ABC News - Iraq War - 2003-03-20 - 7 p.m. (E)
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] This is ABC News continuing live
[0:01] coverage of the war with Iraq.
[0:12] I'm Peter Jennings at ABC News
[0:14] headquarters in New York. You are seeing
[0:16] what would normally be for some parts of
[0:18] the country ABC's World News Tonight,
[0:20] but as you can tell, our coverage has
[0:22] been continuing for many hours and will
[0:24] continue for many hours more. But just
[0:27] to begin this particular period at 7:00
[0:30] Eastern time, um 4:00 in the Pacific
[0:34] time zone, a brief review of the day's
[0:37] developments and the US war against
[0:40] Iraq. As of now, US and British forces
[0:42] launched a new round of cruise missile
[0:44] attacks at government facilities in
[0:47] Baghdad. They were launched both from
[0:49] the Persian Gulf and from the Red Sea,
[0:52] both by ships and by submarines, both by
[0:55] the American forces and by the British
[0:58] forces as well. And then US-led forces
[1:01] in Kuwait launched a ground assault
[1:03] against Iraq. We've most recently heard
[1:05] that the Third Infantry Division has
[1:06] begun to move within the last few
[1:08] moments. There are or last few minutes
[1:11] anyway. And there are reports denied by
[1:13] Iraq and not confirmed by US command
[1:16] that the Iraqi port town of Um Kaser
[1:19] which is just below Basra on your map
[1:21] there has been captured. That's the FA
[1:23] Peninsula as they call it there. That is
[1:24] Iraq's only access to the sea. US
[1:28] artillery units we do know from Kuwait
[1:30] and on the line of departure as it's
[1:32] called fired on Iraqi positions during
[1:34] this initial assault and we are told
[1:36] from our reporters in the field there
[1:38] was reportedly not much opposition. The
[1:41] US is still updating and trying to
[1:43] assess the damage it caused from last
[1:45] night's cruise missile attacks on
[1:48] Baghdad. Mostly cruise missile, but
[1:50] F-17s used in the early attack against
[1:53] the leadership compound. Um they're
[1:56] clearly going after the Iraqi
[1:58] leadership, including one hoped, Saddam
[2:00] Hussein. It's unclear if any of the
[2:03] leaders were killed. Saddam Hussein
[2:05] appears to have shown up on Iraqi
[2:08] television subsequently and most of the
[2:10] intelligent agencies who have been
[2:12] analyzing his picture on television have
[2:14] decided that it was him. Iraq says that
[2:17] one person died in the attack. We are
[2:19] getting some footage out of Baghdad now
[2:23] from two of the Arab news agencies, one
[2:25] belonging to Saudi Arabia and one based
[2:28] in Qatar, which shows that there were
[2:30] people who were reportedly wounded in
[2:32] these attacks taken to the local
[2:33] hospitals, but we have no sense of
[2:36] numbers now, whether they are civilians
[2:38] or not. And this morning, uh, as you've
[2:41] heard perhaps a couple of times, Iraq
[2:43] fired several missiles into Kuwait. They
[2:45] were not Scud missiles as earlier
[2:47] reported. The US says that two of them
[2:49] were knocked down by the US Patriot
[2:51] missiles, the mobile anti-missile
[2:54] missile batteries which move with US
[2:56] troops as they go forward in some cases.
[2:58] One landed near a military camp in
[3:00] Kuwait, and nobody has been injured in
[3:03] that. And there were a couple of
[3:04] helicopters down, US helicopters down,
[3:06] but there were no injuries in either
[3:08] case. In one case, the helicopter was
[3:11] repaired and went on its mission again.
[3:13] In the other case, it was destroyed by
[3:15] US forces and that was in the western
[3:17] desert. Now to the White House to the
[3:20] day at the White House and our White
[3:22] House correspondent, Terry Moran. Terry,
[3:24] >> Peter, there's been a lot of activity
[3:26] here and a sense of exhilaration among a
[3:29] lot of the people you talked to. One
[3:31] official said there's a huge sense of
[3:33] relief now that the waiting is over and
[3:36] at least the very initial stages of the
[3:38] war seem to be progressing. The
[3:40] president having launched this war is
[3:43] now pressing it forward in a determined
[3:45] and deliberate fashion on the military
[3:48] front, on the diplomatic front, and on
[3:50] the financial front. The
[3:52] commander-in-chief meeting with his
[3:53] cabinet on day one of the war praised
[3:56] the troops now facing danger on his
[3:58] orders.
[3:59] >> There's no question we've set the finest
[4:00] of our citizens in the harm's way. They
[4:03] perform with great skill and great
[4:06] bravery.
[4:08] We thank them. We thank their loved
[4:10] ones. We appreciate their sacrifice.
[4:13] >> And the president, who was cool and tur
[4:15] during the brief session with reporters,
[4:17] sought to reassure the American public.
[4:19] >> This cabinet is confident about the
[4:22] future of our country. We're confident
[4:24] we can achieve our objectives.
[4:27] I'm grateful for their service to their
[4:28] country.
[4:29] >> Earlier, first thing this morning, the
[4:31] president's war council gathered at the
[4:33] White House. The number one item on
[4:35] their agenda, assessing the strike
[4:37] launched last night aimed at Saddam
[4:39] Hussein. Administration officials at
[4:41] first had high hopes the missiles had
[4:43] hit their targets, but later tamped down
[4:45] that speculation.
[4:47] With US troops now engaged alongside
[4:50] British and Australian forces, but
[4:52] without the combat support of any other
[4:54] nation, the White House sought to send a
[4:56] very public message about how broad the
[4:58] president's 40nation ad hoc coalition of
[5:01] the willing is. All told, the population
[5:04] of the coalition of the willing is
[5:06] approximately 1.18 billion people around
[5:09] the world. The coalition countries have
[5:11] a combined GDP
[5:13] of approximately 21.7 trillion.
[5:17] Every major race, religion, and ethnic
[5:19] group in the world is represented.
[5:21] >> The president also launched a diplomatic
[5:23] war today, asking 68 countries around
[5:26] the world to expel Iraqi diplomats and
[5:28] cease dealing with the current regime.
[5:30] and the administration sought to
[5:32] dismantle Saddam's government by
[5:33] ordering the seizure of $1.4 billion
[5:36] dollars in Iraqi assets frozen after the
[5:39] first Gulf War.
[5:40] >> We are today directing a worldwide hunt
[5:46] for the blood money that Saddam Hussein
[5:50] and his associates have stolen from the
[5:55] Iraqi people.
[5:57] The bottom line, the US government is
[5:59] now in complete control of that $1.4
[6:02] billion dollar in frozen US assets, and
[6:05] it will be used by General Tommy Franks
[6:07] and his team to rebuild Iraq when the
[6:09] Americans take over the country. And one
[6:11] more item, Peter, on the humanitarian
[6:14] front, the administration is also
[6:15] moving. They're releasing 600 million
[6:17] tons of grain from an emergency grain
[6:19] reserve in order to address what is
[6:21] expected to be a very serious
[6:23] humanitarian emergency. Many thanks
[6:25] Terry Moran at the White House in the
[6:27] White House press office this evening.
[6:28] Now let's go back to this uh to this
[6:31] invasion from the south. Uh there's a
[6:33] dispatch from the British a short while
[6:34] ago which says among other things the
[6:37] seventh parachute regiment, the Royal
[6:38] Horse Artillery crossed the border a
[6:40] couple of hours ago headed for the oil
[6:43] refineries near Basra. And the reporter
[6:45] who is embedded with them and is is u is
[6:48] is apparently getting information said
[6:50] that they believe in that unit that the
[6:52] invasion was brought forward because of
[6:54] a threat from the Iraqis to do damage in
[6:57] the oil fields. This is Ramaya field
[6:59] that we've been talking about which is
[7:01] quite near Basra in the eastern part of
[7:02] the country and where there may be fires
[7:05] underway in the oil field at the moment.
[7:08] But the lightweight guns of the Marines
[7:10] were called forward according to this
[7:11] report by the US. They believe it's the
[7:14] start of the ground campaign and much
[7:16] farther ahead than it was meant to be.
[7:18] This was all supposed to be happening.
[7:20] They their reporting says on Saturday,
[7:23] but they had heard today that Saddam
[7:24] Hussein had probably set fire to the oil
[7:26] refineries at Raila just the other side
[7:29] of the border. And the primary objective
[7:31] of this British component of the
[7:34] coalition forces, which are basically
[7:35] the British and the Americans, was to
[7:38] take a hold of those refineries there so
[7:41] they could not be damaged in any last
[7:44] minute bid to
[7:46] to somehow defend uh himself against the
[7:50] US attack. Uh our military consultant,
[7:53] our permanent one, Tony Cordisman, can
[7:55] answer some questions about this. Tony,
[7:56] just if you wouldn't mind giving us in
[7:58] four-letter words what we think may be
[7:59] going on at the moment.
[8:02] >> Well, Peter, I think it is fairly clear
[8:04] that we're watching the beginning of a
[8:06] major land invasion and probably with it
[8:09] the kind of air campaign we've heard. It
[8:11] may not be beginning now. It may wait
[8:13] till it's dark inside Iraq again, but if
[8:17] we look at the map, we can see where our
[8:19] divisions are. Some of them are moving
[8:22] north into the area of Basra, but the
[8:24] main line of advance is probably headed
[8:27] up here. Now, although this looks like
[8:29] there are a lot of Iraqi forces, in
[8:32] fact, these are all lowgrade regular
[8:35] divisions. And indeed, in even as we
[8:38] move north, we may go very quickly
[8:41] either to the west of the rivers or up
[8:43] through the main lines there. We don't
[8:45] hit the Republican guards till we get
[8:48] into this area here. So the next day
[8:51] could have some very very quick advances
[8:54] at least in the south.
[8:55] >> So Tony, turn away from your map there
[8:57] for just a second and just and just talk
[8:59] to me for a second. So what's it like uh
[9:01] on the border with this huge force of
[9:03] Americans being told a to get up and get
[9:06] moving. We know the Marine Expeditionary
[9:08] Force moved and now the infantry
[9:09] divisions. How difficult is that? What
[9:12] is it? What does it involve? Do they
[9:13] move like a snail or do they move
[9:15] faster?
[9:16] >> I think they're going to move very
[9:17] quickly. They have to move at the rate
[9:20] really dictated by some of the slowest
[9:22] vehicles, but that today is sometimes 20
[9:26] to 30 m an hour in unopposed territory.
[9:30] There are not water barriers until they
[9:33] move further north crossing the border.
[9:35] There are some terrain problems, some
[9:38] low hills, potentially some light Iraqi
[9:41] resistance. I think the real problem for
[9:43] many people is going to be the fear that
[9:46] this is the time Iraq might use chemical
[9:49] weapons. They're concentrated. There are
[9:51] good targets. If Iraq has those weapons
[9:54] forward, it either has to use them or
[9:57] lose them as we advance. Now, there was
[9:59] one piece of reporting from the front
[10:01] earlier today that they'd been going
[10:02] after an Iraqi position on, as you point
[10:04] out, the sort of the one hill just
[10:06] across the border, uh, which had been
[10:08] used as a spotting position in the east
[10:10] where the Marines were going forward.
[10:12] There are some land obstacles, if not
[10:14] hugely significant. How do forces deal
[10:16] with them?
[10:18] >> Well, at least initially, they may be
[10:20] able to seize the bridges. There's one
[10:22] major bridging exercise till you get
[10:25] into the road junctions around there.
[10:27] But the fact is Peter that until they go
[10:31] into the area around Basra which is
[10:34] filled with canals and water barriers or
[10:37] they have to go north and east of Basra.
[10:41] There are relatively limited numbers of
[10:43] bridging problems, a limited number of
[10:46] choke points.
[10:47] >> Why is Omaser important there on the
[10:49] Shatal Arab on that one waterway?
[10:52] Well, there is one water crossing there.
[10:54] Um, is also important, however, as is FA
[10:59] because when we look at the economic
[11:01] impact of this war, part of the fear we
[11:04] see is tankers, other ships being
[11:07] unwilling to move until they know there
[11:09] won't be mines, there won't be problems
[11:12] with oil spills, there won't be
[11:14] anti-hship missiles. So when we can
[11:16] secure the coast, secure these oil
[11:19] areas, then I think the world markets
[11:22] are going to be a great deal more
[11:23] reassured than perhaps they are right
[11:25] now.
[11:26] >> Yes, it's very interesting. you're going
[11:27] to take us uh thank you very much Tony
[11:30] uh for for bringing us up and you and
[11:31] you bring us to a very important issue
[11:34] now uh which is the economy of this
[11:36] today because I heard it said ABC's
[11:38] Betsy Stark our business correspondent
[11:39] today that the stock market and the oil
[11:43] market today were just absolutely
[11:44] responding bang bang bang bang bang to
[11:46] the headlines right
[11:47] >> hostage to the headlines Peter in both
[11:49] cases I mean and and wild girrations in
[11:52] each I mean let's talk first about uh
[11:54] the oil market if you want reports early
[11:56] this morning that some those Iraqi oil
[11:58] wells might be on fire uh sent oil
[12:00] prices higher and uh that was the worst
[12:04] fear of traders that there might be
[12:06] Saddam might set uh those oil fields on
[12:09] fire there might be a disruption of oil
[12:10] supplies and it wasn't until there was
[12:12] no confirmation of those reports and
[12:15] there was a sense that if it was true
[12:17] there were only four wells burning that
[12:19] would be fairly limited damage we heard
[12:21] today from the Saudis who reassured us
[12:23] that they would be willing to make up
[12:24] for any loss of production and the
[12:26] energy secretary said if we have to we
[12:28] will tap the strategic petroleum reserve
[12:30] that settled the oil markets.
[12:32] >> Would you like to go on with your
[12:32] economics report in general now?
[12:35] >> Absolutely. Um the cost of this war is
[12:37] an economic issue. It's an issue of
[12:39] national priorities and it's a political
[12:41] issue. The Bush administration so far
[12:43] has refused to say what it thinks the
[12:45] war will cost, but the bill started
[12:47] mounting long before the fighting began.
[12:52] Getting the military's high-tech arsenal
[12:54] halfway around the world along with
[12:56] 250,000 troops has been a roughly $13
[13:00] billion undertaking.
[13:01] >> This is more armored vehicles than I've
[13:03] ever seen, more vehicles than I've
[13:05] probably ever seen in one place.
[13:06] >> And the monthly cost of maintaining this
[13:08] force is expected to be around 9
[13:10] billion.
[13:12] A lot of the costs are very kind of
[13:14] mundane costs like bringing in food, uh
[13:16] building laundry facilities for troops
[13:18] in the region, uh paying uh combat pay
[13:20] for military personnel, activating the
[13:22] reserves,
[13:24] >> everything that will be used in this war
[13:26] has been bought and paid for already.
[13:28] From the $55 bullets and million dollar
[13:31] cruise missiles
[13:33] to the $4 billion aircraft carriers and
[13:36] the $50 million jets on board.
[13:40] But what taxpayers may not realize is
[13:42] that many things will have to be paid
[13:44] for again.
[13:45] >> One of the costs of the war will be
[13:46] replacing uh equipment we lose in combat
[13:49] or an accidents.
[13:51] >> How expensive the fighting part of the
[13:53] war is depends on the intensity of
[13:55] battle and how long it lasts. The
[13:57] estimates range from $18 billion for a
[14:00] one-mon war to $85 billion for a
[14:03] six-month war. Sound expensive? It's
[14:06] probably the cheap part. What makes this
[14:08] war potentially expensive is the number
[14:11] of years that we might be in occupation.
[14:13] >> Securing the peace in Iraq is expected
[14:15] to cost far more than waging the war.
[14:18] It's a process likely to require
[14:20] thousands of American troops and up to a
[14:23] decade of reconstruction and
[14:24] humanitarian aid.
[14:26] >> We're talking about as much as $50
[14:27] billion a year for 10 years. Well, you
[14:30] can see that gets very expensive and
[14:31] dwarfs dramatically the cost of the
[14:34] combat phase. Some wonder if the nation
[14:36] can afford this war and everything else
[14:38] on the president's agenda.
[14:40] >> We can afford a war. We can afford
[14:42] domestic programs. We can afford tax
[14:45] cuts. The problem is we probably can't
[14:47] afford them all at once.
[14:50] >> Whatever this war costs, and remember
[14:52] this time the United States is defending
[14:53] itself on the home front, too. It will
[14:55] add to a $250 billion deficit. And this
[14:59] time, Peter, of course, there are no
[15:00] allies promising to foot part of the
[15:02] bill. There will be an effort I think
[15:03] from the Bush administration to get this
[15:05] international community of the willing
[15:06] now to participate in in in the
[15:08] reconstruction. When you talk to traders
[15:10] and dealers and whatnot on on the street
[15:12] in the last couple days, what do they
[15:13] think about a short war, longer war, and
[15:16] a long war?
[15:17] >> Well, they're clearly betting on a very
[15:18] short and very successful war, which is
[15:20] why you saw the Dow up 800 points uh in
[15:23] the past week. And while oil prices have
[15:26] come down from almost $40 a barrel to
[15:29] $28 a barrel. So, uh, the market's
[15:31] getting ahead of itself here. Uh, but
[15:34] that's what that's what they're counting
[15:35] on at the moment.
[15:36] >> The oil market generally is one of the
[15:38] most explosive markets and emotional
[15:39] markets in the world, isn't it?
[15:41] >> Absolutely. I mean, and the stock
[15:42] market, too. And war fears have uh had
[15:45] been driving stock prices down, oil
[15:46] prices up. Now, these sort of, you know,
[15:49] this hopeful sense that it will be it'll
[15:51] be short, it'll be a quick decisive
[15:52] victory is what's calmed the markets.
[15:55] But, uh, markets react to extremes on
[15:57] either side. I think that's part of what
[15:59] we're seeing now. Clearly they're
[16:00] getting ahead of themselves.
[16:00] >> Will you lead me right into the stock
[16:02] market? Thank you very much indeed for
[16:03] this. Betsy Stark on Wall Street today.
[16:04] The markets did indeed as Betsy said
[16:06] move up and down with the with the news
[16:08] from Iraq and by the end of trading some
[16:10] investors took the ground offensive by
[16:12] the US as an indication that war with
[16:14] Iraq will be shorter as Betsy said
[16:16] rather than longer. And the Dow Jones
[16:18] Industrial Average was at the end of the
[16:19] day up 21 points to close at 82.86.
[16:23] On the NASDAQ stocks gained more than
[16:26] five points. Um we have been getting uh
[16:30] some video in from Baghdad at the moment
[16:32] from both Al Arabia which is a new
[16:34] television cable
[16:37] satellite network in the Middle East
[16:39] funded in Saudi Arabia and now you have
[16:42] two Alabia from Saudi Arabia and Al
[16:44] Jazzer uh which is owned by the Qataris
[16:47] where central command is located. Uh we
[16:49] cannot tell you what these pictures
[16:51] represent except some poor child has
[16:53] been hurt. We do not know how, but they
[16:55] are reporting tonight that 37 people
[16:57] have been injured uh in the course of
[17:00] attacks on Baghdad today. And that is
[17:03] all we can tell you. It's a little out
[17:05] of context, but there it is. But Richard
[17:07] Engel is in Baghdad again, and this is
[17:10] his compilation of the last few hours
[17:12] there.
[17:15] >> Peter, the air raid sirens signal that
[17:17] for the second night in a row, Baghdad
[17:19] came under attack by cruise missiles.
[17:22] This time it was more intense. The
[17:24] targets were mainly government ministry
[17:26] buildings, including one associated with
[17:28] the interior ministry. After the first
[17:31] night of bombing, Saddam Hussein or
[17:33] someone who looks just like him,
[17:34] appeared on uh the Iraqi television and
[17:37] delivered a message to uh of support,
[17:40] calling on the Arab world and Muslim
[17:42] world to rally behind Iraq and support
[17:44] what he called their jihad against the
[17:47] evil little Bush, to use his uh his
[17:50] terminology. Then there was a tour
[17:52] organized by the uh government
[17:54] information ministry uh taken to
[17:56] hospitals shown people who are
[17:58] reportedly injured in the uh the latest
[18:01] uh series of bombing raids. The streets
[18:04] of Baghdad are quiet in general. There
[18:07] are sandbags and there are more and more
[18:09] soldiers on the streets. People do
[18:11] however go out during the day and uh try
[18:14] and do whatever shopping they need to
[18:16] do. Now that very few stores are open.
[18:18] Most Iraqis are are calm. they they
[18:21] they've been living under war for a long
[18:23] time and uh it doesn't seem that uh this
[18:26] says these bombing raids although they
[18:28] have a psychological effect on a lot of
[18:29] people who aren't used to it. I think
[18:31] for the Iraqis so far they seem to be
[18:33] quite calm about the whole thing. Peter
[18:35] >> calm so far anyway. Thank you very much
[18:37] Richard Engel in Baghdad again where it
[18:39] is now 20 minutes after 3 uh in the
[18:43] morning. Let's return to this question
[18:44] of homeland security here. We talked a
[18:46] little earlier to Pierre Thomas about
[18:48] the be on the lookout for a man who they
[18:51] were very interested in having a handle
[18:54] on today because there may be some
[18:56] connections with al-Qaeda but for law
[18:58] enforcement generally with this campaign
[19:01] beginning. It has been a very busy day
[19:02] all across the country. We go back to
[19:04] Washington and Pierre Thomas. Pierre
[19:06] >> Peter, it's been a very intense day and
[19:08] tonight the FBI is racing to find any
[19:10] hint of an attack by al-Qaeda or agents
[19:14] of Saddam Hussein.
[19:16] The FBI today issued an all points
[19:18] bulletin for this man, Adnan Alshuk
[19:21] Reima. Sources tell ABC News the FBI
[19:24] suspects he is an al-Qaeda member who
[19:26] may be planning an attack against the
[19:28] US. He is described by law enforcement
[19:30] sources as a pilot and an al-Qaeda field
[19:33] commander who has lived in Saudi Arabia.
[19:35] Sources tell ABC News the government
[19:37] believes Shuk Rejima was trained in
[19:40] Afghanistan under 9/11 planner Ramsay
[19:42] Al-Beed. The FBI has no idea where Shook
[19:46] Reimma is, but believes he may have
[19:48] lived in South Florida near some of the
[19:50] 9/11 hijackers. Today, FBI Director
[19:53] Robert Mueller said every lead is being
[19:55] run down and announced an interview
[19:57] campaign, which sources tell ABC News
[19:59] will target 15,000 Iraqis living in the
[20:02] US in less than 3 weeks. Some will be
[20:05] detained on immigration violations. Many
[20:07] US Iraqis say they fled Saddam Hussein's
[20:10] oppression and are perplexed about why
[20:12] the FBI wants to interview them.
[20:15] >> We are the ones who are working day and
[20:17] night very hard to topple the regime of
[20:19] Saddam Hussein.
[20:20] >> The FBI interviews are voluntary and are
[20:23] supposed to be non-confrontational.
[20:25] But some administration officials admit
[20:27] the campaign is meant to have a chilling
[20:29] effect on any possible terrorist plan.
[20:32] It is all part of an orchestrated
[20:34] national shore of force. Part of the
[20:36] most intense security since the 9/11
[20:38] attacks. Increased protection at nuclear
[20:41] power plants, including the nation's
[20:43] largest facility in Palo Verde, New
[20:45] Mexico. In Los Angeles, stepped up
[20:47] scrutiny at water treatment plants. In
[20:50] New York City, expanded patrols by
[20:52] heavily armed police.
[20:53] >> We've been out here way before midnight.
[20:55] We stopped about 70 cars so far. And
[20:58] today, 700 National Guard and State
[21:00] Police deployed to protect trains and
[21:02] subways serving New York, Connecticut,
[21:05] and New Jersey.
[21:06] >> It's a message to terrorists that we're
[21:09] not going to let you do it. And it's
[21:11] also a message to all of the rest of us
[21:13] to say, "We're there. You can depend on
[21:15] us."
[21:17] >> The show of force is to compensate for
[21:18] the fact that the FBI has few, if any,
[21:21] specifics to go on. Peter
[21:23] >> Pierre, almost every time there's an FBI
[21:25] warning like this to all the police
[21:26] departments and the first responders
[21:28] across the country, they feel additional
[21:29] pressure and they feel resource poorer.
[21:32] Is that too much of a that too strong a
[21:34] generalization?
[21:35] >> You're exactly right, Peter. The FBI and
[21:38] law enforcement around the country, they
[21:39] have to expend tremendous resources to
[21:41] run down these leads, and they have not
[21:43] got the money they say they need from
[21:45] the federal government, but they say the
[21:47] work still has to go on. Now, you look
[21:48] at this on a day-to-day basis, and we
[21:50] talk on a day-to-day basis about the ups
[21:52] and downs of what they're hearing and
[21:53] the chatter and everything else. Do you
[21:56] detect a a deepening intensity now that
[21:58] this campaign is beginning than there
[22:00] was, say, a week ago?
[22:02] >> Well, I talked with a very senior FBI
[22:04] official the other week, and he said
[22:06] that when the war started that that was
[22:08] the time when he would be most
[22:10] concerned. They're particularly
[22:12] concerned about al-Qaeda, also agents of
[22:14] Sodom Hussein, but also lone wolves,
[22:16] individuals who might attack just
[22:18] because of anger by the war.
[22:20] >> At at the same time, Peter, I think a
[22:22] lot of layman, myself included, say,
[22:23] gosh, terrorists, wherever they operate,
[22:25] always hit when we least expect it, not
[22:28] when we most expect it.
[22:30] >> That's right. But Peter, the FBI and law
[22:32] enforcement officials say they're not in
[22:34] a position to take any chances. And one
[22:36] official said, "Look, the terrorists
[22:38] only have to hit one run."
[22:39] >> I I agree. And it's really interesting
[22:41] when the attorney general was popping
[22:43] back and forth on television all the
[22:44] time. He got criticized, in fact, pulled
[22:46] back by the White House at one point,
[22:48] but the truth of the matter is nobody
[22:49] wanted to be a public official and get
[22:51] on and make the announcement that
[22:52] something hadn't happened if he or she
[22:54] had not issued a public warning to law
[22:56] enforcement all over the country.
[22:58] Speaking of uh of security restrictions,
[23:01] there have been some changes in
[23:02] Washington today uh at the US Capital
[23:05] Building and others. Is Linda Douglas
[23:07] ready at the moment?
[23:08] Okay. Linda Douglas is on Capitol Hill
[23:10] and you've had some tighter restrictions
[23:12] there and in other government buildings
[23:13] tonight.
[23:14] >> Well, uh, high officials here inside the
[23:16] capital have just announced that they
[23:18] are going to suspend all public tours,
[23:21] all the people who come in to see the
[23:22] capital to see their government
[23:24] operating starting tomorrow. Now, this
[23:26] is a temporary measure, Peter, and they
[23:28] are saying that there is no specific
[23:30] threat aimed at the capital, but as
[23:32] we've been reporting all along, uh all
[23:34] of the intelligence indicates that
[23:36] clearly a target would be uh an
[23:38] institution such as this a symbol of
[23:40] American power, and the capital
[23:42] certainly is that.
[23:43] >> Just how restricted have tours been in
[23:46] the last couple of weeks? I was up there
[23:48] a couple weeks ago, didn't see a
[23:50] solitary tourist.
[23:52] >> It's really started to change, Peter,
[23:54] since September 11th. I mean, in my
[23:56] observation, it's changed so profoundly.
[23:58] Uh, they began to push all of the
[24:00] tourists out, all the children, all of
[24:02] the schools that come through here. They
[24:04] they didn't have the freedom to roam and
[24:06] mingle with all the office holders the
[24:07] way they always have traditionally in
[24:09] our system of government. It's been an
[24:11] empty place. But in the last three or
[24:13] four weeks, they've let the tourists
[24:15] back in. There's a system now. They go
[24:17] through security. They get a pass from
[24:19] their elected representative. They've
[24:20] been going through the chambers and
[24:21] watching their government operate. It's
[24:23] almost been back to normal in spite of
[24:25] the giant walls and security system that
[24:28] now surround the capital, but that will
[24:30] end at least for a while tomorrow.
[24:32] >> Yesterday at this time, you and I were
[24:33] talking about a very passionate debate
[24:34] on the floor of the Senate about whether
[24:36] or not the war should have started.
[24:37] Senator Bird of Virginia against John
[24:39] McCain of Arizona, not against, but both
[24:41] of them speaking very passionately. Have
[24:43] people coalesed now behind the effort
[24:44] today?
[24:46] >> Well, they're trying to, Peter.
[24:48] Certainly the Democrats in the Senate uh
[24:51] gave a very uh dignified performance
[24:54] today. They said that they they reserved
[24:56] their right to disagree with the
[24:58] president on policy, but now is the time
[25:00] to end debate, to rally around the
[25:02] commander-in-chief. There was a
[25:03] resolution passed, as we've reported, by
[25:05] the Senate uh unanimously uh to support
[25:08] the president as commanderin-chief and
[25:10] the troops. In the House, though, Peter,
[25:12] it is a different story. Uh there are
[25:14] Democrats there who are bulking uh at
[25:17] language that the House Republicans are
[25:18] trying to put in that resolution to
[25:20] commend the president for his decisive
[25:22] leadership and for using this as a way
[25:24] to end the war on terrorism. Democrats
[25:27] object. They don't want to to praise the
[25:30] president to that extent. So they
[25:31] haven't agreed yet.
[25:32] >> But even in the Senate today, I gather
[25:33] the resolution uh or the sense of the
[25:36] Senate end up with respect for the
[25:38] Supreme Commander without naming the
[25:39] president particularly. Well, they
[25:42] didn't name President Bush particularly,
[25:44] but uh but Republicans who were involved
[25:46] in these negotiations with Democrats say
[25:48] that they really did stop their feuding
[25:51] pretty quickly. Uh they understand that
[25:53] what their role is in the government,
[25:54] what their role is in a in an
[25:56] international crisis, in a military
[25:58] situation. All of these senators uh have
[26:01] constituents who have loved ones uh who
[26:04] are, you know, overseas fighting this
[26:06] war. Uh and every one of them talked
[26:07] about their own people at home. So, they
[26:09] see the president as the
[26:10] commander-in-chief in a situation like
[26:12] this.
[26:12] >> Thanks very much, Linda Douglas. It does
[26:14] always tend to ease a little ease
[26:15] quicker, sooner in the Senate than it
[26:17] does in the House of Representatives.
[26:18] We'll catch you up on that when it
[26:20] occurs. Um, one thing we're very mindful
[26:22] about, at least I hope we're very
[26:23] mindful about in terms of our general
[26:25] coverage is that we tend
[26:28] at a moment like this, and it hasn't
[26:29] happened in more than a decade, to talk
[26:31] a lot about military systems and
[26:33] weapons. Um, and while we have an
[26:36] enormous number of women in the armed
[26:38] forces, now one of our women colleagues
[26:41] pointed out today that we might do a
[26:43] little better with women if we made the
[26:45] weapons discussion somewhat simpler. To
[26:47] which I think I fairly responded, we
[26:49] might make it simpler for men as well.
[26:52] Um, so we're going to try to do that.
[26:54] We've talked a lot about the Patriot
[26:55] missile, for example, which got a lot of
[26:57] attention during the Gulf War in part
[26:59] because it was seen as a very heroic
[27:01] weapon at the beginning of the Gulf War
[27:02] and turned out not to be the case. This
[27:04] was the weapon that was deployed on the
[27:06] eastern perimeter of Israel uh which did
[27:09] not succeed in shooting down the Scud
[27:11] missiles which Saddam Hussein uh
[27:14] directed at the Israelis during the Gulf
[27:15] War. Well, this weapon has apparently
[27:18] been much refined and much improved. We
[27:21] can talk about that in the future, but
[27:22] here on the Patriots is ABC's Ned
[27:25] Potter.
[27:31] >> Sirens going off in Kuwait. people
[27:33] fumbling with gas masks.
[27:36] But in the midst of it, the Pentagon
[27:37] says something very reassuring happened.
[27:42] Patriot missiles launched to intercept
[27:44] two attack rockets from Iraq apparently
[27:47] worked.
[27:48] >> This is probably the hardest mission
[27:50] that that we have in combat. We're not
[27:54] very good at this. Joseph Serenion, who
[27:57] ran a congressional investigation of
[27:58] Patriot missiles in 1991, says they were
[28:02] seen as the miracle weapons of the first
[28:04] Gulf War.
[28:05] >> Thank God for the Patriot missile. Thank
[28:07] God for that.
[28:09] >> But in retrospect, soldiers concede the
[28:12] impression was wrong.
[28:13] >> The technology wasn't there to do it.
[28:15] It's basically like hitting a bullet
[28:16] with a bullet. The technology wasn't
[28:19] there.
[28:21] Back in '91, the Pentagon thought the
[28:23] Patriots intercepted more than 40 Iraqi
[28:25] Scuds. Later investigation showed that
[28:28] more likely they only destroyed four.
[28:31] >> The first kill estimates are invariably
[28:33] wrong. It's not because anybody's lying.
[28:36] It's because in the excitement of
[28:38] battle, in the confusion of battle,
[28:40] people think they saw things that they
[28:42] didn't see.
[28:43] >> But in the decades since, the Patriots
[28:45] have been heavily upgraded.
[28:48] They are launched, as we see in this
[28:50] test, when satellites or radar spot
[28:52] incoming missiles. The newest
[28:54] generation, called PAC 3, is designed to
[28:57] be highly maneuverable, predicting the
[28:59] path of its fastmoving target and using
[29:01] onboard radar to lock onto it. PAC 3es
[29:04] do not even carry explosives. They are
[29:06] meant to destroy the enemy missile just
[29:08] by hitting it. Skeptics
[29:12] warn the Patriots are still far from
[29:14] foolproof, but say they are still badly
[29:17] needed.
[29:18] >> Even a basic uh Scud missile or cruise
[29:22] missile with a conventional explosive
[29:23] warhead can cause a lot of damage.
[29:27] >> And there were more sirens in Kuwait
[29:29] tonight. Ned Potter, ABC News, New York.
[29:33] >> Um, just to be clear, and I hope not add
[29:35] to the confusion about the Patriot
[29:36] missiles, there were, as you know, five,
[29:38] six, or seven. We're never been quite
[29:40] certain yet. Missiles that were fired by
[29:42] the Iraqis across the Kuwaiti Iraqi
[29:43] border today. They did no harm, though
[29:45] they scared a lot of people. These were
[29:47] tactical missiles, short-range missiles,
[29:48] those which among other things Iraqis
[29:51] permitted to have and not which would
[29:53] normally be handled by a Patriot
[29:55] missile, but they did get through uh the
[29:57] defenses and scared the Kuwaitis, many
[30:00] of them today. This is ABC News
[30:02] continuing live coverage of the war
[30:04] against Iraq.
[30:12] Hello again everybody. I'm Peter
[30:13] Jennings at ABC News headquarters in New
[30:15] York. It is 7:30 here in the east, 4:30
[30:18] uh in the West. We recognize that not
[30:20] everybody's been sitting around the
[30:21] television all day. It is uh 3:30 in the
[30:24] morning in Baghdad and Kuwait and other
[30:27] important and anxious capitals in the
[30:29] Middle East itself. We're continuing our
[30:32] coverage. Some of you normally at this
[30:35] time of day would be getting ABC's World
[30:36] News Tonight. You're getting a much
[30:37] expanded version today, but the attack
[30:40] against the Iraqis now seems to be a
[30:42] good deal more underway than it was
[30:43] several hours ago. Uh the Marine
[30:45] Expeditionary Force has gone across in
[30:47] some measure. The frontier between
[30:50] Kuwait and Iraq, the Third Infantry
[30:51] Division, we were told a short while
[30:52] ago, has gone across. So you've got two
[30:54] columns going into southern Iraq at the
[30:57] moment. And now that the Turkish
[30:59] government has permitted the United
[31:01] States freedom to fly through Turkish
[31:03] airspace, it is quite possible that
[31:05] you'll begin to get American assets
[31:07] coming into the northern part of Iraq.
[31:09] And we'll talk about this as we get
[31:12] along in this particular half hour. But
[31:15] after nightfell in Baghdad today, uh
[31:18] British and Iraqi forces launched a new
[31:20] round of cruise missile attacks fired
[31:22] from warships and from submarines in the
[31:25] Persian Gulf and in the Red Sea. much
[31:27] longer travel from the Red Sea to their
[31:29] targets in Iraq. Uh they were designed
[31:32] to hit government facilities in Baghdad.
[31:35] ABC's Richard Engel reports from Baghdad
[31:37] this evening that government buildings
[31:38] including the interior ministry were set
[31:41] on file and US forces I've said have
[31:44] launched this ground attack. We are not
[31:46] yet absolutely certain and are yet to
[31:48] get the word from Sentcom that this huge
[31:52] operation
[31:54] uh that we had been anticipating has is
[31:56] moving in all of its parts. But there
[31:58] are reports as I said that the first
[32:00] armies have crossed into Iraq. US
[32:02] artillery units were involved along the
[32:05] Iraq Kuwait frontier this morning
[32:07] suppressing Iraqi fire and we believe
[32:10] attacking Iraqi installations in
[32:12] southern Iraq. A US Apache attack
[32:15] helicopter was shot down, Ted Cppel told
[32:17] us, by small arms fire just on the other
[32:20] side of the Iraq Kuwait border, but the
[32:22] crew was not hurt and they sent in a
[32:24] crew and managed to get the Apache up
[32:25] and flying again. And as you may have
[32:28] heard many many hours ago, another uh
[32:30] American helicopter was shot down in is
[32:33] a helicopter carrying special forces
[32:35] troops or carrying troops. We were told
[32:37] uh was shot down in western Iraq and
[32:39] everybody on board of that was rescued.
[32:44] And now I believe we are going to go and
[32:46] hear from ABC's Don Daylor who's
[32:48] embedded with the 101st Airborne
[32:51] Division and he compiled this for us a
[32:53] little while ago.
[32:59] I beg your pardon. You're back live.
[33:01] >> I can tell you I agree with what you
[33:03] were just saying. I am hearing from the
[33:05] people here at the 100 first that the ma
[33:07] massive ground war has not started. That
[33:10] uh the way it was explained to me is
[33:12] that we are going to be seeing small
[33:14] activities
[33:16] uh throughout southern Iraq, but do not
[33:19] consider that the massive gday as they
[33:21] called it. However, they have warned
[33:23] that the timetable because of other
[33:26] events, including the uh the fact that
[33:28] they have they believe they've located
[33:30] missile sites in southern Iraq that
[33:32] oppose a threat, that the timetable
[33:34] might have been moved up. Um I cannot
[33:37] specifically talk about the battle plans
[33:39] for the 101st, but it is safe for me to
[33:42] talk about capabilities. Uh and you
[33:44] mentioned northern Iraq, places like
[33:46] that. One of the possibilities for a
[33:49] unit like the 101st because of their
[33:50] great flexibility and the fact that they
[33:53] can take a brigadesized unit to make
[33:55] them in helicopters and get them on the
[33:57] ground sometimes over a 100 miles behind
[33:59] enemy lines makes them very attractive
[34:01] for the war planners when they're
[34:03] looking at putting them into strategic
[34:05] points. For instance, airfields or
[34:07] bridges that they have to hold and
[34:09] protect for when the third infantry
[34:11] division starts to roll across. Those
[34:13] are the roles that we can see and expect
[34:15] the 101st units of the 101st to take
[34:18] part in as the days unfold. You also
[34:21] have to remember though they are at
[34:23] heart an infantry division. They put
[34:25] boots on the ground and they are very
[34:27] effective in that role as well.
[34:30] >> Okay, Don, thank you very much. As Don
[34:31] Daylor points out, uh we are not nor uh
[34:35] nor eager to say those things which uh
[34:37] local commanders either that or in
[34:39] central command don't uh uh permit or
[34:42] wish us to say under the circumstances.
[34:44] We get a lot of email from people around
[34:46] the country who wonder whether or not
[34:48] with reports like that we actually put
[34:50] American lives at risk. And the only
[34:52] answer that we can really give you is
[34:54] that our reporters in the field do not
[34:57] say things on television which they have
[34:59] not cleared with their local commanders.
[35:00] They all have a fairly strict set of
[35:03] guidelines about what what they're able
[35:05] to say and what they are not able to
[35:07] say. Um on occasion it is perfectly
[35:10] possible that a reporter may make a
[35:11] mistake, but we try very hard not to do
[35:14] so. Let's go to the White House. ABC's
[35:16] Terry Moran. Terry, um we haven't seen
[35:19] the president today. They've all been
[35:21] gone to ground pretty much in the White
[35:22] House today. Give us as much as you can.
[35:25] >> Well, Peter, we did hear from the
[35:26] president today. Just to remind you, in
[35:28] that cabinet meeting, he held a cabinet
[35:30] meeting, a war cabinet meeting, and did
[35:32] have very brief remarks to a pool of
[35:35] reporters that was led in uh
[35:37] complimenting uh the actions of the
[35:39] military and sending his support to the
[35:42] troops and trying to reassure the
[35:44] homeront as well. But there are no plans
[35:47] now for any further addresses by the
[35:50] president. Certainly, he leaves for Camp
[35:52] David tomorrow afternoon at 1:30. But we
[35:55] are hearing from the president in
[35:56] another way in a series of executive
[35:58] orders and executive actions that show a
[36:02] kind of cascading plan of action on
[36:05] other fronts aside from the military
[36:07] front that is now taking place. You see
[36:10] just how carefully planned uh this
[36:13] regime change in Iraq was. It's not just
[36:15] the military. He's handed that off to
[36:17] the generals. What you see is diplomatic
[36:20] action. The president has requested 68
[36:23] countries around the world to expel
[36:25] senior Iraqi diplomats and stop dealing
[36:28] with this regime. They've frozen more
[36:30] than a billion dollars in Iraqi assets
[36:32] in this country and essentially seized
[36:34] them, vested them. They are now under
[36:36] the control of the United States
[36:37] government. And there have been some
[36:39] humanitarian actions. an executive order
[36:41] releasing 600,000 tons of grain for the
[36:45] expected humanitarian emergency and $22
[36:48] million to help with that humanitarian
[36:51] uh issue that will arise shortly. So,
[36:53] this is obviously coordinated with
[36:55] military action and very carefully
[36:57] planned.
[36:58] >> You do remind me, I must say, what how
[36:59] long a day it has been because you're
[37:01] quite right. We did see the president
[37:03] talking before the cabinet meeting and
[37:04] I'm I I guess what I was asking is
[37:06] whether at least I hope it's what I was
[37:08] asking was whether or not he you think
[37:09] he will speak to the American public
[37:11] again and the answer is no and that
[37:13] leaves us at at the moment and that
[37:15] leaves us a bit in limbo as to whether
[37:17] we're looking at a full-scale attack or
[37:19] not or as far as the White House is
[37:20] concerned is it just simply underway.
[37:23] >> He has signed the execute order as they
[37:26] call it. That's a classified document
[37:28] which authorizes this. He did that
[37:30] Wednesday morning. He asked, we're told,
[37:32] two questions of all the generals in the
[37:34] field who were gathered by video
[37:36] conference, the senior leaders, generals
[37:38] and admirals who are leading this
[37:40] operation. He asked two very general
[37:42] questions. Do you have everything you
[37:44] need to win? Are you comfortable with
[37:46] the strategy? Put each one of them on
[37:48] record that they are ready to go under
[37:51] these conditions. And he is now stepping
[37:53] back. It is very typical of this
[37:54] president that he does not have a lot to
[37:57] say at major moments after he said his
[38:01] peace. That speech to the country last
[38:03] night, these brief remarks with his
[38:05] cabinet, I don't expect to hear him
[38:06] again for a couple of days.
[38:08] >> Thanks, Terry, very much Terry Moran at
[38:09] the White House. By the way, uh some of
[38:11] the military commanders uh in the field
[38:13] and in Washington have not been
[38:15] particularly comfortable with the
[38:16] strategy, not particularly comfortable
[38:17] with the pace, but as Terry points out
[38:19] at a moment like this, the president is
[38:22] the commanderin-chief. The Secretary of
[38:24] Defense uh talked to the troops today,
[38:27] um made a recorded speech for the troops
[38:29] and because of the technology now
[38:31] available uh in so much of the region,
[38:33] though certainly not in the combat units
[38:35] at the front at this moment, they've
[38:36] been able to hear Donald Rumsfeld
[38:38] himself. And here's a brief excerpt.
[38:42] >> When I returned to the Pentagon after
[38:44] serving here a quarter of a century ago,
[38:47] I wrote a series of guidelines to help
[38:48] guide my thinking regarding the use of
[38:51] force. They included these questions. Is
[38:54] there a good reason to go to war? Have
[38:57] we engaged all instruments of national
[39:00] power in search of a peaceful solution?
[39:03] Is the objective achievable? Have we set
[39:06] forth clear goals?
[39:08] Does the objective merit risking
[39:11] American lives?
[39:13] Have we made available all the resources
[39:15] and military capabilities needed to
[39:17] achieve victory? Have we invested the
[39:20] effort and the political capital to
[39:22] explain the need for action and to
[39:24] marshall and sustain public support?
[39:27] Have we been honest with ourselves and
[39:30] with the world about the risks of
[39:32] action, but also about the less obvious
[39:35] risks of inaction?
[39:38] The president has made the case for Iraq
[39:40] clear. He has set forth what is at stake
[39:44] and invested the diplomatic and
[39:46] political effort needed to exhaust all
[39:49] options short of war. We are at the
[39:52] point at which the risk of not acting is
[39:55] too great to wait longer. The answers
[39:58] are clear. It is essential to world
[40:00] peace and our security that we act
[40:03] against the regime of Saddam Hussein.
[40:06] the Secretary of Defense uh talking to
[40:08] forces in the field today and I think we
[40:10] know from uh the experience of the
[40:13] run-up to this war that that is the kind
[40:15] of speech which will receive uh widfelt
[40:18] support in the country and and widfelt
[40:20] criticism at two uh here at home and
[40:23] overseas as well as you saw a tremendous
[40:25] number of overseas demonstrations today
[40:27] have not abaded and there were a number
[40:30] of anti-war demonstrations um around the
[40:32] country today not of huge proportion but
[40:34] you continue to see anti-war ads in the
[40:38] newspapers uh in in the country as well
[40:40] and a lot of people who will disagree
[40:42] with Mr. Rumsfeld, but that was
[40:43] certainly his message and will be taken
[40:46] as a very spirited message by the troops
[40:48] who are in the field tonight. Now to
[40:50] ABC's John McQuey at the Pentagon. John,
[40:52] before I ask you about a question of
[40:55] coverage, is there latest news?
[40:58] >> Uh there is a number of pieces of late
[41:00] news, Peter. Number one, Don Rumsfeld
[41:03] right now is up in a top secret briefing
[41:06] telling members of the House uh what it
[41:08] is that the US is doing and what the
[41:10] strategy is and how it's going. Uh this
[41:13] is part of his effort to win support of
[41:16] lawmakers that have sometimes been
[41:17] critical of the strategy. Um but out in
[41:21] the field, uh this I think is going to
[41:23] prove this next 24-hour period is going
[41:26] to prove to be one of the most dramatic
[41:29] uh of this entire campaign. However long
[41:31] it goes, this is the beginning of truly
[41:35] the beginning of the march to Baghdad.
[41:37] Uh this administration hopes it's going
[41:39] to go rapidly. Uh but they don't know.
[41:42] Uh this is also the beginning of the
[41:44] execution of uh what I would call a
[41:47] Rumsfeld strategy. He firmly believes uh
[41:51] that parts of Saddam Hussein support
[41:54] structure is beginning to crumble. uh
[41:56] and he feels by exerting the kind of
[41:59] military force that the United States is
[42:01] now exerting uh that he is going to uh
[42:05] in his view create uh mass defections uh
[42:09] from Saddam's inner circle. Uh there are
[42:12] people who listen to this kind of
[42:15] strategy and think that Don Rumsfeld
[42:17] does not have an adequate appreciation
[42:19] of the uh tyranny that Saddam Hussein
[42:22] has ruled his country with. Uh but
[42:25] nonetheless, there are some encouraging
[42:27] signs from high levels uh in some of the
[42:30] Republican Guard units that are reaching
[42:32] out apparently uh to agents of the US.
[42:35] >> There's something else, John, which I
[42:36] think I am noticing. Mr. Rumsfeld and
[42:39] elements in the military have argued for
[42:40] a long time as to whether there should
[42:42] be what's called simultaneity between an
[42:45] attack on the ground and these attacks
[42:47] on the air. And we had anticipated at
[42:49] least a couple of days of softening up
[42:51] the Iraqis from the air. And now
[42:54] apparently we have US ground forces
[42:56] going across the borders at exactly the
[42:59] same time. So there's this huge
[43:00] operation I assume going on in the air
[43:02] and on the ground at the moment which is
[43:04] the way Mr. Rumsfeld always wanted it.
[43:06] Well, he has long felt that uh the
[43:09] military sometimes uh is too risk
[43:13] averse. Uh and he with the amount of
[43:16] force that uh Don Rumsfeld has permitted
[43:19] to be in this area, it's always been a
[43:21] compromise between the top uniform
[43:23] officers and the Secretary of Defense.
[43:26] Uh that uh this will be a very
[43:29] fastmoving force, not nearly as large as
[43:31] some of the uniform people might have
[43:33] wanted. Uh but it has turned out to be a
[43:36] quite large force. I think we're going
[43:38] to see here in the next 24 hours. Uh
[43:41] there's going to be 60 or 70,000
[43:44] uh US and British forces working their
[43:46] way up towards Baghdad. That's a pretty
[43:48] impressive force.
[43:50] >> Exactly. And and and and the air
[43:52] component as well. Now, let me ask you
[43:54] about about the business of coverage. Um
[43:57] everybody you and I both talked to in
[43:58] the military command. In the military
[44:00] command, I think has been very
[44:01] enthusiastic about having reporters with
[44:02] them and on the ground. the g chairman
[44:04] of the joint chiefs of staff has been
[44:06] enthusiastic. General Franks himself was
[44:08] enthusiastic when I saw him only a few
[44:10] days ago in the Gulf, but he's irritated
[44:12] about something today and I wonder if we
[44:14] can get a handle on it and what effect
[44:15] we think it'll have on informing the
[44:17] public.
[44:18] >> I I don't know that we can get a handle
[44:20] on it. Uh but I think there are some
[44:22] important measurements that we can take
[44:25] at this point. Uh I think Don Rumsfeld
[44:29] appears to be happy uh with the
[44:31] relationship that the press and the
[44:33] military have managed to forge going
[44:35] into this campaign. Thus far uh he has
[44:38] seen no egregious examples of the press
[44:41] uh jeopardizing the forces. I think the
[44:44] president is happy with the kind of
[44:45] coverage uh that has been handled thus
[44:48] far. though it may not ultimately matter
[44:52] uh what the commander out in the field
[44:54] who is actually running this war thinks.
[44:57] Uh I have a feeling that things will
[44:59] ease up uh although I must say our
[45:01] reporters ABC's reporters have been able
[45:03] to file quite regularly. Uh and many of
[45:06] them are right in the middle of the
[45:08] thick of it.
[45:08] >> We shall see how things go. And I don't
[45:10] mean to be too glib about this, John, so
[45:11] please don't make fun of me, but but you
[45:14] just saw on our on our television there
[45:16] sort of a graphic of of tanks going
[45:18] through the BMS which are built on the
[45:20] Iraqi Kuwaiti border and tanks smoothly
[45:22] running up onto the desert playing to
[45:24] the west. I have to tell you this is
[45:26] this is probably a better representation
[45:28] of what the space over southern Iraq
[45:30] looks like tonight. And just you could
[45:32] draw as many lines on this piece of
[45:33] paper as you wanted. And if this is the
[45:36] beginning of this huge massive operation
[45:38] that we've all been briefed on in one
[45:40] way, shape or form, that represents all
[45:43] the aircraft up, all the Awax, the
[45:45] people that sort of guide the various
[45:46] aircraft from the air, all of the
[45:48] tankers that are in the air, the
[45:49] fighters that are coming and going from
[45:50] various targets. And one of the things
[45:52] that commanders John, answer this one
[45:54] more question for me. One of the things
[45:56] that that commanders have really worried
[45:58] about in this opening days of this
[46:00] overwhelming assault was confusion in
[46:02] the air and the real possibility of
[46:05] friendly fire accidents. Uh definitely
[46:08] friendly fire. That is something that
[46:10] the US has been very concerned about and
[46:12] they've invested in technology and
[46:14] they've invested in training to better
[46:16] identify where American forces are on
[46:18] the ground. when you get into trouble uh
[46:21] it is when forces are moving very fast
[46:24] uh and when the battlefield is confused
[46:26] this will be a relatively fastm moving
[46:29] force uh and it is going to be broken
[46:31] into many parts as it moves north
[46:33] towards Baghdad uh so there is that risk
[46:36] and certainly the traffic management in
[46:38] the sky is an issue but uh I think
[46:40] officials uh the military folks feel
[46:43] that they have it under control they
[46:45] know that there is chaos when you have a
[46:47] battlefield period and they are trained
[46:50] uh although they have a plan, they have
[46:52] time hacks that they're supposed to
[46:54] meet, milestones they're supposed to
[46:55] meet, they know that uh things always
[46:58] change the moment uh real contact
[47:00] begins, things change. And the secretary
[47:03] proved that immediately uh and the
[47:05] president by starting this campaign in a
[47:07] way that was totally outside of the plan
[47:10] itself.
[47:10] >> Well, John, you prove again you're
[47:11] better than graphics. Many thanks
[47:13] indeed. John McCarthy at the Pentagon
[47:14] will come back in the course of the
[47:15] evening. Now we're joined by ABC
[47:18] consultant Dick Richard Clark who has
[47:20] served in the Bush administration and
[47:22] the Clinton administration. You've been
[47:23] a counterterrorist operator in the Gulf
[47:26] War. You helped to coordinate the State
[47:28] Department and the military components
[47:29] of that war. What's your take on the day
[47:31] so far?
[47:32] >> Well, Peter, I'm impressed by the
[47:34] flexibility the administration has shown
[47:36] in in two regards. yesterday, reacting
[47:39] very quickly to word from the director
[47:41] of central intelligence, George Tennant,
[47:43] that there was a target of opportunity
[47:45] and going first, followed by a
[47:47] presidential address that we weren't
[47:48] supposed to hear for a couple of days.
[47:50] And now today, when there were reports
[47:52] of missiles being launched and perhaps
[47:54] reports of oil fields being lit on fire,
[47:57] I suspect the commander Tommy Franks
[48:00] asked for permission to begin early on
[48:02] the ground in one limited area and he
[48:04] got that permission. And do you have any
[48:06] sense of what it means to suddenly move
[48:08] the schedule up that dramatically, maybe
[48:10] even by 24 hours?
[48:11] >> Well, I don't think it means as much as
[48:13] as we might think. Uh I think the the
[48:15] big heavy clunky military operation uh
[48:19] with thousands of cruise missiles and
[48:20] and sorties uh is still to come and
[48:23] that'll come on schedule. In the first
[48:25] day of the attack uh in the last war uh
[48:28] in the air war, we hit 45 different
[48:30] sites in Baghdad on the first night. Uh
[48:33] we had 1300 sorties the first day. Uh
[48:36] this is much much smaller and we'd all
[48:38] been led to expect
[48:39] >> this is smaller.
[48:40] >> This is much much smaller than the first
[48:42] day.
[48:42] >> Well, this has turned out to be smaller
[48:44] because the first day is really
[48:45] different than perhaps anybody
[48:46] anticipated.
[48:46] >> I think the real first day here hasn't
[48:48] come yet, right?
[48:48] >> But this is my point. The administration
[48:50] is is being showing flexibility uh both
[48:53] with regard to the CIA operation
[48:55] yesterday and with regard to the marine
[48:57] operation today. And we may be lulled
[49:00] into thinking everything is going
[49:02] swimmingly because we've taken H3
[49:04] perhaps the airport in the west. We've
[49:06] taken them
[49:07] >> huge air western in the western desert
[49:09] to which the US can fly in both man and
[49:11] material
[49:11] >> right twice the size of he in London
[49:14] enormous airport. Uh we've probably
[49:16] taken Kaser the the port the major port
[49:19] in the south now with Turkish
[49:20] permission. What what is the what is the
[49:22] significance of taking Umaser the port
[49:24] on the waterway into Iraq at the south
[49:26] because nobody's going to go in and out
[49:27] of there in the course of a war anyway
[49:29] are they?
[49:29] >> No, I think the only significance is
[49:30] that we're sealing off Basra and Kaser
[49:33] uh so that we can move quickly to the
[49:35] north.
[49:35] >> In other words, so the US can move in
[49:37] supplies by sea as well as by
[49:39] >> sea amphibiously. So everything seems to
[49:41] be moving swimmingly and we have to be
[49:43] very cautious. Uh, this first day seems
[49:47] to be going well for us, but Saddam
[49:49] Hussein has things up his sleeve. We
[49:51] don't know what they are. Uh, but he had
[49:53] several things up his sleeve last time.
[49:55] He attacked Israel. He blew up oil
[49:57] fields. He put oil into the Persian
[49:59] Gulf. He had human shields. He's got
[50:02] he's got a plan. He knew this was
[50:04] coming. We just haven't seen his plan
[50:05] yet. And what his plan is likely to be
[50:08] is to try somehow to slow the US advance
[50:11] down and appeal for world support to
[50:15] show US atrocities to show women and
[50:17] children being killed and then appeal
[50:20] for the UN Security Council for his
[50:22] friends uh the Russians and the French
[50:24] and others to come into the UN Security
[50:26] Council.
[50:26] >> Based on the Bush administration's
[50:27] relationship with the UN Security
[50:28] Council, it wouldn't make much
[50:30] difference.
[50:30] >> Well, I know. But what we may see is the
[50:32] UN Security Council asking for a
[50:34] ceasefire. That may be what is in
[50:36] Sodom's head. We have to try to figure
[50:38] out what is his strategy.
[50:39] >> Uh I'm not sure you're exactly the right
[50:41] person to do this, but maybe you can
[50:43] try. Which is to give us a word picture
[50:44] of the special operations element in
[50:46] today because we have this sense that
[50:48] special operation forces have come in
[50:51] from a variety of different places. Do
[50:52] you know where they're not? Do you know
[50:53] where they're operating? Do you know
[50:54] sort of in general terms what they're
[50:57] trying to accomplish? Well, I think
[50:58] special operations forces have probably
[51:00] been in for a few days.
[51:01] >> They've jumped off from a place in Saudi
[51:03] Arabia, I suspect, a place called RR.
[51:06] They've jumped off from a Jordanian air
[51:08] force base uh near the the Iraqi border.
[51:11] They're probably now staging into
[51:14] Turkey, so they can jump off from there.
[51:16] Uh British and uh US SEALs have probably
[51:19] come up the river into uh so that we
[51:22] have a number of people that are well
[51:24] forward from these units that we're
[51:25] seeing on TV. And while Saddam Hussein
[51:28] may intellectually know that, this could
[51:30] be a tremendous surprise or shock to
[51:34] Iraqi military commanders in these
[51:36] particular regions, or are they? How
[51:38] well trained are they? How good are
[51:39] they? The
[51:40] >> US special forces are very good. No,
[51:42] >> I mean the Iraqis.
[51:42] >> Well, the Iraqis are not. Uh but what
[51:44] the US special forces may be trying to
[51:46] do is arrange ceasefires
[51:48] >> to reach out for local commanders and
[51:50] say as Don Rumsfeld said in his press
[51:52] conference this morning this war doesn't
[51:54] have to be the way doesn't have to be
[51:56] the way that you think it is.
[51:57] >> Very first thing he said
[51:58] >> first thing he said and I think it's
[51:59] consistent with his overall strategy is
[52:02] if if units want to surrender if
[52:03] regional commanders want to give us uh
[52:06] ceasefires then that's fine and and they
[52:08] won't be punished.
[52:10] >> You were very last question for now but
[52:11] please don't go away. You were very
[52:12] instrumental in the opening days of the
[52:14] Gulf War and and the US was not really
[52:17] prepared for the huge number of Iraqis
[52:19] who surrendered, didn't have any people
[52:21] to take care of them, didn't have any
[52:22] place to put them. It's been a very very
[52:24] clear component of planning for this
[52:25] campaign, which is to try to leave them
[52:27] in place and go around them. Right.
[52:28] >> I think we're going to leave a lot of
[52:29] them in place and go around them. Uh
[52:31] after we have received promises from
[52:33] them that they're not going to fire on
[52:35] our troops as our troops go by.
[52:37] >> This is a familiar picture, of course,
[52:38] from 1991. And as we've been told by
[52:41] many commanders on the ground, in fact,
[52:43] a week or so ago, there were, you know,
[52:45] many thousands of military policemen
[52:47] which were still at sea on their way to
[52:48] Kuwait. And this component, at least
[52:51] commanders in the region, believe was
[52:52] not yet put together, but they would not
[52:55] like to have to deal with taking care of
[52:57] all these Iraqi prisoners as they did in
[52:59] the Gulf War, which means feeding them
[53:01] and preventing, you know, just
[53:03] preventing the kind of discipline
[53:05] problems you get when you have a lot of
[53:06] men with nothing to do on their hands.
[53:08] And so they've taken a different tack
[53:09] this time. Nick Clark, thanks very much.
[53:11] Please stay with us for a while. Um, one
[53:14] of the things you may have picked up
[53:15] today is the change of attitude in
[53:17] Kuwait. The Kuwaits have been fairly
[53:19] relaxed about this war. They had this
[53:20] huge American force up on the border.
[53:21] They had the Patriot missiles on the
[53:23] border. Well, they had a really rough
[53:25] day. Nobody was hurt to the best of our
[53:27] knowledge, but psychologically it was
[53:29] traumatic. Here's ABC's Jim Wooten.
[53:34] This morning in this city, the hustle
[53:36] and bustle as the wheels of Kuwaiti
[53:38] commerce began to turn. Suddenly,
[53:44] the first of several air raid alerts.
[53:47] And suddenly, the unthinkable was
[53:50] thinkable. as real as the whale of the
[53:53] sirens on the streets, on local TV
[53:56] screens, on downtown buildings, in the
[53:59] hotels,
[54:02] >> on the faces of Kuwaitis.
[54:04] >> Out of the way, please just
[54:06] >> and foreign journalists, too. Those on
[54:09] the air.
[54:10] >> Yes. So, I am supposed to put on the
[54:11] mask and that is what exactly I am going
[54:13] to do.
[54:14] >> Are those behind the cameras?
[54:16] >> If you can hear me, we have sirens going
[54:18] off here
[54:19] >> or down in the shelters. Some wondering
[54:21] perhaps how wise it was to accept an
[54:24] assignment within range of Iraqi
[54:26] missiles. Outside, a Czech
[54:28] decontamination team tests the air for
[54:31] gas. And a hotel doorman
[54:33] >> coming inside now, please
[54:35] >> urges guests to take cover. Some do,
[54:39] some don't, and some couldn't care less.
[54:42] They refuse to think the unthinkable. A
[54:46] few police seem almost embarrassed to
[54:48] protect themselves as though it's
[54:50] unmanly. Ditto for some camera crews.
[54:54] And just up the road, US troops also got
[54:57] wind of the alert and struggled into
[54:59] their chemical gear. Even after dark,
[55:02] the threat continued for civilians and
[55:04] soldiers.
[55:06] And at the end of the day, while there
[55:08] was no panic, none in evidence, at any
[55:11] rate, there was for many here a
[55:13] realization that if the Iraqis are
[55:15] outgunned and outmanned, and if they do
[55:17] face an inevitable defeat, at least some
[55:20] of them will not go quietly. And in the
[55:24] downtown streets tonight, an empty
[55:27] waiting, a nervous listening for the
[55:30] next siren that makes it clear this is a
[55:33] war zone, too. Jim Wooden, ABC News,
[55:36] Kuwait City.
[55:37] >> As we said, something the Kuwaitis had
[55:39] not expected a week ago. Um, when they
[55:42] were all quite relaxed about the air,
[55:44] the international airlines stopped
[55:46] moving into Kuwait City and uh the
[55:50] Kuwait Kuwait airlines continued to
[55:52] operate, but a lot of Kuwaitis,
[55:54] including Americans married to Kuwaitis
[55:55] as well, said they were not leaving
[55:56] town. Uh, but they've all had, as Jim
[55:58] says, a very anxious day. We now have uh
[56:01] ABC's Bob Woodruff on the line who was
[56:03] with the First Marine Expeditionary
[56:04] Force somewhere along the Kuwaiti Iraq
[56:08] border. Bob,
[56:10] 5 to 4 in the morning. Peter, good
[56:12] morning.
[56:12] >> Morning. 5 to 4 in the morning. Your
[56:14] time.
[56:15] >> Yes, very early in the morning. And I
[56:17] can tell you that we are still waiting
[56:19] here ready to move. We have an
[56:20] inexplicable delay which I can't even
[56:22] tell you exactly the reason for it. But
[56:25] let me just tell you what I'm seeing on
[56:26] the horizon which is quite eerie. I
[56:28] don't know if others have reported this
[56:29] or not, but at quite a distance away, we
[56:32] see a very large fire. Flames are
[56:36] licking up toward the sky. I can't tell
[56:38] from here exactly how high they are
[56:40] going, but a big orange flame on the
[56:42] horizon, another smaller one to the
[56:44] right. But on the large one, which
[56:46] appears to be, and it makes sense that
[56:48] it would be an oil fire of some kind,
[56:51] and a very large cloud of smoke and and
[56:56] uh and oil debris, I would imagine,
[56:57] hanging above the fire, right? Uh just
[57:00] north of the border. It's hard to tell
[57:02] how far, but probably 10 15 km north of
[57:05] the border, it appears to be. Can can
[57:07] you tell perhaps by looking at a map,
[57:10] which I know you have access to, where
[57:12] the fires are? Are they to the east? Are
[57:14] they near Basra? Might they be at one of
[57:16] the refineries along the waterway there?
[57:20] >> Uh I believe it's uh would not be
[57:23] complet.
[57:24] It would be more uh west of Basra. Uh
[57:29] north of the border certainly, but west
[57:31] of Bosra. Uh it could be one of the gas
[57:34] oil separation plants. It could be an
[57:36] oil uh an oil platform of some kind. Uh
[57:40] it's only worth guessing, but it's not
[57:43] as far as Boss or Peter. I do not
[57:44] believe it looks as if it might be a
[57:46] little bit west of that area.
[57:48] >> And and and now tell us if you can or
[57:51] tell us what you can about your last I
[57:53] think it's five or six or seven hours
[57:55] since we've spoken to you.
[57:58] >> We have been sitting Peter. That's one
[58:00] reason why I haven't spoken to you. I've
[58:01] been waiting to go in. Uh the last that
[58:04] we heard, as I told you last time, there
[58:06] was some problems with some mines that
[58:07] we're trying to clear out. We have heard
[58:09] some some very heavy pounding up north
[58:12] of the border, whether that is planes or
[58:15] artillery or both. Uh and there's
[58:18] obviously trying to soften the way for
[58:19] us to get in. Other units and the
[58:21] Marines have clearly already gotten in.
[58:24] We've for some reason when we we were
[58:26] supposed to go in very very early in
[58:28] this fight and we have been delayed to
[58:30] the west. So, for the most part, we have
[58:32] been sitting and waiting to go in and
[58:33] watching the horizons in front of us.
[58:35] >> And and you know why you're being
[58:37] delayed even though you cannot tell us
[58:39] or is it not explainable to you either?
[58:43] >> Uh we've been having trouble getting an
[58:44] explanation for that actually on the the
[58:46] vehicle that we're traveling on. It's a
[58:47] need to know basis only and um I think
[58:51] it still has to do with the mechanized
[58:54] equipment having to go through and clear
[58:55] the mines out. But I may have more
[58:58] information on that very soon because I
[59:00] think we are about ready to pull out. We
[59:01] have just fired up our engines for the
[59:03] first time in about five hours and uh
[59:06] we're ready to get on the move again. So
[59:07] hopefully I'll be able to give you
[59:08] another call back very soon and let you
[59:11] know where what's happening.
[59:12] >> Okay, Bob. Many thanks indeed. ABC's Bob
[59:14] Woodruff who is with the Marine
[59:15] Expeditionary Force on the Kuwaiti Iraqi
[59:18] border. 4:00 in the morning his time. We
[59:20] can just go back very quickly to that
[59:21] map of the oil fields in the south where
[59:23] Bob believes he sees a fire may well be
[59:25] in the Ram field uh which is the most
[59:30] productive oil field in Iraq before the
[59:33] Gulf War. Their big oil fields are here
[59:36] and then up northern towards Kirk Cook
[59:38] up towards the northern fly zone up
[59:39] towards Kurdish Iraq and they have been
[59:43] an issue of considerable debate today.
[59:45] First, we had some suggestions that
[59:46] there were oil wells on fire or oil
[59:49] installations on fire. Weren't quite
[59:50] sure what they were. And then we had
[59:52] some reporters on the border who said
[59:54] they couldn't see anything up in the
[59:55] General Basra area. And now we have
[59:57] ABC's Bob Woodruff who's got a different
[59:59] perspective and he sees a quite large
[60:01] fire in what may or may not be the Ramoa
[60:04] field, which is the closest one to the
[60:05] border. This is ABC News continuing live
[60:08] coverage of the war with Iraq.
[60:19] Hello again everybody. I'm Peter
[60:20] Jennings at uh ABC News headquarters in
[60:23] New York. This is our continuing
[60:24] coverage of the campaign against Iraq.
[60:27] We are very much in the dark about some
[60:29] things and we know a fair amount of some
[60:32] other things that have transpired. And
[60:34] at the beginning of every hour, it's now
[60:36] 8:00 in the east, 5:00 in the west, and
[60:39] four o'clock in the morning. Um on the
[60:42] battlefield, uh these are some of the
[60:44] things that we know um have transpired
[60:47] today. Uh we know that there were
[60:49] various strikes by the US today in
[60:52] Baghdad itself and up towards Bastra. We
[60:54] also know the British were involved in
[60:56] an operation going across the Kuwaiti
[60:58] Iraq border up towards Bastra. The first
[61:00] important city 300,000 people on the way
[61:04] to Baghdad been an issue of huge
[61:06] speculation as to how people in Basra
[61:08] would respond to US andor British forces
[61:10] because it's a largely Shiite Muslim
[61:13] population. the majority population in
[61:16] Iraq. But the leader Saddam Hussein is a
[61:18] Sunni and the Shiites have been
[61:20] profoundly repressed by the Sunni
[61:23] leadership for many many years,
[61:25] particularly in the south. And this is
[61:27] one of the places where the Americans
[61:29] believe they really will be greeted with
[61:30] flowers and not with bullets. But there
[61:32] are, as our military analysts tell us,
[61:34] some some armies deployed uh in the area
[61:38] between the Kuwait border and Basra.
[61:39] Certainly question is what will they do?
[61:41] whether it's re revolutionary guard
[61:43] farther up or the regular army farther
[61:45] to the south will they put their weapons
[61:47] down and decide not to fight. We also
[61:50] know of course that the US launched
[61:51] another series of strikes on Baghdad. Um
[61:54] US and British forces again used cruise
[61:56] missiles fired from the Persian Gulf and
[61:57] from the Red Sea. It is a British pool
[62:00] report we had earlier today that the
[62:02] Royal Commandos were involved in their
[62:03] biggest operation uh since the Faulland
[62:06] war as they launched an attack on
[62:08] southern Iraq.