CBS News - Iraq War begins - 2003-03-19 - 9:33 p.m. (E)

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Funny stuff.

[0:15] This is a CBS News special report, part

[0:18] of our continuing coverage of America at

[0:22] War. From CBS News headquarters in New

[0:25] York, here is Dan Rather.

[0:28] >> Good evening. We're on the air because

[0:30] sirens have started going off in

[0:32] Baghdad.

[0:34] What this means, no one can be clear

[0:36] about at the moment. The skies look

[0:40] clear. It's just before sunrise in

[0:43] Baghdad. Sunrise happens in Baghdad

[0:46] where it's already Thursday morning at

[0:48] 6:07 a.m. Baghdad time. That would be

[0:51] 10:07 p.m. New York time. Sirens went

[0:55] off a short while ago.

[0:59] And we go now to Sky News reporter, CBS

[1:02] affiliate, David Cheder. David, do you

[1:05] hear us? Describe what you see and hear

[1:07] and what's happening.

[1:08] >> But a lot of low rumbles coming at the

[1:11] moment. So it could be a false alarm. We

[1:14] don't know. But um at the moment um very

[1:18] strange sort of like silver golden uh

[1:22] falling flashes coming down from the uh

[1:24] the sky which is cloud covered. You can

[1:27] now hear some gunfire coming up from the

[1:30] city. This seems to be uh anti-aircraft

[1:33] fire. No explosions yet, just a distant

[1:36] sound of uh thudding. Um but obviously

[1:40] the city is now on alert. We heard the

[1:41] air red sirens a few minutes ago and

[1:44] I'll bring you uh bring you updated

[1:47] reports. I'm looking across the city

[1:48] skyline at the moment. I can still see

[1:50] no sign of an explosion. I'm looking

[1:53] southwards. You can probably see those

[1:54] pictures uh uh that we are putting out

[1:57] from a locked off position on the roof

[1:59] of the Ministry of Information that is

[2:01] looking southwards. Uh, and I don't know

[2:04] if you can see anything there, but above

[2:06] us, above us, there are very strange

[2:08] flashes, as I keep saying, coming from

[2:11] the uh the clouds. It looks like sort of

[2:13] golden confetti coming down from the

[2:15] clouds. I have no idea what that is, but

[2:17] it could be um fire coming from at the

[2:21] moment. Very distant sounds. The sirens

[2:25] have gone off, but as yet as yet no

[2:28] signs of any explosions inside the city

[2:31] and across the skyline that I'm looking

[2:33] at at the moment in Baghdad. Again,

[2:35] flashes of light. A lot of flashes of

[2:37] light just tigers that I see at the

[2:40] moment all across the tigers. I don't

[2:43] know if you're picking any of this up,

[2:45] but it's

[2:46] >> Yeah, David. I mean, we are we are

[2:48] looking certainly at the locked off

[2:50] position that uh your camera crew

[2:51] offered to us before you uh uh took to

[2:54] your beds for the night. We can see some

[2:57] um trace of fire. We're not sure if it's

[2:59] trace fire, but certainly some lights in

[3:00] the sky here uh from our position in the

[3:03] studio in London. We know that the White

[3:05] House has uh told Americans to prepare

[3:07] for war that will cost lives and last

[3:10] for an unknown time. But we also heard

[3:12] from Ari Fleer that the president has

[3:15] said that he feels

[3:16] >> what you're listening to is a

[3:18] conversation live Baghdad through

[3:21] London. This is a live report. Air raid

[3:23] sirens have sounded over Baghdad. Some

[3:26] what is believed to be anti-aircraft

[3:27] fire has gone off. Uh the indication is

[3:30] that an air raid is either in progress

[3:33] or about to be in progress over Baghdad.

[3:36] There's expected to be a White House

[3:38] briefing at any moment with Ari Flasher,

[3:40] the official White House spokesman and

[3:42] press secretary, uh, who perhaps can

[3:45] shed some light on this. Here's what we

[3:47] know. Sirens went off in Baghdad just a

[3:49] few minutes ago. Flashes a light over

[3:52] the city. David Chater, the CBS

[3:55] affiliated Sky News reporter is there.

[3:57] And let's pick up now what he's saying

[3:59] while we wait for our flashers briefing.

[4:01] >> Not much of a necessary warning,

[4:03] frankly. Looking across here, I don't

[4:05] see anybody at all, but we took fence

[4:07] through already. There are army units on

[4:09] the street, but nobody is moving. The

[4:12] dogs are barking all across the city. Uh

[4:15] they know that something is about to

[4:17] happen, but just at the moment it

[4:19] >> David Martin live at the Pentagon. We

[4:21] cut away from the live coverage in

[4:22] Baghdad. Repeat, air raid sirens went

[4:25] off. There have been some explosions in

[4:26] the sky believed to be anti-aircraft

[4:28] fire. No confirmed sighting yet of uh

[4:32] any explosions coming down from the sky.

[4:35] We go to CBS News national security

[4:37] correspondent David Martin at the

[4:38] Pentagon. David, what do you know? What

[4:41] should we be looking and listening for

[4:42] now?

[4:44] >> Well, Dan, I am certain that this is not

[4:46] the start of the war, the start of the

[4:48] allout air assault on Iraq. Uh I believe

[4:53] this is a strike on some sort of target

[4:56] of opportunity which uh the uh the

[5:00] military uh thought it had in uh in

[5:03] Baghdad. What we know right now or I

[5:06] should say what we can report. We know a

[5:08] little more than we can report right

[5:09] now. Uh what we know is that uh late

[5:12] this afternoon uh the president held an

[5:15] unscheduled, unannounced meeting in the

[5:17] Oval Office uh with uh the secretary of

[5:22] defense, the secretary of state, the

[5:23] chairman of the joint chiefs, the

[5:25] director of the CIA. Uh and that meeting

[5:31] lasted for about 3 hours and uh since

[5:37] then there has been a lot of activity uh

[5:41] that we've been trying to monitor and we

[5:44] think it's involved. It it is all

[5:45] related to what we are now uh seeing on

[5:49] the screen but uh until we see more in

[5:52] Baghdad I'm a little reluctant to report

[5:54] any more than that right now. Well,

[5:57] David, uh, Associated Press, Dline

[6:00] Baghdad, it says that in addition to the

[6:02] air raid sirens, which we've reported,

[6:04] and flashes of light, the Associated

[6:06] Press says it been the sounds of planes

[6:09] over the skies in Baghdad. Now, our man

[6:12] in Baghdad, David Chedar, said that he

[6:15] had not heard any aircraft, uh, but

[6:18] somebody with the Associated Press

[6:19] believes that they have done.

[6:22] >> That would s that would surprise me,

[6:23] Dan. Um because I don't think you would

[6:27] put planes over Baghdad until you had

[6:30] attacked the air defenses first with

[6:32] cruise missiles. Uh I don't know what

[6:36] the difference uh in sound between a

[6:38] cruise missile and a plane is. And

[6:40] perhaps one can be mistaken for the

[6:42] other, but I I would be surprised if

[6:45] without first attacking the air

[6:46] defenses, the US uh would send planes

[6:49] over downtown Baghdad, which is where

[6:51] all the air defenses uh that Baghdad

[6:54] really still possesses are concentrated.

[6:57] >> Want to point out to our viewers, this

[6:58] is CBS News live coverage of activity in

[7:02] Baghdad. There's much we do not know.

[7:05] David Martin reports that whatever is

[7:07] going on uh over Baghdad in the way of

[7:10] aerial activity and keep in mind that

[7:12] what we have seen and heard from the

[7:15] eyewitness testimony of our man in

[7:16] Baghdad for the moment David Cheder uh

[7:19] with Sky News is that anti aircraft are

[7:22] holding

[7:35] That does not sound like any aircraft

[7:36] fight.

[7:41] >> This sounds like we're going to bring in

[7:43] David Martin. David.

[7:45] >> Dan, what this is is a strike on a

[7:49] target of opportunity which popped up in

[7:51] Baghdad sometime today. The CIA thought

[7:54] it had located members of the Iraqi

[7:58] leadership and at this meeting in the

[8:00] Oval Office uh which I was describing

[8:02] earlier uh the president gave the order

[8:05] to launch an air strike against these

[8:10] targets in downtown Baghdad. And that's

[8:12] what we're seeing now. Uh these are uh

[8:15] strikes being carried out by cruise

[8:16] missiles which would have been launched

[8:18] from ships most likely either in the uh

[8:22] Persian Gulf or the uh Red Sea uh at a

[8:26] uh target of opportunity. They thought

[8:28] they had located some uh members of the

[8:31] Iraqi leadership. Exactly which members

[8:34] I do not know. I do not know if Saddam

[8:36] Hussein is one of the people they

[8:38] thought they had located. Uh now it's

[8:41] it's quiet there. Uh that may be all

[8:44] there was and it's going to be obviously

[8:47] some time before we know uh first

[8:50] whether the intelligence was correct and

[8:52] uh second uh whether the uh uh strike

[8:56] was successful.

[8:58] >> David, we're going to pause these live

[9:00] pictures of Baghdad so people can get

[9:02] not only the picture but also hear the

[9:05] sounds. We've al already heard the

[9:07] sounds of what are believed to be

[9:10] Tomahawk missile strikes. We'll try to

[9:12] put in part of the picture. Tomahawk

[9:14] missiles are a cruise type missile

[9:17] usually launched uh well in this case

[9:20] David Martin says believed to be

[9:21] launched from submarines

[9:24] or General Buck Kernan has joined us

[9:27] here. General the Tomahawk missile would

[9:30] be sea launch. Correct.

[9:31] >> It's correct. It can be sea or air

[9:33] launch. In all probability as David said

[9:35] these are from surface platforms could

[9:36] be subsurface like like submarines but

[9:39] they are definitely coming from from the

[9:40] sea.

[9:43] We're going to pick up David Cheder, our

[9:45] correspondent with Sky News, who's

[9:47] helping to report for us in Baghdad.

[9:49] Let's pick him up.

[9:50] >> I don't know if that's a hit anywhere or

[9:52] the fact they've set off one of their

[9:55] oil defenses, but they're calm again

[9:57] across the city for a while there. Large

[10:00] fly of activity, but I still haven't

[10:02] seen any any large hit come in on the

[10:05] city itself. David, we know uh for uh

[10:08] people who are just joining us here at

[10:10] Sky Center, we heard air raid sirens

[10:12] above the city 90 minutes after

[10:15] President Bush's deadline and then

[10:18] explosions you're telling us about some

[10:19] 10 minutes or so later, large poles of

[10:23] smoke, oil perhaps in the trenches that

[10:25] have been dug around the city having

[10:27] been set a light. Certainly, we saw

[10:29] tracer aircraft fire, we saw jets

[10:32] roaring overhead as well. Um, you've

[10:35] been telling us uh about people who are

[10:37] taking for cover as quickly as possible.

[10:39] What else can you see, David?

[10:42] >> Well, it's now calmed down. As I say,

[10:44] I've seen one large ball of smoke very

[10:46] much to the south of the uh of the

[10:49] picture directly ahead of you. Um, one

[10:52] or two cars, but the soldiers have taken

[10:55] cover. You flashed it again there. Um,

[10:58] but the city now seems to have calmed

[11:00] down once again. Was it a nervous AAC

[11:03] crew? What did they see? What did they

[11:05] hear? I've emphasized all along this

[11:07] could be just a nervous attack by the

[11:10] defenses. They are on edge. That siren

[11:12] went off, but I haven't seen anything

[11:15] land. Uh nothing land on the city

[11:17] skyline I'm watching. I don't if you've

[11:19] seen any different from where you are.

[11:20] Some bald trace of fire tingling in the

[11:23] sky up uh up in the up in the clouds

[11:25] above. A lot more activity. I can see I

[11:29] can see these flashes going off in the

[11:31] sky, but I can't hear the reports.

[11:32] >> David, we're expecting

[11:34] >> We're going to break away for just a

[11:35] moment from this coverage of David

[11:37] Chedar live from Baghdad. Uh, who's not

[11:39] in a position to see a great deal. We'll

[11:41] try to keep the live picture up from

[11:43] Baghdad for you as we go through. But,

[11:45] uh, here's what we know. Air raid sirens

[11:47] went off in Baghdad.

[11:50] Was that noise in the singing?

[11:54] In the meantime, we're going to switch

[11:56] to the White House briefing room. Here's

[11:57] Ariel Flasher. The

[11:59] >> president will address the nation at

[12:00] 10:15.

[12:02] >> What we say?

[12:03] >> Well, that was short. The president of

[12:06] the United States will address the

[12:07] nation in about 15 minutes from now.

[12:09] That would be 10:00 uh Eastern time

[12:11] tonight. Live picture in Baghdad. We

[12:14] heard some thunderous explosions

[12:16] earlier. that would indicate the

[12:18] possibility that Tomahawk missiles, a

[12:22] cruise missile u or perhaps an

[12:25] additional one have hit the city. But we

[12:27] do not know that for a fact. David

[12:30] Martin has reported President Bush met

[12:33] with some of his principal military

[12:34] advisers earlier in the evening. It's

[12:36] believed and in that meeting and

[12:38] reliably reported we believe to us that

[12:41] the president was told there was a quote

[12:43] a target of opportunity to be hit in

[12:45] Baghdad. David described it as possibly

[12:49] a place where some highranking members

[12:51] were. That's speculative. Nobody knows

[12:54] but a target of opportunity. Now given

[12:56] the fact General Buck Kernan uh retired

[12:59] US Army uh that we believe tomahawk

[13:03] missiles have been used that would

[13:05] indicate that it is a fixed target not a

[13:08] moving target. That's correct and in all

[13:10] probability this was one of many

[13:12] locations that had probably been

[13:13] identified uh command and control

[13:15] facilities bunker palaces where they

[13:19] might have determined that the Iraqi

[13:21] chain of command may be. uh those would

[13:24] have been pre-programmed in uh to the

[13:26] missiles and then on order launched.

[13:30] >> Now, this is what the Tomahawk missile

[13:32] looks like when it's launched from

[13:34] submarines. These submarines would be in

[13:36] the Red Sea, General that fired these

[13:38] missiles, we believe

[13:39] >> could be in the Red Sea, could be in the

[13:40] in the Gulf. Uh could have been from air

[13:42] platforms also, but in all probability,

[13:45] as David said, they probably are from

[13:47] the sea, either the Red Sea or the

[13:48] Persian Gulf.

[13:49] >> Now, let me correct something. The

[13:51] president of the United States is now

[13:52] scheduled to speak at about 10:15

[13:55] Eastern time. Uh this is an adjustment

[13:58] of what we said earlier that the

[14:00] president is to speak at 10:15

[14:03] Eastern time. That would be not quite a

[14:05] half hour from now to about 26 27

[14:08] minutes from now. The president will

[14:09] speak and may shed more light on what

[14:11] has happened. Uh what we do know is that

[14:14] sirens sounded over Baghdad,

[14:16] anti-aircraft fires started. There are

[14:19] some reports of hearing aircraft, but

[14:22] keep in mind that sometimes people

[14:24] confuse the sound of aircraft with the

[14:26] sound of missiles. You say, "Well, how

[14:28] could they do that?" Well, trust me,

[14:30] it's rather easy to do. We do not know

[14:34] what, if anything, has been hit. We do

[14:37] not know with what it has been hit, if

[14:39] it has indeed been hit. The belief is a

[14:42] fixed target, what's called a target of

[14:44] opportunity by David Martin, believed to

[14:47] have been perhaps a meeting of some

[14:48] kind. The president was President Bush

[14:51] was told early this evening that there

[14:52] was a target of opportunity. Uh he gave

[14:55] the go-ahad to strike it and we believe

[14:58] that that's what's been in progress

[15:00] these last few minutes. Now, right now,

[15:04] you can see it's breaking dawn in

[15:06] Baghdad.

[15:08] that in the night just before dawn in

[15:11] fact in that gray area between night and

[15:14] sunrise in the morning twilight

[15:19] there was apparently a calling card left

[15:23] in Baghdad something went boom in the

[15:25] night just before sunrise. Now, David

[15:28] Martin reports that so far as can be

[15:31] determined, this is not, and I repeat,

[15:32] not the beginning of the main aerial

[15:36] campaign to be followed, the US military

[15:38] hopes, by a land invasion. Want to

[15:41] emphasize that the best of our

[15:43] information indicates that is not the

[15:45] case. Let's go back to David Martin at

[15:47] the Pentagon as we continue to look at a

[15:48] live picture from Baghdad. David, let's

[15:51] go over as we await the president's

[15:52] appearance uh at 10:15 Eastern time,

[15:55] 9:15 the central time zone uh that

[15:59] exactly what we know about what has

[16:02] happened and why it has happened. David,

[16:04] >> well, let's back up to uh late afternoon

[16:07] when I believe this whole sequence of

[16:08] events began at around uh 4:30 this

[16:12] afternoon. the uh the president convened

[16:15] a meeting in the oval office of his most

[16:17] senior uh national security adviser,

[16:20] secretary of defense, secretary of

[16:22] state, uh the director of the CIA, the

[16:25] chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

[16:27] At that meeting, apparently uh they

[16:30] discussed uh some intelligence that

[16:32] presumably the CIA had come up with

[16:35] which made them think they had a good

[16:38] fix on the location of some members of

[16:42] the Iraqi leadership. And uh in that

[16:45] course of that meeting apparently the

[16:47] president gave the order to uh launch a

[16:50] strike uh at uh whatever this building

[16:54] or bunker uh where these people were

[16:56] believed to be meeting was. Um that uh

[17:00] that strike was almost certainly carried

[17:03] out by uh cruise missiles fired from

[17:05] either ships or submarines in the Red

[17:07] Sea or the uh the Persian Gulf. the uh

[17:11] the cruise missile uh this current model

[17:14] of the cruise missile is a satelliteg

[17:17] guided uh weapon. It uh it works off

[17:21] taking updates from uh uh global

[17:23] positioning satellites. And I'm sure

[17:26] this target was on the target list to

[17:28] begin with anyway since they have all of

[17:30] the uh underground bunkers that they've

[17:33] identified, all of the intelligence and

[17:35] defense buildings identified and already

[17:37] programmed into the computers. uh of the

[17:40] guidance systems of these cruise

[17:42] missiles and within a very brief period

[17:46] of time uh they launched this strike. Um

[17:51] it was it was hard to count the number

[17:53] of explosions that you could hear on on

[17:56] uh the uh television screen. I I would

[17:59] think it was somewhere between five and

[18:01] 10, but that's just a guess. Uh and and

[18:04] then that's it. Uh no more. This was a a

[18:07] one-time shot trying to get a target

[18:10] that had popped up and that they hoped

[18:12] to get. Now, it's going to be some time

[18:15] obviously before we know uh one whether

[18:18] that intelligence was correct and two

[18:20] whether the missiles uh hit the target

[18:23] and uh got who they were after. But

[18:26] obviously uh uh the coincidence of this

[18:30] happening what uh an hour and a half

[18:33] after the expiration of the uh the

[18:36] deadline that President Bush had uh set

[18:39] for Saddam Hussein to go into exile uh

[18:43] will not be missed on anyone. Uh this is

[18:47] a as you said a pretty good calling card

[18:49] that the uh that the president means it

[18:52] that Saddam and his regime must go. But

[18:56] I I hasten to add that were this the

[18:58] real thing, were this the start of the

[19:00] war, uh these explosions would be

[19:03] continuing now uh because they are going

[19:06] to launch literally hundreds of cruise

[19:09] missiles in the uh in the first 24 hours

[19:12] uh of the air war when it begins. We

[19:16] think in perhaps another 24 to 48 hours.

[19:19] And of course, we don't know what this

[19:21] will do to the schedule of the war. This

[19:24] may prompt Saddam to take some sort of

[19:28] uh preemptive action. Uh this may

[19:30] convince Saddam that he cannot survive

[19:34] an American onslaught. We don't know

[19:36] what uh what effect it's going to have.

[19:39] U but it certainly eliminates any doubt

[19:42] if there ever was any left uh that

[19:45] George Bush is serious about getting rid

[19:48] of Saddam Hussein and his uh circle of

[19:50] power.

[19:51] >> David, here's what we're going to do

[19:52] right now. We're going to back up some

[19:54] videotape and as you point out that the

[19:57] the indication is this was a quote

[19:59] target of opportunity. President Bush um

[20:02] authorized it to be hit that this is not

[20:05] in so far as anybody can determine and

[20:07] about this we are reasonably sure. We

[20:10] always like to tell you you know what we

[20:12] know what we don't know. And what we

[20:14] think we know, this is under the heading

[20:15] of what we think we know, is this is not

[20:18] the start of the main aerial bombardment

[20:20] campaign that will be a prelude to the

[20:24] main force invasion. That will come

[20:26] hours, perhaps days behind this tonight.

[20:29] As David Martin describes it, this is

[20:30] designed for a specific target or

[20:33] perhaps targets in Baghdad. Right now,

[20:36] we want to play the tape, but here's

[20:38] what happened. And we were on the air

[20:40] live with it about 20 some odd minutes

[20:42] ago. Listen and watch. This was recorded

[20:45] in Baghdad. We were on the air live with

[20:47] it. And you can hear and see what we

[20:50] heard and saw at that time.

[21:23] Heat. Heat.

[21:45] some seconds left in this videotape

[21:47] replay. Now,

[22:09] And that was pretty much it. The Good

[22:12] Morning Baghdad sent by President Bush

[22:16] that lasted on the order of what maybe a

[22:18] minute and a half, possibly as much as 2

[22:21] minutes. Now, Andy Clark, one of our CBS

[22:24] News reporters and producers, has called

[22:27] in from uh Italy and uh saying that the

[22:32] US Armed Forces Radio

[22:35] uh said that this is quote a target of

[22:37] opportunity and that the target of

[22:39] opportunity was, as David Martin

[22:41] reported a short while ago, uh what was

[22:43] believed to be a meeting of the Iraqi

[22:46] leadership. It may be some time, maybe a

[22:48] long time. Who knows before anyone can

[22:50] say first of all whether what are

[22:52] believed to be these Tomahawk missiles

[22:53] actually hit their targets, a fixed

[22:56] target where for some reason the United

[22:58] States thought there was a meeting of

[22:59] the Iraqi leadership and if they hit the

[23:01] targets uh what damage was done. I want

[23:04] to point out that White House spokesman

[23:05] Ari Fleer when he announced that

[23:07] President Bush would be speaking to the

[23:10] American people in now about uh

[23:14] 19 minutes from now at 10:15 Eastern

[23:16] time. Ari Flasher said that the opening

[23:19] phases opening phases of the disarm ar

[23:23] uh disarmament of Iraq are underway. I

[23:26] underscore the phrase opening phases

[23:28] because there's a widespread belief.

[23:31] David Martin, our Pentagon

[23:32] correspondent, uh underscores this that

[23:35] this is not the opening of main aerial

[23:37] bombardment campaign, which will be a

[23:40] prelude uh to a major ground force

[23:43] invasion. That still is apparently some

[23:46] time off, perhaps a day or two away. We

[23:49] simply do not know. Want to go to Bill

[23:51] Plant, one of our CBS News White House

[23:53] correspondents. Bill, what do you know?

[23:55] What do you hear,

[23:56] >> Dan? We've known all evening that

[23:58] something was up because the White House

[24:00] folks never let this thing drop. They

[24:03] never called it an evening. It was a It

[24:05] was quite obvious that the president was

[24:08] probably going to speak tonight, though

[24:09] we were never told that as such. And

[24:11] even though, Dan, it appears that the

[24:13] war has probably not officially begun or

[24:16] begun in earnest, as David pointed out,

[24:19] it's no surprise that Mr. Bush is coming

[24:21] to speak this evening because he has

[24:23] been pressed repeatedly to tell the

[24:25] American people how much this war will

[24:28] cost in both lives and dollars. And his

[24:31] spokesman has said over and over again

[24:33] that the president will not once but

[24:35] more than once make the case to the

[24:37] American people for what he is about to

[24:39] do, the reasons he is doing it, and what

[24:43] it can be expected to cost. The White

[24:45] House today foreshadowed that just a

[24:47] little bit by reminding us for the first

[24:49] time that this will cost American lives.

[24:52] But we do expect to hear from the

[24:54] president, if not the specifics of what

[24:56] targets were struck, a justification for

[24:59] what he is doing, an explanation that

[25:01] this is now underway, that it will

[25:03] continue for some time, and that it will

[25:05] entail costs and sacrifices. Dan

[25:08] >> Hill Plant live from the White House.

[25:10] Now, according to the Associated Press,

[25:13] which of course has eyewitnesses on the

[25:15] scene, as do we, and you heard um our

[25:19] man in Baghdad through our sky

[25:22] affiliation, David Chedar, earlier

[25:24] describe what was going on. But the

[25:27] movements of any reporters and the field

[25:30] of view of any reporters in Baghdad uh

[25:33] is extremely limited uh by the

[25:35] circumstances of where they are kept, if

[25:38] you will, and where they're allowed to

[25:39] go. But according to the Associated

[25:41] Press, no airplanes were visible in the

[25:43] skies over Baghdad as the air raid

[25:45] sirens blasted. Some yellow and white

[25:48] tracers from anti-aircraft fire were

[25:50] seen scattered about on the sky. And

[25:52] then a number of strong explosions went

[25:55] off in the city. That's what we replayed

[25:57] for you earlier. We had it on the air

[25:58] live, then we replayed it for you. Now,

[26:01] Associated Press says one explosion

[26:03] raised what they call a ball of fire

[26:06] toward the southern part of the cap. We

[26:09] do not know uh for sure what weapons

[26:12] were used in this attack, but the most

[26:15] reasonable analysis is that they were

[26:18] tomahawks fired probably from uh

[26:20] submarines or possibly ship launched uh

[26:23] that were put on this target. Now, uh

[26:26] General, retired General Perry Smith is

[26:28] joining us here. Uh General, put this in

[26:30] context in perspective for you for us

[26:32] what we believe to be um a a hello.

[26:37] We're around signature shot but perhaps

[26:39] no more than that.

[26:40] >> That's right, Dan. But I think it's

[26:42] important for us to kind of go through

[26:43] the phases of this war. There are four

[26:45] phases. Phase one is the decision to to

[26:47] go to war and that was taken three or

[26:49] four days ago. The second phase is the

[26:51] initial phase. The third phase is the

[26:53] decisive phase and the fourth phase is

[26:56] the wrapup or the recon reconstruction

[26:58] phase. We are now kind of between phase

[27:01] one and phase two. As you correctly

[27:03] reported, this is not a major error

[27:05] attack. This is very different than we

[27:06] saw on the 16th of January 1991, but it

[27:10] does allow us to send a signal, maybe

[27:12] take an opportunity uh let everybody

[27:14] know that we're ready to go, but it is

[27:15] not fa we're not in phase two yet.

[27:17] That's clear to me. Want to point out to

[27:19] our viewers and perhaps those who are

[27:21] just joining us, there has been an air

[27:23] attack of some kind in Baghdad. Lasted

[27:26] about two, maybe as long as two and a

[27:28] half or three minutes. Uh President Bush

[27:30] will be speaking to the American public

[27:32] about 13 minutes from now. We will of

[27:35] course carry that live from Washington.

[27:37] David Martin, uh, our CBS News national

[27:40] security correspondent at the Pentagon

[27:42] has reported that what's called a target

[27:45] of opportunity was picked up by US

[27:48] intelligence. He the president met with

[27:50] his military leaders in late afternoon

[27:52] perhaps on into the evening. He gave the

[27:54] okay the go-ahad uh for this attack. It

[27:58] came at sunrise Baghdad time. It's not

[28:01] lost on anyone that the attack began uh

[28:04] roughly an hour and a half, maybe a

[28:06] little less than that after the passage

[28:08] of the deadline that President Bush had

[28:10] given to Saddam Hussein to either leave

[28:12] the country or face attack. Want to turn

[28:15] quickly to Buck Kernan, retired US Army.

[28:18] General, give us your perspective in

[28:21] putting this in context. It does for all

[28:24] the world look like a one-shot, not

[28:27] literally one shot, but a a one

[28:29] carefully calibrated attack. Not

[28:32] necessarily the