. Discussing this plan that we have to -- that Ariel Sharon has put forth to get for Israel to get out of Gaza and portions of the West Bank, this one of main issues for both, for all three presidents this week.

Khaled, you said to us earlier he needs to make sure this will be implemented, that this plan will be implemented. Is there a feeling in the Middle East it will be? Some other heads from the Middle East joining the president next week, how is it going to be received?

DAWOUD: Well, I think this meeting between President Mubarak and Bush is coming at a very critical time, and I don't really believe -- everybody's sure of Mr. Sharon's intentions concerning the implementation of the plan, and that's one reason perhaps this visit by Mr. Sharon to Washington has been delayed. He's been requesting this meeting for some time, but then the U.S. side itself, President Bush and other U.S. officials, as I said earlier, want to make sure this is not just a plan for Gaza alone and even it's not only going to be limited to four settlements as we read in the press reports in the West Bank. There has to be a plan that's going to end up with the implementation of President Bush's vision of establishing a Palestinian state, because that's going to be the only way to ensure stability and security in the region for us, as Egypt, for Israel and the rest of the entire region.

HILL: Gil, some concern of support and how much support there will be for this plan. We're hearing now that there will be a referendum for the Likud party to vote on April 29 for it. Is what the general feeling for the plan in Israel right now? TAMARY: Sharon is in the midst of a political crisis, a political storm. You must remember, he has above his head, the investigation closed, and within a few days or weeks, general attorney in Israel should decide whether to indict Sharon or not. And besides that we are going to have the referendum in the Likud party. Sharon has a big problem. He first needs to try to convey the message of this disengagement plan to his own camp to the right camp and to the Likud party. He has a big challenge, and the hope is that President Bush, with his support for the disengagement plan, will help him to prevail in this task.

Gil Tamary from Israel's Channel 10, and Khaled Dawoud from "Al- Ahram," we thank you both for your insight this morning.

DAWOUD: Thank you.

FIRFER: Earlier we talked about the offensive attacks by Iraqi insurgents. We will turn our attention to U.S. military defensive strategies in Iraq when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FIRFER: Earlier we talked about the offensive attacks by Iraqi insurgents and we will also turn our attention to the U.S. military's defensive strategies in Iraq. Here with me is terrorism expert and CNN contributor Kelly McCann.

Kelly, let's talk about these insurgents. Who are they and what are their tactics?

KELLY MCCANN, SECURITY/TERRORISM EXPERT: I thought it would be interesting to mirror U.S. and insurgent tactics. If we could go to the first still photo, you will see in this image that you've got a person that's right here, very covered and concealed low profile. If we go to that first image. And basically all a U.S. force would see would be above this plane. So he's very low. One effective technique is to use bullet bounce, where troops would fire and actually use shrapnel and frag to hit this person. Go ahead and roll that tape. You can see that the signature is very significant. Once he fires this device, go ahead and roll the videotape, you will see all the dust, and basically that's how you would then target that position.

The next image, right here, you can see the way that people fire. Go to the second still. If you notice where he's holding his weapon, it's nowhere near his line of sight. And that's how you use your sights to ensure you don't endanger innocent people, et cetera. Go ahead and roll that piece of video, and what you'll see is him just spray those rounds, basically combat ineffective, out into the area. Right here. See how he's firing from the hip, not very combat effective.

Go to the next images, if you will, and you'll see this humvee basically pokes its way out, this is U.S. forces right here, obviously, and basically as they go into this urban area, they'll go so far and they will actually break this plane right here. From the enemy perspective all they would see is here forward. If you roll the tape, you see him pull his humvee backwards, because now he knows he's exposed and could be taken under fire. It's very much a cat and mouse game. This image you see right here is a Russian RPK machine gun that can be fired quickly at these positions. If you go to the U.S....

FIRFER: Let's talk a little bit about U.S. operations. When they go into a city, what do they do?

MCCANN: OK. Let's go to the first image of the rifle here, and you'll see that the first U.S. image. You'll see a still photo of an M-4 rifle. And, basically, as you have moving images, this is a rear sight. This is his front sight. The soldier marine is trying to line sight alignment and sight picture up, even on moving targets. It's very difficult to do, to make sure of safety and security. Go ahead and roll the tape now, to the next portion of the video we had set up. You can see here them staging for an incident. Basically we'll go to the next danger area of video and see there are so many areas they have to be very careful of. If you look right here, still that photo and put that up on a teleprompter when you still it, you'll take a look at the next image all these dark areas that have windows in them, go to the next still image, please.

FIRFER: We're having a little technical difficulty.

MCCANN: Let's go ahead and roll the next video. OK. Right here you can see this area right here is of concern, these areas here are of concern. You've got to be concerned about snipers that could be up here and have a downward angle. His vision has to be in areas like these doorways. So you can see we've tried to show here, Holly, it's a very dangerous situation.

FIRFER: Yes. Thank you so much. We'll hopefully we'll get back to this so we can show it more. Because of the press conference, we got short on time. But Kelly McCann, thank you. It does clear up a lot of what our troops are going through over there.

CNN SUNDAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FIRFER: I'm Holly Firfer.

HILL: And I'm Erica Hill. Thanks for joining us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Stay tuned, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY" is next.

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 April 11, 2004 - 09:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go live now to Baghdad. Jane Arraf joins us by videophone from just outside the Baghdad airport, with an exclusive update on that crash that we're mentioning -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, we're actually in the Baghdad airport, just on the flight line. We just landed from a point south here and as you mentioned the U.S. military spokesman saying two people from the 1st Cavalry Division have been killed in that helicopter crash, after the helicopter was apparently shot down.

Now, the helicopter from the 1st Cavalry, which is coming over to take over from the 1st Armored Division in perhaps one of the most critical times here, regarding that helicopter, military sources tell us that it appears to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

We've just come from the south, where fighting has eradicated, according to U.S. Military officials there, most of the opposition from the militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr in Kut, that's about 100 miles southeast of here. The streets were calm, major bridges had been taken; major facilities had been taken by the military. But instead of shipping out, as they were going to, and going home, they intend to stay there for some time.

HILL: And Jane, going back real quickly to the crash, anything else in the area that we're hearing now, word that it may have been arms fire that took it down, anything else in the area that could be related to that?

ARRAF: We're actually hearing from military sources that it appears to have been a surface-to-air missile, rather than small arms fire, that took that down. It is an indication that things are particularly active, to say the least. The military's facing threats on several fronts, but it does appear not to be small arms fire. It appears more likely to have been a surface-to-air missile shot at the helicopter, bringing it down, not very far, apparently, from the Baghdad airport west of Baghdad. Erica?

HILL: And the Baghdad airport where you are now, joining us live. Jane Arraf, thank you.

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: Here in the U.S., soldiers at a Texas army base are getting a presidential visit this Easter. President Bush is attending Easter service with troops at Fort Hood. The visit comes during a somber week. At least nine soldiers from the base were killed in Iraq in the past week. There are more than 20,000 Fort Hood troops in Iraq.

The White House releases a briefing memo outlining some of the threats against the U.S. by Al Qaeda. But the bush administration says the threats were not specific or totally accurate. We get more on the administration's decision from CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saturday, the White House declassified the president's top secret briefing he received at his Crawford ranch one month before the September 11 attacks. The August 6, 2001, presidential daily brief, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," lays out the Al Qaeda leader's capability and determination to hit the United States. It warns the CIA and FBI were investigating a tip that a group of Bin Laden supporters were in the U.S. in May, just months before 9/11, and were planning attacks using explosives. It begins, "Bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington. The Millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S."

The brief emphasizes the Al Qaeda leader's resolve, recounting his 1998 attacks against U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that involved years of preparation. The brief says Bin Laden's followers are prevalent in the U.S. "Al Qaeda members, including some who are U.S. citizens, have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks." A source specifically mentions a Bin Laden cell in New York in 1998 that was recruiting young Muslim-Americans to carry out strikes.

The brief lays out Bin Laden's plots. An uncorroborated report that in 1998. "Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to win the release of his comrades in U.S. custody." Ongoing activity from the FBI of "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."

The brief concludes that the FBI was conducting at least 70 investigations in 2001 regarding possible Al Qaeda cells operating in the U.S. A senior White House official says releasing the brief should clear up any myth that the president was warned of the 9/11 attacks, adding that there is nothing in the brief pertaining to the 9/11 plot. He said all threats were aggressively pursued.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: But some commissioners believe that there was at least enough information the administration had, when it came to Al Qaeda's capabilities and intentions, to issue some kind of warning to the public that an attack was possible. Holly.

FIRFER: Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much. HILL: Still to come here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING, when we return, we'll be joined by international journalists to take a look at the upcoming week for President Bush and his meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon. More on that just ahead, when CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: President Bush plans to start and end his week meeting with world leaders. Tomorrow, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will join at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. And then on Wednesday is a sit down with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House. On Friday, Mr. Bush is scheduled to talk to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, also in Washington.

Of course, traveling with those leaders are the journalists covering those meetings. Two of them join us this morning. Khaled Dawoud is covering the Mubarak trip for "Al-Ahram" newspaper, based in Egypt. He joins us now from Houston. Gil Tamary is covering the Sharon meeting for Israel's Channel 10 and comes to us now live from Washington. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us this morning.

KHALED DAWOUD, REPORTER, "AL-AHRAM": Thank you.

GIL TAMARY, REPORTER, ISRAEL'S CHANNEL 10: Good morning.

HILL: And I'm going to start with you, Khaled. First of all, we'll start with you, because on Monday it begins with the visit of President Hosni Mubarak at the ranch in Crawford, Texas. What are President Bush and President Mubarak going to focus on?

DAWOUD: I think they have a pretty heavy agenda to speak about. First of all, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Sharon's proposal for unilateral withdraw from Gaza, that's a very important issue for us, because I guess we will be involved in any future arrangements, whether in terms of the border between Egypt and Gaza, or in terms of security arrangements in Gaza itself, and also, to make sure that Gaza first is not Gaza last and that Mr. Sharon is going to implement the road map. And even as President Bush and the U.S. administration says that this is only the beginning of the implementation of the road map, there has to be a plan for the West Bank, too, and ending up with the implementation of President Bush's vision of establishing two states next to each other, Palestine and Israel.

The second issue, of course, is going to be Iraq. Iraq is a very hot topic. Egypt is in the region there. We're very interested in what's happening in Iraq. We want to see calm in Iraq; we want to see stability and sovereignty restored back there.

Finally, I think they're also going to talk about President Bush's recent greater Middle East initiative for political and economic reform and to make a point that any reforms have to come from within the region itself and not to be imposed by outside parties, because that will make him lack credibility. HILL: Gil, turning to you now, Khaled mentioned, of course, this meeting coming up with -- we mentioned the meeting with Ariel Sharon on Wednesday. One of the things that Mubarak and Bush will talk about will be this proposal to withdraw from Gaza and areas in the West Bank. Is that the main purpose of this visit for Ariel Sharon?

TAMARY: Yes, of course. This is the first time that Ariel Sharon coming to Washington, not for just a visit, but he's coming with a real initiative, a real plan, to start to try to diffuse the situation. He will try to gain the Bush support for his plan, disengagement plan, in which he calls for a withdraw from the entire settlements in Gaza and also from some settlement in the West Bank and it's very important to him also from political point of view in Israel to get the president's support. And it seems to be, right now Bush is going to support this...

HILL: And we thank you both for joining us.

(LIVE EVENT)

HILL: We're going to return now to our guests. We are joined by Khaled Dawoud from "Al-Ahram" Egyptian newspaper, and also Gil Tamary from Channel 10 Israel.

We were talking, gentlemen, a little bit earlier about the visits coming up this week. Egyptian President Mubarak on Monday at the ranch in Crawford, Texas. Ariel Sharon coming to the White House on Wednesday. Discussing this plan that we have to -- that Ariel Sharon has put forth to get for Israel to get out of Gaza and portions of the West Bank, this one of main issues for both, for all three presidents this week.

Khaled, you said to us earlier he needs to make sure this will be implemented, that this plan will be implemented. Is there a feeling in the Middle East it will be? Some other heads from the Middle East joining the president next week, how is it going to be received?

DAWOUD: Well, I think this meeting between President Mubarak and Bush is coming at a very critical time, and I don't really believe -- everybody's sure of Mr. Sharon's intentions concerning the implementation of the plan, and that's one reason perhaps this visit by Mr. Sharon to Washington has been delayed. He's been requesting this meeting for some time, but then the U.S. side itself, President Bush and other U.S. officials, as I said earlier, want to make sure this is not just a plan for Gaza alone and even it's not only going to be limited to four settlements as we read in the press reports in the West Bank. There has to be a plan that's going to end up with the implementation of President Bush's vision of establishing a Palestinian state, because that's going to be the only way to ensure stability and security in the region for us, as Egypt, for Israel and the rest of the entire region.

HILL: Gil, some concern of support and how much support there will be for this plan. We're hearing now that there will be a referendum for the Likud party to vote on April 29 for it. Is what the general feeling for the plan in Israel right now? TAMARY: Sharon is in the midst of a political crisis, a political storm. You must remember, he has above his head, the investigation closed, and within a few days or weeks, general attorney in Israel should decide whether to indict Sharon or not. And besides that we are going to have the referendum in the Likud party. Sharon has a big problem. He first needs to try to convey the message of this disengagement plan to his own camp to the right camp and to the Likud party. He has a big challenge, and the hope is that President Bush, with his support for the disengagement plan, will help him to prevail in this task.

Gil Tamary from Israel's Channel 10, and Khaled Dawoud from "Al- Ahram," we thank you both for your insight this morning.

DAWOUD: Thank you.

FIRFER: Earlier we talked about the offensive attacks by Iraqi insurgents. We will turn our attention to U.S. military defensive strategies in Iraq when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FIRFER: Earlier we talked about the offensive attacks by Iraqi insurgents and we will also turn our attention to the U.S. military's defensive strategies in Iraq. Here with me is terrorism expert and CNN contributor Kelly McCann.

Kelly, let's talk about these insurgents. Who are they and what are their tactics?

KELLY MCCANN, SECURITY/TERRORISM EXPERT: I thought it would be interesting to mirror U.S. and insurgent tactics. If we could go to the first still photo, you will see in this image that you've got a person that's right here, very covered and concealed low profile. If we go to that first image. And basically all a U.S. force would see would be above this plane. So he's very low. One effective technique is to use bullet bounce, where troops would fire and actually use shrapnel and frag to hit this person. Go ahead and roll that tape. You can see that the signature is very significant. Once he fires this device, go ahead and roll the videotape, you will see all the dust, and basically that's how you would then target that position.

The next image, right here, you can see the way that people fire. Go to the second still. If you notice where he's holding his weapon, it's nowhere near his line of sight. And that's how you use your sights to ensure you don't endanger innocent people, et cetera. Go ahead and roll that piece of video, and what you'll see is him just spray those rounds, basically combat ineffective, out into the area. Right here. See how he's firing from the hip, not very combat effective.

Go to the next images, if you will, and you'll see this humvee basically pokes its way out, this is U.S. forces right here, obviously, and basically as they go into this urban area, they'll go so far and they will actually break this plane right here. From the enemy perspective all they would see is here forward. If you roll the tape, you see him pull his humvee backwards, because now he knows he's exposed and could be taken under fire. It's very much a cat and mouse game. This image you see right here is a Russian RPK machine gun that can be fired quickly at these positions. If you go to the U.S....

FIRFER: Let's talk a little bit about U.S. operations. When they go into a city, what do they do?

MCCANN: OK. Let's go to the first image of the rifle here, and you'll see that the first U.S. image. You'll see a still photo of an M-4 rifle. And, basically, as you have moving images, this is a rear sight. This is his front sight. The soldier marine is trying to line sight alignment and sight picture up, even on moving targets. It's very difficult to do, to make sure of safety and security. Go ahead and roll the tape now, to the next portion of the video we had set up. You can see here them staging for an incident. Basically we'll go to the next danger area of video and see there are so many areas they have to be very careful of. If you look right here, still that photo and put that up on a teleprompter when you still it, you'll take a look at the next image all these dark areas that have windows in them, go to the next still image, please.

FIRFER: We're having a little technical difficulty.

MCCANN: Let's go ahead and roll the next video. OK. Right here you can see this area right here is of concern, these areas here are of concern. You've got to be concerned about snipers that could be up here and have a downward angle. His vision has to be in areas like these doorways. So you can see we've tried to show here, Holly, it's a very dangerous situation.

FIRFER: Yes. Thank you so much. We'll hopefully we'll get back to this so we can show it more. Because of the press conference, we got short on time. But Kelly McCann, thank you. It does clear up a lot of what our troops are going through over there.

CNN SUNDAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FIRFER: I'm Holly Firfer.

HILL: And I'm Erica Hill. Thanks for joining us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Stay tuned, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY" is next.

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