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CNN Live Sunday
Bremer Replaces Garner as Man in Charge of Iraq's Reconstruction
Aired May 11, 2003 - 19:01 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Rebuilding the basic foundations in Iraq has barely begun, of course, and already the man who is holding the blueprints is being replaced. Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner is currently handling those administrative duties, but defense officials admit his former ties with the U.S. military maybe creating the wrong perception in the Arab world. CNN's Chris Plante introduces us to the new man about to take charge, at least for now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Only three weeks after arriving in Baghdad to head the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq, retired Army General Jay Garner will step aside ahead of schedule for new recovery chief, L. Paul Bremer. The sooner than expected change in command comes amid complaints about the pace of the Garner effort. Much of Baghdad is still without reliable electricity and available fuel. And parts remain without running water. The slow pace has led to anger in Baghdad and shaky confidence in Washington.
SEN. JOHN BREAUX, (D), LOUISIANA: They haven't been there a long time and it takes a while to bring order to a society has just come off of a major war. Hopefully the new people that we will bring in will be able to settle things down. It is going to take a while.
PLANTE: It was expected that Garner would stay for three months and might continue there reporting to Bremer. Defense officials now say Garner will leave in weeks following a transition period. Pentagon officials say Bremer was put in charge partly because Garner is a former general and that many wanted to put a civilian face on the process. Also, officials say Bremer, who will report to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is a former state department official and that he is one of the few people who could bridge the gap between the State Department and the Pentagon, where there has been some tension over the U.S. course of action since the war ended. Also transitioning soon, the teams charged with searching for weapons of mass destruction. No smoking gun has yet been produced, but the top U.S. general says progress is being made.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: There are now, I think, two potentially mobile production capability trailers that have been found, and we will just have to see where that leads.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLANTE: The military led force now in Iraq searching for weapons of mass destruction will begin handing off that mission to a more civilian oriented group that will field about 1,000 inspectors that will fan out across the country and continue to search for the banned weapons -- Anderson.
COOPER: Chris, we heard about those two mobile labs. We have certainly heard about those kind of things before. How confident are Pentagon officials that these new labs may be the smoking gun?
PLANTE: Well, they are hesitant to use the term 'smoking gun' so far, but there is actually a very high level of confidence that in the end they will be able to establish that these mobile labs were intended for the production of biological weapons. They will come at least as close as they have so far to a smoking gun, and they are reasonably confident that they will get there fairly soon. Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Chris Plante at the Pentagon. Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Reconstruction>
Aired May 11, 2003 - 19:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Rebuilding the basic foundations in Iraq has barely begun, of course, and already the man who is holding the blueprints is being replaced. Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner is currently handling those administrative duties, but defense officials admit his former ties with the U.S. military maybe creating the wrong perception in the Arab world. CNN's Chris Plante introduces us to the new man about to take charge, at least for now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Only three weeks after arriving in Baghdad to head the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq, retired Army General Jay Garner will step aside ahead of schedule for new recovery chief, L. Paul Bremer. The sooner than expected change in command comes amid complaints about the pace of the Garner effort. Much of Baghdad is still without reliable electricity and available fuel. And parts remain without running water. The slow pace has led to anger in Baghdad and shaky confidence in Washington.
SEN. JOHN BREAUX, (D), LOUISIANA: They haven't been there a long time and it takes a while to bring order to a society has just come off of a major war. Hopefully the new people that we will bring in will be able to settle things down. It is going to take a while.
PLANTE: It was expected that Garner would stay for three months and might continue there reporting to Bremer. Defense officials now say Garner will leave in weeks following a transition period. Pentagon officials say Bremer was put in charge partly because Garner is a former general and that many wanted to put a civilian face on the process. Also, officials say Bremer, who will report to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is a former state department official and that he is one of the few people who could bridge the gap between the State Department and the Pentagon, where there has been some tension over the U.S. course of action since the war ended. Also transitioning soon, the teams charged with searching for weapons of mass destruction. No smoking gun has yet been produced, but the top U.S. general says progress is being made.
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: There are now, I think, two potentially mobile production capability trailers that have been found, and we will just have to see where that leads.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLANTE: The military led force now in Iraq searching for weapons of mass destruction will begin handing off that mission to a more civilian oriented group that will field about 1,000 inspectors that will fan out across the country and continue to search for the banned weapons -- Anderson.
COOPER: Chris, we heard about those two mobile labs. We have certainly heard about those kind of things before. How confident are Pentagon officials that these new labs may be the smoking gun?
PLANTE: Well, they are hesitant to use the term 'smoking gun' so far, but there is actually a very high level of confidence that in the end they will be able to establish that these mobile labs were intended for the production of biological weapons. They will come at least as close as they have so far to a smoking gun, and they are reasonably confident that they will get there fairly soon. Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Chris Plante at the Pentagon. Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Reconstruction>
