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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Jay Garner
Aired June 28, 2003 - 09:10 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In a related development, U.S. policy experts are expected in Baghdad today to look at the escalating attacks on U.S. troops. The group will make suggestions to chief administrator Paul Bremer. Bremer is also expected to make a trip to Kirkuk in northern Iraq, where tensions between Kurds and Arabs remain high.
Meanwhile, the man Bremer replaced in Iraq is back home, and talking, Jay Garner.
Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Jay Garner, a 35-year Army veteran who saw the havoc created by Saddam Hussein when he served in Iraq 12 years ago, there was so much more to this war than weapons of mass destruction.
JAY GARNER, FORMER CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: It's there, and eventually we'll find it. But I don't care, because if you were with me four and a half weeks ago in the killing fields down in Alhela (ph), which is right next to the ancient city of Babylon, and watched them dig up the bodies of those people he -- the genocide he practiced, that in itself was enough to take him out.
STARR (on camera): How bad was it?
GARNER: It was as bad as Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Absolutely, every bit that bad. I mean, it's the same thing. I mean, how do you kill millions of people, men, women, and children? The prisons with the meathooks and things to hang -- I mean, it's horrible, horrible regime.
STARR (voice-over): After serving as the first postwar administrator in Iraq, Garner is back in the private sector, reflecting, some of his views not necessarily adhering to those of the Pentagon.
He believes the U.S. did not pay enough attention to complex religious and tribal issues in Iraq, and gives this piece of advice.
GARNER: I think the lesson learned is that, OK, from now on, if we get ready to do one of these, the first day we start planning for war is also the first day we start planning for postwar. STARR: In Iraq, some of the rebuilding problems were greater than first understood, Garner says.
GARNER: The looting was greater than what you saw on TV. It wasn't just stealing stuff out of the buildings, it was ripping out all the wiring, taking out all the plumbing, and then setting those buildings on fire.
STARR: And not much U.S. troops could do on the streets.
GARNER: Are you going to shoot a kid that's carrying a TV out of a store? Are you going to shoot at women carrying stuff out? Or old men, or whoever (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
STARR: Most Iraqis told Jay Garner they believe Saddam Hussein is alive. Getting rid of him and his followers, he agrees, will be a longer process than anybody first thought. And U.S. troops, he says, could face problems for some time to come.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 June 28, 2003 - 09:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In a related development, U.S. policy experts are expected in Baghdad today to look at the escalating attacks on U.S. troops. The group will make suggestions to chief administrator Paul Bremer. Bremer is also expected to make a trip to Kirkuk in northern Iraq, where tensions between Kurds and Arabs remain high.
Meanwhile, the man Bremer replaced in Iraq is back home, and talking, Jay Garner.
Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Jay Garner, a 35-year Army veteran who saw the havoc created by Saddam Hussein when he served in Iraq 12 years ago, there was so much more to this war than weapons of mass destruction.
JAY GARNER, FORMER CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: It's there, and eventually we'll find it. But I don't care, because if you were with me four and a half weeks ago in the killing fields down in Alhela (ph), which is right next to the ancient city of Babylon, and watched them dig up the bodies of those people he -- the genocide he practiced, that in itself was enough to take him out.
STARR (on camera): How bad was it?
GARNER: It was as bad as Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Absolutely, every bit that bad. I mean, it's the same thing. I mean, how do you kill millions of people, men, women, and children? The prisons with the meathooks and things to hang -- I mean, it's horrible, horrible regime.
STARR (voice-over): After serving as the first postwar administrator in Iraq, Garner is back in the private sector, reflecting, some of his views not necessarily adhering to those of the Pentagon.
He believes the U.S. did not pay enough attention to complex religious and tribal issues in Iraq, and gives this piece of advice.
GARNER: I think the lesson learned is that, OK, from now on, if we get ready to do one of these, the first day we start planning for war is also the first day we start planning for postwar. STARR: In Iraq, some of the rebuilding problems were greater than first understood, Garner says.
GARNER: The looting was greater than what you saw on TV. It wasn't just stealing stuff out of the buildings, it was ripping out all the wiring, taking out all the plumbing, and then setting those buildings on fire.
STARR: And not much U.S. troops could do on the streets.
GARNER: Are you going to shoot a kid that's carrying a TV out of a store? Are you going to shoot at women carrying stuff out? Or old men, or whoever (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
STARR: Most Iraqis told Jay Garner they believe Saddam Hussein is alive. Getting rid of him and his followers, he agrees, will be a longer process than anybody first thought. And U.S. troops, he says, could face problems for some time to come.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
