CNN - Iraq War - 2003-03-20 - 1:08 a.m. (E)
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] What the US and UK military planners
[0:02] have been talking about is a concerted
[0:05] and heavy aerial bombardment uh bombs
[0:08] launched from planes and uh from sea
[0:10] base craft and then a ground offensive.
[0:13] What we also have heard is from uh those
[0:16] analysts who are looking at what might
[0:18] be going on and how a battle might
[0:20] unfold is even if there is very little
[0:22] resistance all the way up until Baghdad
[0:25] that Saddam Hussein may play the Baghdad
[0:27] card and may try to draw troops uh into
[0:31] either besieging Baghdad or draw them
[0:33] into fighting. He alluded a little uh to
[0:36] that in his speech talking about let
[0:38] them come and let them see what we will
[0:41] deliver. Wolf.
[0:42] >> All right, Cristian. Thanks very much.
[0:44] Ruam mean CNN's Rua mean is standing by
[0:46] in Aman Jordan getting initial reaction
[0:49] from a moderate Arab state, a state
[0:52] friendly with the United States, namely
[0:53] that of Jordan. Rua
[0:56] Wolf, the day here is just starting.
[0:58] It's about 8:00 a.m. in the morning.
[1:00] Kids are going to school and there's
[1:02] very little activity in the town of
[1:04] Rouat. However, 40 minutes away on the
[1:07] border between Jordan and Iraq, there
[1:09] are more activities there. Jordanian
[1:12] students, Jordanian families who were
[1:14] still in Iraq have been trying to leave.
[1:16] Uh they were leaving the border carrying
[1:18] their luggage and very few cars going
[1:20] into Iraq and also the Jordanian
[1:23] government and the UN agencies are
[1:25] trying their best to set up two refugee
[1:27] camps very close to that border.
[1:30] However, very strong wind here in here
[1:32] and the sandstorm has crippled their
[1:34] work. The Jordan government here is
[1:36] trying to prepare for this war on more
[1:38] than one front. On one hand, security
[1:41] has been beefed up around embassies here
[1:43] just in case there will be some kind of
[1:45] backlash as a result of this war. Jordan
[1:48] says there are hundreds of US troops
[1:50] here, but they are only here to defend
[1:52] Jordan and to protect it. And that is
[1:54] creating some kind of a controversial
[1:56] issue within Jordan because some
[1:57] opposition leaders and some of the
[1:59] public don't want to make sure and are
[2:01] calling on the government not to allow
[2:03] the US troops to use Jordan as a
[2:05] launching pad in case there is a war.
[2:07] Wolf
[2:09] Rua Amin in man Jordan. Thanks RULA very
[2:12] much. CNN's Art Harris is in northern
[2:14] Kuwait. He's embedded with US troops
[2:17] there. Art, tell us what you're seeing
[2:19] and what you're hearing where you are.
[2:22] >> Well, friend of the second Marines out
[2:23] of Camp, North Carolina here uh northern
[2:26] Kuwait near the Iraqi border. Their
[2:28] adrenaline is pumping. The coffee pots
[2:29] are packed. Uh and as one put it to me
[2:32] today, we're loaded for bear. uh their
[2:34] call sign of Charlie Company light
[2:36] armored reconnaissance unit is the
[2:39] gunfighters and they do just that in
[2:41] their light armored all-terrain vehicles
[2:43] armed with everything from anti-tank tow
[2:46] missiles uh the 25 mm cannon blast
[2:49] through buildings 762 machine guns and
[2:51] they've got mortars that can fire more
[2:53] than a mile wolf and rounds high
[2:55] explosive rounds they call shake and
[2:56] bake uh when one of the men learned that
[2:59] a cruise missile cruise missiles had
[3:01] been fired at Iraqi military targets he
[3:03] told me, quote, "Now I'm really
[3:05] motivated." Wolf,
[3:08] >> what about the morale as far as you can
[3:10] tell over there, Art, among those
[3:12] Marines in northern in northern Kuwait
[3:15] once that order is given to move into
[3:17] southern Iraq?
[3:19] >> Uh the morale is very high. They uh they
[3:22] say that this is in a way similar to
[3:25] training. Uh they have trained together
[3:27] uh in the desert in sandstorms and all
[3:29] sorts of conditions. uh and they say
[3:31] that it's like muscle memory uh they
[3:34] will do what they have to do uh and uh
[3:36] they feel very prepared. So uh there's
[3:39] also a sense that uh they're part of
[3:41] history and uh that uh if the president
[3:43] calls on them to carry out uh uh his
[3:46] policies that they will be down in the
[3:49] dirt and do whatever it takes uh uh to
[3:52] make it happen.
[3:55] CNN's Art Harris with the US Marines in
[3:57] northern Kuwait preparing to move into
[3:59] southern Iraq at some point. Art, thanks
[4:02] very much. CNN's Miles O'Brien is
[4:04] standing by at the CNN Center in
[4:06] Atlanta. He was telling us earlier when
[4:08] we briefly interrupted him about some of
[4:10] the hardware that's being used right now
[4:12] in this initial stage of the war. Miles,
[4:15] >> well, we're talking about the Tomahawk
[4:17] cruise missiles. According to the
[4:18] Pentagon, at least 40 of them were fired
[4:20] from ships in the Red Sea and in the
[4:23] Persian Gulf. Joining me to talk a
[4:25] little bit about the cruise missile,
[4:26] what it is used for, and uh how useful
[4:29] it is for the US military is Alec
[4:31] Fraser, retired captain of the United
[4:33] States Navy. Uh Alec, first let's get
[4:35] the lay of the land here using this map.
[4:37] You can point out where these cruisers
[4:39] were that would have fired off these uh
[4:41] uh cruise missiles and give people a
[4:43] sense of where they were headed. I think
[4:44] I'll draw on the map while you're doing
[4:46] that. Well, I think that you can see
[4:47] from the from the map that there are
[4:49] ships that can be in the Red Sea back
[4:51] over in the Persian Gulf. And there are
[4:52] also submarines that can fire these
[4:55] missiles. 40 missiles coming from one
[4:57] one destroyer, one cruiser is a is a
[5:00] large number of missiles to come from
[5:01] one ship. But they can come from two
[5:03] different locations approach uh Iraq
[5:05] from two different areas, two different
[5:06] quadrants, and it makes it a little bit
[5:08] more complicated uh as far as discerning
[5:10] where the where the attacks coming from
[5:12] and sort of surprising the people in
[5:13] that end. And the synchronicity of these
[5:15] taxes, what's very interesting. You
[5:16] could have 40 uh cruise missiles coming
[5:18] from all different locations. They can
[5:20] arrive at a specific location all at the
[5:23] same time if need be.
[5:24] >> Right. And that's done by a a an order
[5:26] that goes out from the theater commander
[5:28] that sort of coordinates both the air
[5:31] aircraft that are doing the attack and
[5:33] the missiles. So that in general the
[5:34] missiles will go in first, get people to
[5:36] turn off their radars or to lower their
[5:38] heads and then the aircraft go in. It's
[5:40] a finely tuned thing. It's very, it's
[5:42] timed down to the second and it's uh it
[5:44] works. Now,
[5:45] >> the defense department released a little
[5:46] bit of tape tonight. I wanted to take a
[5:47] look at this. This comes from the USS
[5:49] Cook, which was out here in the Red Sea.
[5:51] The USS Cook. This launching that we see
[5:54] here, obviously, Alec, you want to clear
[5:56] the decks when this happens. What we're
[5:57] talking about is a solid rocket motor.
[5:59] Eventually, as it breaks away, what
[6:01] kicks in is essentially a jet engine,
[6:03] >> right? the the the propel the the
[6:05] booster that gets it up into the air and
[6:06] then the turboan uh engine takes over
[6:08] and flies at it several hundred feet
[6:10] after that. And it's the fact that it's
[6:12] a turbo fan engine that's just running
[6:14] at a very low speed that will send it
[6:16] out to 700 1,000 mi long range.
[6:19] >> All right. And they fly fairly low. They
[6:21] fly about the speed of a commercial
[6:23] airliner in the neighborhood of 500 mph.
[6:25] Let's take a look at this animation to
[6:26] give you a sense of the flight of a
[6:28] cruise missile. Typical scenario here.
[6:30] There's your cruiser and there's your
[6:32] launch. And the trick here is to be
[6:35] something that cannot be easily seen by
[6:37] radar, cannot be detected by heat
[6:39] seeeking devices. And that's what the
[6:40] Tomahawk offers for $1.4 million per
[6:43] copy. Right.
[6:44] >> Right. But it's it's it can't be seen
[6:46] because it's so low and it can fly fly
[6:48] at a couple hundred feet. It can fly
[6:49] through valleys, fly uh down the rivers.
[6:52] It can do things that can't be detected
[6:54] by radar. And the the small engine is
[6:57] hard to detect by an infrared device
[6:59] that could be like a shoulder fired
[7:01] missile.
[7:01] >> Now, there was one other uh item in the
[7:03] arsenal that was used according to the
[7:05] Pentagon tonight, and that is the F-17
[7:07] uh stealth fighter, the Nighthawk as it
[7:10] is called. And I tell you what, before
[7:12] we do that, let's give you some
[7:13] particulars on the Tomahawk cruise
[7:14] missile, and then we'll move into the
[7:15] F-17. If we could just give you a a
[7:17] sense of what it's all about and uh the
[7:20] specifications on it. BGM 109 Tomahawk
[7:23] cruise missile. uh about a,000mi range.
[7:26] Uh terrain contour, uses GPS uh and
[7:31] launch from surface ships or submarines
[7:32] >> or submarines. And it has a warhead,
[7:34] a,000lb warhead which can be used like a
[7:36] bomb, but it also has a warhead with
[7:38] cluster bombs. And the cluster bombs can
[7:40] be used to destroy aircraft that are
[7:43] parked along a a runway or it can be
[7:45] used to to put a number of bombs down a
[7:48] section of a highway someplace if we
[7:50] knew someone was really traveling down
[7:51] that highway. All right, now let's move
[7:53] into the F-17. The Nighthawk is about
[7:55] the size of a uh F-15 single seat. Uh
[7:58] carries two uh guided uh bombs in it. Uh
[8:03] most likely the GBU27, which is kind of
[8:06] a mini bunker busters, a speed of about
[8:08] 650 mph, the range of about 700 mph. Of
[8:11] course, can be refueled midair, so it's
[8:13] not that important a number. Uh laserg
[8:16] guided weapons, the GBU27. Let's take a
[8:18] look at a scenario to give you a sense
[8:20] of how this operates. It's used early on
[8:22] along with the cruise missiles. The
[8:23] cruise missile used obviously because
[8:24] they don't put pilots in harm's way. But
[8:26] this is a uh a plane that is not easily
[8:29] seen by radar. These uh bombs that we're
[8:32] talking about, mini bunker busters with
[8:34] about a 500lb warhead on them designed
[8:37] with a time fuse so they penetrate
[8:39] concrete and then ideally if they're
[8:42] working as they're supposed to, they
[8:43] explode once they have made a
[8:45] penetration deep into a bunker. That's
[8:47] the theory. We don't know that that
[8:49] GBU27 was used, but that is typically uh
[8:51] what is on board an F-17 when you're
[8:54] talking about a guided precision uh
[8:56] weapon. And one thing to point out about
[8:57] these precision weapons in in the Gulf
[9:00] War one, about 10% of the weapons were
[9:03] precision or guided either by laser or
[9:05] by satellites. This time around, it's
[9:07] just the opposite. 10% are so-called
[9:09] dumb bombs, 90% precision. It's amazing
[9:12] how the weaponry has changed over the
[9:14] 12-ear period.
[9:15] >> It has. And back when I was in the Gulf
[9:16] in ' 91, we didn't have GPS to the
[9:19] extent that we have it today. GPS has
[9:21] changed the way we do warfare and and we
[9:24] can be much more precise, get the exact
[9:26] location of a target and put a bomb
[9:27] right there. Back in the Korean War, it
[9:29] would take hundreds of bombs just to
[9:30] destroy one bridge. Now you can do it
[9:32] with one.
[9:33] >> All right, having said all that, when
[9:34] you talk about 40 cruise missiles coming
[9:36] in, we've heard this talk about a
[9:38] decapitation effort here. Uh it's almost
[9:41] impossible for us to assess how much
[9:43] damage was done, but given the accuracy
[9:45] you have told us about uh we can sus we
[9:48] can probably summize that they hit a lot
[9:50] of these targets that they were after.
[9:52] >> Well, absolutely they hit the targets
[9:53] that the targets what what they were is
[9:55] what we don't know. They could have been
[9:56] in the no-fly zone radars. They could
[9:58] have been going after someone on a
[9:59] highway. What they were we don't know.
[10:01] But whatever it was they were aimed at
[10:03] they hit.
[10:04] >> All right. We can say that with fair
[10:05] fairly good certainty, I guess.
[10:06] >> Certainty.
[10:06] >> All right. Alec Fraser, retired captain,
[10:08] United States Navy. Thank you very much
[10:09] for walking us through all this. We
[10:11] appreciate it, Aaron.
[10:12] >> And that'll be one of the great and
[10:14] important questions of the next 24
[10:15] hours, I suppose. Not simply what they
[10:17] were trying to get, but who was there?
[10:19] If they were trying literally to to
[10:21] decapitate, a word that Jamie McIntyre
[10:24] used, an expression of uh comes out of
[10:26] the Pentagon. If they were trying to get
[10:28] some people, perhaps in the next 24
[10:30] hours, we'll know who they got. What we
[10:32] do know actually is who they didn't get.
[10:34] And the Iraqis have made a point of
[10:36] parading out government officials in the
[10:38] last 40 minutes or so to show that they
[10:41] are alive. Who we haven't seen, by the
[10:42] way, is Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime
[10:44] minister. Uh Nick Robertson, I'm curious
[10:46] as you've listened to this as someone
[10:48] who has been in Baghdad a long time now,
[10:51] many, many weeks. Um you undoubtedly
[10:55] heard emphasis that we might have missed
[10:57] all of us. um just react to what the
[11:00] last 40 minutes in Baghdad has been like
[11:02] on TV and in the streets.
[11:05] >> Well, I think listening to uh Minister
[11:07] Alah, it's what we've heard on a number
[11:09] of occasions from him and as it's come
[11:12] drawn closer to this conflict, all
[11:14] government ministers here who've talked
[11:16] on the issue, whether it be the foreign
[11:18] minister, the deputy prime minister, the
[11:20] information minister, all try to point
[11:23] to the illegality of this aggression.
[11:25] And that's I think in part what Minister
[11:29] Alsah was trying to do um when talking
[11:32] about the aggression of America. There
[11:34] is one thing here that officials in Iraq
[11:37] seem to take some satisfaction in if you
[11:40] will. While they know that there's
[11:42] nothing they can do at this time or
[11:44] nothing they are prepared to do at this
[11:45] time to head off a war. They continually
[11:48] point out that this lacks international
[11:51] support, that it lacks the support of
[11:53] the UN Security Council, very much
[11:55] listening to uh Minister Sah this
[11:58] morning on the same track saying that
[12:00] and also pointing out the the culture
[12:03] minister pointing out that Iraq does not
[12:05] have weapons of mass destruction, that
[12:06] the theme that the international drive
[12:09] has changed from weapons of mass
[12:12] destruction to regime change. trying to
[12:14] point out again to the international
[12:16] community something that they will
[12:18] likely try and build on in the coming
[12:20] days and weeks, Aaron, as Iraq tries to
[12:22] put its cause to the international
[12:24] community to try and bring international
[12:27] voices to bear against the United States
[12:29] and against Great Britain as they have
[12:31] tried to do in the weeks and months
[12:33] leading up to the war. play to uh
[12:35] France, play to Russia, play to China,
[12:38] point out that the United States does
[12:40] not have a broad support internationally
[12:43] at this time. It is likely a theme we'll
[12:45] hear a lot more of. Aaron,
[12:47] >> just Nick, very, very briefly, does it
[12:49] surprise you we have not seen Tariq Ziz?
[12:51] He's someone we are all used to seeing
[12:54] in these moments.
[12:57] >> At this time, no. He appeared late in
[12:59] the day yesterday. It would seem they
[13:01] fully expect this to be a long ongoing
[13:04] situation. It would not a surprise at
[13:07] this time.
[13:07] >> Okay. It's just someone who is so
[13:09] familiar, thank you, Nick, to uh uh I
[13:12] guess people around the world who uh not
[13:15] just from this period but from the first
[13:17] Gulf War as well, the deputy prime
[13:18] minister who runs foreign affairs pretty
[13:20] much, Tariq Aiz. Uh we haven't seen him
[13:23] yet and that may or may not mean
[13:24] anything. Um I guess that's another
[13:26] question we'll answer in this day ahead.
[13:28] Cristian Erin,
[13:32] just a quick correction from my part.
[13:33] When I was describing the two ministers
[13:35] who were talking, I said one of them was
[13:37] the president of the Iraqi National
[13:39] Assembly. In fact, the second minister
[13:41] there was the culture minister. We're
[13:43] going to go now to CNN's Becky Diamond,
[13:45] who is in one on one of those warships
[13:47] in the Persian Gulf, which launched some
[13:49] of those cruise missiles earlier this
[13:52] morning. Our time, evening, your time.
[13:54] Becky,
[13:56] >> I definitely like the water and the
[14:04] Becky, can you hear me there?
[14:07] >> Well, this morning, yes, I'm on the USS
[14:10] Mill. We're in the northern Persian Gulf
[14:12] and about 502 local time. That's 9:02
[14:15] Eastern time. This ship launched eight
[14:17] Tomahawk missiles. Now, one didn't quite
[14:19] make it and it sweeped or fell not too
[14:21] far from me in the Persian Gulf, but
[14:23] seven made it and it was quite a sight.
[14:25] were on the flight deck and the mood was
[14:27] somber, but there was a sense of relief
[14:30] here on the ship that that we that the
[14:32] ship has gotten started. Back to you,
[14:43] Becky. Thank you very much indeed. It's
[14:45] a little hard to hear everything, but
[14:47] clearly Becky was saying that uh some of
[14:49] those Tomahawk cruise missiles had been
[14:51] launched from uh where she was in the
[14:53] Persian Gulf. We're going to go back to
[14:56] Aaron.
[14:57] >> Thank you. I that's the first time um
[14:59] that I think we've seen that particular
[15:02] uh set of pictures. Um and they are you
[15:05] see these missiles being fired and they
[15:07] are they it is chilling to see. They are
[15:10] I mean we all know the power of them and
[15:13] we all understand the significance of
[15:16] what we are watching. Uh but each time
[15:18] you see it or at least time we see it um
[15:23] we find it chilling and striking. Uh it
[15:25] is the sign that this war uh is on even
[15:29] as it started in a way we none of us
[15:31] honestly we don't kid you about this. We
[15:33] none of us anticipated it would start in
[15:36] quite the way it has started tonight. Uh
[15:38] we expected it to start and in in many
[15:40] ways were assured it would start in a
[15:42] huge manner. But obviously something
[15:46] happened. Somebody saw something. A
[15:49] satellite caught a glimpse of something.
[15:51] Human intelligence on the ground became
[15:53] aware of something. And there was a
[15:55] reason then to start in this limited
[15:59] way, if you will. Uh the opening that
[16:02] the president described some hours ago.
[16:05] Now, uh, Chris Burns is, uh, covers the
[16:08] White House, is part of the team of CNN
[16:10] correspondents that covers the White
[16:12] House, and he's taken the duty across
[16:14] the street from the White House.
[16:16] Uh, Chris, did you get any sense uh, in
[16:20] your reporting today? Obviously, it's
[16:22] been very tense at the White House for
[16:24] the last couple of days. Any sense that
[16:26] today or tonight was the night? Well,
[16:29] it's interesting you say that nobody
[16:31] expected this to happen quite this way.
[16:32] And perhaps even President Bush didn't
[16:34] expect it to happen this way. He was in
[16:36] the middle of a second war planning
[16:39] session. This had been happening since
[16:41] the beginning of the week, an afternoon
[16:43] session. And in the middle of that
[16:45] session, he got some information from
[16:46] the CIA and other agencies telling him
[16:48] there was, in the words of senior
[16:50] administration officials, a major
[16:52] leadership target. Exactly who that is,
[16:55] they're not saying. Exactly where it
[16:57] was, they're not saying. But this given
[16:59] to him as a an opportunity that should
[17:01] not be missed and that is why the
[17:03] president decided in the middle of that
[17:05] meeting to go ahead and give the go
[17:07] ahead to launch more than 40 cruise
[17:09] missiles against that major leadership
[17:11] target. Uh the president uh also in his
[17:15] speech. Uh interesting that he addressed
[17:17] the aspect of human shields and civilian
[17:20] casualties attacking early uh the uh
[17:24] regime uh in Baghdad saying that they
[17:26] will be using civilians as human
[17:28] shields. They will be sending their
[17:30] forces, their military into civilian
[17:32] areas in as to defend themselves and to
[17:35] attack US-led forces going in. Here's
[17:39] what President Bush had to say.
[17:42] In this conflict, America faces an enemy
[17:45] who has no regard for conventions of war
[17:48] or rules of morality.
[17:50] Saddam Hussein has placed Iraqi troops
[17:52] and equipment in civilian areas,
[17:55] attempting to use innocent men, women,
[17:57] and children as shields for his own
[18:00] military. A final atrocity against his
[18:03] people.
[18:06] And the president also justifying aiming
[18:08] to justify the uh offensive that has
[18:10] been launched saying that armies of
[18:13] firefighters and policemen could be
[18:15] involved in addressing uh terrorist
[18:17] attacks. That is why the United States
[18:20] has to act now. Erin Chris, thank you.
[18:22] Um, as we have as we have talked and we
[18:25] have talked certainly for the last
[18:27] couple of weeks a good deal about how uh
[18:29] milit military planner sourcing at the
[18:31] Pentagon have uh described to us how we
[18:34] expected to see this war begin. On the
[18:37] Iraqi side, there's a lot of speculation
[18:38] about how the Iraqis would fight the
[18:40] war. There's also been speculation, of
[18:42] course, whether the Iraqis would fight
[18:44] the war, whether they would lay down
[18:45] their guns, whether they surrender
[18:47] quickly at this shock and awe strategy.
[18:50] But the the tactic that concerns
[18:55] planners the most is that they would the
[18:58] Iraqis would bring all of their forces
[19:00] or their best forces, the Special
[19:02] Republican Guard and the Republican
[19:04] Guard, that they would bring them into
[19:06] Baghdad or around Baghdad and they would
[19:08] make their stand in Baghdad. Baghdad's
[19:11] about 350 mi from the Kuwaiti border.
[19:13] That's a long supply line for the
[19:15] Americans to maintain. It's not an easy
[19:17] thing to do. And then you get to Baghdad
[19:20] itself and you go through the worst and
[19:22] most difficult kind of combat,
[19:25] house-to-house urban combat. And in that
[19:27] situation, all these sophisticated
[19:29] bombs, all these uh satellites and this
[19:32] and that don't help you. It's man-on-man
[19:35] literally. And that is where the
[19:37] casualties can occur and undoubtedly
[19:40] would occur if it would come to that.
[19:42] And in fact, there are calculations
[19:44] about how many casualties. I'm never
[19:46] I've never quite understood how they
[19:48] figure these sorts of things out, but
[19:50] there are calculations about the kind of
[19:52] losses that forces would take
[19:55] if it comes down to that sort of urban
[19:58] fighting. Nick Robertson. Um, I can't
[20:01] imagine sitting where you are this
[20:04] morning knowing that it is very possible
[20:07] and indeed in some respects likely that
[20:10] this thing will end in the battle a
[20:12] street battle in Baghdad.
[20:16] >> Indeed. and and what many people tell us
[20:18] here and this is clearly something that
[20:20] the government appeals to trying even if
[20:23] it cannot appeal to people to support it
[20:26] because it is the government and
[20:27] President Saddam Hussein is a leader to
[20:30] fight because the country is being
[20:32] invaded. That very simple notion that
[20:35] Iraq is a nation and that the people of
[20:37] this nation should defend themselves
[20:39] from attackers regardless of who is the
[20:42] head of the nation. And that is
[20:43] something we've been hearing in speeches
[20:45] and it is something we hear from people
[20:47] when we talk to them privately away from
[20:50] cameras where they will say perhaps we
[20:52] don't want this leader. Perhaps we could
[20:54] have another leader but our country is
[20:57] being invaded. It is our duty to defend
[20:59] the country. People here we've talked to
[21:02] talk about defending their homes and
[21:04] their houses. The pictures we see on
[21:06] television in the evening has been of
[21:08] urban training for urban warfare. It is
[21:11] difficult to know however how much of a
[21:14] heart people will put into that fight
[21:16] what exactly uh forces coalition forces
[21:20] will find in terms of resistance when
[21:22] they arrive in Baghdad. We do not see
[21:25] and we are not shown here large
[21:27] dispositions of forces in and around
[21:29] Baghdad. Certainly they are there.
[21:32] Certainly there are many military
[21:33] barracks. Certainly there are other
[21:35] locations that the uh military does use
[21:37] to live in inside this city. When I was
[21:40] south of Baghdad a few days ago, it was
[21:42] clear that some defensive installations
[21:45] are being made along the road to
[21:46] Baghdad. Indeed, some areas appear
[21:48] appeared to be being prepared for
[21:51] battles ahead. Aaron,
[21:54] >> Nick, it is uh
[21:57] I suppose how the Iraqis respond, how
[21:59] the Iraqi military responds, how the
[22:01] citizens, the 5 million or so citizens
[22:04] of Baghdad respond if this becomes a
[22:06] fight for Baghdad uh depends a fair
[22:09] amount on what precedes the fight for
[22:10] Baghdad. how much uh damage is
[22:13] inflicted, how much uh intimidation is
[22:17] carried out by the American forces when
[22:19] they ultimately do launch the largecale
[22:21] attack which is still to come. Um it
[22:26] Nick, I haven't said this and I probably
[22:27] won't say it again, but we all think it
[22:29] stay safe out there. Okay, Nick
[22:31] Robertson who's in Baghdad and uh we
[22:33] don't truth we don't make a big deal
[22:36] about uh reporters in these sorts of
[22:39] situations because it's something they
[22:40] choose to do. It's what we do and we
[22:42] choose to do it, but we worry about them
[22:44] uh on nights like this a lot. Uh Wol,
[22:48] you have had some time to think about
[22:50] and talk to people a bit about this this
[22:52] this the Saddam TV address and whether
[22:56] we need to put Saddam in quotes or not,
[22:58] whether there was Saddam or not. I
[23:00] thought it interesting though the point
[23:01] that someone made a bit ago that it is
[23:04] difficult, it's one thing to look like
[23:06] somebody, it's another thing to really
[23:07] sound like somebody.
[23:09] And there's no doubt that Saddam Hussein
[23:11] has a very precise voice, very
[23:13] recognizable in Arabic. So there's
[23:16] little doubt. I think there's virtually
[23:17] no doubt whether or not that was in fact
[23:19] Saddam Hussein. Here's where the doubt
[23:21] is. He did say March 20th, 2003 in this
[23:25] part of the world. It is now March 20th,
[23:27] 2003 when those Tomahawk cruise missiles
[23:30] landed in Baghdad. It was already March
[23:32] 20th, 2003. The question I think that's
[23:35] a fair question that deserves to be
[23:36] answered is whether or not this
[23:38] videotape of Saddam Hussein speaking out
[23:41] against what he called the criminal
[23:42] Junior Bush was taped after the cruise
[23:46] missiles landed or before the cruise
[23:49] missiles landed. a significant question
[23:50] that we don't have the answer to, but
[23:53] it's certainly one that will uh that
[23:55] intelligence officials around the world
[23:57] will be pondering to see if that US
[24:00] strike the the decapitation strike as
[24:02] they call it going after presumably
[24:04] Saddam Hussein Hussein personally was
[24:07] successful or unsuccessful based on the
[24:09] videotape alone. Aaron, I don't think we
[24:12] can reach that conclusion because that
[24:14] tape could have been prepared before the
[24:16] strike with the date in it only to be
[24:19] released after those first cruise
[24:21] missiles hit Baghdad. So, there's still
[24:23] a little bit of a question when that
[24:25] tape was made.
[24:26] >> And I and I don't think either of us
[24:28] want to put too fine a point on this,
[24:30] but was there because I think the
[24:31] chances are it is Saddam Hussein. Um,
[24:34] but was there, as you think through the
[24:37] speech, other than the date, do you
[24:40] recall him saying anything in that
[24:42] speech that suggested
[24:45] what the attack was? That they had tried
[24:47] to get the leadership and failed
[24:49] tonight? Anything specific enough to say
[24:54] it had to be tonight?
[24:57] There was no other specific reference, a
[24:59] date reference or a specific reference
[25:01] to what exactly happened that would
[25:04] indicate that. That's why I I I'm
[25:06] suggesting the possibility, we don't
[25:07] know this for sure, the possibility that
[25:09] that was a pre-recorded videotape to be
[25:12] released after the first bombs fell in
[25:15] Baghdad in order to reassure the Iraqi
[25:18] population, the Arab world if you will,
[25:20] that Saddam Hussein is in fact alive. I
[25:22] don't think we can reach that conclusion
[25:24] on that tape per se because there was no
[25:26] other specific reference to precisely
[25:29] what happened other than the date March
[25:31] 20th that was released. I don't think
[25:32] there's any doubt it was Saddam Hussein.
[25:34] We don't know when that tape was made.
[25:36] >> Just before you throw it uh anywhere,
[25:38] just one other thing about the speech
[25:40] that I I thought about as I watched it
[25:42] and now looking at the tape again. Um
[25:44] and this may or may it may or may not
[25:46] mean a single thing. It is. He's reading
[25:49] off what almost looks to me like a
[25:50] stenopad, a notepad. And it all does
[25:55] look okay. It It may not be, but it all
[25:58] does look very quickly put together. Uh
[26:01] and again, that may or may not mean
[26:03] anything. It's just one of those things
[26:05] we noted while we were watching it. Uh
[26:07] it did not have the look of a very
[26:09] sophisticated prepared speech, uh which
[26:11] might have been recorded some other time
[26:13] to be played after the first bomb hit.
[26:16] Just a thought, Wolf.
[26:17] >> You're abs you're you're absolutely
[26:19] right, Erin. And there's no doubt that
[26:20] he was reading from various notebooks.
[26:22] If you to if you took a careful look, he
[26:24] would bring up various pieces of paper
[26:26] as if the speech had been written in
[26:28] different different parts. Cristiano
[26:30] Murus here with me in Kuwait, and she's
[26:32] been reflecting on what we've seen over
[26:34] the past few hours as well.
[26:37] >> Yes. Well, I leave it up to you to
[26:39] basically we've said all we can, I
[26:40] think, about this. And you're absolutely
[26:42] right. There were various notebooks. It
[26:43] looked like it was handwritten. and he
[26:45] kept flipping his pages. Um, of course,
[26:47] we're not just talking about all the US
[26:49] and UK forces arrayed against Saddam
[26:51] Hussein here in Kuwait, but over there
[26:54] in the northern uh Iraqi area where the
[26:57] US had hoped to open a second front up
[27:00] there, uh there is potential military
[27:02] activity by Kurdish forces up there. And
[27:05] that's where we find CNN's Jane Araf
[27:07] who's coming to us via video phone from
[27:09] Dohook.
[27:13] Christian, we're about halfway here in
[27:15] Dohook between the Turkish border and
[27:18] between the city of Mosul, second
[27:20] biggest city in Baghdad. And there are
[27:22] Kurdish forces ranged behind us on the
[27:24] mountaintop that looks towards Mosul.
[27:27] Now, we were on that mountain last
[27:28] night, a lookout point for Kurdish
[27:30] forces. And it's known that it's a
[27:32] lookout point as well for select
[27:34] American forces operating in this
[27:36] region. Now, Peshmerga soldiers, the
[27:39] Kurdish soldiers were telling us that
[27:41] they had been seeing unidentified trucks
[27:43] driving without their lights on back and
[27:46] forth toward the line of Iraqi control
[27:48] last night. Those are believed to be
[27:50] military trucks. It seems all quiet this
[27:52] morning, but they are certainly on watch
[27:54] here along the border as they are along
[27:57] the Turkish border. Now, one of the
[27:58] concerns has been that Turkish troops
[28:00] would come in and instead of a second
[28:02] front of American soldiers here to fight
[28:04] the Iraqis, there would be fighting
[28:06] breaking out between Turkish and Kurdish
[28:08] forces. Now, that seems to have been
[28:09] diffused, but there are still tens of
[28:12] thousands of Kurdish forces they say are
[28:14] ready to fight Turkish soldiers if they
[28:17] do come in too far. Christ
[28:21] >> Jane, I want to ask you a question on
[28:23] the issue of Saddam Hussein. You have
[28:24] been our bureau chief in Baghdad for
[28:26] many years and observed him at least uh
[28:29] on television. Did you hear his speech
[28:32] and are you able to recognize the Arabic
[28:35] and whether you believe it was him or
[28:37] not given what you've heard over the
[28:39] years?
[28:43] That's always been a question as you
[28:44] know Christian whether it really is him.
[28:46] There's no indication that it wasn't.
[28:49] Now, it may very well have been
[28:51] pre-taped, but if it was pre-taped in an
[28:53] effort to assure the Iraqi population,
[28:56] that's one thing we all know as well,
[28:57] that the Iraqi population is not so
[28:59] easily reassured. And there is always a
[29:02] a skepticism among Iraqis whether they
[29:05] are actually seeing their real
[29:06] president. Again, no indication that
[29:09] that wasn't the real thing, but there
[29:11] always is that element of doubt. And
[29:12] certainly there's the element of doubt
[29:14] in the mind of the Iraqi people as well.
[29:17] Having grown up in that system, they all
[29:19] maintain a healthy skepticism about what
[29:22] they're seeing and what they're hearing
[29:23] as you know from their leaders.
[29:25] Christian
[29:27] >> Jane Raf, thank you very much there in
[29:29] northern Iraq. And we're going back to
[29:31] Aaron in Atlanta.
[29:32] >> Thank you. Cristian, you made a great
[29:33] point. Jane has been um our Baghdad
[29:36] bureau chief for a long time. It's tough
[29:38] duty and she is u she has done terrific
[29:41] work. We've we've gotten to see I think
[29:44] all of us on this at war. Believe me,
[29:45] it's not a television program and none
[29:47] of us here think of it this way, but
[29:49] we've all wondered how in as we've
[29:52] prepared for this uh how some of these
[29:54] systems that have been in place, the
[29:56] embedding system uh was going to work
[29:58] when it actually uh when the bell rang
[30:00] and the bell rang tonight and we had a
[30:02] pretty good sense of how it works. We're
[30:04] able to go to some remarkable places um
[30:08] and mostly we're able to see it pretty
[30:10] well. Becky Diamond is uh on board the
[30:12] USS Millius. Uh and while sometimes
[30:15] these pictures get a little ragged, uh
[30:17] we work with them because it's
[30:19] extraordinary to be able to get to them
[30:21] at all. Becky.
[30:25] >> Well, Aaron, I am standing on the USS
[30:27] Villas destroyer in the north northern
[30:29] Persian Gulf, thousands of miles from
[30:31] where you are on a video phone. This
[30:33] morning about 9:02 Eastern time, 50:02
[30:37] local time. This ship launched eight
[30:39] Tomahawk missiles. One didn't make it
[30:41] too far. It booster fell not too far
[30:43] from me in the water right beside me,
[30:46] but seven others launched successfully,
[30:48] reaching targets, which of course we
[30:49] don't know. Now, the ship has an unknown
[30:52] number of Tomahawk missiles. Does have
[30:53] more. The ship is waiting for its
[30:55] orders, and we'll have to see what's
[30:57] next. Aaron,
[30:59] >> just give me this is one of those
[31:01] television questions and I actually
[31:02] apologize. Just give me a sense of the
[31:04] mood there tonight or this morning. Is
[31:07] there a sense of excitement? Is there a
[31:08] sense of anxiety? What do you what do
[31:10] you pick up when you talk to the men and
[31:12] women on board?
[31:15] >> It's a fascinating fascinating place to
[31:18] be right now. The mood when I arrived on
[31:20] board last week was anxious. There were
[31:23] a lot of people feeling a lot of tension
[31:25] with a lot of uncertainty and that that
[31:27] mood settled when the president spoke
[31:29] and then there was a feeling of a
[31:30] mission and no one's a more wararm
[31:33] monger on this ship. I don't feel that
[31:34] at all but people feel they have a
[31:36] mission. They have orders and this is
[31:37] their job and they're going to execute
[31:40] and this morning I would say there was
[31:41] almost a sense of relief with a with an
[31:44] order being executed but people are
[31:46] reflective and somber not a task that
[31:49] they take lightly. Aaron,
[31:50] >> Becky, thank you for your work today and
[31:53] I suspect there's going to be some
[31:54] dramatic and difficult days for you and
[31:57] the crew members aboard that ship. Stay
[31:59] safe. Thank you, Becky Diamond, aboard
[32:01] the Millius out there. Um,
[32:05] here here is the context in some
[32:08] respects we have waited for for many
[32:10] hours tonight. This is the lead in the
[32:13] Washington Post that um this is the
[32:16] Washington Post reporting and obviously
[32:17] we're working pretty hard to confirm it.
[32:19] Uh, but it's hard sometimes because in
[32:21] fact we're on the air and a lot of our
[32:23] correspondents are on the air and
[32:24] they're not able to do as much reporting
[32:25] as I know they'd like to do. Here's the
[32:27] lead in the Washington Post tomorrow.
[32:29] Today, shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday,
[32:32] Director of Central Intelligence George
[32:34] J. Tennant offered President Bush the
[32:36] prospect improbable to the point of
[32:38] fantasy yet suddenly at hand that the
[32:41] war against Iraq might be transformed
[32:44] with its opening shots. The CIA said
[32:47] tenants said believed it had a fix on
[32:50] Saddam Hussein. Hussein and others in
[32:54] the most senior levels of the Iraqi
[32:55] leadership and on the post story goes.
[32:58] So if this is we're careful with this
[33:02] this is the reporting of the Washington
[33:03] Post. pretty good reporters. They uh
[33:07] that now at least we have some sense of
[33:09] what it was the Americans thought they
[33:11] had, why they felt they had a moment, an
[33:14] opportunity, improbable to the point of
[33:17] fantasy yet suddenly at hand. A nice
[33:19] little piece of writing. Uh Kelly man is
[33:21] among the groups that among the
[33:23] individual. He's not a group. He's a
[33:24] person who works with us um in special
[33:28] forces and understanding a lot of this
[33:30] stuff. What's your take on that? Must
[33:33] have been a tanalyzing moment, wouldn't
[33:34] you think, when the CI director walks in
[33:36] and says, "We think we got him in the
[33:37] crosshairs."
[33:39] It was, Aaron, and I watched you report
[33:41] it and uh it always puts a hitch in your
[33:43] throat. The bottom line is, and the most
[33:44] tanalyzing piece of it is that's
[33:46] something that can't be confirmed by
[33:48] satellites. In other words, it clearly
[33:50] indicates people on the ground. Uh it it
[33:52] it indicates human intelligence.
[33:54] >> I think it was General Clark earlier,
[33:56] but it may have been um may have been
[33:58] someone else. who've been at this a bit
[34:00] who said one of the things that might be
[34:02] unsettling to Saddam is the fact that if
[34:04] they in fact targeted him, somebody who
[34:07] knows him, somebody close to him, some
[34:10] human being gave him up. Absolutely. Or
[34:15] that we that he has actual enemy people
[34:18] in his in his rear area right next to
[34:20] him and didn't know it. That that would
[34:22] be even more fear producing. uh
[34:24] especially with a person who loves to
[34:26] control things as much as as he does. In
[34:29] the last war, we know that he had at
[34:31] least 11 lookalikes. So, in order to
[34:34] prioritize the target list to step out
[34:36] of the kind of at least the initial
[34:38] planning, we all know it goes south the
[34:39] first shot. But bottom line is in order
[34:41] to act on that, they had to have direct
[34:44] eyes on the target and have reason to
[34:46] believe that even with the time of
[34:48] flight of the missile that they had a
[34:50] chance of getting it. And that's
[34:51] exciting. It a it boy it sure paints
[34:54] that whole Saddam uh television speech
[34:58] in an entirely different light doesn't
[35:00] it? I mean there must have been if if
[35:02] the post reporting in in proves out and
[35:05] and there's no reason to believe it will
[35:07] not. I mean I I for one have great
[35:09] confidence in their reporting. Um there
[35:12] must have been in American circles,
[35:14] military circles, intelligence circles a
[35:17] heartdropping moment uh when they
[35:20] realized it didn't happen. and they
[35:21] didn't get him. This uh improbable to
[35:24] the point of fantasy moment.
[35:26] >> But on the good side, Aaron, it gives
[35:28] rise to the run rabbit run, doesn't it?
[35:30] I as I watched you report it, uh I I
[35:33] noticed that they were on again, off
[35:34] again, 10 minutes away. Nope. 20
[35:36] minutes. Uh that could be the rabbit
[35:39] that doesn't want to come out of his
[35:40] hole. And and I think that clearly he
[35:42] looked a little bit distraught on
[35:43] television as well. I would I agree with
[35:46] that that that was not again you don't
[35:49] want to put too much too fine a point on
[35:50] some of this stuff but that was not the
[35:52] sort of confident almost jaunty Saddam
[35:55] Hussein that we have seen of very often
[35:58] over a long period of time that's right
[36:01] I mean if you if you watch him in in his
[36:03] normal composure he's leaning back he's
[36:05] smoking he's uh basically uh you know
[36:09] talking to people on bended knee this
[36:11] was leaning forward he clearly had a
[36:13] long face. Uh he clearly had not been
[36:16] sleeping well and I think that if you
[36:19] look closely at the and listen to the
[36:21] way that he talked and and the the man
[36:23] the mannerisms he used, it was not his
[36:25] normal routine. Looks a lot older in
[36:28] that shot to me than he looked Yes, he
[36:30] does.
[36:30] >> Now, I'll tell you something. I don't
[36:31] imagine you sleep very well if 40 cruise
[36:33] missiles or half that many if there were
[36:36] two targets. Half that many are raining
[36:38] down on where you were or where someone
[36:40] thought you were. uh that would keep me
[36:42] up at night.
[36:44] >> And and we're talking about a man who
[36:46] needed a food taster. I mean, you know,
[36:48] what kind of life is that? And now it's
[36:50] coming to a uh a culmination here where
[36:53] literally a superpower is is hunting
[36:56] him. I mean, that's got to be a very
[36:58] terrible feeling. Kelly, terrific work
[37:00] there. Thank you, Nick. Uh I'm not sure
[37:02] if you're able to hear I'm not going to
[37:04] read the whole uh lead again, but this
[37:06] notion that the CIA had Saddam Hussein,
[37:09] believed it had Saddam Hussein in his
[37:11] sights, and marry that off with the
[37:13] notion that Kelly underscored, which is
[37:16] it had to be human intelligence that
[37:18] gave him up.
[37:22] Nick
[37:26] >> Well, it was a pretty good windup, Nick.
[37:28] I'll say that. I'm not sure we uh
[37:33] may be having a little trouble with Nick
[37:34] Robertson's phone, which is all things
[37:36] considered considered.
[37:37] >> I think I think I hear you now. I think
[37:38] we have some interference on the line.
[37:40] >> There you go, Nick.
[37:41] >> It certainly Aaron, it certainly fits
[37:43] into something that Iraqi officials have
[37:46] been saying that is going on here, part
[37:49] of a psychological warp. And when one
[37:52] thinks that the next phase of this
[37:55] campaign will be bombing on the scale
[37:58] that will shocken all the people here, a
[38:01] psychological phase, a buildup of
[38:03] continuing to mount the pressure that we
[38:06] know where you are. We've targeted you.
[38:08] Perhaps only President Saddam Hussein
[38:10] knows how closely that targeting
[38:13] actually came to him. But certainly from
[38:16] a psychological point of view, shock and
[38:18] awe will have a much greater effect on
[38:21] an enemy who is already feeling the
[38:23] psychological pressure and one can see
[38:25] that building here. Again, the very
[38:27] quick response coming out on television.
[38:29] He did look older than his looks in the
[38:31] past. It was hastily prepared. The
[38:35] psychological impact or the
[38:37] psychological component here does appear
[38:39] to be having some effect at least. Aaron
[38:43] >> Nick, thank you. Uh just a a couple uh
[38:45] for our viewers here, a couple more
[38:47] pieces of detail out of the Washington
[38:50] Post uh reporting on this. Um the
[38:53] intelligence community believed this uh
[38:55] well the intelligence was unforeseen
[38:57] according to the post and perishable. He
[39:00] wasn't going to be wherever he was very
[39:01] long, presenting what one administration
[39:03] official called the target of
[39:05] opportunity. There was no guarantee at
[39:07] all. Tenant said that his whereabouts
[39:08] would be pinpointed again. According to
[39:11] the Post reporting, he was in an
[39:13] anonymous Baghdad home.
[39:16] Just read it. When President Bush signed
[39:18] the launch order at 6:30 p.m., it had
[39:20] been hastily prepared. The first shots
[39:23] would strike through the roof and walls
[39:24] of an anonymous Baghdad home and deep
[39:26] beneath it in hopes of decapitating the
[39:29] Iraqi government in a single blow. So
[39:32] when we talked earlier
[39:35] u perhaps an hour or so ago about the
[39:37] idea that this was not the opening act
[39:41] of this war that any of us had been
[39:43] prepared for that you had been listening
[39:45] to and about for many many weeks. Now
[39:48] you know exactly why the CIA and and I
[39:52] think Kelly makes great sense. It had to
[39:54] be human intelligence. Believe they had
[39:56] Saddam Hussein. That they had him in a
[39:57] house in Baghdad, some nondescript home.
[40:00] Anonymous is the way the post describes
[40:02] it. An anonymous home in Baghdad. This
[40:04] is a guy who rarely sleeps in the same
[40:06] place, same bed two days in a row. And
[40:08] they thought they had him and they moved
[40:09] the plan up because they thought they
[40:11] could get him. And the fact is, it turns
[40:12] out they did not. But it's an
[40:14] extraordinary piece of news to be able
[40:16] to report that the intelligence on the
[40:19] ground and this bodess well we must say
[40:21] for everything that is about to follow
[40:24] that the intelligence on the ground was
[40:27] at least credible enough to the people
[40:30] who analyzed this sort of thing that
[40:33] they believed that they could toss $40
[40:35] million worth of weapons out there and
[40:38] maybe end this thing before it began.
[40:41] Um, we're trying to to make some sense
[40:43] of the military moves that have gone on.
[40:45] I think that's what Miles O'Brien uh is
[40:48] able to deal with now. Miles, uh, Aaron.
[40:51] Yes. Let me, first of all, I want to
[40:52] tell you a couple of things. We've, uh,
[40:53] got some satellite imagery of, uh, the
[40:56] greater Baghdad area, city of 5 million
[40:58] people. And we can give you a sense if
[41:00] you, uh, take a look at this imagery of
[41:03] some of the targets of opportunity.
[41:04] That's actually the wrong shot right
[41:06] now. They're trying to set that one up.
[41:07] Claude, if I could have you go to the uh
[41:09] uh 101, the keyhole graphic, and we're
[41:12] going to bring that up for you and try
[41:13] to give you a sense as we zoom in on um
[41:16] Baghdad through the keyhole machine. If
[41:19] you could put that up for me, we'll get
[41:20] there. That's actually the wrong machine
[41:22] as well. Uh one more try there and we'll
[41:24] try to get this on. GR 101 for those of
[41:28] you keeping score at home is what we're
[41:30] trying to get up on the air here. You
[41:32] know what, Aronaut, we're going to try
[41:33] to get that graphic together. We'll get
[41:34] back to you in just a minute.
[41:36] >> Okay. Thanks. You know, we've had very
[41:39] few of these little glitches and we
[41:41] brought things in from all over the
[41:42] world and we have a glitch 30 feet
[41:44] behind me over in the corner. Go figure
[41:46] that. Um it has been an extraordinary
[41:50] night, a night that none of us um
[41:52] anticipated would play out in any way
[41:55] the way it has. Uh but that's that's the
[41:58] nature of this. I guess we we anticipate
[42:02] things and then a piece of information
[42:03] comes and it changed the whole runup or
[42:08] layout of this thing. Uh Christian, um
[42:12] it's a pretty remarkable piece of news
[42:13] to report that the CIA thought they had
[42:15] the guy cold.
[42:19] >> It certainly is. And of course, we
[42:21] remember back from the first Gulf War
[42:23] that they tried over and over to do it
[42:25] then as well. I mean there wasn't that
[42:27] open admission that he was a target back
[42:29] then but it had been tried many many
[42:32] times and it failed back then. We still
[42:34] don't know exactly who was targeted and
[42:37] what actually happened in the pre-dawn
[42:39] attack on those locations in Baghdad
[42:42] today. So we'll obviously have to wait
[42:43] to see uh what was the target and and
[42:46] what or who if anybody was in fact
[42:49] caught. Um but certainly in terms of
[42:51] what do we expect next? Well, what do we
[42:54] expect? When will the actual first stage
[42:57] of massive uh aerial bombardment happen
[42:59] if indeed it does happen? And when then
[43:02] will the ground offensive start? We've
[43:04] been told that the uh the objective here
[43:07] is although they're talking about such
[43:09] heavy bombardment, not to target and not
[43:13] to kill unnecessarily either Iraqi
[43:16] military or obviously civilians. What
[43:19] they say they want to do is try try to
[43:22] go in as soft as they can while going
[43:24] after legitimate military targets. And
[43:27] there are all sorts of possibilities
[43:28] that we've been told by uh senior
[43:31] officers here about what they may
[43:32] expect. We don't even know whether these
[43:35] 17 uh Iraqi surrender Iraqi soldiers who
[43:38] surrendered might preage uh hundreds
[43:42] tens of thousands of Iraqis who might
[43:44] surrender in early hours. So, we're
[43:46] really going to have to wait to see how
[43:48] this unfolds. And as you've been saying,
[43:49] as we've been saying, it's unfolded
[43:51] slightly differently than we had been
[43:53] led to believe.
[43:54] >> Back to you, Erin.
[43:55] >> Thank you, Cristian. I remember uh
[43:57] General Clark saying to me in the early
[43:59] moments of the war in Afghanistan uh
[44:03] back a year ago that these things
[44:05] actually never do quite the way you they
[44:07] never go quite the way you expect them.
[44:09] We just didn't expect to be unexpected
[44:11] quite so quickly as it happened today.
[44:14] Um, Miles, you want to give it another
[44:16] go?
[44:16] >> Yeah. Yes. Let's give it another go.
[44:18] Erin, I think we finally have found uh
[44:21] all the right buttons here. And as you
[44:22] say, it is always the things closest to
[44:24] home that seem to fail us. Uh, what I
[44:26] have to show you is some uh pretty
[44:28] interesting satellite imagery. This
[44:29] isn't stuff real time. It's not like
[44:31] we're going to look at a bomb damage
[44:33] assessment, which is the term the
[44:34] Pentagon uses. This is imagery which was
[44:36] shot a year ago of Baghdad. And let's
[44:37] take that source and we'll zoom in on
[44:39] this region for you and give you a sense
[44:42] of some of the possible areas, some of
[44:44] the possible targets uh of opportunity
[44:47] in the Baghdad region. Now, I should
[44:48] give you the caveat. We don't know
[44:50] precisely where these 40 cruise missiles
[44:52] and where that F17 was tasked to strike,
[44:56] but uh we can tell you where some of the
[44:59] lucrative targets are as we zoom right
[45:01] in there on Baghdad. Take a look at this
[45:02] palace here. Uh that palace is the main
[45:06] palace uh among Saddam Hussein's many
[45:10] dozens of palaces literally lots of
[45:12] money spent over the years building
[45:14] shrines to himself all around uh this
[45:17] country. Uh that's just one of many.
[45:20] There's a compound right along the
[45:22] Tigress River. There's another palace
[45:24] that just went by there. You saw the
[45:26] blue dome and yet another one right over
[45:28] here. these palaces. Uh he, as you have
[45:30] pointed out many times, Erin, uh Saddam
[45:32] Hussein does not like to sleep in the
[45:34] same bed twice in a row. A couple of
[45:37] other places that might be of great
[45:39] interest for targets. Uh the Council of
[45:42] Ministers. This is where um the uh Iraqi
[45:46] uh government, the the uh the people
[45:49] closest to Saddam Hussein meet. It's
[45:51] actually an old convention center now,
[45:54] but a possible target as well. the
[45:56] Ministry of Information. Now, we know
[45:58] the Ministry of Information is standing.
[46:00] Why do we know that? Well, that's where
[46:02] that live picture that you've been
[46:03] seeing has been coming from. Uh you've
[46:06] been seeing it. The shot that we're
[46:07] showing is actually looking uh looking
[46:09] out in this direction. And if I uh move
[46:12] up just a little bit, you can sort of
[46:14] get a sense of what you're looking at
[46:15] there. Uh there's that shot which you've
[46:18] seen many times in our our pictures.
[46:21] There's that shot of the mosque. That
[46:23] mosque is right in this area. And then
[46:24] we had a shot looking down that bridge
[46:27] just a little while ago. So the field of
[46:29] view of that camera is somewhere like
[46:31] this or really now that it's been panned
[46:33] over it's something like this. So you
[46:34] can get a sense of of where it is
[46:37] looking. There's another very
[46:38] interesting uh potential target and
[46:40] we're talking about regime targets here.
[46:43] Regime targets. That's the goal is not
[46:45] to take out power plants and and um ruin
[46:48] the water supply, that sort of thing to
[46:50] cause hardship to the people. The idea
[46:52] is to go after the regime. This is the
[46:54] ministry of uh military industrial uh
[46:58] the military-industrial complex if you
[47:00] will. This is uh sort of the the
[47:02] headquarters for the weapons of mass
[47:04] destruction uh capability uh in Iraq and
[47:08] has been over the years. And finally uh
[47:10] over here uh right next to it is where
[47:12] the Iraqi parliament uh meets. Um
[47:15] interesting when you're talking about
[47:16] regime targets uh this is a place you
[47:19] might want to take a quick look at. This
[47:20] is the place where you've seen those
[47:22] pictures of Saddam Hussein constantly
[47:24] firing off pistols. Uh that is uh every
[47:27] time you see that that is shot right
[47:29] here. That's kind of the uh Lenin Square
[47:33] uh the it's the top of Lenin's tomb I
[47:35] should say the Kremlin if you will for
[47:38] uh Saddam Hussein. And that's where
[47:39] those parades occur. Anyway, those are
[47:41] possible targets. We don't know that
[47:43] that's where they were striking.
[47:44] Nevertheless, gives you a little tour of
[47:46] Baghdad. Aaron,
[47:47] >> thank you. Miles Miles O'Brien
[47:50] knows more than space, doesn't he? He
[47:52] knows the layout of Baghdad. Um, we're
[47:55] going to make a a a couple of
[47:56] switchovers here. For our viewers on CNN
[47:59] International, first of all, thanks for
[48:01] being with us, of course, and John Vos
[48:03] will continue the coverage there in a
[48:04] moment. For the rest of you, those of
[48:07] you here in the United States, uh, Heidi
[48:09] Collins and Anderson Cooper will come
[48:10] in. Um, a lot of extraordinary work was
[48:13] done on an extraordinary day and our
[48:16] thanks u particularly to Nick Robertson
[48:18] in Baghdad, to Wolf and Christian in
[48:21] Kuwait, and to all our inbeds who we
[48:24] heard from, all our reporters who um to
[48:27] Walt Rogers and and uh and Kira and and
[48:31] all the rest. I'm going to forget. I'll
[48:32] I'll leave some out and feel bad. Um,
[48:35] we'll leave you uh before we turn it
[48:37] over to them with the president of the
[48:38] United States who at 10:15 Eastern time
[48:41] announced the beginning of this war.
[48:45] We'll see you tomorrow. My fellow
[48:47] citizens, at this hour, American and
[48:50] coalition forces are in the early stages
[48:52] of military operations to disarm Iraq,
[48:56] to free its people, and to defend the
[48:58] world from grave danger. On my orders,
[49:02] coalition forces have begun striking
[49:03] selected targets of military importance
[49:06] to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to
[49:08] wage war. These are opening stages of
[49:12] what will be a broad and concerted
[49:14] campaign.
[49:16] More than 35 countries are giving
[49:18] crucial support from the use of naval
[49:20] and air bases to help with intelligence
[49:23] and logistics to the deployment of
[49:26] combat units.
[49:27] Every nation in this coalition has
[49:30] chosen to bear the duty and share the
[49:33] honor of serving in our common defense.
[49:37] To all the men and women of the United
[49:39] States armed forces now in the Middle
[49:40] East, the peace of a troubled world and
[49:43] the hopes of an oppressed people now
[49:46] depend on you. That trust is wellplaced.
[49:50] The enemies you confront will come to
[49:52] know your skill and bravery. The people
[49:55] you liberate will witness the honorable
[49:57] and decent spirit of the American
[50:00] military.
[50:01] In this conflict, America faces an enemy
[50:04] who has no regard for conventions of war
[50:07] or rules of morality.
[50:10] Saddam Hussein has placed Iraqi troops
[50:12] and equipment in civilian areas,
[50:14] attempting to use innocent men, women,
[50:17] and children as shields for his own
[50:20] military. a final atrocity against his
[50:23] people. I want Americans and all the
[50:26] world to know that coalition forces will
[50:29] make every effort to spare innocent
[50:31] civilians from harm.
[50:34] A campaign on the harsh terrain of a
[50:36] nation as large as California could be
[50:38] longer and more difficult than some
[50:41] predict.
[50:43] And helping Iraqis achieve a united,
[50:45] stable, and free country will require
[50:48] our sustained commitment.
[50:50] We come to Iraq with respect for its
[50:53] citizens, for their great civilization,
[50:56] and for the religious faiths they
[50:58] practice. We have no ambition in Iraq
[51:01] except to remove a threat and restore
[51:04] control of that country to its own
[51:06] people.
[51:08] I know that the families of our military
[51:10] are praying that all those who serve
[51:12] will return safely and soon.
[51:15] Millions of Americans are praying with
[51:17] you for the safety of your loved ones
[51:20] and for the protection of the innocent
[51:23] for your sacrifice. You have the
[51:25] gratitude and respect of the American
[51:28] people. And you can know that our forces
[51:32] will be coming home as soon as their
[51:34] work is done.
[51:36] Our nation enters this conflict
[51:38] reluctantly.
[51:40] Yet our purpose is sure. The people of
[51:43] the United States and our friends and
[51:44] allies will not live at the mercy of an
[51:47] outlaw regime that threatens the peace
[51:49] with weapons of mass murder.
[51:52] We will meet that threat now with our
[51:55] army, air force, navy, coast guard and
[51:58] marines so that we do not have to meet
[52:01] it later with armies.