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CNN Saturday Morning News

POW's Return Marks Winding Down of Iraq War

Aired April 12, 2003 - 06:01   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go live to Baghdad, and check in with our Martin Savidge.
Martin, in the last hour you left us with an intriguing tidbit that Saddam Hussein's plastic surgeon had turned himself in. Any more on that?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not as yet. He has been whisked away and he is being carefully grilled by the intelligence people with U.S. Marines at this particular point. Just in case he really does what, or has what he says he has, which is information on where the Iraqi regime has fled off to. This man was picked up this morning by Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion 7th Marines. They run a routine patrol in the city of Baghdad, and he approached them. He identified himself as plastic surgeon to Saddam Hussein, and his family.

He said not only had he operated on Saddam Hussein, he didn't say whether that was recently or not, but the Marines also say that he made this claim that he knows where the families have fled off to. And that clearly is one of the top priorities right now is to find out where has this regime gone, and where can they be found right now.

Here in Baghdad this morning? Well black smoke continues to rise over the horizon. You might see it in the background there. There are a number of big fires that are still burning here. And gunfire still snaps in the air. But even despite that, there are small indications that this particular capital is trying to return to normal. There is looting, still looting going on, but not as bad as it has been over the past couple of days.

The U.S. Marines beefing up patrols now, sending out Marine infantry, that means on foot, patrolling from neighborhood to neighborhood hoping to quell it. A lot of people in small pockets have been trying to quell it themselves. There has been talk of vigilante gangs in action. And also people are setting up road blocks, they can make out of anything whether it be brick out of trashed automobiles, whether it be made out of debris they can find anywhere along the road; try to keep the looters from driving in.

Still, storefronts we found today as we drove around have begun to open; the basics. That would be food like meat, bread, milk, vegetables, water, whatever can be found. There's not a large supply. Long lines tend to take the place of where the storefronts open. But it is at least, a hopeful sign that people are now feeling partially confident to come back to work. And then there is the plea that has going on. We told you about this yesterday. Coming from the U.S. Marines, coming from the military, to those in the civil service. Trying to get the police officers to come back to help stem the tide of looting. Trying to get those who worked with the water department, the sanitation department, with the electricity and utilities; all of those people they need to get back.

The problem was how do they communicate with them? Well eventually they found one of the best ways; that using short wave radio transmissions. And they say that people have begun approaching we should say, the U.S. military saying they want to get back to work. So there are just small steps being taken to try to get Baghdad back to normal -- Carol

COSTELLO: Yes. We understand inside the Palestine Hotel U.S. military officials have actually met with some retired Iraqi police officers to, so that can maybe go out on patrol along with coalition forces to keep the order.

SAVIDGE: But here's, I'll tell you one of the problems with that, Carol, is that police officers in this country are seen in a number of ways. Many of the police officers under the old regime are Baath Party members, and there were sort of the enforcers not necessarily the protectors of the people.

And so now if you send some of these police officers back into the same neighborhoods where they used to enforce, well the people who live there wake up and say, what has changed? Same bad man who was on the street before is back on the street again. So this is what the military has to be cautious about. They want to make sure that those people are really, truly there to keep the peace.

COSTELLO: Yes.

SAVIDGE: And not try to say the old ways are back -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Certainly understand that. Martin Savidge reporting live from Baghdad this morning. We talked to Captain Al Lockwood, who is the spokesman for the British military and he was saying in Basra right now, that there's sort of experimenting in that same way. They're getting retired police officers to go around with British troops and they're kind of seeing how the population reacts to those local Iraqis before they really start enforcing things, or allowing even those retired Iraqi police officers to be armed. So we'll keep you up to date.

Right now we want to head to the Pentagon now. Check in with Kathleen Koch, because we heard Donald Rumsfeld say yesterday, that the media was exaggerating the chaos within Baghdad and the looting.

What more can you tell us about that Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the Pentagon is clearly a bit miffed at this continuing focus on the lawlessness, on the looting that does pervade many areas of Iraq, cities like Baghdad. And it is true though you must admit, that at least initially U.S. forces did not do much if anything to stop the looting when people would go into these businesses, into government buildings, into the palaces and drag away anything and everything that they could carry.

But this Defense Secretary says that now where U.S. forces see looting, they will do everything that they can to stop it, but again he did as you said, he did chide the media for over covering behavior that he says was to be expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF SECRETARY: If you go from a repressive regime that has, it's a police state where people are murdered and imprisoned, by the tens of thousands, and then you go to something other than that; a liberated Iraq; that you go through a transition period, and in every country in my adult lifetime that's had the wonderful opportunity to do that, to move from a repressed, dictatorial regime to something that's freer, we've seen in that transition period there's untidiness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Kathleen, came back to me for just a second. Want to interrupt you while we take a look at live pictures from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. As I told our viewers before, Private Jessica Lynch will be put aboard that plane very shortly and flown to Washington D.C. to be treated at the Walter Reed Hospital. We believe she is actually on this bus. She's going to come to Washington, along with her family who's been there for the past several days.

And of course, her injuries are extensive. She had two fractures, two fractured arms, actually one fractured arm, two fractured legs; we believed she had been shot, so she can't walk yet, that we do know. But she is able to sit up, speak with her family, and we'll just see what she looks like when she comes out of that bus and is loaded on to that plane.

So we're going to keep monitoring this, but we want to go back to the Pentagon right now, and continue to talk to Kathleen.

So I'm sorry to interrupt, so continue with your thoughts -- Kathleen.

KOCH: Well, Carol, there's something else that came out of the Pentagon in today's, actually it's Central Command's briefing, is the fact that now they are putting out a most wanted list of sorts in Iraq, and it comes in the form of playing cards that are going to be issued to soldiers who are there on the ground with, in some cases the images and in other cases the names of the 52 regime leaders that they should be on the lookout for. Saddam Hussein is the ace of spades; his sons Oday and Qusay are the aces of hearts and clubs.

Now as to where they might be, if indeed they are still alive, there are many who are speculating perhaps Saddam Hussein's town of, in his hometown of Tikrit. That village is some, it's a town of some 30,000 people, about 90 miles north of Baghdad, and again it is a very fortified city and somewhere initially the Pentagon believed that there might be a great deal of resistance.

But new information, new intelligence leads them to believe that that resistance might be fading away; that just as in cities like Mosul, t that troops might be ready to lay down their arms, perhaps because of the heavy, heavy aerial bombardment that's gone on there in the past three weeks, perhaps because they believe they have no one or nothing left to fight and die for. Back to you Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. Kathleen Koch, reporting live from the Pentagon.

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 12, 2003 - 06:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go live to Baghdad, and check in with our Martin Savidge.
Martin, in the last hour you left us with an intriguing tidbit that Saddam Hussein's plastic surgeon had turned himself in. Any more on that?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not as yet. He has been whisked away and he is being carefully grilled by the intelligence people with U.S. Marines at this particular point. Just in case he really does what, or has what he says he has, which is information on where the Iraqi regime has fled off to. This man was picked up this morning by Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion 7th Marines. They run a routine patrol in the city of Baghdad, and he approached them. He identified himself as plastic surgeon to Saddam Hussein, and his family.

He said not only had he operated on Saddam Hussein, he didn't say whether that was recently or not, but the Marines also say that he made this claim that he knows where the families have fled off to. And that clearly is one of the top priorities right now is to find out where has this regime gone, and where can they be found right now.

Here in Baghdad this morning? Well black smoke continues to rise over the horizon. You might see it in the background there. There are a number of big fires that are still burning here. And gunfire still snaps in the air. But even despite that, there are small indications that this particular capital is trying to return to normal. There is looting, still looting going on, but not as bad as it has been over the past couple of days.

The U.S. Marines beefing up patrols now, sending out Marine infantry, that means on foot, patrolling from neighborhood to neighborhood hoping to quell it. A lot of people in small pockets have been trying to quell it themselves. There has been talk of vigilante gangs in action. And also people are setting up road blocks, they can make out of anything whether it be brick out of trashed automobiles, whether it be made out of debris they can find anywhere along the road; try to keep the looters from driving in.

Still, storefronts we found today as we drove around have begun to open; the basics. That would be food like meat, bread, milk, vegetables, water, whatever can be found. There's not a large supply. Long lines tend to take the place of where the storefronts open. But it is at least, a hopeful sign that people are now feeling partially confident to come back to work. And then there is the plea that has going on. We told you about this yesterday. Coming from the U.S. Marines, coming from the military, to those in the civil service. Trying to get the police officers to come back to help stem the tide of looting. Trying to get those who worked with the water department, the sanitation department, with the electricity and utilities; all of those people they need to get back.

The problem was how do they communicate with them? Well eventually they found one of the best ways; that using short wave radio transmissions. And they say that people have begun approaching we should say, the U.S. military saying they want to get back to work. So there are just small steps being taken to try to get Baghdad back to normal -- Carol

COSTELLO: Yes. We understand inside the Palestine Hotel U.S. military officials have actually met with some retired Iraqi police officers to, so that can maybe go out on patrol along with coalition forces to keep the order.

SAVIDGE: But here's, I'll tell you one of the problems with that, Carol, is that police officers in this country are seen in a number of ways. Many of the police officers under the old regime are Baath Party members, and there were sort of the enforcers not necessarily the protectors of the people.

And so now if you send some of these police officers back into the same neighborhoods where they used to enforce, well the people who live there wake up and say, what has changed? Same bad man who was on the street before is back on the street again. So this is what the military has to be cautious about. They want to make sure that those people are really, truly there to keep the peace.

COSTELLO: Yes.

SAVIDGE: And not try to say the old ways are back -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Certainly understand that. Martin Savidge reporting live from Baghdad this morning. We talked to Captain Al Lockwood, who is the spokesman for the British military and he was saying in Basra right now, that there's sort of experimenting in that same way. They're getting retired police officers to go around with British troops and they're kind of seeing how the population reacts to those local Iraqis before they really start enforcing things, or allowing even those retired Iraqi police officers to be armed. So we'll keep you up to date.

Right now we want to head to the Pentagon now. Check in with Kathleen Koch, because we heard Donald Rumsfeld say yesterday, that the media was exaggerating the chaos within Baghdad and the looting.

What more can you tell us about that Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the Pentagon is clearly a bit miffed at this continuing focus on the lawlessness, on the looting that does pervade many areas of Iraq, cities like Baghdad. And it is true though you must admit, that at least initially U.S. forces did not do much if anything to stop the looting when people would go into these businesses, into government buildings, into the palaces and drag away anything and everything that they could carry.

But this Defense Secretary says that now where U.S. forces see looting, they will do everything that they can to stop it, but again he did as you said, he did chide the media for over covering behavior that he says was to be expected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF SECRETARY: If you go from a repressive regime that has, it's a police state where people are murdered and imprisoned, by the tens of thousands, and then you go to something other than that; a liberated Iraq; that you go through a transition period, and in every country in my adult lifetime that's had the wonderful opportunity to do that, to move from a repressed, dictatorial regime to something that's freer, we've seen in that transition period there's untidiness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Kathleen, came back to me for just a second. Want to interrupt you while we take a look at live pictures from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. As I told our viewers before, Private Jessica Lynch will be put aboard that plane very shortly and flown to Washington D.C. to be treated at the Walter Reed Hospital. We believe she is actually on this bus. She's going to come to Washington, along with her family who's been there for the past several days.

And of course, her injuries are extensive. She had two fractures, two fractured arms, actually one fractured arm, two fractured legs; we believed she had been shot, so she can't walk yet, that we do know. But she is able to sit up, speak with her family, and we'll just see what she looks like when she comes out of that bus and is loaded on to that plane.

So we're going to keep monitoring this, but we want to go back to the Pentagon right now, and continue to talk to Kathleen.

So I'm sorry to interrupt, so continue with your thoughts -- Kathleen.

KOCH: Well, Carol, there's something else that came out of the Pentagon in today's, actually it's Central Command's briefing, is the fact that now they are putting out a most wanted list of sorts in Iraq, and it comes in the form of playing cards that are going to be issued to soldiers who are there on the ground with, in some cases the images and in other cases the names of the 52 regime leaders that they should be on the lookout for. Saddam Hussein is the ace of spades; his sons Oday and Qusay are the aces of hearts and clubs.

Now as to where they might be, if indeed they are still alive, there are many who are speculating perhaps Saddam Hussein's town of, in his hometown of Tikrit. That village is some, it's a town of some 30,000 people, about 90 miles north of Baghdad, and again it is a very fortified city and somewhere initially the Pentagon believed that there might be a great deal of resistance.

But new information, new intelligence leads them to believe that that resistance might be fading away; that just as in cities like Mosul, t that troops might be ready to lay down their arms, perhaps because of the heavy, heavy aerial bombardment that's gone on there in the past three weeks, perhaps because they believe they have no one or nothing left to fight and die for. Back to you Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. Kathleen Koch, reporting live from the Pentagon.

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