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CNN Saturday Morning News

Analysis of Military Buildup in Iraq

Aired December 21, 2002 - 07:36   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to talk a little bit more about the U.S. military buildup in the Iraq region with CNN military analyst General George Harrison.
But first, let's talk about Afghanistan and the breaking news there.

GEN. GEORGE HARRISON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Which is one U.S. soldier killed there in what appears at this juncture to be some sort of gun battle with al Qaeda or maybe even Taliban holdouts there. This was a region, or at least right now even, you know, Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers has said that things seem to have been quieted down a little bit. But this in no way, in his opinion, is an indicator that things are flaring up there.

What are your thoughts?

HARRISON: Well, obviously, this is a part of the ongoing underground of activity that's happening. Remember this week we had a couple of attacks on aide workers.

WHITFIELD: Right.

HARRISON: And two French aide workers injured, two Afghanis injured or killed, I guess, in attacks. This kind of activity is going to continue. Afghanistan, as you recall, is a very unstable country throughout. So as General Myers said, we'll move to stability operations, which is more of a law enforcement approach, as opposed to a war fighting approach. Nevertheless, it's clear to me that everybody's ready to continue with the war fighting approach when it's appropriate. In this attack on the U.S. servicemen we called in A-10s and helicopters to support them and fortunately -- well, we lost one fellow. He was injured seriously and died while he was on the way to treatment. So this...

WHITFIELD: And they're obviously still in position for any kind of volatility...

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: ... that leads to fighting because there are something like between six and seven million U.S. and other Allied forces in that region still, in Afghanistan.

HARRISON: I don't think it's quite that many, but it's quite a few, and we do have a large force presence. We are ready to respond. But again, as General Myers said, I think the focus will be on stability, supporting the local government building up an infrastructure that provides a peaceful environment for political change.

WHITFIELD: OK, let's talk about Iraq now and shift gears a bit.

HARRISON: Sure.

WHITFIELD: The U.N. is offering some pressure now to the U.S....

HARRISON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: ... to reveal a little bit more hard, concrete evidence about its intelligence information, about weapons storage. Should the U.N. go there? Should the U.S. respond?

HARRISON: Well, the U.N. certainly should go there. They need all the information they can get. However, the U.S., all the U.S. intelligence services are very sensitive about revealing things that can divulge their sources and methods, their way of doing business.

You remember in, well, 1968, 1988, when we had a situation with Libya, we revealed that we were listening to cell phone conversations. Well, shortly after that, cell phone conversations essentially stopped. So that's the kind of thing that the intelligence world is very sensitive to.

WHITFIELD: And the U.S. intelligence sources are saying exactly that.

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: They don't want to compromise the information that they have and the sources from whom they retrieve this information.

HARRISON: Exactly. Exactly. So that'll continue, that tension will continue, and I'm sure that the president will make the decision based upon compelling national interests as to whether the outcome of revealing the information is more important than the source.

WHITFIELD: Here are the words of President Bush. He says the declaration is "not encouraging." Is this another word, another way of saying the U.S. is not only poised for war, but ready to go to war?

HARRISON: Well, I think we're ready to go to war. Probably we don't have the forces in place to immediately go to war, but clearly you can see by the troop movements, by the exercises, by the things that are going on that the U.S. military is preparing to go to war and is going to be ready when the president decides that it's time to go.

However, his language, I think, is indicating that he wants Iraq to be more forthcoming. He's not particularly interested in going to war, I don't believe. He wants to see compliance.

WHITFIELD: He's sounding more like he wants a peaceful resolution to you?

HARRISON: Well, to me it's sounding like he is, certainly he will...

WHITFIELD: The language is softening?

HARRISON: No, it hasn't softened particularly.

WHITFIELD: OK.

HARRISON: He's still very serious about it. He still means that we will go to war if it's necessary to change this regime and do away with the weapons of mass destruction. However, the words indicate that he is certainly willing, if Iraq comes forward with a forthcoming declaration, if they tell us what's going on, if they tell us what they have and if they don't hide things, then there's no need to go to war.

WHITFIELD: Fifty thousand more U.S. troops heading to the Iraqi region, to the Middle Eastern region.

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: At this juncture, bringing the numbers up to perhaps 100,000 by best guesses.

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: Is the message being sent, as well, from the U.S. that they have to at least be in position to be ready just in case, even if there ends up being a peaceful resolution in the end?

HARRISON: Certainly.

WHITFIELD: Better safe than sorry.

HARRISON: That's right. Certainly to be credible, to be a credible war fighting force, we need more troops in the region, and I think that's being done right now. That force is very credible as it stands and it'll be, it will certainly be capable of overcoming the entire Iraqi war machine should the decision be made to go.

WHITFIELD: All right, General Harrison, always good to see you.

HARRISON: You bet.

WHITFIELD: Thanks.

HARRISON: Thank you.

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 21, 2002 - 07:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to talk a little bit more about the U.S. military buildup in the Iraq region with CNN military analyst General George Harrison.
But first, let's talk about Afghanistan and the breaking news there.

GEN. GEORGE HARRISON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Which is one U.S. soldier killed there in what appears at this juncture to be some sort of gun battle with al Qaeda or maybe even Taliban holdouts there. This was a region, or at least right now even, you know, Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers has said that things seem to have been quieted down a little bit. But this in no way, in his opinion, is an indicator that things are flaring up there.

What are your thoughts?

HARRISON: Well, obviously, this is a part of the ongoing underground of activity that's happening. Remember this week we had a couple of attacks on aide workers.

WHITFIELD: Right.

HARRISON: And two French aide workers injured, two Afghanis injured or killed, I guess, in attacks. This kind of activity is going to continue. Afghanistan, as you recall, is a very unstable country throughout. So as General Myers said, we'll move to stability operations, which is more of a law enforcement approach, as opposed to a war fighting approach. Nevertheless, it's clear to me that everybody's ready to continue with the war fighting approach when it's appropriate. In this attack on the U.S. servicemen we called in A-10s and helicopters to support them and fortunately -- well, we lost one fellow. He was injured seriously and died while he was on the way to treatment. So this...

WHITFIELD: And they're obviously still in position for any kind of volatility...

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: ... that leads to fighting because there are something like between six and seven million U.S. and other Allied forces in that region still, in Afghanistan.

HARRISON: I don't think it's quite that many, but it's quite a few, and we do have a large force presence. We are ready to respond. But again, as General Myers said, I think the focus will be on stability, supporting the local government building up an infrastructure that provides a peaceful environment for political change.

WHITFIELD: OK, let's talk about Iraq now and shift gears a bit.

HARRISON: Sure.

WHITFIELD: The U.N. is offering some pressure now to the U.S....

HARRISON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: ... to reveal a little bit more hard, concrete evidence about its intelligence information, about weapons storage. Should the U.N. go there? Should the U.S. respond?

HARRISON: Well, the U.N. certainly should go there. They need all the information they can get. However, the U.S., all the U.S. intelligence services are very sensitive about revealing things that can divulge their sources and methods, their way of doing business.

You remember in, well, 1968, 1988, when we had a situation with Libya, we revealed that we were listening to cell phone conversations. Well, shortly after that, cell phone conversations essentially stopped. So that's the kind of thing that the intelligence world is very sensitive to.

WHITFIELD: And the U.S. intelligence sources are saying exactly that.

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: They don't want to compromise the information that they have and the sources from whom they retrieve this information.

HARRISON: Exactly. Exactly. So that'll continue, that tension will continue, and I'm sure that the president will make the decision based upon compelling national interests as to whether the outcome of revealing the information is more important than the source.

WHITFIELD: Here are the words of President Bush. He says the declaration is "not encouraging." Is this another word, another way of saying the U.S. is not only poised for war, but ready to go to war?

HARRISON: Well, I think we're ready to go to war. Probably we don't have the forces in place to immediately go to war, but clearly you can see by the troop movements, by the exercises, by the things that are going on that the U.S. military is preparing to go to war and is going to be ready when the president decides that it's time to go.

However, his language, I think, is indicating that he wants Iraq to be more forthcoming. He's not particularly interested in going to war, I don't believe. He wants to see compliance.

WHITFIELD: He's sounding more like he wants a peaceful resolution to you?

HARRISON: Well, to me it's sounding like he is, certainly he will...

WHITFIELD: The language is softening?

HARRISON: No, it hasn't softened particularly.

WHITFIELD: OK.

HARRISON: He's still very serious about it. He still means that we will go to war if it's necessary to change this regime and do away with the weapons of mass destruction. However, the words indicate that he is certainly willing, if Iraq comes forward with a forthcoming declaration, if they tell us what's going on, if they tell us what they have and if they don't hide things, then there's no need to go to war.

WHITFIELD: Fifty thousand more U.S. troops heading to the Iraqi region, to the Middle Eastern region.

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: At this juncture, bringing the numbers up to perhaps 100,000 by best guesses.

HARRISON: That's right.

WHITFIELD: Is the message being sent, as well, from the U.S. that they have to at least be in position to be ready just in case, even if there ends up being a peaceful resolution in the end?

HARRISON: Certainly.

WHITFIELD: Better safe than sorry.

HARRISON: That's right. Certainly to be credible, to be a credible war fighting force, we need more troops in the region, and I think that's being done right now. That force is very credible as it stands and it'll be, it will certainly be capable of overcoming the entire Iraqi war machine should the decision be made to go.

WHITFIELD: All right, General Harrison, always good to see you.

HARRISON: You bet.

WHITFIELD: Thanks.

HARRISON: Thank you.

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