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CNN Live Sunday
Operation Peninsula Strike Ends; Operation Desert Scorpion Begins
Aired June 15, 2003 - 18:03 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.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Operation Desert Scorpion is meant to crack down on the violence in Iraq. Operation Peninsula Strike, which ended yesterday, sounds very familiar. CNN's Chris Plante is live at the Pentagon to help us understand the goals of these two operations. Chris, are they the same thing or are they different?
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're sort of same thing, only different, quite honestly. Operation Peninsula Strike, which just wrapped up six days of activity, focused on a specific geographic area north of Baghdad, an area that was believed to be a stronghold for Baath Party officials, Saddam loyalists, some of the Fedayeen people that we heard so much about early in the war.
Now that's wrapped up, and Operation Scorpion, Desert Scorpion, is effectively the same thing, but it's a nationwide effort now, so it's much broader. And it's designed to do effectively the same thing.
According to Central Command, that is to isolate and defeat remaining pockets of resistance, Baath Party officials, terrorists, criminal elements, the Fedayeen and so on, the people who have created trouble over the last several weeks, ambushes that have taken more than 10 lives of U.S. service members, and injured many more.
However, Desert Scorpion, in addition to going after these individuals and these elements, is also incorporating what they call a civil affairs element. And that is to go after the hearts and minds, as they say, of the people of Iraq. While Peninsula Strike was largely just a stick, Desert Scorpion will be both the carrot and the stick. The civil affairs programs will seek to help people in the communities that are being looked at for involvement with these elements to see whether they need help with, say, setting up a police department or a local government working on local infrastructure and bridges, or water supplies, that sort of thing.
So, while, again, it was more just stick on the first element, this is much broader, it will be more long lasting and it's carrot and stick -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Any idea how long lasting, Chris?
PLANTE: Well, I spoke to Central Command a short time ago, and they say that you can expect to see it going on for weeks, certainly just for openers. But it may come in starts and stops. You may not see significant activity every night of the week. But certainly for weeks since it is nationwide and since these elements may be difficult to root out, and of course working with NGOs, nongovernmental organizations, on civil affairs matters, too. So it can go on for some time.
KOPPEL: And looking ahead, Chris, this week I understand there's going to be a change in the way the U.S. is looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. How's that going to happen?
PLANTE: Well, David Kay -- you may remember David Kay as a U.N. inspector. He led three of the United Nations arms inspection missions to Iraq in the 1990s. He specializes in all things nuclear. But also very experienced arms inspector in areas of biological and chemical weapons. And he has a good deal of experience with the Iraqi situation.
David Kay was tapped by the administration to effectively become the new civilian leader of the effort to uncover these weapons of mass destruction. David Kay will be reporting, interestingly enough, directly to CIA Director George Tenet.
Now, there is an army general who is in charge of the 1,300 inspectors now on the ground there, both military and civilian. And that general will continue to report directly to the Pentagon and to Secretary Rumsfeld, but David Kay, the experienced inspectors, will report directly to CIA Director George Tenet.
Now, the reason for that, to some extent, is because Director Tenet is kind of in the hot seat now, since it is the CIA's intelligence or, for the most part, the CIA's intelligence that was provided to the White House and to Colin Powell that the administration used to legitimatize going into Iraq militarily in the first place.
So David Kay will be taking over at least the broad strokes of the inspections. As I understand, he won't be directing the mission on a person by person level, but will be in charge of the strategy and the way that they go about conducting business. So it is kind of like when they brought Ambassador Bremer in to take over the civilian mission overall in the nation -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: I was just going to say that. Chris Plante at the Pentagon, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired June 15, 2003 - 18:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Operation Desert Scorpion is meant to crack down on the violence in Iraq. Operation Peninsula Strike, which ended yesterday, sounds very familiar. CNN's Chris Plante is live at the Pentagon to help us understand the goals of these two operations. Chris, are they the same thing or are they different?
CHRIS PLANTE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're sort of same thing, only different, quite honestly. Operation Peninsula Strike, which just wrapped up six days of activity, focused on a specific geographic area north of Baghdad, an area that was believed to be a stronghold for Baath Party officials, Saddam loyalists, some of the Fedayeen people that we heard so much about early in the war.
Now that's wrapped up, and Operation Scorpion, Desert Scorpion, is effectively the same thing, but it's a nationwide effort now, so it's much broader. And it's designed to do effectively the same thing.
According to Central Command, that is to isolate and defeat remaining pockets of resistance, Baath Party officials, terrorists, criminal elements, the Fedayeen and so on, the people who have created trouble over the last several weeks, ambushes that have taken more than 10 lives of U.S. service members, and injured many more.
However, Desert Scorpion, in addition to going after these individuals and these elements, is also incorporating what they call a civil affairs element. And that is to go after the hearts and minds, as they say, of the people of Iraq. While Peninsula Strike was largely just a stick, Desert Scorpion will be both the carrot and the stick. The civil affairs programs will seek to help people in the communities that are being looked at for involvement with these elements to see whether they need help with, say, setting up a police department or a local government working on local infrastructure and bridges, or water supplies, that sort of thing.
So, while, again, it was more just stick on the first element, this is much broader, it will be more long lasting and it's carrot and stick -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Any idea how long lasting, Chris?
PLANTE: Well, I spoke to Central Command a short time ago, and they say that you can expect to see it going on for weeks, certainly just for openers. But it may come in starts and stops. You may not see significant activity every night of the week. But certainly for weeks since it is nationwide and since these elements may be difficult to root out, and of course working with NGOs, nongovernmental organizations, on civil affairs matters, too. So it can go on for some time.
KOPPEL: And looking ahead, Chris, this week I understand there's going to be a change in the way the U.S. is looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. How's that going to happen?
PLANTE: Well, David Kay -- you may remember David Kay as a U.N. inspector. He led three of the United Nations arms inspection missions to Iraq in the 1990s. He specializes in all things nuclear. But also very experienced arms inspector in areas of biological and chemical weapons. And he has a good deal of experience with the Iraqi situation.
David Kay was tapped by the administration to effectively become the new civilian leader of the effort to uncover these weapons of mass destruction. David Kay will be reporting, interestingly enough, directly to CIA Director George Tenet.
Now, there is an army general who is in charge of the 1,300 inspectors now on the ground there, both military and civilian. And that general will continue to report directly to the Pentagon and to Secretary Rumsfeld, but David Kay, the experienced inspectors, will report directly to CIA Director George Tenet.
Now, the reason for that, to some extent, is because Director Tenet is kind of in the hot seat now, since it is the CIA's intelligence or, for the most part, the CIA's intelligence that was provided to the White House and to Colin Powell that the administration used to legitimatize going into Iraq militarily in the first place.
So David Kay will be taking over at least the broad strokes of the inspections. As I understand, he won't be directing the mission on a person by person level, but will be in charge of the strategy and the way that they go about conducting business. So it is kind of like when they brought Ambassador Bremer in to take over the civilian mission overall in the nation -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: I was just going to say that. Chris Plante at the Pentagon, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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