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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
War in Iraq
Aired April 04, 2003 - 17:00 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.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Look who's talking. Is it the real Saddam Hussein in real time? Baghdad on the brink. A presidential compound pounded from the air. From the ground, U.S. forces tighten the noose on the capital.
And new danger tonight: Iraq promises retaliation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): We will carry out something that is untraditional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All this on day 16 of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Hazards on the horizon. You're looking at a live picture of Baghdad, where new explosions are rocking the city right now. Indeed, within the last few minutes, there have been several more explosions, just east of Baghdad, as well as in the central part of this Iraqi capital. The U.S. Central Command is warning Iraq may be hoarding weapons of mass destruction right in the capital city. But what are senior Iraqi leaders saying?
Hello from Kuwait City; I am Wolf Blitzer. We continue to get breaking reports from in and around Baghdad. Today, of course, is no exception. As we report this hour, there's a threat to U.S. troops. We're waiting for word of Iraq striking back. The Iraqi information minister promises tonight there will be what he calls "widespread use of martyrdom," what he says is an untraditional attack. Our Nic Robertson is telling us that some Republican Guard troops are gathering close to the Baghdad airport right now. Throughout the day U.S. troops have been fighting Iraqi forces right here the airport.
And the surprise of the day, new video of Saddam Hussein himself, but is this the real Saddam Hussein? Right now, U.S. analysts are checking to see if the video is genuine.
We are standing by right now for details on all these breaking developments. CNN's Nic Robertson on the threat to U.S. troops this hour. CNN's David Ensor on Saddam Hussein's fate. And CNN's Renay San Miguel on a possible hiding place for the Iraqi leader, but first let's go to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield in the CNN newsroom.
(NEWSBREAK) BLITZER: There are new explosions that are shaking the Iraqi capital right now. Only within the past few minutes we've seen these explosions in various parts of the central part of Baghdad, as well as on the outskirts. Reports from Baghdad say a presidential complex may have been targeted once again. There are other shock waves unfolding even as we continue to watch what's happening in the Iraqi capital. Indeed, a new threat from Iraq's information minister warning that U.S. troops face something, quote, "unconventional." CNN's Nic Robertson is tracking all of these developments from his listening post in Ruwaished (ph), in Jordan, right along the border with Iraq. Nic, tell us what's happening.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf. As you know, since we've been expelled a couple of weeks ago by the Iraqi authorities, we're relying on sources in Baghdad to bring us the latest information from the city. I was speaking to a source just a few minutes ago before the latest round of bombing. He told me that the bombing in the city had been sporadic this evening, that he had been able to hear some heavy machine gunfire, indeed at one point he said heavy machine gun rounds came past the hotel where he was located. He believed that was because of anti-aircraft guns in the city aiming a little lower than normal, perhaps an accident, he thought.
He also told me that the lights had come on in some areas of Baghdad, in the west of the city and in the north and east of the city. Electricity being returned to those neighborhoods. Close to the airport, however, and he is not able to get right up to the Iraqi front lines, that is now a military area, the Iraqi authorities have the road shut off, but what is being told and what he can see, a number of Republican Guards, Fedayeen and Baath Party fighters have been told to move out to the airport, close to the airport. It's not clear where these Iraqi forces are located at this time, but they are being pushed and told to go in the direction of Saddam International Airport, where the coalition forces are based right on the tarmac and right around the terminal buildings there.
We've also heard from Iraq's information minister today, who has vowed an untraditional attack on the airport. He said it might be something along the lines of a suicide type of attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL-SAHAF: This evening, we will carry out something that is untraditional against them, not conventional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Indeed, he said this would be potentially a martyrdom type of mission. We have seen this and had reports from embedded troops with the coalition forces that on occasion, Iraqis have filled trucks with explosives, buses with fighters, driven them towards the coalition forces. It's not clear what the information minister is outlining, but he said there would be something along these lines tonight -- Wolf. BLITZER: Nic, the whole notion of this unconventional attack that the Iraqis may be planning on U.S. troops, presumably at the Baghdad airport, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, the information minister, insisted it wasn't weapons of mass destruction. So what are you suggesting, what could it possibly be that we're bracing for almost any minute now?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, it seems to me from looking at the last few days, the Iraqi leadership obviously having to dig deeper and to find ways of rallying support in the country at this time for their fight against coalition forces. The first thing that they've said this morning at daybreak was that coalition forces weren't even at the airport. It's not clear now if these threats that they're laying out are empty threats or if there's anything in them. Is it to rally the Iraqi people? Is it another empty threat against the coalition forces? It's not clear what they can do. What we know and what we are -- our sources are telling us from Baghdad is that Republican Guard elements have been moving closer. The Fedayeen fighters, the Baath Party volunteer fighters who we see on the streets of Baghdad.
Now, the Republican Guard fighters we know are better equipped than the regular Iraqi army. The Fedayeen perhaps more determined. The Baath Party volunteers we've seen tend not to be the best fighting force around. It's difficult to see what this attack, what shape it will take, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. We'll be watching. We'll bracing for it. Nic Robertson, thanks once again.
Let's get some analysis now on what's happening on the battlefield. Joining us now from Washington, retired U.S. Air Force Major General Larry Arnold. General Arnold, as we speak, we're hearing nonstop explosions rocking the Iraqi capital. What do you sense is unfolding right now?
MAJ. GEN. LARRY ARNOLD, USAF (RET).: Wolf, as we move closer to -- what moves closer to Baghdad, you don't want to go downtown without the United States Air Force because we bring intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance that no one else can bring to the fight. Precision strike that no one else can bring to the fight, and that coupled with the capabilities of our Army and other services have a devastating effect on the remnants of the Republican Guard, on the command and control headquarters that are still remaining within the greater Baghdad area.
BLITZER: We heard the Pentagon, General Arnold, say earlier today that they were having a really tough time knocking Iraqi television off the air. Why is it so hard to do that?
ARNOLD: Well, Wolf, I -- you can go after many different targets. You have redundant capabilities certainly up there in the communications world. There might be some advantages for us to keep the Iraqi television up, but right now I couldn't tell you specifically why we haven't knocked it off the air.
BLITZER: Right now it seems like they've effectively destroyed two of those six Republican Guard divisions outside of Baghdad. What do you suspect they're going after tank by tank, armored vehicle by armored vehicle, artillery piece by artillery piece, trying to destroy as much of that heavy equipment as they possibly can. Do you think those could be at least in part some of the explosions we're hearing?
ARNOLD: Think that's exactly right. I think as our reconnaissance capability discovers these forces, one of their troop concentrations, and we know we just heard on an earlier report that the remnants of the Republican Guard are being told to move towards the airport. That would be a good thing in my understanding, because we'd be able to get them out in the open. Of course, if they're in armored personnel carriers and they're out in the open, they're not going to live very long, Wolf. I wouldn't want to be in one of those armored personal carriers with the Air Force overhead.
BLITZER: General, we did hear something disturbing from Nic Robertson. The information minister of Iraq threatening presumably a human wave to come out toward the airport to stand in front of tanks. What happens if there are thousands of Iraqis that come out there and effectively emerge as human shields? What does that do to U.S. bombing capabilities?
ARNOLD: There's been a lot of "what if" drills in this war. A lot of people have said what they're going to do. I remember in the last war when the Mother of all Wars was going to occur, and it never occurred, Wolf. The opposition is desperate if they send human shields, and I'm sure we'll work around that problem.
BLITZER: Retired U.S. Air Force Major General Larry Arnold, thanks very much for your analysis.
And just a day after U.S. officials expressed doubts that Saddam Hussein was alive, more videotape is broadcast, shot recently and apparently showing the Iraqi leader very much alive. The key word here, apparently. Let's go live to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we finally have a tape that does have a reference in it to something that occurred after March 19. So this could be an important clue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): Clearly the Iraqi regime wants its people and the world to know that despite all the questions, Saddam Hussein is alive and in command. The questions on this tape for U.S. intelligence, when was the tape made, and is it really Saddam?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's entirely possible that this isn't Saddam Hussein, that this is one of his doubles.
ENSOR: Saddam Hussein is known to have used look-alikes in the past, particularly for appearances in public not requiring him to speak. As to whether the tape is recent, there is a shot that shows Saddam Hussein or his look-alike and then pans to show the smoke around the city. Even as the tape first played on CNN, the White House spokesman was downplaying its significance.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In the bigger scheme of things, it really doesn't matter, because whether it is him or whether it isn't him, the regime's days are numbered and are coming to an end.
ENSOR: More significant to U.S. intelligence is the other tape broadcast shortly before, of Saddam Hussein or his double calling on the Iraqi people to fight the invaders. The reason, he refers to an incident March 24 when an Apache helicopter was shot down, and Iraqi television claimed it had been done by a single farmer with an old rifle.
SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQI PRESIDENT (through translator): And maybe you remember the villager, the Iraqi villager, how he downed an Apache -- the American Apache with the old weapon (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ENSOR: That incident took place five days after the massive American bombardment of a leadership compound that U.S. officials had hoped might have killed or wounded Saddam Hussein.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Saddam's broadcast earlier today is clearly intended for his loyalists to tell them that he is still alive and they should continue to fight for him, and also to the rest of Iraq's people that he is still alive and they need to continue to fear him.
ENSOR: There is, of course, the question of how many Iraqis will have seen the broadcast, given that the power was out in most of Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: U.S. officials say this latest taped speech does seem to indicate that Saddam Hussein is alive, but they say that voice analysis tests on the tape which will answer that question more definitively are probably going to take a few days -- Wolf.
BLITZER: David, we've seen Saddam Hussein, I guess at least four times now since the war started. We'll put up a full screen showing these various images of Saddam Hussein or an impostor. When the intelligence community looks at these various pictures, how much credence do they give to the actual pictures as opposed to the voice? The voice analysis that they have to look at probably providing even better analysis as to whether or not Saddam Hussein is alive.
ENSOR: Well, Wolf, the voice analysis is the better test for whether it is really the man in question. Saddam is known to have used look-alikes, body doubles, and there's even some reports that one or more of them might have had cosmetic surgery to look more like him, but getting the voice right is more difficult. So this voice analysis that the National Security Agency, presumably, that part of the intelligence community that is specializing in acoustic matters, is now doing. That could be quite revealing and we may have an answer soon as to whether Saddam Hussein is alive or not. It's beginning to look like he is -Wolf. BLITZER: Certainly that's the working assumption. I think that's been the assumption since the first night of this war, even thought they had really strong intelligence that he was some place, but he may have survived that intense bombing on the first night. David Ensor, thanks very much.
And intense bombing is continuing right now in and around the Iraqi capital. Over the past several minutes, we've heard huge explosions rock Baghdad. The huge explosions going after various targets. We are not sure what those targets are, but the bombing is almost nonstop now over the past half hour or so. We're continuing to watch what's happening in the skies over Baghdad, as well as on the ground in and around the Iraqi capital, especially close to the international airport just outside, about 10 miles or so, just outside Baghdad.
If Saddam Hussein is indeed alive, it may be thanks to the bunkers he's built over the years, at least one of which is nearly indestructible, according to some experts. CNN's Renay San Miguel is at the CNN newsroom in Atlanta and has more on that -- Renay.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the coalition air campaign continues to target palaces where they may not only be hiding places for command and control facilities and Republican Guards, but also maybe for Saddam Hussein himself, his two sons, or maybe other Iraqi leaders, and all of this continues to go on even as coalition ground troops knock on the front door of Baghdad itself.
You mentioned that presidential complex in the central part of Baghdad. It was hit before today, it was hit earlier today, and indeed it may be on the target list for this evening, and that's been the pattern since the coalition started this on March 19. But as you just saw David Ensor report, Saddam Hussein has been seen on TV in Iraq twice today. So it may indeed be that he survived that March 19 so-called decapitation strike.
How did he manage that? Well, we have some animation suggesting how that might have happened. If he was in a bunker like this, suggesting by what information we have gleaned from a German construction firm that built it for him at in 1982, at a cost of $150 million. It covers 19,000 square feet; that's bigger than 10 average family houses, two dozen rooms, accessed by stairs or elevators. The ceilings: Six feet thick reinforced concrete. The walls five feet thick. The project's lead engineer told "The Sunday Times of London" that the coalition would have to hit the side with Tomahawk cruise missiles 16 times at the same spot to get through. It has an emergency power supply. Water is constantly recycled. Communication and video links to the outside world. This is why the coalition developed the bunker buster bombs back in the 1991 Gulf War. Those have 1,600 kilograms of explosives. That is supposed to be able to penetrate one meter of concrete or 32 meters of earth. That's the latest from the military desk, Wolf, back over to you.
BLITZER: Renay San Miguel, thanks very much for that report.
Here's your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. Today's Web question of the day is this: Do you think today's videotapes of Saddam Hussein prove that he is alive? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Please vote at cnn.com/wolf.
While you're there, I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column. Cnn.com/wolf.
Time now for a look at where the war stands on the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Today's flash points, the approaches to Baghdad and the main airport southwest of the city. Some areas of the perimeter of the airport heavily contested by Iraqi troops and tanks. They're battling elements of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division coming at U.S. positions with tanks, rocket-propelled grenades, even a suicide bus, but it's a route. CNN's Walter Rodgers reports more than 400 Iraqis killed. No coalition casualties. And U.S. officials say they've got control, renaming the facility Baghdad International Airport.
The allies do take a hit, northwest of Baghdad, near the Haditha dam, an apparent suicide bombing attack by a pregnant woman at a checkpoint leaves at least three U.S. service members dead. Southeast of the capital, on the road between Kut and Baghdad, U.S. Central Command announces some 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guard forces surrendered to U.S. Marines. And Special Forces in western Iraq discovered a site appearing to be a training facility for handling chemical and biological weapons.
In the north, Kurdish forces push toward Mosul, with help from U.S. Special Forces capturing the town of Kazar (ph) after a day of fighting. All this as the main battle line awaits, the heart of Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: U.S. troops could face new dangers tonight after a threat from a top Iraqi official of what this official is calling "unconventional attacks." We're watching Baghdad and the surrounding areas and we'll bring you up to date as soon as we get them. Also from the battle at the main airport to the outskirts of Baghdad, to the relentless push toward the capital by U.S. forces. We'll get updates from our embedded journalists. That's just ahead.
Some of the most riveting scenes of the war so far are coming from that battle at the airport. We'll have some of those incredible raw images to show you, also coming up.
And heart-wrenching scenes from the home front as families say good-bye to loved ones killed on the battlefield.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: This war isn't over yet. There is intense fighting going on. Artillery, as you can just see, also in Baghdad right now, continuous pounding from the skies of various Iraqi positions. Welcome back to our nonstop coverage. We want to show you some of the important work our embedded reporters are bringing us from the front lines. Let's begin with CNN's Walter Rodgers with the Army's 3-7th Cavalry near the Baghdad Airport.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Behind me you're seeing a column of black smoke rising. As darkness falls here in the suburbs of Baghdad, the Iraqis once again become more active. Iraqi irregulars attacking U.S. Army positions, particularly in the area of the 7th Cavalry. Smoke is probably no more than a quarter to a third mile behind me. That smoke is pouring up into the air. It appeared to be a stealthful mission by the Iraqis sneaking up on the U.S. Army unit, which is behind me. The Army saw it quickly, fired on it regularly, but we can hear continuous booming of 120 mm mortars in the background, against attesting that while the U.S. Army controls the Baghdad International Airport, it does not control the hostile areas around the airport and beyond the airport, and indeed the 7th Cavalry, the unit with which I'm embedded, has been receiving some rather hostile fire throughout the day.
There have been periodic lulls, but again, Iraqis are out there, sometimes in force, sometimes with tanks and armored personnel carriers. They have try tried desperately to override the 7th Cavalry's position, but so far with little success.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, with the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry on the outskirts of Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Martin Savidge with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines, they continue to push to the northwest, leaving Al Kut, the critical ridge crossing on the Tigris river, behind us and drawing ever closer now to the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad itself. All along the highway here that runs from Al Kut up to Baghdad. There have been indications of an Iraqi military in retreat. Several things point to that. We have seen a number of destroyed Iraqi weaponry, including T-72 tanks, armored personnel carrier and artillery pieces blown up and shattered along the side of the road. Also, two piles of green uniforms as if those that were wearing them decided it was best to discard them and try to disguise themselves and melt into the civilian population. You will find large patches of those in clumps all along the highway here.
We also passed through an area where it looked like there had been fighting, a large oil facility or oil tank blazing away in the evening darkness there, in the haze and smoke, and the other thing you see, people, Iraqi people coming out along the highway here, watching as the convoys roll past. Many of them drawn to the side, waving, speaking out what English they know, saying hello, saying "I love you," waving, often receiving humanitarian aid in the form of food packets that are distributed by the U.S. Marines as they continue to drive up to the outskirts of Baghdad. No reports of heavy fighting, but indications that there were fighting or instances of fighting along the way. We have passed by a number of fortifications that appear to be abandoned.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Martin Savidge, moving closer and closer toward Baghdad, which is continuing to take a pounding tonight as our viewers have been seeing.
Some Iraqis have began taking up arms not to fight U.S. and other coalition forces, but rather to fight beside them. We go now to Nasiriyah, where CNN's Jason Bellini is embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We received permission from a senior officer of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit to report on cooperation that's going on now between U.S. Special Forces and armed Iraqis they've recruited to operate, as they call them, as freedom fighters. The role as described to us by this commander is he says that they are used to help them identify the enemy. Those are his words. They use these freedom fighters to help them identify the enemy.
Yesterday, we were witness to an incident that raised the question for us about their role. We were -- the compound we're in with the Marines came under fire. The Marines here returned fire and began shooting at a pickup truck, and inside the pickup truck the Marines say they saw men with Kalashnikov rifles. They found out later after they were told to stop their firing that these were freedom fighters working with U.S. Special Forces. One of those freedom fighters was injured in the incident very badly, hit in the shoulder, we were told. So that's how we've learned about this cooperation that's now going on here in the city of Nasiriyah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Jason Bellini, one of our embedded journalists, moving closer on the front lines.
For more on the air campaign, let's check in with another one of our embedded journalists, Bob Franken. He's at an air base here in the Persian Gulf, not far from the Iraqi border. I assume it's another hectic night where you are, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hectic, noisy and the numbers are similar to the way they've been the last several days about the combat missions are the ones, of course, that are of primary importance. There are about 900 of those, and the great bulk of them are directed at Republican Guard units. What is different about tonight is the uncertainty about what faces the U.S. troops, particularly those at the airport. So as the planes are taking off here, they are, of course, very aware that they have quite a bit of flexibility, a very typical tactic for an A-10, the anti-tank plane, which has been such an integral part of this war. A typical tactic is to go up and then just hover awaiting instructions. They are very flexible and of course, they will be very much paying attention to the airport to see just exactly what the Iraqis might throw at the coalition troops, and then they'll respond accordingly.
While all this is going on, the Air Force has deepened the planning for the airlift that will accompany humanitarian missions. For obvious reasons, the Air Force will have a big role. That will be going on, of course possibly at the same time this war effort continues -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Bob Franken, he's at an air base not far from Iraq. Thanks, Bob, very much.
And among some of the other images of war we're seeing today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: CNN's Jane Arraf with the Kurdish forces as they battled Iraqi troops in the north. After a day of heavy fighting, the Kurds drove the Iraqis back three miles and seized a small town near Mosul. Battlefield honors for two soldiers who were given the Purple Heart for injuries they suffered in combat. Sergeant Luis Lozera (ph) and Private First Class Kevin Brock (ph) are both with the Army's 101st Airborne division. And the International Red Cross aid pipeline is now flowing. Two trucks filled with medical supplies left Kuwait earlier today for the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Now a recap of some of the latest developments of the war in Iraq. Once again here's CNN's Renay San Miguel.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Right now we're seeing a bright glow over Baghdad, at least parts of it, where there's been a nonstop pounding by U.S. air strikes, not only in the central part of the city, once again, but of course, in the outskirts as well. We also have some videotape that we just got in. I want to play that video right now, what's been happening in the Iraqi capital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: If you're just joining us, Iraq is promising, threatening to strike back against U.S. forces tonight in an unconventional way. We don't know what they mean. We're watching. It is possible so-called martyrs could attack U.S.-led troops. Coming up, we'll speak with the former defense secretary, William Cohen about this possibility, but first for the latest headlines, we go back to the CNN newsroom and CNN's Fredricka Whitfield.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: If our viewers are just joining us, in the last several moments we've seen heavy explosions rocking all parts of the Iraqi capital, center city in Baghdad, as well as the outskirts, as well as sites not far from the international airport. It used to be called Saddam International Airport; now the U.S. Central Command has renamed that airport Baghdad International Airport. It is under control of U.S. forces, but not far from the airport, there's still potential for heavy, heavy fighting. Two of Iraq's six Republican Guard divisions, according to the Pentagon, have been effectively destroyed, but the other four still have significant capabilities and they still remain encircled around Baghdad. There's still the Special Republican Guard units inside Baghdad, as well as the so-called Fedayeen Saddam. We're going to be watching all of these developments to see what unfolds over the next several minutes.
In the meantime, the White House says the days of the Iraqi regime are numbered, and it's already looking ahead, making plans for rebuilding Iraq. Those plans will be discussed at a summit meeting next week. Let's go live to our senior White House correspondent, John King -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, as the shooting and the bombing continues, you're right, White House officials say more urgency now focused on who will run a post-war Iraq? What would an interim Iraqi authority look like? President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, it was announced today, will have a summit Monday and Tuesday in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr. Bush left the White House earlier today, he is up to Camp David. White House insisting that those shedding the blood, meaning the United States and its coalition allies, will take the lead role in running a post-war Iraq. That means General Tommy Franks will be in charge. His deputy and running a new civil administration would be a retired Army general, Jay Garner (ph). Scores of officials from the U.S. government would go in to try to get the electricity up, the water running, the phone systems back, the roads and bridges repaired. But U.S. officials say they will move as quickly as possible to create what they are calling an interim Iraqi authority. That would include exiles and dissidents, it will include Kurds from the north, Sunni Muslims from the south, and White House officials hope as many officials as possible from the current Iraqi bureaucracy, so long as they are not clearly defined as Saddam Hussein loyalists.
Secretary of State Powell says this new interim authority must be as broad based as possible if it is to have any legitimacy with the Iraqi people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We want an interim authority that is representative of all the groups that have an interest in the future of Iraq. And as I've on many occasions, we wanted to include those who were in the external opposition, who have worked so long and so hard and with such determination for the liberation of Iraq, but also individuals inside, and we are now putting together plans to structure that approach, and in due course we'll make it known to everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: President Bush met with some Iraqi exiles here at the White House today to seek their advice as he prepares for the meeting with Tony Blair Monday and Tuesday. One key point of disagreement still between Washington and London, what kind of role will the United Nations have. Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, insisting the U.S. will take the leading role in the short term. She says there will be a role for the United Nations, but it is clear that Prime Minister Blair and other European leaders want a much broader, much more authoritative role from the United Nations from day one after the shooting stops. That will be an urgent item on the agenda for that summit next week -- Wolf.
BLITZER: A very complex issue, challenge facing the Bush administration. Thanks, John, for that report.
And as the U.S. military consolidates its control of Baghdad's International Airport, it's eying yet another strategic objective, Iraqi television, which is being used by the regime of Saddam Hussein to maintain its grip on power. Let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the U.S. military at the Baghdad airport is busy trying to secure the location. It's a vast complex, including underground tunnels. It is going to take a few days, they say, to make sure it's all secure. Meanwhile, as you said, the U.S. military is eying another objective.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Saddam International Airport has been renamed Baghdad International by U.S. troops who now hold the strategic real estate just 12 miles from the city center. Though still under fire from Iraqi forces, Pentagon officials say the airport will soon be a key fire base from which the U.S. can expand its attacks on the Iraqi capital.
MAJ. GEN. STAN MCCHRYSTAL, JOINT STAFF DEPUTY DIR.: It's a great location in the southwest portion of Baghdad to allow us to posture ourselves around the city or to move into the city.
MCINTYRE: Nearby are three palace complexes, all considered regime command and control facilities and legitimate military targets. And once the entire perimeter is secure and more troops and attack helicopters can be brought in, the U.S. can use the vast airport complex as a launching pad for commando-style raids on centers of gravity for the regime. And one objective that, like the airport has both strategic and symbolic value, is Iraqi television.
MCCHRYSTAL: The regime determined early on that one of the primary mechanisms for controlling the population and exerting coercion was through its media.
MCINTYRE: Whether or not the most recent tapes showing Saddam Hussein addressing the Iraqi people and mingling with adoring crowds on the streets of Baghdad are real or fake, the effect is the same, sending a convincing message his regime is still in power. The U.S. has repeatedly targeted television transmitters and satellite dishes, but while the signal goes down from time to time, it always comes back.
MCCHRYSTAL: It has a very redundant system, starting with fixed sites to include mobile vans that it uses to put out its signal.
MCINTYRE: Still, bomb damage may have knocked out local broadcasts and limited Iraq to sending satellite signals abroad. And with the power out in parts of Baghdad, it's not clear how many Iraqis are watching, but until the television transmissions are controlled by the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi people will not believe the claims of the United States.
VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: The regime is fooling nobody and the end is inevitable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: There may be another reason, Wolf, that the U.S. is having trouble knocking Iraqi television off the air. Iraq may have moved some of the backup operations to a nearby Baghdad hotel where foreign journalists are working, effectively using them as human shields -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thanks, Jamie, very much. And please stay with us. We have much more coverage coming up, where we're watching what's happening right now over Baghdad, in the last few minutes, yet more explosions. And will the Iraqis follow through on an ominous threat from one of their leaders of an unconventional attack that's supposedly coming up tonight? We'll discuss that threat and the new television images of Saddam Hussein. Was it really him? We'll hear directly from former Defense Secretary William Cohen. And other images you won't want to miss, scenes from today's ferocious battle at the Baghdad International Airport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's a look at some of the other battle scenes from the war in Iraq. Near the capital, fierce fighting continues at the former Saddam International Airport, which coalition forces have renamed Baghdad International Airport. CNN's Walter Rodgers reports more than 400 Iraqi soldiers have been killed with no reported coalition casualties.
U.S. Marines pounded Republican Guard divisions near Baghdad. U.S. military officials say as many as 2,500 have surrendered while others have been forced to reposition or retreat into the city. And in northern Iraq, heavy bombing has been reported around Mosul. Kurdish fighters have seized one nearby town and continue to push toward the city with the help of U.S. Special Forces. Now Back to that battle for control of Baghdad's International Airport. We want to share with you one scene in particular that captures the difficulty and the danger the troops have been taking in a critical mission. Take a look and listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm giving orders, shoot that thing. The javelin will not lock onto them. Hey, you need to move up closer. All the way to the guardrail. Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to the guardrail. Right over the top of that that pole, next to that -- right to that guard tower, that's where they are. Let's go. Get them. Do you see them? Come on, baby. He's right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I already hit one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's something wrong with the missile.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, put it down. Bring it over here. Bring it over here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, this one's messed up.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, come on, let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got a sight on it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, this one's jammed!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're moving. They're (EXPLETIVE DELETED) moving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see that split between those two trees? Look to the right of the guard tower. That's where they are. You see them?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot it!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: It's about as dramatic as it gets. You don't get to see those kinds of pictures very often. The U.S. Central Command today said coalition forces found boxes containing unidentified powder and liquid in a facility near Baghdad, calling the discovery, and I'm quoting now, "an item of interest."
The U.S. Command said that another site found by Special Forces in western Iraq appears to have been a training facility for handling chemical and biological weapons. Central Command is warning that weapons of mass destruction may have been brought into the Baghdad area. U.S. troops not very far away from there right now.
Iraq's information minister said today Iraq won't use weapons of mass destruction, but he did say U.S. forces will face something that is not conventional. That's a direct quote. And he says that will come tonight. We're waiting and watching. This comes from the information minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, and it also comes as new broadcasts seems to show Saddam Hussein still in charge.
Joining me now from Washington to discuss these developments, the former secretary of defense, William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, what's your bottom line assessment on this war? Right now the state of where the U.S. military is?
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think there has been remarkable success in terms of being able to move this fast, this far with moderate to light resistance, certainly in terms of anticipation has been truly a remarkable story on the part of our military. We ought to be extraordinarily proud of the people who are over there fighting this war now. They've done just a tremendous job, both from the planning point of view and the execution. Right now we are coming to the hard part, and that is the question of what to do about Baghdad itself, and you were reporting earlier that the information minister as such has issued a threat. It may be idle, but I think that we dismiss threats, be they idle or not, at our peril and take it into account. And I'm sure that the forces have been prepared for this. It might involve a chemical or biological agent, it might involve suicide bombers, it may be a mass suicide situation, in terms of a movement upon the airport. We have to be prepared for all of that.
BLITZER: Everybody has always assumed that the battle for Baghdad would be the most difficult and dangerous part of the war. Was that assumption correct, do you think?
COHEN: I think it's still -- yes, the assessment -- I think there was the anticipation that if an extremist, so to speak, Saddam, was faced with the loss of Baghdad, he would pull whatever divisions he had remaining back to Baghdad and make a last stand there, and it does present certainly a challenge for us, one that cannot be overcome, but one which we will have to take into account, looking at how many casualties will be involved from a civilian point of view as well as our own forces. I suspect, Wolf, what may take place is that we will see a number of probes on the part of the United States, and if I can use the metaphor, checking to see whether it's a hard boiled or a soft boiled egg, and if these probes start to indicate it's quite soft boiled as such and easy to crack, then that would be one option for General Franks and his people to pursue. If it's hard boiled, it is going to take a different tactic and a different strategy in terms of dealing with it, but I'm convinced, as we have been, that ultimately the United States will be successful because of its overwhelming military superiority.
BLITZER: Even as we watch these pictures of Baghdad, continuing to take a pointing tonight. More air strikes, more explosions. We earlier in the day saw Saddam Hussein make a speech on television. A lot of people believe that was, in fact, Saddam Hussein and they also believe it was done since the first night of the war. A lot of suspicion about the second videotape, which showed him walking into a crowd. What's your assessment? Is he alive, in control of the Iraqi regime?
COHEN: Well, I really have no idea whether he's alive or dead. I think we have to assume for the moment, at least, that he is alive, but take into account that his leadership is slowly but surely being dismembered. And so it's almost like watching a digital picture, so to speak, disintegrate over a fairly short period of time. We are seeing in a two-week period much of that command, control, leadership capability being dismembered by the military forces, and so whether he is still alive, presiding over a very diminished military, or whether he is no longer alive and you have those who are subordinate to him carrying on out of the last acts of desperation, I don't think it will really ultimately make the difference.
BLITZER: Secretary Cohen, as usual, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.
COHEN: OK.
BLITZER: And we are monitoring the battle lines near Baghdad to see if Iraq follows through on a threat made earlier today to launch an unconventional attack on U.S.-led forces later tonight. We'll bring you the very latest on that when it happens.
Also, just ahead, some of the most emotional scenes from the war. The final good-byes to those who have fallen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK).
BLITZER: The Associated Press moving a bulletin just now, Sergeant Hassan Akbar, remember him from the 101st Airborne Division, accused of rolling hand grenades into a tent, killing two U.S. soldiers, fellow soldiers. He has now been charged with murder in that hand grenade attack here in Kuwait a couple of weeks ago. We'll continue to monitor that story.
More wounded U.S. forces arrived this morning at a U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany. The Army says 13 injured personnel were flown 10 hours from Kuwait. Many, if not all, will be treated at the nearby Landstuhl hospital, the largest American military hospital outside the United States.
And even as we speak, there are yet more explosions over the Iraqi capital. You are taking a look at live pictures of Baghdad unfolding right now.
With each passing day of this war, many heartbroken Americans are pausing to say a final good-bye to the loved ones killed on the battlefields of Iraq.
Far away from the battlefield, perhaps in your hometown, there are families grieving. At a high school gym in Mobile, Alabama, a memorial service for Private First Class Howard Johnson, Jr., just 21 years old. He died in what the Pentagon called an ambush, along with that now famous Army maintenance unit. Howard Johnson, Jr., now remembered from more innocent days.
In (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Connecticut, a Marine honor guard, a somber procession, the funeral of Gunnery Sergeant Phillip Jordan, killed in what the U.S. says was a fake surrender at Nasiriyah. When Jordan's 6-year-old son Tyler found out his father had been killed, Tyler refused to eat.
About half the town of Powell, Wyoming came out for the funeral of Marine Lieutenant Shane Childers. Childers had a military career in his sights, leaving his tiny village to attend the Citadel. Now he's home. Two other Marines had almost no fanfare and were not even American citizens when they died in combat. Corporate Jose Garibay and Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez spent their last hours alive as immigrant foreign nationals. They're Americans now. The country they fought for granted them citizenship after they died.
And according to the Associated Press, the U.S. went to war with the -- with this armed forces that included some 38, 000 soldiers who are not U.S. citizens. Thousands more are in the reserves. Last summer, President Bush added a new perk to enlistment, immediate eligibility to apply for citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's old- fashioned recruiting...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're a single mom?
Are you ready, man?
GUTIERREZ: ... in time of war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys citizens?
GUTIERREZ: Now, the U.S. government has sweetened a deal for non-citizens willing to enlist. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And one other reason to probably join the Army is to get your citizenship.
GUTIERREZ: It's the ultimate price for 17-year-old Elsa Jaime. She's a Mexican citizen who has lived in Los Angeles legally since she was a baby. But she's always dreamed of becoming a U.S. citizen.
ELSA JAIME, POTENTIAL RECRUIT: My mom struggled to get me here as an immigrant. She crossed the border running, and now we're here. So she struggled, and now I should thank America for everything it's gave me.
GUTIERREZ: If Elsa joins up, she'll be on the fast-track toward citizenship, but the offer is only open to legal residents, those who have green cards, not the undocumented.
The Executive Order was signed by the president last year.
HARRY PACHON, THOMAS RIVERA POLICY INSTITUTE: It's a significant factor when you consider that there's maybe like close to 4 percent of the nation's armed forces are green card soldiers. So it is about 40,000 troops right now are green card holders and not U.S. citizens.
GUTIERREZ: Another advantage to a enlisting? A college education for Elsa, one she cannot afford.
JAIME: I would like to enlist. I'm a little bit scared about the war that's going on and stuff, but I would like to enlist for one of the main reasons to go to Pepperdine University.
GUTIERREZ: A picture of the private university hangs on her wall.
(on camera): It looks as though you have these things up in your room to kind of remind you of what your goals are.
JAIME: Yes, they do. They show me what I'm going towards every morning that I wake up.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Perhaps the dream of citizenship and a better life were reasons Private 1st Class Jose Gutierrez, a Guatemalan citizen, and Jose Garibay of Mexico enlisted. Both died in the war and have been granted citizenship posthumously.
CHRYSTAL GARIBAY, SISTER: Yes, they made by brother a citizen. Everybody is happy. But we know he deserved it.
GUTIERREZ: Elsa knows the danger and that she, too, could make the ultimate sacrifice. She says it's a risk she's willing to take for her dreams of becoming somebody in this country.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And do you think today's videotapes of Saddam Hussein prove that he's alive? America's getting ready to vote on our Web question of the day. The results in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Do you think today's videotapes of Saddam Hussein prove he's alive? Thirty-two percent of you said yes, 68 percent of you said no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Finally, this very sad personal note on the death of the first American correspondent killed in the war. Michael Kelly was a great journalist. Over the years, I covered many stories him. He did a brilliant job covering the first Gulf War a dozen years ago. His columns in more recent years were, as far as I was concerned, must reading. In recent weeks, he was one of those embedded journalists who decided to risk their lives to cover this war for all of us. Michael didn't have to do it, but he wanted to do it. Reporting was his passion, and he and his work will be sorely missed. My heart goes out to his wife Madeleine (ph) and his two little boys, Tom and Jack. Michael Kelly was only 46 years old.
Lou Dobbs is standing by to pick up our coverage. I'll be back in one hour for two more hours of special coverage with Paula Zahn. Here's Lou.
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 4, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Look who's talking. Is it the real Saddam Hussein in real time? Baghdad on the brink. A presidential compound pounded from the air. From the ground, U.S. forces tighten the noose on the capital.
And new danger tonight: Iraq promises retaliation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): We will carry out something that is untraditional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All this on day 16 of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Hazards on the horizon. You're looking at a live picture of Baghdad, where new explosions are rocking the city right now. Indeed, within the last few minutes, there have been several more explosions, just east of Baghdad, as well as in the central part of this Iraqi capital. The U.S. Central Command is warning Iraq may be hoarding weapons of mass destruction right in the capital city. But what are senior Iraqi leaders saying?
Hello from Kuwait City; I am Wolf Blitzer. We continue to get breaking reports from in and around Baghdad. Today, of course, is no exception. As we report this hour, there's a threat to U.S. troops. We're waiting for word of Iraq striking back. The Iraqi information minister promises tonight there will be what he calls "widespread use of martyrdom," what he says is an untraditional attack. Our Nic Robertson is telling us that some Republican Guard troops are gathering close to the Baghdad airport right now. Throughout the day U.S. troops have been fighting Iraqi forces right here the airport.
And the surprise of the day, new video of Saddam Hussein himself, but is this the real Saddam Hussein? Right now, U.S. analysts are checking to see if the video is genuine.
We are standing by right now for details on all these breaking developments. CNN's Nic Robertson on the threat to U.S. troops this hour. CNN's David Ensor on Saddam Hussein's fate. And CNN's Renay San Miguel on a possible hiding place for the Iraqi leader, but first let's go to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield in the CNN newsroom.
(NEWSBREAK) BLITZER: There are new explosions that are shaking the Iraqi capital right now. Only within the past few minutes we've seen these explosions in various parts of the central part of Baghdad, as well as on the outskirts. Reports from Baghdad say a presidential complex may have been targeted once again. There are other shock waves unfolding even as we continue to watch what's happening in the Iraqi capital. Indeed, a new threat from Iraq's information minister warning that U.S. troops face something, quote, "unconventional." CNN's Nic Robertson is tracking all of these developments from his listening post in Ruwaished (ph), in Jordan, right along the border with Iraq. Nic, tell us what's happening.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf. As you know, since we've been expelled a couple of weeks ago by the Iraqi authorities, we're relying on sources in Baghdad to bring us the latest information from the city. I was speaking to a source just a few minutes ago before the latest round of bombing. He told me that the bombing in the city had been sporadic this evening, that he had been able to hear some heavy machine gunfire, indeed at one point he said heavy machine gun rounds came past the hotel where he was located. He believed that was because of anti-aircraft guns in the city aiming a little lower than normal, perhaps an accident, he thought.
He also told me that the lights had come on in some areas of Baghdad, in the west of the city and in the north and east of the city. Electricity being returned to those neighborhoods. Close to the airport, however, and he is not able to get right up to the Iraqi front lines, that is now a military area, the Iraqi authorities have the road shut off, but what is being told and what he can see, a number of Republican Guards, Fedayeen and Baath Party fighters have been told to move out to the airport, close to the airport. It's not clear where these Iraqi forces are located at this time, but they are being pushed and told to go in the direction of Saddam International Airport, where the coalition forces are based right on the tarmac and right around the terminal buildings there.
We've also heard from Iraq's information minister today, who has vowed an untraditional attack on the airport. He said it might be something along the lines of a suicide type of attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL-SAHAF: This evening, we will carry out something that is untraditional against them, not conventional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Indeed, he said this would be potentially a martyrdom type of mission. We have seen this and had reports from embedded troops with the coalition forces that on occasion, Iraqis have filled trucks with explosives, buses with fighters, driven them towards the coalition forces. It's not clear what the information minister is outlining, but he said there would be something along these lines tonight -- Wolf. BLITZER: Nic, the whole notion of this unconventional attack that the Iraqis may be planning on U.S. troops, presumably at the Baghdad airport, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, the information minister, insisted it wasn't weapons of mass destruction. So what are you suggesting, what could it possibly be that we're bracing for almost any minute now?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, it seems to me from looking at the last few days, the Iraqi leadership obviously having to dig deeper and to find ways of rallying support in the country at this time for their fight against coalition forces. The first thing that they've said this morning at daybreak was that coalition forces weren't even at the airport. It's not clear now if these threats that they're laying out are empty threats or if there's anything in them. Is it to rally the Iraqi people? Is it another empty threat against the coalition forces? It's not clear what they can do. What we know and what we are -- our sources are telling us from Baghdad is that Republican Guard elements have been moving closer. The Fedayeen fighters, the Baath Party volunteer fighters who we see on the streets of Baghdad.
Now, the Republican Guard fighters we know are better equipped than the regular Iraqi army. The Fedayeen perhaps more determined. The Baath Party volunteers we've seen tend not to be the best fighting force around. It's difficult to see what this attack, what shape it will take, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. We'll be watching. We'll bracing for it. Nic Robertson, thanks once again.
Let's get some analysis now on what's happening on the battlefield. Joining us now from Washington, retired U.S. Air Force Major General Larry Arnold. General Arnold, as we speak, we're hearing nonstop explosions rocking the Iraqi capital. What do you sense is unfolding right now?
MAJ. GEN. LARRY ARNOLD, USAF (RET).: Wolf, as we move closer to -- what moves closer to Baghdad, you don't want to go downtown without the United States Air Force because we bring intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance that no one else can bring to the fight. Precision strike that no one else can bring to the fight, and that coupled with the capabilities of our Army and other services have a devastating effect on the remnants of the Republican Guard, on the command and control headquarters that are still remaining within the greater Baghdad area.
BLITZER: We heard the Pentagon, General Arnold, say earlier today that they were having a really tough time knocking Iraqi television off the air. Why is it so hard to do that?
ARNOLD: Well, Wolf, I -- you can go after many different targets. You have redundant capabilities certainly up there in the communications world. There might be some advantages for us to keep the Iraqi television up, but right now I couldn't tell you specifically why we haven't knocked it off the air.
BLITZER: Right now it seems like they've effectively destroyed two of those six Republican Guard divisions outside of Baghdad. What do you suspect they're going after tank by tank, armored vehicle by armored vehicle, artillery piece by artillery piece, trying to destroy as much of that heavy equipment as they possibly can. Do you think those could be at least in part some of the explosions we're hearing?
ARNOLD: Think that's exactly right. I think as our reconnaissance capability discovers these forces, one of their troop concentrations, and we know we just heard on an earlier report that the remnants of the Republican Guard are being told to move towards the airport. That would be a good thing in my understanding, because we'd be able to get them out in the open. Of course, if they're in armored personnel carriers and they're out in the open, they're not going to live very long, Wolf. I wouldn't want to be in one of those armored personal carriers with the Air Force overhead.
BLITZER: General, we did hear something disturbing from Nic Robertson. The information minister of Iraq threatening presumably a human wave to come out toward the airport to stand in front of tanks. What happens if there are thousands of Iraqis that come out there and effectively emerge as human shields? What does that do to U.S. bombing capabilities?
ARNOLD: There's been a lot of "what if" drills in this war. A lot of people have said what they're going to do. I remember in the last war when the Mother of all Wars was going to occur, and it never occurred, Wolf. The opposition is desperate if they send human shields, and I'm sure we'll work around that problem.
BLITZER: Retired U.S. Air Force Major General Larry Arnold, thanks very much for your analysis.
And just a day after U.S. officials expressed doubts that Saddam Hussein was alive, more videotape is broadcast, shot recently and apparently showing the Iraqi leader very much alive. The key word here, apparently. Let's go live to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we finally have a tape that does have a reference in it to something that occurred after March 19. So this could be an important clue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): Clearly the Iraqi regime wants its people and the world to know that despite all the questions, Saddam Hussein is alive and in command. The questions on this tape for U.S. intelligence, when was the tape made, and is it really Saddam?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's entirely possible that this isn't Saddam Hussein, that this is one of his doubles.
ENSOR: Saddam Hussein is known to have used look-alikes in the past, particularly for appearances in public not requiring him to speak. As to whether the tape is recent, there is a shot that shows Saddam Hussein or his look-alike and then pans to show the smoke around the city. Even as the tape first played on CNN, the White House spokesman was downplaying its significance.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In the bigger scheme of things, it really doesn't matter, because whether it is him or whether it isn't him, the regime's days are numbered and are coming to an end.
ENSOR: More significant to U.S. intelligence is the other tape broadcast shortly before, of Saddam Hussein or his double calling on the Iraqi people to fight the invaders. The reason, he refers to an incident March 24 when an Apache helicopter was shot down, and Iraqi television claimed it had been done by a single farmer with an old rifle.
SADDAM HUSSEIN, IRAQI PRESIDENT (through translator): And maybe you remember the villager, the Iraqi villager, how he downed an Apache -- the American Apache with the old weapon (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ENSOR: That incident took place five days after the massive American bombardment of a leadership compound that U.S. officials had hoped might have killed or wounded Saddam Hussein.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Saddam's broadcast earlier today is clearly intended for his loyalists to tell them that he is still alive and they should continue to fight for him, and also to the rest of Iraq's people that he is still alive and they need to continue to fear him.
ENSOR: There is, of course, the question of how many Iraqis will have seen the broadcast, given that the power was out in most of Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: U.S. officials say this latest taped speech does seem to indicate that Saddam Hussein is alive, but they say that voice analysis tests on the tape which will answer that question more definitively are probably going to take a few days -- Wolf.
BLITZER: David, we've seen Saddam Hussein, I guess at least four times now since the war started. We'll put up a full screen showing these various images of Saddam Hussein or an impostor. When the intelligence community looks at these various pictures, how much credence do they give to the actual pictures as opposed to the voice? The voice analysis that they have to look at probably providing even better analysis as to whether or not Saddam Hussein is alive.
ENSOR: Well, Wolf, the voice analysis is the better test for whether it is really the man in question. Saddam is known to have used look-alikes, body doubles, and there's even some reports that one or more of them might have had cosmetic surgery to look more like him, but getting the voice right is more difficult. So this voice analysis that the National Security Agency, presumably, that part of the intelligence community that is specializing in acoustic matters, is now doing. That could be quite revealing and we may have an answer soon as to whether Saddam Hussein is alive or not. It's beginning to look like he is -Wolf. BLITZER: Certainly that's the working assumption. I think that's been the assumption since the first night of this war, even thought they had really strong intelligence that he was some place, but he may have survived that intense bombing on the first night. David Ensor, thanks very much.
And intense bombing is continuing right now in and around the Iraqi capital. Over the past several minutes, we've heard huge explosions rock Baghdad. The huge explosions going after various targets. We are not sure what those targets are, but the bombing is almost nonstop now over the past half hour or so. We're continuing to watch what's happening in the skies over Baghdad, as well as on the ground in and around the Iraqi capital, especially close to the international airport just outside, about 10 miles or so, just outside Baghdad.
If Saddam Hussein is indeed alive, it may be thanks to the bunkers he's built over the years, at least one of which is nearly indestructible, according to some experts. CNN's Renay San Miguel is at the CNN newsroom in Atlanta and has more on that -- Renay.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the coalition air campaign continues to target palaces where they may not only be hiding places for command and control facilities and Republican Guards, but also maybe for Saddam Hussein himself, his two sons, or maybe other Iraqi leaders, and all of this continues to go on even as coalition ground troops knock on the front door of Baghdad itself.
You mentioned that presidential complex in the central part of Baghdad. It was hit before today, it was hit earlier today, and indeed it may be on the target list for this evening, and that's been the pattern since the coalition started this on March 19. But as you just saw David Ensor report, Saddam Hussein has been seen on TV in Iraq twice today. So it may indeed be that he survived that March 19 so-called decapitation strike.
How did he manage that? Well, we have some animation suggesting how that might have happened. If he was in a bunker like this, suggesting by what information we have gleaned from a German construction firm that built it for him at in 1982, at a cost of $150 million. It covers 19,000 square feet; that's bigger than 10 average family houses, two dozen rooms, accessed by stairs or elevators. The ceilings: Six feet thick reinforced concrete. The walls five feet thick. The project's lead engineer told "The Sunday Times of London" that the coalition would have to hit the side with Tomahawk cruise missiles 16 times at the same spot to get through. It has an emergency power supply. Water is constantly recycled. Communication and video links to the outside world. This is why the coalition developed the bunker buster bombs back in the 1991 Gulf War. Those have 1,600 kilograms of explosives. That is supposed to be able to penetrate one meter of concrete or 32 meters of earth. That's the latest from the military desk, Wolf, back over to you.
BLITZER: Renay San Miguel, thanks very much for that report.
Here's your chance to weigh in on the war in Iraq. Today's Web question of the day is this: Do you think today's videotapes of Saddam Hussein prove that he is alive? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Please vote at cnn.com/wolf.
While you're there, I'd like to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column. Cnn.com/wolf.
Time now for a look at where the war stands on the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Today's flash points, the approaches to Baghdad and the main airport southwest of the city. Some areas of the perimeter of the airport heavily contested by Iraqi troops and tanks. They're battling elements of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division coming at U.S. positions with tanks, rocket-propelled grenades, even a suicide bus, but it's a route. CNN's Walter Rodgers reports more than 400 Iraqis killed. No coalition casualties. And U.S. officials say they've got control, renaming the facility Baghdad International Airport.
The allies do take a hit, northwest of Baghdad, near the Haditha dam, an apparent suicide bombing attack by a pregnant woman at a checkpoint leaves at least three U.S. service members dead. Southeast of the capital, on the road between Kut and Baghdad, U.S. Central Command announces some 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guard forces surrendered to U.S. Marines. And Special Forces in western Iraq discovered a site appearing to be a training facility for handling chemical and biological weapons.
In the north, Kurdish forces push toward Mosul, with help from U.S. Special Forces capturing the town of Kazar (ph) after a day of fighting. All this as the main battle line awaits, the heart of Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: U.S. troops could face new dangers tonight after a threat from a top Iraqi official of what this official is calling "unconventional attacks." We're watching Baghdad and the surrounding areas and we'll bring you up to date as soon as we get them. Also from the battle at the main airport to the outskirts of Baghdad, to the relentless push toward the capital by U.S. forces. We'll get updates from our embedded journalists. That's just ahead.
Some of the most riveting scenes of the war so far are coming from that battle at the airport. We'll have some of those incredible raw images to show you, also coming up.
And heart-wrenching scenes from the home front as families say good-bye to loved ones killed on the battlefield.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: This war isn't over yet. There is intense fighting going on. Artillery, as you can just see, also in Baghdad right now, continuous pounding from the skies of various Iraqi positions. Welcome back to our nonstop coverage. We want to show you some of the important work our embedded reporters are bringing us from the front lines. Let's begin with CNN's Walter Rodgers with the Army's 3-7th Cavalry near the Baghdad Airport.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Behind me you're seeing a column of black smoke rising. As darkness falls here in the suburbs of Baghdad, the Iraqis once again become more active. Iraqi irregulars attacking U.S. Army positions, particularly in the area of the 7th Cavalry. Smoke is probably no more than a quarter to a third mile behind me. That smoke is pouring up into the air. It appeared to be a stealthful mission by the Iraqis sneaking up on the U.S. Army unit, which is behind me. The Army saw it quickly, fired on it regularly, but we can hear continuous booming of 120 mm mortars in the background, against attesting that while the U.S. Army controls the Baghdad International Airport, it does not control the hostile areas around the airport and beyond the airport, and indeed the 7th Cavalry, the unit with which I'm embedded, has been receiving some rather hostile fire throughout the day.
There have been periodic lulls, but again, Iraqis are out there, sometimes in force, sometimes with tanks and armored personnel carriers. They have try tried desperately to override the 7th Cavalry's position, but so far with little success.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, with the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry on the outskirts of Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Martin Savidge with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines, they continue to push to the northwest, leaving Al Kut, the critical ridge crossing on the Tigris river, behind us and drawing ever closer now to the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad itself. All along the highway here that runs from Al Kut up to Baghdad. There have been indications of an Iraqi military in retreat. Several things point to that. We have seen a number of destroyed Iraqi weaponry, including T-72 tanks, armored personnel carrier and artillery pieces blown up and shattered along the side of the road. Also, two piles of green uniforms as if those that were wearing them decided it was best to discard them and try to disguise themselves and melt into the civilian population. You will find large patches of those in clumps all along the highway here.
We also passed through an area where it looked like there had been fighting, a large oil facility or oil tank blazing away in the evening darkness there, in the haze and smoke, and the other thing you see, people, Iraqi people coming out along the highway here, watching as the convoys roll past. Many of them drawn to the side, waving, speaking out what English they know, saying hello, saying "I love you," waving, often receiving humanitarian aid in the form of food packets that are distributed by the U.S. Marines as they continue to drive up to the outskirts of Baghdad. No reports of heavy fighting, but indications that there were fighting or instances of fighting along the way. We have passed by a number of fortifications that appear to be abandoned.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: CNN's Martin Savidge, moving closer and closer toward Baghdad, which is continuing to take a pounding tonight as our viewers have been seeing.
Some Iraqis have began taking up arms not to fight U.S. and other coalition forces, but rather to fight beside them. We go now to Nasiriyah, where CNN's Jason Bellini is embedded with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We received permission from a senior officer of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit to report on cooperation that's going on now between U.S. Special Forces and armed Iraqis they've recruited to operate, as they call them, as freedom fighters. The role as described to us by this commander is he says that they are used to help them identify the enemy. Those are his words. They use these freedom fighters to help them identify the enemy.
Yesterday, we were witness to an incident that raised the question for us about their role. We were -- the compound we're in with the Marines came under fire. The Marines here returned fire and began shooting at a pickup truck, and inside the pickup truck the Marines say they saw men with Kalashnikov rifles. They found out later after they were told to stop their firing that these were freedom fighters working with U.S. Special Forces. One of those freedom fighters was injured in the incident very badly, hit in the shoulder, we were told. So that's how we've learned about this cooperation that's now going on here in the city of Nasiriyah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Jason Bellini, one of our embedded journalists, moving closer on the front lines.
For more on the air campaign, let's check in with another one of our embedded journalists, Bob Franken. He's at an air base here in the Persian Gulf, not far from the Iraqi border. I assume it's another hectic night where you are, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hectic, noisy and the numbers are similar to the way they've been the last several days about the combat missions are the ones, of course, that are of primary importance. There are about 900 of those, and the great bulk of them are directed at Republican Guard units. What is different about tonight is the uncertainty about what faces the U.S. troops, particularly those at the airport. So as the planes are taking off here, they are, of course, very aware that they have quite a bit of flexibility, a very typical tactic for an A-10, the anti-tank plane, which has been such an integral part of this war. A typical tactic is to go up and then just hover awaiting instructions. They are very flexible and of course, they will be very much paying attention to the airport to see just exactly what the Iraqis might throw at the coalition troops, and then they'll respond accordingly.
While all this is going on, the Air Force has deepened the planning for the airlift that will accompany humanitarian missions. For obvious reasons, the Air Force will have a big role. That will be going on, of course possibly at the same time this war effort continues -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Bob Franken, he's at an air base not far from Iraq. Thanks, Bob, very much.
And among some of the other images of war we're seeing today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: CNN's Jane Arraf with the Kurdish forces as they battled Iraqi troops in the north. After a day of heavy fighting, the Kurds drove the Iraqis back three miles and seized a small town near Mosul. Battlefield honors for two soldiers who were given the Purple Heart for injuries they suffered in combat. Sergeant Luis Lozera (ph) and Private First Class Kevin Brock (ph) are both with the Army's 101st Airborne division. And the International Red Cross aid pipeline is now flowing. Two trucks filled with medical supplies left Kuwait earlier today for the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Now a recap of some of the latest developments of the war in Iraq. Once again here's CNN's Renay San Miguel.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: Right now we're seeing a bright glow over Baghdad, at least parts of it, where there's been a nonstop pounding by U.S. air strikes, not only in the central part of the city, once again, but of course, in the outskirts as well. We also have some videotape that we just got in. I want to play that video right now, what's been happening in the Iraqi capital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: If you're just joining us, Iraq is promising, threatening to strike back against U.S. forces tonight in an unconventional way. We don't know what they mean. We're watching. It is possible so-called martyrs could attack U.S.-led troops. Coming up, we'll speak with the former defense secretary, William Cohen about this possibility, but first for the latest headlines, we go back to the CNN newsroom and CNN's Fredricka Whitfield.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: If our viewers are just joining us, in the last several moments we've seen heavy explosions rocking all parts of the Iraqi capital, center city in Baghdad, as well as the outskirts, as well as sites not far from the international airport. It used to be called Saddam International Airport; now the U.S. Central Command has renamed that airport Baghdad International Airport. It is under control of U.S. forces, but not far from the airport, there's still potential for heavy, heavy fighting. Two of Iraq's six Republican Guard divisions, according to the Pentagon, have been effectively destroyed, but the other four still have significant capabilities and they still remain encircled around Baghdad. There's still the Special Republican Guard units inside Baghdad, as well as the so-called Fedayeen Saddam. We're going to be watching all of these developments to see what unfolds over the next several minutes.
In the meantime, the White House says the days of the Iraqi regime are numbered, and it's already looking ahead, making plans for rebuilding Iraq. Those plans will be discussed at a summit meeting next week. Let's go live to our senior White House correspondent, John King -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, as the shooting and the bombing continues, you're right, White House officials say more urgency now focused on who will run a post-war Iraq? What would an interim Iraqi authority look like? President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, it was announced today, will have a summit Monday and Tuesday in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr. Bush left the White House earlier today, he is up to Camp David. White House insisting that those shedding the blood, meaning the United States and its coalition allies, will take the lead role in running a post-war Iraq. That means General Tommy Franks will be in charge. His deputy and running a new civil administration would be a retired Army general, Jay Garner (ph). Scores of officials from the U.S. government would go in to try to get the electricity up, the water running, the phone systems back, the roads and bridges repaired. But U.S. officials say they will move as quickly as possible to create what they are calling an interim Iraqi authority. That would include exiles and dissidents, it will include Kurds from the north, Sunni Muslims from the south, and White House officials hope as many officials as possible from the current Iraqi bureaucracy, so long as they are not clearly defined as Saddam Hussein loyalists.
Secretary of State Powell says this new interim authority must be as broad based as possible if it is to have any legitimacy with the Iraqi people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We want an interim authority that is representative of all the groups that have an interest in the future of Iraq. And as I've on many occasions, we wanted to include those who were in the external opposition, who have worked so long and so hard and with such determination for the liberation of Iraq, but also individuals inside, and we are now putting together plans to structure that approach, and in due course we'll make it known to everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: President Bush met with some Iraqi exiles here at the White House today to seek their advice as he prepares for the meeting with Tony Blair Monday and Tuesday. One key point of disagreement still between Washington and London, what kind of role will the United Nations have. Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, insisting the U.S. will take the leading role in the short term. She says there will be a role for the United Nations, but it is clear that Prime Minister Blair and other European leaders want a much broader, much more authoritative role from the United Nations from day one after the shooting stops. That will be an urgent item on the agenda for that summit next week -- Wolf.
BLITZER: A very complex issue, challenge facing the Bush administration. Thanks, John, for that report.
And as the U.S. military consolidates its control of Baghdad's International Airport, it's eying yet another strategic objective, Iraqi television, which is being used by the regime of Saddam Hussein to maintain its grip on power. Let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the U.S. military at the Baghdad airport is busy trying to secure the location. It's a vast complex, including underground tunnels. It is going to take a few days, they say, to make sure it's all secure. Meanwhile, as you said, the U.S. military is eying another objective.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Saddam International Airport has been renamed Baghdad International by U.S. troops who now hold the strategic real estate just 12 miles from the city center. Though still under fire from Iraqi forces, Pentagon officials say the airport will soon be a key fire base from which the U.S. can expand its attacks on the Iraqi capital.
MAJ. GEN. STAN MCCHRYSTAL, JOINT STAFF DEPUTY DIR.: It's a great location in the southwest portion of Baghdad to allow us to posture ourselves around the city or to move into the city.
MCINTYRE: Nearby are three palace complexes, all considered regime command and control facilities and legitimate military targets. And once the entire perimeter is secure and more troops and attack helicopters can be brought in, the U.S. can use the vast airport complex as a launching pad for commando-style raids on centers of gravity for the regime. And one objective that, like the airport has both strategic and symbolic value, is Iraqi television.
MCCHRYSTAL: The regime determined early on that one of the primary mechanisms for controlling the population and exerting coercion was through its media.
MCINTYRE: Whether or not the most recent tapes showing Saddam Hussein addressing the Iraqi people and mingling with adoring crowds on the streets of Baghdad are real or fake, the effect is the same, sending a convincing message his regime is still in power. The U.S. has repeatedly targeted television transmitters and satellite dishes, but while the signal goes down from time to time, it always comes back.
MCCHRYSTAL: It has a very redundant system, starting with fixed sites to include mobile vans that it uses to put out its signal.
MCINTYRE: Still, bomb damage may have knocked out local broadcasts and limited Iraq to sending satellite signals abroad. And with the power out in parts of Baghdad, it's not clear how many Iraqis are watching, but until the television transmissions are controlled by the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi people will not believe the claims of the United States.
VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: The regime is fooling nobody and the end is inevitable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: There may be another reason, Wolf, that the U.S. is having trouble knocking Iraqi television off the air. Iraq may have moved some of the backup operations to a nearby Baghdad hotel where foreign journalists are working, effectively using them as human shields -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thanks, Jamie, very much. And please stay with us. We have much more coverage coming up, where we're watching what's happening right now over Baghdad, in the last few minutes, yet more explosions. And will the Iraqis follow through on an ominous threat from one of their leaders of an unconventional attack that's supposedly coming up tonight? We'll discuss that threat and the new television images of Saddam Hussein. Was it really him? We'll hear directly from former Defense Secretary William Cohen. And other images you won't want to miss, scenes from today's ferocious battle at the Baghdad International Airport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's a look at some of the other battle scenes from the war in Iraq. Near the capital, fierce fighting continues at the former Saddam International Airport, which coalition forces have renamed Baghdad International Airport. CNN's Walter Rodgers reports more than 400 Iraqi soldiers have been killed with no reported coalition casualties.
U.S. Marines pounded Republican Guard divisions near Baghdad. U.S. military officials say as many as 2,500 have surrendered while others have been forced to reposition or retreat into the city. And in northern Iraq, heavy bombing has been reported around Mosul. Kurdish fighters have seized one nearby town and continue to push toward the city with the help of U.S. Special Forces. Now Back to that battle for control of Baghdad's International Airport. We want to share with you one scene in particular that captures the difficulty and the danger the troops have been taking in a critical mission. Take a look and listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm giving orders, shoot that thing. The javelin will not lock onto them. Hey, you need to move up closer. All the way to the guardrail. Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to the guardrail. Right over the top of that that pole, next to that -- right to that guard tower, that's where they are. Let's go. Get them. Do you see them? Come on, baby. He's right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I already hit one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's something wrong with the missile.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, put it down. Bring it over here. Bring it over here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, this one's messed up.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, come on, let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got a sight on it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, this one's jammed!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're moving. They're (EXPLETIVE DELETED) moving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see that split between those two trees? Look to the right of the guard tower. That's where they are. You see them?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot it!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: It's about as dramatic as it gets. You don't get to see those kinds of pictures very often. The U.S. Central Command today said coalition forces found boxes containing unidentified powder and liquid in a facility near Baghdad, calling the discovery, and I'm quoting now, "an item of interest."
The U.S. Command said that another site found by Special Forces in western Iraq appears to have been a training facility for handling chemical and biological weapons. Central Command is warning that weapons of mass destruction may have been brought into the Baghdad area. U.S. troops not very far away from there right now.
Iraq's information minister said today Iraq won't use weapons of mass destruction, but he did say U.S. forces will face something that is not conventional. That's a direct quote. And he says that will come tonight. We're waiting and watching. This comes from the information minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, and it also comes as new broadcasts seems to show Saddam Hussein still in charge.
Joining me now from Washington to discuss these developments, the former secretary of defense, William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, what's your bottom line assessment on this war? Right now the state of where the U.S. military is?
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think there has been remarkable success in terms of being able to move this fast, this far with moderate to light resistance, certainly in terms of anticipation has been truly a remarkable story on the part of our military. We ought to be extraordinarily proud of the people who are over there fighting this war now. They've done just a tremendous job, both from the planning point of view and the execution. Right now we are coming to the hard part, and that is the question of what to do about Baghdad itself, and you were reporting earlier that the information minister as such has issued a threat. It may be idle, but I think that we dismiss threats, be they idle or not, at our peril and take it into account. And I'm sure that the forces have been prepared for this. It might involve a chemical or biological agent, it might involve suicide bombers, it may be a mass suicide situation, in terms of a movement upon the airport. We have to be prepared for all of that.
BLITZER: Everybody has always assumed that the battle for Baghdad would be the most difficult and dangerous part of the war. Was that assumption correct, do you think?
COHEN: I think it's still -- yes, the assessment -- I think there was the anticipation that if an extremist, so to speak, Saddam, was faced with the loss of Baghdad, he would pull whatever divisions he had remaining back to Baghdad and make a last stand there, and it does present certainly a challenge for us, one that cannot be overcome, but one which we will have to take into account, looking at how many casualties will be involved from a civilian point of view as well as our own forces. I suspect, Wolf, what may take place is that we will see a number of probes on the part of the United States, and if I can use the metaphor, checking to see whether it's a hard boiled or a soft boiled egg, and if these probes start to indicate it's quite soft boiled as such and easy to crack, then that would be one option for General Franks and his people to pursue. If it's hard boiled, it is going to take a different tactic and a different strategy in terms of dealing with it, but I'm convinced, as we have been, that ultimately the United States will be successful because of its overwhelming military superiority.
BLITZER: Even as we watch these pictures of Baghdad, continuing to take a pointing tonight. More air strikes, more explosions. We earlier in the day saw Saddam Hussein make a speech on television. A lot of people believe that was, in fact, Saddam Hussein and they also believe it was done since the first night of the war. A lot of suspicion about the second videotape, which showed him walking into a crowd. What's your assessment? Is he alive, in control of the Iraqi regime?
COHEN: Well, I really have no idea whether he's alive or dead. I think we have to assume for the moment, at least, that he is alive, but take into account that his leadership is slowly but surely being dismembered. And so it's almost like watching a digital picture, so to speak, disintegrate over a fairly short period of time. We are seeing in a two-week period much of that command, control, leadership capability being dismembered by the military forces, and so whether he is still alive, presiding over a very diminished military, or whether he is no longer alive and you have those who are subordinate to him carrying on out of the last acts of desperation, I don't think it will really ultimately make the difference.
BLITZER: Secretary Cohen, as usual, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.
COHEN: OK.
BLITZER: And we are monitoring the battle lines near Baghdad to see if Iraq follows through on a threat made earlier today to launch an unconventional attack on U.S.-led forces later tonight. We'll bring you the very latest on that when it happens.
Also, just ahead, some of the most emotional scenes from the war. The final good-byes to those who have fallen.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK).
BLITZER: The Associated Press moving a bulletin just now, Sergeant Hassan Akbar, remember him from the 101st Airborne Division, accused of rolling hand grenades into a tent, killing two U.S. soldiers, fellow soldiers. He has now been charged with murder in that hand grenade attack here in Kuwait a couple of weeks ago. We'll continue to monitor that story.
More wounded U.S. forces arrived this morning at a U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany. The Army says 13 injured personnel were flown 10 hours from Kuwait. Many, if not all, will be treated at the nearby Landstuhl hospital, the largest American military hospital outside the United States.
And even as we speak, there are yet more explosions over the Iraqi capital. You are taking a look at live pictures of Baghdad unfolding right now.
With each passing day of this war, many heartbroken Americans are pausing to say a final good-bye to the loved ones killed on the battlefields of Iraq.
Far away from the battlefield, perhaps in your hometown, there are families grieving. At a high school gym in Mobile, Alabama, a memorial service for Private First Class Howard Johnson, Jr., just 21 years old. He died in what the Pentagon called an ambush, along with that now famous Army maintenance unit. Howard Johnson, Jr., now remembered from more innocent days.
In (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Connecticut, a Marine honor guard, a somber procession, the funeral of Gunnery Sergeant Phillip Jordan, killed in what the U.S. says was a fake surrender at Nasiriyah. When Jordan's 6-year-old son Tyler found out his father had been killed, Tyler refused to eat.
About half the town of Powell, Wyoming came out for the funeral of Marine Lieutenant Shane Childers. Childers had a military career in his sights, leaving his tiny village to attend the Citadel. Now he's home. Two other Marines had almost no fanfare and were not even American citizens when they died in combat. Corporate Jose Garibay and Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez spent their last hours alive as immigrant foreign nationals. They're Americans now. The country they fought for granted them citizenship after they died.
And according to the Associated Press, the U.S. went to war with the -- with this armed forces that included some 38, 000 soldiers who are not U.S. citizens. Thousands more are in the reserves. Last summer, President Bush added a new perk to enlistment, immediate eligibility to apply for citizenship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's old- fashioned recruiting...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're a single mom?
Are you ready, man?
GUTIERREZ: ... in time of war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys citizens?
GUTIERREZ: Now, the U.S. government has sweetened a deal for non-citizens willing to enlist. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And one other reason to probably join the Army is to get your citizenship.
GUTIERREZ: It's the ultimate price for 17-year-old Elsa Jaime. She's a Mexican citizen who has lived in Los Angeles legally since she was a baby. But she's always dreamed of becoming a U.S. citizen.
ELSA JAIME, POTENTIAL RECRUIT: My mom struggled to get me here as an immigrant. She crossed the border running, and now we're here. So she struggled, and now I should thank America for everything it's gave me.
GUTIERREZ: If Elsa joins up, she'll be on the fast-track toward citizenship, but the offer is only open to legal residents, those who have green cards, not the undocumented.
The Executive Order was signed by the president last year.
HARRY PACHON, THOMAS RIVERA POLICY INSTITUTE: It's a significant factor when you consider that there's maybe like close to 4 percent of the nation's armed forces are green card soldiers. So it is about 40,000 troops right now are green card holders and not U.S. citizens.
GUTIERREZ: Another advantage to a enlisting? A college education for Elsa, one she cannot afford.
JAIME: I would like to enlist. I'm a little bit scared about the war that's going on and stuff, but I would like to enlist for one of the main reasons to go to Pepperdine University.
GUTIERREZ: A picture of the private university hangs on her wall.
(on camera): It looks as though you have these things up in your room to kind of remind you of what your goals are.
JAIME: Yes, they do. They show me what I'm going towards every morning that I wake up.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Perhaps the dream of citizenship and a better life were reasons Private 1st Class Jose Gutierrez, a Guatemalan citizen, and Jose Garibay of Mexico enlisted. Both died in the war and have been granted citizenship posthumously.
CHRYSTAL GARIBAY, SISTER: Yes, they made by brother a citizen. Everybody is happy. But we know he deserved it.
GUTIERREZ: Elsa knows the danger and that she, too, could make the ultimate sacrifice. She says it's a risk she's willing to take for her dreams of becoming somebody in this country.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And do you think today's videotapes of Saddam Hussein prove that he's alive? America's getting ready to vote on our Web question of the day. The results in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Do you think today's videotapes of Saddam Hussein prove he's alive? Thirty-two percent of you said yes, 68 percent of you said no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
Finally, this very sad personal note on the death of the first American correspondent killed in the war. Michael Kelly was a great journalist. Over the years, I covered many stories him. He did a brilliant job covering the first Gulf War a dozen years ago. His columns in more recent years were, as far as I was concerned, must reading. In recent weeks, he was one of those embedded journalists who decided to risk their lives to cover this war for all of us. Michael didn't have to do it, but he wanted to do it. Reporting was his passion, and he and his work will be sorely missed. My heart goes out to his wife Madeleine (ph) and his two little boys, Tom and Jack. Michael Kelly was only 46 years old.
Lou Dobbs is standing by to pick up our coverage. I'll be back in one hour for two more hours of special coverage with Paula Zahn. Here's Lou.
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