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CNN Saturday Morning News

Central Command Heads Tours Middle East

Aired September 21, 2002 - 07:08   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The head of the U.S. Central Command says President Bush has not yet made a decision on whether to take military action against Iraq. General Tommy Franks met with government ministers and U.S. forces stationed in Kuwait before leaving for his next stop, in the United Arab Emirates. He talked to reporters in Kuwait City.
CNN's Martin Savidge is there. He joins us now on the videophone with details -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning to you, Miles.

It is just after 2:00 in the afternoon here, a delightful 110 degrees in the shade. We're not in the shade.

General Tommy Franks departed just about two and a half hours ago, as you mentioned, headed for the United Arab Emirates. He was in Kuwait about two and a half days. And as you point out, he says that no decision's been made. But he also said, quite strongly, that the United States and other military forces in the region are prepared to do whatever is needed when they are called upon.

But then he hedged it by saying that the decision for military action has not been made.

Here's what the general spoke about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: What he has made a decision to do is go before the United States -- the United Nations and go before the Congress of my own country and say, The only course of action that is not available to us is to continue the course of action of -- that we've seen over the last 11 years, where we've seen United Nations Security Council resolutions, one after another, defied and flaunted while we have seen Saddam Hussein continue in that regime to develop weapons of mass destruction, to support terrorism, to oppress his own people, and so forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And there you hear the general talking very much like the Bush administration has been talking over the past few weeks.

General Tommy Franks was here to meet with the regional commanders of Central Command. He also met with a number of leaders of the Kuwaiti government, the minister of defense, minister of the interior, also the minister of state, of foreign affairs.

He also met with some of the troops. There are about 10,000 U.S. forces here in Kuwait, most of them up at Camp Dohar (ph) and also at al-Jabber (ph) Air Base, which is to the southwest of Kuwait City.

Now, it's interesting, the U.S. went out of its way to say this was normal, this was scheduled, don't get all excited, he was here on routine business. However, you can look at this in two levels.

If you're planning military options, well, let's face it, the timing of this particular swing through the Gulf coast area is pretty doggone convenient. He was meeting with the generals, so you can envision he would say, All right, what do we need? What do you have? How prepared, and what can we bring you?

Then when he meets with the Kuwaiti officials, he goes with them and says, Well, we might need these additional facilities, and we'd like permission to bring in additional troops.

I'm not saying that's what he said, but this is how the scenario can be played. You can look at it at two levels, one of them very innocently, and one of them -- well, it would be very, very convenient to have these sort of meetings taking place.

As you say, though, no decision, he claims, has been made for the military option as yet, but they are prepared, and number of exercises will continue that preparation, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Marty, there's a report in "The New York Times" today, I'm not sure if you've seen it, which talks about just what you're talking about, that General Franks is pretty far down the road on offering some specific options to the administration on how an invasion might be staged. One of the things that strikes me is, they're talking about perhaps on the order of 200,000 troops. As I recall, there was about a half-million troops involved in the first war in that region back in '91.

Does -- did you get any sense from the general -- I'm sure he wasn't tipping his hand, but when you talk to some of the military folks over there, if that seems like a realistic scenario.

SAVIDGE: Well, it does seem like a realistic scenario. No one said that this was going to be a repeat of the Gulf War. The Kuwaitis don't even believe it's going to be a repeat of the Gulf War. In other words, it's going to play out the exact same way using the same forces.

Your greatest insight actually comes from watching these training exercises, one under way by the U.S. Army involving heavy armor up by the Iraqi border, another one, an amphibious landing scheduled by the U.S. Marines.

As you know, the U.S. military says you train as you fight, and you fight as you train. So these exercises that you are looking at are exactly the sort of scenarios of a number of scenarios that could be used by the military. In other words, if large conventional forces are used, then the training you're watching is probably exactly how they might be deployed.

So don't so much listen to the words, watch the actions. Mom always told me that one, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, of course, if you recall, back in '91 there was a lot of focus on those amphibious landings in Kuwait, and that really wasn't a central part of the war, as it turns out. So perhaps this is all a decoy.

Marty Savidge, keep us posted as the general continues his journeys through the Middle East. We appreciate it.

SAVIDGE: All right.

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 September 21, 2002 - 07:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The head of the U.S. Central Command says President Bush has not yet made a decision on whether to take military action against Iraq. General Tommy Franks met with government ministers and U.S. forces stationed in Kuwait before leaving for his next stop, in the United Arab Emirates. He talked to reporters in Kuwait City.
CNN's Martin Savidge is there. He joins us now on the videophone with details -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning to you, Miles.

It is just after 2:00 in the afternoon here, a delightful 110 degrees in the shade. We're not in the shade.

General Tommy Franks departed just about two and a half hours ago, as you mentioned, headed for the United Arab Emirates. He was in Kuwait about two and a half days. And as you point out, he says that no decision's been made. But he also said, quite strongly, that the United States and other military forces in the region are prepared to do whatever is needed when they are called upon.

But then he hedged it by saying that the decision for military action has not been made.

Here's what the general spoke about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: What he has made a decision to do is go before the United States -- the United Nations and go before the Congress of my own country and say, The only course of action that is not available to us is to continue the course of action of -- that we've seen over the last 11 years, where we've seen United Nations Security Council resolutions, one after another, defied and flaunted while we have seen Saddam Hussein continue in that regime to develop weapons of mass destruction, to support terrorism, to oppress his own people, and so forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And there you hear the general talking very much like the Bush administration has been talking over the past few weeks.

General Tommy Franks was here to meet with the regional commanders of Central Command. He also met with a number of leaders of the Kuwaiti government, the minister of defense, minister of the interior, also the minister of state, of foreign affairs.

He also met with some of the troops. There are about 10,000 U.S. forces here in Kuwait, most of them up at Camp Dohar (ph) and also at al-Jabber (ph) Air Base, which is to the southwest of Kuwait City.

Now, it's interesting, the U.S. went out of its way to say this was normal, this was scheduled, don't get all excited, he was here on routine business. However, you can look at this in two levels.

If you're planning military options, well, let's face it, the timing of this particular swing through the Gulf coast area is pretty doggone convenient. He was meeting with the generals, so you can envision he would say, All right, what do we need? What do you have? How prepared, and what can we bring you?

Then when he meets with the Kuwaiti officials, he goes with them and says, Well, we might need these additional facilities, and we'd like permission to bring in additional troops.

I'm not saying that's what he said, but this is how the scenario can be played. You can look at it at two levels, one of them very innocently, and one of them -- well, it would be very, very convenient to have these sort of meetings taking place.

As you say, though, no decision, he claims, has been made for the military option as yet, but they are prepared, and number of exercises will continue that preparation, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Marty, there's a report in "The New York Times" today, I'm not sure if you've seen it, which talks about just what you're talking about, that General Franks is pretty far down the road on offering some specific options to the administration on how an invasion might be staged. One of the things that strikes me is, they're talking about perhaps on the order of 200,000 troops. As I recall, there was about a half-million troops involved in the first war in that region back in '91.

Does -- did you get any sense from the general -- I'm sure he wasn't tipping his hand, but when you talk to some of the military folks over there, if that seems like a realistic scenario.

SAVIDGE: Well, it does seem like a realistic scenario. No one said that this was going to be a repeat of the Gulf War. The Kuwaitis don't even believe it's going to be a repeat of the Gulf War. In other words, it's going to play out the exact same way using the same forces.

Your greatest insight actually comes from watching these training exercises, one under way by the U.S. Army involving heavy armor up by the Iraqi border, another one, an amphibious landing scheduled by the U.S. Marines.

As you know, the U.S. military says you train as you fight, and you fight as you train. So these exercises that you are looking at are exactly the sort of scenarios of a number of scenarios that could be used by the military. In other words, if large conventional forces are used, then the training you're watching is probably exactly how they might be deployed.

So don't so much listen to the words, watch the actions. Mom always told me that one, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, of course, if you recall, back in '91 there was a lot of focus on those amphibious landings in Kuwait, and that really wasn't a central part of the war, as it turns out. So perhaps this is all a decoy.

Marty Savidge, keep us posted as the general continues his journeys through the Middle East. We appreciate it.

SAVIDGE: All right.

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