00.36 - US Pilot on deck of US Transport plane C130: ‘Ten miles from the lield… should be right over there ..
00.41 - On the flight deck of a slow and unarmed US Air Force transport plane…preparing to descend into one of the World’s most dangerous cities.
UPSOT : 00.53 – US Pilot: “Keep your eyes peeled. We’re at 12,000 feet… Roger”
00.55 - Below us, there’s a determined and well organised insurgency that keeps trying to bring these aircraft down.
01.03 US Pilot: ‘Keep your eyes peeled … Roger”
01.06 - The danger is everywhere. From the suburbs surrounding Baghdad airport, the terrorists regularly fire on planes with machine guns and missiles. .. Iraq teeters on the edge of civil war.
Paul Bremer 1.26 – 1.33
We came here to do a noble thing. We came here to free 25 million people of a brutal fascist dictatorship and that’s the only word for it.
Soldiers onnight patrol 1.33 – 1.45
Ahmad Chalabi 1.45 – 1.48
I don’t like to be dramatic in terms of predicting disaster. We have some time left but not much time.
1.48 – 2.00soldiers check cars people 01.49 - The continuing carnage here can only diminish the US’ chances of holding the peace.
Col David Teeples 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regt 2.00 – 2.02
Q: Is this a popular insurgency?
A: It isn’t. It is not.
Q: Are you winning?
A: We are winning.
2.02 – 3.31Colonel Teeples’ Into Blackhawk helicopter – low level flight over Baghdad outskirts and Industrial area – gun fired into desert – cutaways Teebles and Reporter. 02.03 - As Commander of America’s Third Armoured Cavalry Regiment, Colonel David Teeples is proud of its 150 year history. 02.14 - He’s invited us to join him on a flight across dangerous country, to one of his bases on the Syrian border. UPSOT gun fired 02.23 - Guns are test-fired then we’re off at low-level across the desert. We’re in what’s called the Sunni Triangle – the central part of Iraq that’s home for most of the country’s Sunni Moslem population, the heartland of Saddam Hussein’s support. 02.42 - The Third Armoured Cavalry - the ‘Brave Rifles’ – as they are known – have suffered some of the highest casualty rates in Iraq.
Teeples INT chopper 02.50 -03.11
We had a soldier, the first one was on the first of May. And ah we had a memorial. And I said to the Regimental Command Sergeant-Major ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to have any more of these memorials. And ah, we’ve had 45 since then.’
03.15 – 03.18Int Blackhawk gun with desert background – shots ext chopper Baghdad industrial area 03.12 - And yet as American deaths increase, so too does Iraqi resentment.
Col Teeples 03.18 – 03.28
Q: You think most of them want you to be here?
A: No! I don’t think they want us to be here. I think most of them really don’t understand.
3.31 – 5.12Reporter interior Bradley Vehicle- soldiers on night patrol in the town of Qusabah close to the Syrian border – test firing (with tracer bullets into target) – nightscope footage of patrol through streets – houses searched, doors kicked in – civilians questioned. In their homes. 03.31 - A few hours later we join Colonel Teeples’ men in the back of an armoured vehicle heading out for night patrol in the town of Qusabah. It’s a major trouble-spot for the Americans, in the province of Al Quaim, close to the Syrian border. Terrorists have been firing mortar bombs from here into the US base. UPSOT: FX Tracer rounds hitting target03. 52 - A last minute weapons check then we move into town.03.57 - There’s a nine o’clock curfew. Anyone seen on the streets after then is treated as a suspect.04.03 - US Soldier: There’s a guy over there walking …go down there turn around and come back ...04.07 - Soldiers have seen a young man run through this gate. Upsot: Soldiers kick in doors04.15 - The US strategy here is to be uncompromisingly tough.UPSOT: 04.21 - US Soldier: Booting in the another door 04.22 - The house is searched. But their suspect has got away. Then we’re called across town to where helicopters have spotted a resident arriving home shortly after curfew. UPSOT 04.33 - Soldier: Question first, if it looks suspicious you’ve got permission to search.. 04.40 - Many foreign fighters – including suspected Al Quaeda terrorists - were transiting through border towns like this, answering Osama Bin Laden’s call for a jihad – or holy war - against the Coalition invaders. UPSOT: 04.53 - Soldier : Why was your truck moving after curfew?04.55 - As War began, this little town and others along the border were full of weapons and fighters. UPSOT: 05.03 – US Soldier: … so the best way to stay out of trouble is to be in their house before nine o’clock
Col David Teeples 3rd Armrd Cav Cmmdr 5.12 – 5.25
We closed down the Syrian border completely. We allowed no traffic to come in or out. We went through and searched nearly 8,000 homes and we captured, actually detained, about 380 prisoners and we have been capturing and putting away a lot of these people that were establishing some kind of a equipment and money and training base so that they could move further into the country and perform jihad.
5.25 – 5.43
US soldiers at base – tanks – general scenes preparing for patrol – silhouette tank gunner.
5.43 – 6.06Soldiers help cleaning up streets of Baghdad suburb – shaking hands with locals 05.45 - But to get the intelligence they need to defeat the jihadists, the Americans have waged a campaign to win the hearts and minds of local Iraqis.UPSOT: 05.55 - Soldier “ We appreciate you’re help out here this morning
Col David Teeples – 3rd Armrd Cav Commander 6.06 – 6.17
We decided when we would go into a home, if they were compliant with the Centcomm weapons policy and they did not have any contraband we would give them $20. I can’t remember how many thousands of dollars we gave out.
6.17 – 6.42Int Baghdad home, soldiers question family – nightscope vision – includes 2 shots of armed Iraqis in plain clothes patrolling streets with US soldiers. 06.18 - 20 US dollars might not sound like much but that’s more than the average Iraqi earns in a week.
Col David Teeples: 6.27 – 6.51
The way that you beat an insurgency is by having the population take over the fight. And win their own communities. Win their own country. And they’re doing that in the form that local Police are becoming more professional and they coming more credible with the population.
6.51 – 9.10Soldiers on patrol nightvision kicking in doors and confronting persons of suspicion inside the house – Iraqi with his hands up – Soldiers firing inside house towards upstairs – soldiers beating Iraqi – close up Iraqi with bloodied nose – Iraqi family (including women) sitting on floor with hands on their heads. 06.52 - The Americans also need to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. But that’s not helped by aggressive raids like this one carried out by troops not under the command of Col. Teebles, filmed by a news service camera-crew.07.11 - It’s the dead of night, outside the house of a senior former Iraqi Army officer. He’s suspected of helping the insurgents.07.22 - The officer’s son – thinking the soldiers are thieves - goes to the roof of the house and fires into the air to scare them away. That’s a big mistake.UPSOT: 07.31 - SOLDIER shouts: “We’re got a shooter on the roof” …. (sustained gunfire) 07.43 - Inside the house the officer surrenders….UPSOT: 07. 47 - IRAQI OFFICER: “ Welcome, Welcome” .. SOLDIER shouts: “Get out here now” IRAQI OFFICER: “Welcome welcome”.. 07.50 - …but he doesn’t understand what the Americans are saying – and they don’t have a translator. UPSOT: 07.56 - SOLDIER: “Want me to shoot him in the leg…. I might shoot you...Get the fuck over here .. Get the fuck over here now .. I’d get him in the leg .. Shoot him in the foot …” 08.11 - The Iraqi officer can now be heard praying.UPSOT: 0.17 - IRAQI prays .. SOLDIER: “Who the fuck are you talking to? Shut the fuck up! .. I’m at the door … (gunfire) .. get him outta here, go, go. IRAQI: “Welcome, welcome”. SOLDIER: “Shut the fuck up .. who is shooting? IRAQI: “Welcome welcome”. SOLDIER: “Fucking shut up, shut up .. 08.39 - The soldiers capture the young man on the roof.UPSOT: 08.43 - (gunfire and scream ) SOLDIER: “Alright get him the fuck out of here .. (screaming young man) ... SOLDIER: ‘Take the camera off’. 09.00 - No-one here was killed…but, it’s raids like this that can only fuel the resentment against Coalition forces.
9.11 – 10.54 Gun-Camera B&W Infrared footage of 3 suspected Iraqi insurgents in a field standing by a truck, pick-up truck and tractor – one runs into field and dumps what looks like a weapon wrapped in cloth – another does the same thing with smaller object – a third insurgent arrives on tractor alights and walks over to truck – all three are shot by helicopter guns – one in field, one by tractor and another under a truck – third person fired on again after being wounded. UPSOT: 09.11 - Pilot on microphone: “A big truck over here .. having a little pow-wow” ..09. 13 - Concerns are circulating in Baghdad too among America’s Coalition allies about this extraordinary gun camera vision shot by a US Apache helicopter gunship in December last year. UPSOT: 09. 24 - PILOT1 : “He’s running of into the field. Do you see this? … Pilot2: Yep. PILOT1: “I got a guy here running, throwing a weapon… PILOT2: Smoke him”.. 09.30 - No one doubts the US has had to take a tough line against the local Iraqi fighters who have mounted a determined insurgency against the Coalition forces. And this covert night vision filmed from an Apache hovering nearly two kilometres away shows a man dumping what may well be a weapon in a field.UPSOT: 09.50 - BASE: “Are you certain it was a weapon…..Pilot1: “Positive” 09.53 - A prudent Commander would at least attempt to capture these men – their intelligence might help break up the resistance among locals in the Sunni Triangle. But instead the order is given to ‘Smoke ‘em’ – to kill three unarmed men in cold blood. UPSOT: 10.12 - PILOT!: “Range auto .. BASE: right got auto range on it? .. PILOT1: “Roger” … BASE: “ Hit him” .. (gunfire) .. PILOT1: Got him. BASE: “Good” PILOT1:” The second one” … BASE: “Hit the other one. … (gunfire) .. PILOT 2: “Hit the truck. .. go to the right see if anyone’s moving by the truck.. Is there anyone in the truck. … Wait for movement. PILOT1: “Not seeing any”. PILOT2: Good store that auto range store .. wait there another guy.. PILOT1:”There’s movement right there” .. Fire him.. PILOT2: Hit him. .. (gunfire). 10.45 - It’s an action that has provoked heavy private criticism from senior officers from other Coalition countries.
10.54 – 11.07 Mehdi in his office with colleagues. 10.55 - Iraqi Governing Council member Dr Abdul Mehdi is also a spokesman for the main Shiite Islamic Party representing the country’s 60 per Shiite majority.
Dr Abdul Mehdi – spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution 11.07 -12.08
Q: What are the Americans not doing right?
A: - You know, I heard a British proverb saying. That the Americans will always choose the best choice after trying all the other choices.
Q: So they’re allowed to make mistakes. But you think in the long run things will work out for the best?
A: No, they are doing a lot of mistakes.
Q: The Americans say that if they give power to the Iraqi groups too early they risk failure and that failure here could bring the whole peace process undone.
A: And do you think that the Americans governing the whole country will lead to success?
Q: Well what is your warning to the Americans?
A: They have to depend on Iraqis.
Q: And if they don’t –
A: - They have to give the Iraqis the choice to lead themselves.
Q: And if they don’t?
A: They came here as liberators as they say, not as occupiers. They have not to make the mistake to be occupiers.
12.08 – 13.11Helicopter aerials of the al Tubaitha nuclear reactor just outside Baghdad. 12.18 - Al Tubaitha – under Saddam this was one of the sites of Iraq’s attempted nuclear weapons program. The Americans hoped they might find the elusive weapons of mass destruction here.12.38 - But that pretext for last year’s invasion now hangs in tatters. Coalition troops find themselves cast as occupiers by an increasingly hostile Iraqi population – most of whom are grateful for their liberation but who now want the Americans to leave.12.58 - There is another reason too for the seething resentment among many Iraqis towards America – one the US military has yet to acknowledge.
Piece to Camera at Daura cluster bomb site 13.11 – 14.03
What happened here at Daura on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, five days before American tanks rolled up the highway here to Baghdad, raises very serious concerns about whether America acted in breach of its international humanitarian law obligations about the use of cluster bombs. In the first salvo two cluster bombs were dropped to knock out an artillery position here and another one just in front of me. You might argue that’s fair enough, Saddam Hussein had located guns near to residential areas. But it’s what happened ten minutes later that’s of serious concern. For ten minutes later a guided missile was dropped – not here – but across that motorway, only metres from the residences. Dozens of innocent civilians were slaughtered.
14.03 – 14.22Children running over ground littered with unexploded cluster bombs.. 14.31 – 14.45Dr Rasmi and his children in his backyard showing cluster bomb damage. 14.08 - When we visited Daura within weeks of the invasion, locals were bitter with anger at the use of a battlefield mass killing weapon so close to their homes. Upsot: Daura Resident 14.22 – 14.31“ The civilians come to help them because some of them had been injured on the other side. When they make a mass here the cluster bomb” …(EXPLOSION) …REPORTER: “Bloody hell” .. RESIDENT: “Still now there’s some bombs”. 14.34 - This hospital physician Dr Hamza Rasmi showed us how the cluster bomblets sprayed his family home with shrapnel.
Doctor Rasmi 14.45 – 15.24
The first one fall on the soldiers, the next one on the civilian population. When we get out of the home we see the civilian population, injured population, dead people on the street. (Referring to his two small boys) .. At the time of explosion they were crying and was very afraid. One of them urinate on himself and next he fall on glass and you can see the wound on his hand .. you see the shell, every five centimetres there is a shell so it is very dangerous, no-one will escape from it.
15.24 – 16.07 Ross and Aida al-Ansari coming up stairs to enter her son Fahad’s bedroom – stills of Fahad al-Ansari - Aida shows us Fahad’s blood-stained jeans with holes in them from shrapnel. 15.33 - Last year Aida al-Ansari’s 16-year-old son Fahad and 25 other civilians were killed as the Americans fought their way into Baghdad.Aida Al-Ansari 15.40 – 16.07Full of blood. I didn’t throw it because I wanted his blood to stay with me. Q – Do you know how many wounds he had?A: A lot, I couldn’t count. One, two, three, four, five and then I stop. I can’t help it’.
16.07 – 16.55Daura suburb scenes Baghdad with old artillery piece among houses – unexploded cluster bomb right next to house – close up bomblets and damage to houses – still photos of Fahad al-Ansari. 16.09 - Shortly after the war ended we filmed the result here of what was clearly a terrible error by the Americans. A US jet missed these artillery positions and dropped a cluster bomb on nearby houses.16.23 - A weapon designed for clearing open battlefields, these large canisters spray tiny bomblets over a huge area. And some live bomblets were still there when we filmed.16.37 - When they explode, they send a hail of shrapnel in all directions. Aida’s son Fahad was taken to hospital, riddled with fragments. And there, the doctor had no anaesthetic.
Aida al-Ansari 16.55 – 17.44
So he’s trying to pull the bullets from his leg and his feet and his arms and his face and his shoulders and he was screaming. Each time he screamed I run to him and I cuddle him. I said to him ‘Why Fahad, why that’s happened to you? [Cries]’ He said please Mummy don’t cry. Then he turned to his father and he said ‘Daddy, please forgive me for what I done to you and to my Mum.’
17.44 – 18.01Daura suburb scenes houses, artillery guns – cluster bomb canisters sticking out of the ground – still photo Fahad and friends 17.44 - In all the arguments about the merits of this war, little attention has been paid to the uncounted numbers of Iraqi civilians who’ve died because of Coalition mistakes. Including Fahad.
Aida al-Ansari 18.01 – 18.36
Then I saw them pull the sheet over his face put it over his face so I knew it was over. I knew it was the end. My lovely boy gone. I didn’t want to leave him. Then I shouted please get me a scissor. I cut piece of his hair. For memory. This is all I get left of Fahad. Piece of hair.
18.36 – 18.47Reporter in street talking to amall group of residents 18.36 - Ten months since we were last in Daura, grief among Fahad’s family and friends has now hardened to anger against the US.
Aida al-Ansari 18.47 – 19.15
They hate them. They don’t hate the people but they hate Bush and the Army.
Q: Did they hate the United States before this war?
A: No. Everybody used to dream to go to the United States, to work or to do something.
Q: …Has anyone from the Coalition ever come to you or to this community and apologised for what happened?
A: No. No-one.
19.15 – 19.30Marla Ruzicka in her office flat with reporter.19.30 – 20.05Street scenes Baghdad market - Young boys in shop with handgun – children and shopkeepers – top shot of Baghdad suburbs 19.15 - Marla Ruzicka is one American who does care. Her organisation CIVIC - Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict - has painstakingly catalogued the names of at least 2,000 civilians killed during the war, but is confident there were many more. She is now trying to find the money to list the civilians who have died since President Bush declared the end of the conflict on May 1st last year.
Marla Ruzicka 20.05 – 20.35
A: The will and the hearts and the minds of the Iraqi people are vital. They’re extremely educated. They’re smart. They’re resourceful. And they’re tough. And they’re warm and they’re wonderful just like people everywhere. But right now the US and other Coalition Governments have an opportunity to set things right after so many years of things going wrong here. And that’s to assist people who got caught up during the military operations during the war the and post May 1st. We need to look at every individual acid case.
Q: If they don’t?
A: If they don’t there’s – they’re seeing it – each month there’s more attacks on US soldiers and each month people’s hearts in Iraq get a little bit more broken as they don’t have electricity, water. It could mean the difference between if they make and they don’t.
20.35 – 21.15Air to Air shots of US Blackhawk helicopter flying over Baghdad. – aerials of suburbs . 20.36 - Of course, democracy never had a chance under Saddam’s brutal rule. But, can it ever work? 84 years ago, a British colonial administrator made the grim prediction that the new Iraq created back then by the British welding of Shia and Sunni Moslem groups and the Kurds would be the ‘antithesis of democratic government’. That it could never function as a single country. .. 21.06 - The Americans now have the Herculean task of proving that prediction wrong.
21.15 – 21.22
US tanks and soldiers stationed on Baghdad streets
21.22 – 21.30Reporter with Brooke in his office 21.22 - The Iraqi National Congress’ political advisor, Francis Brooke, is the eternal optimist:
Francis Brooke - INC political advisor 21.30 – 22.02
Q: Let me put the pessimistic point of view to you that Saddam Hussein was an authoritarian strongman who kept all of these disparate groups, - warring tribes together, now that democracy is being imposed on Iraq, the whole pla e is going to fall apart?
A: Anything is better than Saddam. Anything is better than the type of totalitarian state on fascist lines that he constructed anything is better than Saddam, anything is better for the Iraqi people and anything is better for the outside world. Anarchy is better!
22.02 –22.23 Soldiers pose for photographs under ‘Sword Bridge’22.23 – 24.16Interior CAP HQ Press Conference with Bremer and CAP members. 22.06 - America has repeatedly assured Iraqis it’s here to liberate them – not to conquer them. But sceptical Iraqis say that’s exactly what the British said last century when it invaded Iraq and installed a puppet monarchy. If the Coalition administration is trying to avoid an imperial image, it’s sending all the wrong messages by installing itself in one of the royal palaces of the former dictator.UPSOT: 22.35 - “testing .. testing is it clean? .. 22.38 - US Ambassador Paul Bremer is meeting the impatient Iraqi political leadership for the first time, behind these closed doors. It’s at this meeting that US disenchantment with local leaders first becomes apparent. 22.57 - This is a key chance to restore faith with Iraqis that the new rulers here actually know what they’re doing. UPSOT: 23.05 – Bremer: ‘While conditions have improved in most of the country, there are parts of the country, particularly here in Baghdad where we agreed we need to do some work in restoring law and order.’23.17 - We’re assured we’ll later be able to ask him some of the hard questions. Such as why is he dragging his feet on a new Iraqi Government? … Why does America seems to have been caught so unprepared for the scale of damage to Baghdad’s basic utilities: the water and power?...What solutions does he have to restore law and order? 23.41 - But the event soon becomes a debacle. UPSOT : 23.45 - Journalists calling out..23.48 - Ducking questions, Ambassador Bremer walks out. UPSOT: 23.54 - Arab journalists calling out..24.00 - Arab journalists are angry there’s no opportunity to question Bremer. After four hours wait for the promised opportunity to question the Ambassador, we’re told he wants to go to dinner. UPSOT: 24.11 - Arab Journalist: “Bloody Hell” ..
24.16 – 27.42Wailing women at al- Hillah massacre site south of Baghdad – exhuming graves – people in grief checking plastic bags of human bones – blessing rituals prior to reburials – general activity collecting information – relatives searching for missing family members. 24.21 - The other open wound here that the Americans have yet to adequately respond to, is an accounting for the crimes that were committed in the name of Saddam Hussein.
UPSOT: wailing women 24.37 - In blistering 40 degree heat, on a desolate dry plain near the Iraqi town of Al-Hillah, Mu’teez Hussein is searching for his brothers.24.50 - Both disappeared in 1991, taken off the street by Saddam’s security forces as it crushed an uprising by the majority Shiite population.
Mu’teez Hussein 25.01 – 25.17
Subtitles: - I am trying to identify him through the identification card and the picture and the clothes.
25.07 Q: And have you found anything yet?
25.09 - Subtitles: - Nothing yet .. They were my brothers and they were innocent people like the others. What did they do? They were innocent people.
Wailing woman UPSOT: wailing..25.24 - Across Iraq at numerous sites like this now being uncovered, many grief-stricken people are asking themselves that same question.
Wailing woman beating her face 25.35:
Subtitles - I can’t believe my eyes. Is this you, the son of my mother.
Second woman 25.42 :
Subtitles - Not even the dogs died like this 25.47 - Oh God why did all the young people die like this?
Jaber Mohsin Al-Husseini - Farmer witness to the murders: 25.58 – 26.47
Subtitles - They organised themselves in different duties. They gathered all these people in this huge camp and then started to blindfold them and bind their hands and then dug a big hole and pushed people alive into it. Because many people started resisting as they were being put into the hole they were kicked forcibly into it. Then about five or six people started shooting them altogether. Then they started to bury them with a mechanical shovel.
Rough English Translation 26.02 – When they collected the people, they divided them into divisions, so each day they bring one division .. and after that they tie their hands and shut their eyes with a piece of rag or something and they bring them all here .. and they dig a big hole in the ground and they start to push people into these holes because people when they are handcuffed, they cannot control their stance or cannot control anything so they pushed them into this hole and when they fell, five or six men start to shoot down on them with their Kalashnikov or anything and when they were all dead, they burned them. - 26.47
Reporter – 26.55 – 27.21
The scale and the barbarity of the violence here is difficult to comprehend. This place stinks of death. It’s only been a week and already they’ve recovered about 1200 bodies and there are many thousands more. The witnesses say the pits ran from just here to right over there to those dirt berms.* There could be as many as 15 to 25,000 people buried here.
27.25 - There is great concern in Iraq that no effort has been made by the US army or the United Nations to secure and properly investigate massacre sites like this one south of Baghdad.
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 27.39 – 28.05
I am downcast by this. I am disappointed. And I think that the response has been dismal and inappropriate. As if Iraqis are not human beings and that they that Saddam’s killing of them was something that was par for the course. I think the World should be much more concerned with this. I think the UN should be ashamed of themselves.
28.05 – 28.53More relatives at al-Hillal searching among bags for missing family members – interviews with witness and relative. 28.07 - These concerns are’t just moral. There’s a risk of the majority Shia muslim community exacting revenge on the mainly Sunni leaders of the ruling Baath Party.UPSOT: Farmer witness talking to reporter … 28.27 - As this farmer told us, the names and addresses of the Baath Party officials and soldiers who committed this horrible crime are well-known. They live just up the road in Babylon.
Mu’teez Hussein – Massacre victim’s brother 28.40 – 28.53
Subtitles - ‘No-one can get away with this. For us bloodshed can never be forgotten. We must find the criminals and punish them’.
28.47 Q: ‘If there is no proper trial there will be retribution?’
28.51 - Subtitles – ‘Of course. An eye for an eye’.
28.53 – 29.22close up of helicopter flying over Najaf – barious shots of Najaf Mosque (Pre-bombing of Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim). 29.22 – 29.41Crowds in Najaf Mosque hailing return of Ayatollah al-Hakim – scenes of now deceased Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim flanked by guards on balcony above crowd. UPSOT helicopter with music28.57 - Suspicion of America’s motives runs deep here in the Shia holy city of Najaf. Back in 1991, President George Bush senior incited the Shia uprising against Saddam. But because America feared it could lead to an Iran-backed Islamic state, US troops were ordered not to intervene as thousands of Shiites were slaughtered.29.25 - Soon after Saddam Hussein was toppled, the powerful Iranian-backed Shia Ayatollah, Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, returned to Najaf. An immensely powerful figure, the Ayatollah was a force for unity among the majority Shias - offering a moderate voice for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim 29.46 – 29.57
Subtitles - ‘There is no doubt that I would like an Islamic Government but we agreed with the Governing coalition authority that there should be a democracy that shall respect Islam’.
29.57 – 30.29scenes after assassination of al-Hakim at Najaf mosque after car bombing – victims helped away from the blast – fires burning. UPSOT; people screaming .. 30.00 - For many Shiites that dream died last September when Ayalatollah al-Hakim was blown to pieces by a massive car bomb as he drove away from prayers outside the sacred Najaf mosque.UPSOT30.17 - The authors of this carnage clearly hoped it would set Iraq alight – pitting Shia against Sunni. And as each month goes by, the temperature rises.
30.31 – 30.41INT Car driving along highway towards Fallujah – speedo doing 140km/h 30.42 – 30.59 General street scenes Fallujah – people close up – money changing hands 30.31 - But an hour south of Baghdad, down the highway locals have tagged the ‘Death Road’, is the town most Americans see as a front-line in this insurgent war ….. Fallujah. 30.45 - The people here are mainly Sunni Moslem - the strand of Islam that accounts for about 20 per cent of Iraq’s population. Many here were staunch supporters of Saddam Hussein.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi – Fallujah Cleric 30.57 – 31.11
30.57 - Q: Are Americans safe if they now come into Fallujah?
31.01 - A: English Translation: ‘ No, not at all. The truth is, every time they enter Fallujah you will hear the massive explosions’.
31.11 – 31.52 Fallujah Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi taking prayers in mosque – scenes in mosque people praying. UPSOT: Praying calls .. 31.15 - We’ve come to Fallujah to meet this man. One of the town’s most revered religious leaders, Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi. He’s no Saddam loyalist. He was banned from speaking in mosques when he predicted after the First Gulf War that Saddam’s behaviour was inviting an American invasion. 31.36 - But Sheikh Abdullah argues that since there are not the weapons of mass destruction here that America – and Australia – used to justify the war, then the invasion was illegal and so is the continued occupation.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi – Fallujah Cleric 31.51 – 32.46
31.51 - Q: So do I take from that that you believe that the fight against the Americans is a good fight?
31.58 – English translation A: ‘In my opinion, it is only natural that you would want to fight invaders and drive them out of your country’.
32.07 – Q -‘When the Americans liberated, as they say, Iraq from Saddam Hussein, were you not a supporter of that?
32.16 – English Translation – A: – ‘ Not only me but most Iraqis initially gave credence to what they were saying but after the Americans occupied Iraq, they changed their tune. Instead of hunting Saddam Hussein, they were here fighting terrorism. They ruined our country, committed human rights abuses, violated our cultures and traditions. All these things negated any credibility they once had.
32.46 – 32.55 Street scenes Fallujah – Central Mosque – tanks on guard. 32.55- 33.22scenes of US soldiers raising their rifles and pointing them at an angry crowd – general chaotic scenes US soldiers under pressure – crowd shouting at them – crowd seize US truck looting and ripping open boxes jumping and shouting. 33.22 – 33.45exterior scenes Fallujah police station, (before recent attack by militia and killing of policemen) – Iraqi police with rifles pointing at camera – heavily fortified positions with police guards looking out. UPSOT street scenes and music32.49 - The way the Sheikh tells it, American commanders broke promises not to enter Fallujah in military vehicles. 32.56 - Violence escalated when locals, including women, were stopped and searched. 13 locals died and scores were wounded here when US troops opened fire on a rowdy demonstration.UPSOT: shouting 33.10 - Now nearly every one in Fallujah wants the Americans out. When terrorists attack US military vehicles it’s a time for celebration.UPSOT more shouting 33.22 - Late last year, US forces handed their base in the town centre to the Iraqi Police., who, as we found, don’t like cameras.33.34 - Just a few days after we filmed here, 23 of these men were killed when guerrillas attacked the base with machine guns and rocket launchers.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi 33.44 – 33.58
Q: What if, even under a new Iraqi Government the Americans are still here in two- three- five - years time?
33.54 –Subtitles- A: ‘Then this Government will be slaughtered before the Americans’.
33.58 – 34.332nd Armoured Cav Night Patrol prep – WS Humvees line up; Two soldiers checking each other’s webbing clasping hands - checking guns - putting on body armour34.33 – 35.36int humvee on patrol through streets of Baghdad – street scenes at night – rubbish piled up – patrol stops man in street. 35.36 – 36.52US soldiers on night patrol stop and search car with three young Iraqis - AK47 found in back of truck - Iraqi with hands raised looks to sound of AK mag being cleared- Soldier tells them to get back in truck and go .. UPSOT: US Soldiers: ‘Don’t stop for checkpoints. .. don’t stop for checkpoints..34.05 - It’s late on a hot, close, Baghdad night. Soldiers from the US Army’s 2nd Armoured Cavalry are doing their final gear check before going into the city on night patrol.34.21 - Lightning Troop has suffered no casualties since it fought its way into the city two months ago. But for these young men the war is still on. 34.36 - Other units have been losing men in hit and run attacks by Saddam loyalists almost every day. So no-one is taking any chances.UPSOT: Radio talk: ‘Yeah about seven o’clock, one shot fired. 34.54 - We’re joining the patrol on sweeps intended to quell the rampant violence and looting that is raging out of control here.UPSOT: US Soldier: Hey you want a ride? .. Yes .. (Arab man talks to soldiers).. 3513 - It’s after the 11pm curfew. Everyone’s regarded as a potential threat. UPSOT: soldiers stop cars .. Arab voices calling out.. 35.27 - This is tense and often dangerous work. All vehicles are stopped and searched for dangerous weapons. UPSOT: US Soldier: ‘Stop .. stop .. stop 35.47 - Units have been attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. Everyone in Baghdad it seems has a weapon.UPSOT: 36.00 - ‘Hey, what’s this .. ahh an AK .. what the hell’s that huh? .. Ask him? ..stay over there … you two put your hands up’36.27 - The excuse offered for the assault rifle and Browning pistol is the usual one: the threat of thieves or ‘Ali Babas’ as they call them. The guns are confiscated and they’re allowed to go.UPSOT: 36.38 - US Soldier: ‘You want me to cuff you . you Ali Baba you. . Get in the truck and drive away’ Arab man saying, ‘ I’m not Ali Baba…
Sergeant Conquest patrol commander on street 36.47 – 36.59
Q: They’re obviously saying they need it to protect themselves against thieves. What do you say to that?
A: I can’t really tell you, I mean, half of them are thieves anyway that are running around here with their vehicles.
37.58- 38.27Int humvee on patrol through streets chasing truck - truck stuck in alley with houses on both sides – Soldiers walk up to driver, search truck - driver in profile with soldier pointing weapon at him – soldiers find weapon offcamera as soldier watching driver – driver escorted back up alley. 37.04 - Minutes later we’re in hot pursuit of another truck that’s tried to avoid the roadblock.UPSOT: 37.20- US soldier shouts: ‘Where ya goin’ buddy?’ (Car horn sounds) .. 37.28 – ‘Get out of the truck .. let’s go’37.35 - In the attempt to get away, this driver has wedged his vehicle in an alleyway full of raw sewage. UPSOT: 37.52 - US Soldier: ‘Come here . stand over there ..hey, you got any weapons?.. no..?’ [Iraqi shakes head].38. 04 - No weapons, he says. But he’s lying.UPSOT: 38.09 - US Soldier: ‘Wha’ya got? .. we’ve got an AK .. ahh you got no weapons ehh.. for the baby? Stand there’ ‘AK47 – broken off the stock.’
38.27 – 38.51US patrol quiet Baghdad streets at night – shots from Humvee – close up guns soldiers – jeep to jeep shots through streets… 38.51 – 39.06busy street scenes jeeps and soldiers in traffic and watching from footpaths .. close up gun and soldier 38.30 - US forces now find themselves in a law and order role that is often more difficult than the all-out combat they faced during the War. It’s the worst kind of conflict for an occupying army: fighting a small but well-armed and fanatical insurgency…The great fear is that, facing increasingly bold attacks, a twitchy US military could unleash a blood-bath. It’s a concern now being voiced by America’s most loyal supporters, including the head of the Iraqi National Congress, Dr Ahmad Chalabi:
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 39.04 – 39.34
A: My biggest fear is of some serious acrimony developing between the Iraqi people and the US military.
Q: Is that a possibility?
A: Yes. I think this is uh a possibility and I am very very concerned about it and I want to prevent it.
Q: What would provoke that kind of acrimony.
A: The ingredients of that acrimony would be violence against US troops. Their uh acts to defend themselves.
39.36 – 39.48Police car through traffic - INT Police car en route to bomb - 39.48 - 40.06APTN: Bomb exploding near US soldiers standing next to tree 40.06 – 40.15Iraqi bomb squad checking metal devices .. shots of squad checking car in car park – 40. 26 – 40.40shots of interior police car with hole in the floor after bomb attempt. 39. 35 - But if there is room for optimism in Iraq’s future it’s in the dedication of Iraqis like the men of Baghdad’s bomb disposal squad.39.46 - All over Iraq so-called improvised explosive devices, or IEDS, are frequently left by terrorists on the side of roads to kill Coalition soldiers.UPSOT 39.58 - Booooooom!40.02 - These two GIs had a lucky escape but hundreds of US soldiers and Iraqis have been killed or wounded. The bomb squad have a busy time of it.
Reporter Piece to Camera 40.15 – 40.51
Well this is the first call of the day for the Baghdad bomb disposal squad and they’re responding to what was an assassination attempt on a top Baghdad Police chief. The driver of that police four wheel drive over there was on his way to collect a local commander when the rear of the vehicle suddenly exploded. He escaped unscathed but the Police bomb squad are now checking to see if there’s another bomb hidden in the vehicle. It’s all a typical day for Baghdad. This event probably won’t even warrant a mention in the news. It’s difficult and dangerous work for the bomb disposal team.
40.50 – 41.00Iraqi bomb squad checking package by side of road. 41.00 – 41.07US Robot in street on road and down into tunnel – hundreds of onlookers with US soldiers nearby. 41.07 – 41.18Iraqi men inspect bag by roadside. 40.52 - There’s a splendid madness in the heroism of men who defuse bombs in minutes with wire-snippers ……while US teams spend hours using a remote-controlled robot. 41.07 - Hundreds of Iraqi policemen have died on the job in the last year and bomb squad officer Hazim Kadhim also has to live with the fact that his work makes him a target for the terrorists.
Hazim Kadhim 41.18 -41.32
Subtitles - ‘I consider them to be people who have nothing to do with Islam. Their aim is to destroy this country and they don’t want to live in peace. Because of them, this country will never be safe’.
41 32 – 41.51Baghdad street scenes muddy footpaths – donkey drays – kids in street – traffic scenes, old cars etc. 41.34 - Though billions of American taxpayer dollars are being spent to get basic utilities running again, many here complain their quality of life is worse than when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. And for that they blame the Americans.
Paul Bremer 41.51 -42.05
I think it’s clear that we were not prepared for the state of the devastation of the infrastructure here. And I don’t know why that is – whether our intelligence wasn’t good enough, whether our analysis wasn’t good enough. I don’t know, but, again, the historians can deal with this problem.
42.05 – 42.22bloack of flats with broken windows – sat. dishes – people close up on balconies – hundreds of wires from street pole into backyard shed with petrol driven generator running. 42.22 – 42.34Power pylons in countryside with broken wires hanging – variouos close up pylons and wires in PTC 42. 07 - A big issue for Iraqis are power cuts that leave most homes with just a couple of hours of electricity a day. 42.16 - Those who can afford it are wired up to back-up generators run by locals. 42.23 - But one cause of the continued disruption of power supplies isn’t too hard to find.
Reporter Piece to Camera in front of vandalised power grid lines 42.30 – 43.01
All over the country national power grid lines like these are being chopped down and stolen by thieves. We’re told that a couple of weeks ago a gang of 30 men turned up to this site with Kalashnikov machine guns and quite literally blasted the cabling out of the sky. It’ll make those thieves a tidy dollar on the blackmarket. But as the Americans and the new provisional government are now realising, it’s going to cost billions of dollars to repair.
43.01 – 43.26Men working at Daura Oil Refinery South of Baghdad – various pipes, workers - tracking shots of oil tanks at Daura - 43.04 - The same goes for the oil production that is meant to help pay for Iraq’s revival. Though it is nearly back up to pre-war levels, there aren’t the troops to protect the thousands of kilometres of pipeline from terrorist attack.
Dathar Al-Khashab – Daura Oil Refinery Manager 43.21 – 43.35
‘Well this is a puzzle really. Because unfortunately they were damaging their own property they were damaging the things that could sustain life after the wa’.
43.35 – 43. 56Daura flare at dusk in distance, (shot from Baghdad suburb) – various flare close ups.43.56 – 44.05Reporter walks through refinery with manager al-Kashab44.06 – 44.20shots of refinery flare 43.38 - On the edge of Baghdad, the huge burning gas flare from the Daura Oil Refinery is a potent and constant reminder of the untold riches at stake here for those now jostling for power.UPSOT: 43.56 - Dathar al-Khashab walking with Reporter: ‘Our main concern was to keep this refinery in one piece and if they get in to steal, the result we know is ..’ (fades off). 44.01 - For the refinery’s general manager, Dathar al-Kashab, keeping this flame alive for the people of Baghdad during the American invasion became a life and death struggle against marauding looters.
Dathar Al-Khashab – Daura Oil Refinery Manager 44.15 – 44.30
‘When they see the flare on, they are relieved. They think ‘the refinery is running’ – meaning there is gasoline, fuel is coming up. If they see the flare is off they will be in a very bad state you know’.
44.31 – tracking shots of refinery – large pipes 44.30 - In early April, as Iraqi forces collapsed, Dathar found his refinery under attack from armed local looters. American troops had rushed past to take Baghdad, leaving the refinery unprotected. So Dathar handed weapons out to his workers.
Dathar al-Kashab – Daura Oil Refinery 44.49 – 45.23:
‘We had to fight it off and sometimes they shot, during the shooting we I got one of my crude tanks on fire and I had to fire-fight at the same time fire-fight also outside. This is funny!
Q: Did you ever think you were going to die?
A: When I set myself to those objectives I thought I am going to die at any moment. Because there is a lot of stray bullets around.
Q: And one bullet could have sent this place sky high?
A: Yeah’.
45.23 – 45.32Reporter and al_Hashab walk around oil tank45.32 – 45.55various shots oil tanks – refinery plumbing – stacks with belching smoke 45.23 - Now Mr al-Kashab is heavily involved in the planning to rebuild Iraq’s shattered oil industry. Iraq has the world’s third largest proven oil reserves. It also has the largest probable oil reserves. When that oil begins to flow onto the world market in several years, its impact on the OPEC oil cartel controlled by the World’s main oil producing nations will be dramatic – perhaps slashing the World price of crude oil.
Dathar al-Kashab 45.55 – 46.38
Q: ‘The conspiracy theory has it that what the Americans are all about is gaining control of Iraqi’s oilfields – the world’s, I think, second-largest oilfields – so they can force down the price of oil and break OPEC?’
46.14 - A: ‘This is a result, the result. This is not a conspiracy. I mean once you are talking about getting the second reserve in the world, obviously the result is to control the prices, or at least you can control the prices when you like. Iraq will be a very big contender to the Saudi portion of production’.
46.38 – flares from refinery – oil lake with bubbling oil, tanks etc, 46.41 - When Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was hit with sanctions after it invaded Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia – the world’s biggest oil producer – picked up the bulk of Iraq’s oil quota.
Francis Brooke – INC Political Advisor 46.55 –47.41
Q: ‘ Is there any possibility that Iraq would consider taking itself out of OPEC’?
A: ‘Yeah, I think there probably is. Again I think that’s a decision the Iraqi people are probably going to have to take for themselves. But there certainly is a strong moral argument that OPEC nations who absorbed Iraq’s production capacity and turned it into their own production capacity over the intervening ten or twelve years have some responsibility to Iraq. And I would be surprised if there isn’t a mechanism where by they can all come to a mutual agreement. But if there was no mutual agreement I think Iraq would be well within its rights and would be only serving the interests of its own people to go ahead and set production levels in their own interests’.
47.41 – 48.00various shots refinery at dusk yellow sky – smoke/steam from stacks – silhouettes machinery, stacks etc. 47.44 - Already the US is being accused of abusing its power here in Iraq – by awarding, without tender, the major oil infrastructure rebuilding contract to US construction giant Haliburton.
Hoshiar Zebari Spokesman Kurdish Democratic Party and CPA Foreign Minister 48.01 -48.19
We are concerned really. We believe that this contract should have been offered and given by an Iraqi entity, I mean, the speed of granting this contract immediately after liberation I think questions the real motivations.
48.19 – 48.40shots during Gulf war, broken oil pipeline 48. 22 - Iraq’s oilfields are totally devastated by years of sanctions, war and now looting. Apart from the rebuilding contracts, the glittering prize for foreign companies here will be the lucrative production agreements needed to open up these massive fields.
Thamir Ghadhban –Oil Ministry advisor and former Oil Minister 48. 41 - 48.56
We will make sure that we extract the best price for the Iraqi barrel so that it will be an open bid, ok, there will be no more discount or favouring anybody else.
48.56 – 49.13exterior Baghdad Oil Ministry – US soldiers at guardpost on steps of Ministry 48.57 - But the aspiring political leadership of Iraq has different ideas. To Iraqi National Congress leader Dr Ahmad Chalabi, the oil contracts will be an opportunity to hand out the spoils of war to those countries who helped liberate Iraq.
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 49.13 – 49.28
‘From my own point of view Americans should get first call on contracts in Iraq because they were they led the effort to liberate Iraq and I think the US will give us a fair dea’l.
49.28 – 50.06Shots of interior meeting of Dr Chalabi with Arab village chiefs and supporters – after meeting, mingling with supporters 49.31 – When Chalabi was triumphantly returned to Iraq by his Pentagon supporters, he was widely touted as a future leader-in-waiting… 49.42 - And for the moment, Chalabi is also claiming he doesn’t want to ever lead Iraq. But no-one doubts that this wily politician is doing anything other than keeping his powder dry. It’s better for him to let the American regime take the blame for Iraq’s current woes.
Francis Brooke INC Advisor 50.00 -50.19
‘Dr Chalabi is a free and independent actor. He is not buyable. Which is an important fact in the intelligence world. Some people are buyable. Dr Chalabi is not buyable. He also doesn’t take orders from anybody which is one of the reasons I like him. I think people like that are admirable.
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 50.19 -51.12
Q: ‘The conspiracy theory about Dr Chalabi is that you’re all about doing the neo-conservative agenda of denationalising the Iraqi oil industry and parcelling it out to multi-national US oil companies’?
A: ‘I say to that. My response is this. Who has used who. After all, whose army is in the other’s country liberating them? The US is here liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein. That is victory enough for me and it is something that you should think about.
Q: But long-term sir –
A: Wait a minute! As for the matter of oil. The US needs oil and we need to sell oil and I don’t think the US is going to buy our oil at reduced cut-rate prices. They will pay fair prices for our oil
51.12 – 51.34Street scenes Baghdad soldiers convoy through streets – US soldiers patrol on foot through Baghdad streets. 51.15 - Most Iraqis are convinced the only reason America and its Coalition allies invaded, was because of the strategic value of Iraq’s huge oil reserves.America though is adamant it will leave once Iraq’s security is guaranteed.
IV Paul Bremer 51.32 -51.54
‘We will not leave until we achieve the vision that the President and the prime ministers have which is to turn over to Iraq a democratic political system operating in a stable and secure environment. And stable and secure is not there yet and we’re not going to leave until that job is don’e.
Q; ‘How long do you think will that take. Years’?
A: ‘It’s clearly a matter of years not months’.
Reporter Piece to Camera at al-Asad Airbase Control Tower 52.04 – 52.58
What’s fuelling at least part of the antagonism towards Americans here in Iraq from ordinary Iraqis is the growing suspicion that the Americans aren’t being entirely honest about their long-term strategic intentions with this country. There’s talk of permanent American military bases here in Iraq and once you’ve seen this sprawling Al Asad airbase three hours west of Baghdad – another of Saddam Hussein’s follies – it’s not hard to see why if you were an American policymaker, you wouldn’t be leaving in a hurry. 3416 Israel’s just minutes flying time by jet in that direction. Syria, same thing in that direction. An unstable Saudi Arabia, about ten minutes by fighter in that direction. And Iran about the same time over there. Indeed, why would America be leaving in a hurry.
51.54 – 52.05shots of abandoned Iraqi fighter planeswide shots al-Asad airbase near Baghdad52.19 –52.34 shots of airbase, runways, control tower 52.59 – 53.17various shots airbase, US helicopters parked, blackhawks fly in formation towards landing, wide shots hangars53.18 – Montage of: library footage of bloodied US tank soldier dragged from tank – Blackhawks fighting in Fallujah – US soldier carried on stretcher and into jeep – night shots US soldiers running into a house nightshots – night patrol soldiers in Humvee – silhouette US soldier against car headlights on Baghdad street… 53.18 - This on-going war is likely to cost American and other Coalition taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.But America and its allies are also paying in blood. Hundreds of young men and women dead, many thousands injured.The pretext for this war was Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. With none yet found, there are many taxpayers now questioning whether their own countries are a safer place since last year’s invasion.
Paul Bremer 53.52 – 54.25
Q: Why is the world a safer place because we have toppled Saddam Hussein?
A: It is a safer place because we have gotten rid of one of the most awful dictators in the region. A man who was at war with all of his neighbours at various times and at war with his own people all the time.
Q: So you disagree with the notion that this was a sideshow in the war against terrorism?
A: Oh this is an essential front of the war on terrorism. We have more and more evidence of terrorists having been here before the war and more and more terrorists here since the war. This is the front. This is the central battlefield of terrorism.
54.29 – 54.44 US Funeral Service – soldiers fire salute - rifles & boots & helmets on podium 54.28 - The dying goes on. .. Another memorial service for Americans in Iraq.
US Soldier standing by memorial 54.35 – 54.44
Two good soldiers. Always talking about families. Living life to the fullest. Never questioned the war.
54.44 – British Memorial Ceremony at airfield - British Soldiers carry coffin from Helicopter to C130 for transport to Britain – shots of British soldiers lined up by door of plane 55.38 ends.C130 ramp door closes into darkness 54. 46 – In another corner of the country, a farewell for British comrades. .. America and its Coalition allies are locked in step marching into an uncertain future. (55.00 VO ends )
ENDS 55.38
00.41 - On the flight deck of a slow and unarmed US Air Force transport plane…preparing to descend into one of the World’s most dangerous cities.
UPSOT : 00.53 – US Pilot: “Keep your eyes peeled. We’re at 12,000 feet… Roger”
00.55 - Below us, there’s a determined and well organised insurgency that keeps trying to bring these aircraft down.
01.03 US Pilot: ‘Keep your eyes peeled … Roger”
01.06 - The danger is everywhere. From the suburbs surrounding Baghdad airport, the terrorists regularly fire on planes with machine guns and missiles. .. Iraq teeters on the edge of civil war.
Paul Bremer 1.26 – 1.33
We came here to do a noble thing. We came here to free 25 million people of a brutal fascist dictatorship and that’s the only word for it.
Soldiers onnight patrol 1.33 – 1.45
Ahmad Chalabi 1.45 – 1.48
I don’t like to be dramatic in terms of predicting disaster. We have some time left but not much time.
1.48 – 2.00soldiers check cars people 01.49 - The continuing carnage here can only diminish the US’ chances of holding the peace.
Col David Teeples 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regt 2.00 – 2.02
Q: Is this a popular insurgency?
A: It isn’t. It is not.
Q: Are you winning?
A: We are winning.
2.02 – 3.31Colonel Teeples’ Into Blackhawk helicopter – low level flight over Baghdad outskirts and Industrial area – gun fired into desert – cutaways Teebles and Reporter. 02.03 - As Commander of America’s Third Armoured Cavalry Regiment, Colonel David Teeples is proud of its 150 year history. 02.14 - He’s invited us to join him on a flight across dangerous country, to one of his bases on the Syrian border. UPSOT gun fired 02.23 - Guns are test-fired then we’re off at low-level across the desert. We’re in what’s called the Sunni Triangle – the central part of Iraq that’s home for most of the country’s Sunni Moslem population, the heartland of Saddam Hussein’s support. 02.42 - The Third Armoured Cavalry - the ‘Brave Rifles’ – as they are known – have suffered some of the highest casualty rates in Iraq.
Teeples INT chopper 02.50 -03.11
We had a soldier, the first one was on the first of May. And ah we had a memorial. And I said to the Regimental Command Sergeant-Major ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to have any more of these memorials. And ah, we’ve had 45 since then.’
03.15 – 03.18Int Blackhawk gun with desert background – shots ext chopper Baghdad industrial area 03.12 - And yet as American deaths increase, so too does Iraqi resentment.
Col Teeples 03.18 – 03.28
Q: You think most of them want you to be here?
A: No! I don’t think they want us to be here. I think most of them really don’t understand.
3.31 – 5.12Reporter interior Bradley Vehicle- soldiers on night patrol in the town of Qusabah close to the Syrian border – test firing (with tracer bullets into target) – nightscope footage of patrol through streets – houses searched, doors kicked in – civilians questioned. In their homes. 03.31 - A few hours later we join Colonel Teeples’ men in the back of an armoured vehicle heading out for night patrol in the town of Qusabah. It’s a major trouble-spot for the Americans, in the province of Al Quaim, close to the Syrian border. Terrorists have been firing mortar bombs from here into the US base. UPSOT: FX Tracer rounds hitting target03. 52 - A last minute weapons check then we move into town.03.57 - There’s a nine o’clock curfew. Anyone seen on the streets after then is treated as a suspect.04.03 - US Soldier: There’s a guy over there walking …go down there turn around and come back ...04.07 - Soldiers have seen a young man run through this gate. Upsot: Soldiers kick in doors04.15 - The US strategy here is to be uncompromisingly tough.UPSOT: 04.21 - US Soldier: Booting in the another door 04.22 - The house is searched. But their suspect has got away. Then we’re called across town to where helicopters have spotted a resident arriving home shortly after curfew. UPSOT 04.33 - Soldier: Question first, if it looks suspicious you’ve got permission to search.. 04.40 - Many foreign fighters – including suspected Al Quaeda terrorists - were transiting through border towns like this, answering Osama Bin Laden’s call for a jihad – or holy war - against the Coalition invaders. UPSOT: 04.53 - Soldier : Why was your truck moving after curfew?04.55 - As War began, this little town and others along the border were full of weapons and fighters. UPSOT: 05.03 – US Soldier: … so the best way to stay out of trouble is to be in their house before nine o’clock
Col David Teeples 3rd Armrd Cav Cmmdr 5.12 – 5.25
We closed down the Syrian border completely. We allowed no traffic to come in or out. We went through and searched nearly 8,000 homes and we captured, actually detained, about 380 prisoners and we have been capturing and putting away a lot of these people that were establishing some kind of a equipment and money and training base so that they could move further into the country and perform jihad.
5.25 – 5.43
US soldiers at base – tanks – general scenes preparing for patrol – silhouette tank gunner.
5.43 – 6.06Soldiers help cleaning up streets of Baghdad suburb – shaking hands with locals 05.45 - But to get the intelligence they need to defeat the jihadists, the Americans have waged a campaign to win the hearts and minds of local Iraqis.UPSOT: 05.55 - Soldier “ We appreciate you’re help out here this morning
Col David Teeples – 3rd Armrd Cav Commander 6.06 – 6.17
We decided when we would go into a home, if they were compliant with the Centcomm weapons policy and they did not have any contraband we would give them $20. I can’t remember how many thousands of dollars we gave out.
6.17 – 6.42Int Baghdad home, soldiers question family – nightscope vision – includes 2 shots of armed Iraqis in plain clothes patrolling streets with US soldiers. 06.18 - 20 US dollars might not sound like much but that’s more than the average Iraqi earns in a week.
Col David Teeples: 6.27 – 6.51
The way that you beat an insurgency is by having the population take over the fight. And win their own communities. Win their own country. And they’re doing that in the form that local Police are becoming more professional and they coming more credible with the population.
6.51 – 9.10Soldiers on patrol nightvision kicking in doors and confronting persons of suspicion inside the house – Iraqi with his hands up – Soldiers firing inside house towards upstairs – soldiers beating Iraqi – close up Iraqi with bloodied nose – Iraqi family (including women) sitting on floor with hands on their heads. 06.52 - The Americans also need to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. But that’s not helped by aggressive raids like this one carried out by troops not under the command of Col. Teebles, filmed by a news service camera-crew.07.11 - It’s the dead of night, outside the house of a senior former Iraqi Army officer. He’s suspected of helping the insurgents.07.22 - The officer’s son – thinking the soldiers are thieves - goes to the roof of the house and fires into the air to scare them away. That’s a big mistake.UPSOT: 07.31 - SOLDIER shouts: “We’re got a shooter on the roof” …. (sustained gunfire) 07.43 - Inside the house the officer surrenders….UPSOT: 07. 47 - IRAQI OFFICER: “ Welcome, Welcome” .. SOLDIER shouts: “Get out here now” IRAQI OFFICER: “Welcome welcome”.. 07.50 - …but he doesn’t understand what the Americans are saying – and they don’t have a translator. UPSOT: 07.56 - SOLDIER: “Want me to shoot him in the leg…. I might shoot you...Get the fuck over here .. Get the fuck over here now .. I’d get him in the leg .. Shoot him in the foot …” 08.11 - The Iraqi officer can now be heard praying.UPSOT: 0.17 - IRAQI prays .. SOLDIER: “Who the fuck are you talking to? Shut the fuck up! .. I’m at the door … (gunfire) .. get him outta here, go, go. IRAQI: “Welcome, welcome”. SOLDIER: “Shut the fuck up .. who is shooting? IRAQI: “Welcome welcome”. SOLDIER: “Fucking shut up, shut up .. 08.39 - The soldiers capture the young man on the roof.UPSOT: 08.43 - (gunfire and scream ) SOLDIER: “Alright get him the fuck out of here .. (screaming young man) ... SOLDIER: ‘Take the camera off’. 09.00 - No-one here was killed…but, it’s raids like this that can only fuel the resentment against Coalition forces.
9.11 – 10.54 Gun-Camera B&W Infrared footage of 3 suspected Iraqi insurgents in a field standing by a truck, pick-up truck and tractor – one runs into field and dumps what looks like a weapon wrapped in cloth – another does the same thing with smaller object – a third insurgent arrives on tractor alights and walks over to truck – all three are shot by helicopter guns – one in field, one by tractor and another under a truck – third person fired on again after being wounded. UPSOT: 09.11 - Pilot on microphone: “A big truck over here .. having a little pow-wow” ..09. 13 - Concerns are circulating in Baghdad too among America’s Coalition allies about this extraordinary gun camera vision shot by a US Apache helicopter gunship in December last year. UPSOT: 09. 24 - PILOT1 : “He’s running of into the field. Do you see this? … Pilot2: Yep. PILOT1: “I got a guy here running, throwing a weapon… PILOT2: Smoke him”.. 09.30 - No one doubts the US has had to take a tough line against the local Iraqi fighters who have mounted a determined insurgency against the Coalition forces. And this covert night vision filmed from an Apache hovering nearly two kilometres away shows a man dumping what may well be a weapon in a field.UPSOT: 09.50 - BASE: “Are you certain it was a weapon…..Pilot1: “Positive” 09.53 - A prudent Commander would at least attempt to capture these men – their intelligence might help break up the resistance among locals in the Sunni Triangle. But instead the order is given to ‘Smoke ‘em’ – to kill three unarmed men in cold blood. UPSOT: 10.12 - PILOT!: “Range auto .. BASE: right got auto range on it? .. PILOT1: “Roger” … BASE: “ Hit him” .. (gunfire) .. PILOT1: Got him. BASE: “Good” PILOT1:” The second one” … BASE: “Hit the other one. … (gunfire) .. PILOT 2: “Hit the truck. .. go to the right see if anyone’s moving by the truck.. Is there anyone in the truck. … Wait for movement. PILOT1: “Not seeing any”. PILOT2: Good store that auto range store .. wait there another guy.. PILOT1:”There’s movement right there” .. Fire him.. PILOT2: Hit him. .. (gunfire). 10.45 - It’s an action that has provoked heavy private criticism from senior officers from other Coalition countries.
10.54 – 11.07 Mehdi in his office with colleagues. 10.55 - Iraqi Governing Council member Dr Abdul Mehdi is also a spokesman for the main Shiite Islamic Party representing the country’s 60 per Shiite majority.
Dr Abdul Mehdi – spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution 11.07 -12.08
Q: What are the Americans not doing right?
A: - You know, I heard a British proverb saying. That the Americans will always choose the best choice after trying all the other choices.
Q: So they’re allowed to make mistakes. But you think in the long run things will work out for the best?
A: No, they are doing a lot of mistakes.
Q: The Americans say that if they give power to the Iraqi groups too early they risk failure and that failure here could bring the whole peace process undone.
A: And do you think that the Americans governing the whole country will lead to success?
Q: Well what is your warning to the Americans?
A: They have to depend on Iraqis.
Q: And if they don’t –
A: - They have to give the Iraqis the choice to lead themselves.
Q: And if they don’t?
A: They came here as liberators as they say, not as occupiers. They have not to make the mistake to be occupiers.
12.08 – 13.11Helicopter aerials of the al Tubaitha nuclear reactor just outside Baghdad. 12.18 - Al Tubaitha – under Saddam this was one of the sites of Iraq’s attempted nuclear weapons program. The Americans hoped they might find the elusive weapons of mass destruction here.12.38 - But that pretext for last year’s invasion now hangs in tatters. Coalition troops find themselves cast as occupiers by an increasingly hostile Iraqi population – most of whom are grateful for their liberation but who now want the Americans to leave.12.58 - There is another reason too for the seething resentment among many Iraqis towards America – one the US military has yet to acknowledge.
Piece to Camera at Daura cluster bomb site 13.11 – 14.03
What happened here at Daura on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, five days before American tanks rolled up the highway here to Baghdad, raises very serious concerns about whether America acted in breach of its international humanitarian law obligations about the use of cluster bombs. In the first salvo two cluster bombs were dropped to knock out an artillery position here and another one just in front of me. You might argue that’s fair enough, Saddam Hussein had located guns near to residential areas. But it’s what happened ten minutes later that’s of serious concern. For ten minutes later a guided missile was dropped – not here – but across that motorway, only metres from the residences. Dozens of innocent civilians were slaughtered.
14.03 – 14.22Children running over ground littered with unexploded cluster bombs.. 14.31 – 14.45Dr Rasmi and his children in his backyard showing cluster bomb damage. 14.08 - When we visited Daura within weeks of the invasion, locals were bitter with anger at the use of a battlefield mass killing weapon so close to their homes. Upsot: Daura Resident 14.22 – 14.31“ The civilians come to help them because some of them had been injured on the other side. When they make a mass here the cluster bomb” …(EXPLOSION) …REPORTER: “Bloody hell” .. RESIDENT: “Still now there’s some bombs”. 14.34 - This hospital physician Dr Hamza Rasmi showed us how the cluster bomblets sprayed his family home with shrapnel.
Doctor Rasmi 14.45 – 15.24
The first one fall on the soldiers, the next one on the civilian population. When we get out of the home we see the civilian population, injured population, dead people on the street. (Referring to his two small boys) .. At the time of explosion they were crying and was very afraid. One of them urinate on himself and next he fall on glass and you can see the wound on his hand .. you see the shell, every five centimetres there is a shell so it is very dangerous, no-one will escape from it.
15.24 – 16.07 Ross and Aida al-Ansari coming up stairs to enter her son Fahad’s bedroom – stills of Fahad al-Ansari - Aida shows us Fahad’s blood-stained jeans with holes in them from shrapnel. 15.33 - Last year Aida al-Ansari’s 16-year-old son Fahad and 25 other civilians were killed as the Americans fought their way into Baghdad.Aida Al-Ansari 15.40 – 16.07Full of blood. I didn’t throw it because I wanted his blood to stay with me. Q – Do you know how many wounds he had?A: A lot, I couldn’t count. One, two, three, four, five and then I stop. I can’t help it’.
16.07 – 16.55Daura suburb scenes Baghdad with old artillery piece among houses – unexploded cluster bomb right next to house – close up bomblets and damage to houses – still photos of Fahad al-Ansari. 16.09 - Shortly after the war ended we filmed the result here of what was clearly a terrible error by the Americans. A US jet missed these artillery positions and dropped a cluster bomb on nearby houses.16.23 - A weapon designed for clearing open battlefields, these large canisters spray tiny bomblets over a huge area. And some live bomblets were still there when we filmed.16.37 - When they explode, they send a hail of shrapnel in all directions. Aida’s son Fahad was taken to hospital, riddled with fragments. And there, the doctor had no anaesthetic.
Aida al-Ansari 16.55 – 17.44
So he’s trying to pull the bullets from his leg and his feet and his arms and his face and his shoulders and he was screaming. Each time he screamed I run to him and I cuddle him. I said to him ‘Why Fahad, why that’s happened to you? [Cries]’ He said please Mummy don’t cry. Then he turned to his father and he said ‘Daddy, please forgive me for what I done to you and to my Mum.’
17.44 – 18.01Daura suburb scenes houses, artillery guns – cluster bomb canisters sticking out of the ground – still photo Fahad and friends 17.44 - In all the arguments about the merits of this war, little attention has been paid to the uncounted numbers of Iraqi civilians who’ve died because of Coalition mistakes. Including Fahad.
Aida al-Ansari 18.01 – 18.36
Then I saw them pull the sheet over his face put it over his face so I knew it was over. I knew it was the end. My lovely boy gone. I didn’t want to leave him. Then I shouted please get me a scissor. I cut piece of his hair. For memory. This is all I get left of Fahad. Piece of hair.
18.36 – 18.47Reporter in street talking to amall group of residents 18.36 - Ten months since we were last in Daura, grief among Fahad’s family and friends has now hardened to anger against the US.
Aida al-Ansari 18.47 – 19.15
They hate them. They don’t hate the people but they hate Bush and the Army.
Q: Did they hate the United States before this war?
A: No. Everybody used to dream to go to the United States, to work or to do something.
Q: …Has anyone from the Coalition ever come to you or to this community and apologised for what happened?
A: No. No-one.
19.15 – 19.30Marla Ruzicka in her office flat with reporter.19.30 – 20.05Street scenes Baghdad market - Young boys in shop with handgun – children and shopkeepers – top shot of Baghdad suburbs 19.15 - Marla Ruzicka is one American who does care. Her organisation CIVIC - Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict - has painstakingly catalogued the names of at least 2,000 civilians killed during the war, but is confident there were many more. She is now trying to find the money to list the civilians who have died since President Bush declared the end of the conflict on May 1st last year.
Marla Ruzicka 20.05 – 20.35
A: The will and the hearts and the minds of the Iraqi people are vital. They’re extremely educated. They’re smart. They’re resourceful. And they’re tough. And they’re warm and they’re wonderful just like people everywhere. But right now the US and other Coalition Governments have an opportunity to set things right after so many years of things going wrong here. And that’s to assist people who got caught up during the military operations during the war the and post May 1st. We need to look at every individual acid case.
Q: If they don’t?
A: If they don’t there’s – they’re seeing it – each month there’s more attacks on US soldiers and each month people’s hearts in Iraq get a little bit more broken as they don’t have electricity, water. It could mean the difference between if they make and they don’t.
20.35 – 21.15Air to Air shots of US Blackhawk helicopter flying over Baghdad. – aerials of suburbs . 20.36 - Of course, democracy never had a chance under Saddam’s brutal rule. But, can it ever work? 84 years ago, a British colonial administrator made the grim prediction that the new Iraq created back then by the British welding of Shia and Sunni Moslem groups and the Kurds would be the ‘antithesis of democratic government’. That it could never function as a single country. .. 21.06 - The Americans now have the Herculean task of proving that prediction wrong.
21.15 – 21.22
US tanks and soldiers stationed on Baghdad streets
21.22 – 21.30Reporter with Brooke in his office 21.22 - The Iraqi National Congress’ political advisor, Francis Brooke, is the eternal optimist:
Francis Brooke - INC political advisor 21.30 – 22.02
Q: Let me put the pessimistic point of view to you that Saddam Hussein was an authoritarian strongman who kept all of these disparate groups, - warring tribes together, now that democracy is being imposed on Iraq, the whole pla e is going to fall apart?
A: Anything is better than Saddam. Anything is better than the type of totalitarian state on fascist lines that he constructed anything is better than Saddam, anything is better for the Iraqi people and anything is better for the outside world. Anarchy is better!
22.02 –22.23 Soldiers pose for photographs under ‘Sword Bridge’22.23 – 24.16Interior CAP HQ Press Conference with Bremer and CAP members. 22.06 - America has repeatedly assured Iraqis it’s here to liberate them – not to conquer them. But sceptical Iraqis say that’s exactly what the British said last century when it invaded Iraq and installed a puppet monarchy. If the Coalition administration is trying to avoid an imperial image, it’s sending all the wrong messages by installing itself in one of the royal palaces of the former dictator.UPSOT: 22.35 - “testing .. testing is it clean? .. 22.38 - US Ambassador Paul Bremer is meeting the impatient Iraqi political leadership for the first time, behind these closed doors. It’s at this meeting that US disenchantment with local leaders first becomes apparent. 22.57 - This is a key chance to restore faith with Iraqis that the new rulers here actually know what they’re doing. UPSOT: 23.05 – Bremer: ‘While conditions have improved in most of the country, there are parts of the country, particularly here in Baghdad where we agreed we need to do some work in restoring law and order.’23.17 - We’re assured we’ll later be able to ask him some of the hard questions. Such as why is he dragging his feet on a new Iraqi Government? … Why does America seems to have been caught so unprepared for the scale of damage to Baghdad’s basic utilities: the water and power?...What solutions does he have to restore law and order? 23.41 - But the event soon becomes a debacle. UPSOT : 23.45 - Journalists calling out..23.48 - Ducking questions, Ambassador Bremer walks out. UPSOT: 23.54 - Arab journalists calling out..24.00 - Arab journalists are angry there’s no opportunity to question Bremer. After four hours wait for the promised opportunity to question the Ambassador, we’re told he wants to go to dinner. UPSOT: 24.11 - Arab Journalist: “Bloody Hell” ..
24.16 – 27.42Wailing women at al- Hillah massacre site south of Baghdad – exhuming graves – people in grief checking plastic bags of human bones – blessing rituals prior to reburials – general activity collecting information – relatives searching for missing family members. 24.21 - The other open wound here that the Americans have yet to adequately respond to, is an accounting for the crimes that were committed in the name of Saddam Hussein.
UPSOT: wailing women 24.37 - In blistering 40 degree heat, on a desolate dry plain near the Iraqi town of Al-Hillah, Mu’teez Hussein is searching for his brothers.24.50 - Both disappeared in 1991, taken off the street by Saddam’s security forces as it crushed an uprising by the majority Shiite population.
Mu’teez Hussein 25.01 – 25.17
Subtitles: - I am trying to identify him through the identification card and the picture and the clothes.
25.07 Q: And have you found anything yet?
25.09 - Subtitles: - Nothing yet .. They were my brothers and they were innocent people like the others. What did they do? They were innocent people.
Wailing woman UPSOT: wailing..25.24 - Across Iraq at numerous sites like this now being uncovered, many grief-stricken people are asking themselves that same question.
Wailing woman beating her face 25.35:
Subtitles - I can’t believe my eyes. Is this you, the son of my mother.
Second woman 25.42 :
Subtitles - Not even the dogs died like this 25.47 - Oh God why did all the young people die like this?
Jaber Mohsin Al-Husseini - Farmer witness to the murders: 25.58 – 26.47
Subtitles - They organised themselves in different duties. They gathered all these people in this huge camp and then started to blindfold them and bind their hands and then dug a big hole and pushed people alive into it. Because many people started resisting as they were being put into the hole they were kicked forcibly into it. Then about five or six people started shooting them altogether. Then they started to bury them with a mechanical shovel.
Rough English Translation 26.02 – When they collected the people, they divided them into divisions, so each day they bring one division .. and after that they tie their hands and shut their eyes with a piece of rag or something and they bring them all here .. and they dig a big hole in the ground and they start to push people into these holes because people when they are handcuffed, they cannot control their stance or cannot control anything so they pushed them into this hole and when they fell, five or six men start to shoot down on them with their Kalashnikov or anything and when they were all dead, they burned them. - 26.47
Reporter – 26.55 – 27.21
The scale and the barbarity of the violence here is difficult to comprehend. This place stinks of death. It’s only been a week and already they’ve recovered about 1200 bodies and there are many thousands more. The witnesses say the pits ran from just here to right over there to those dirt berms.* There could be as many as 15 to 25,000 people buried here.
27.25 - There is great concern in Iraq that no effort has been made by the US army or the United Nations to secure and properly investigate massacre sites like this one south of Baghdad.
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 27.39 – 28.05
I am downcast by this. I am disappointed. And I think that the response has been dismal and inappropriate. As if Iraqis are not human beings and that they that Saddam’s killing of them was something that was par for the course. I think the World should be much more concerned with this. I think the UN should be ashamed of themselves.
28.05 – 28.53More relatives at al-Hillal searching among bags for missing family members – interviews with witness and relative. 28.07 - These concerns are’t just moral. There’s a risk of the majority Shia muslim community exacting revenge on the mainly Sunni leaders of the ruling Baath Party.UPSOT: Farmer witness talking to reporter … 28.27 - As this farmer told us, the names and addresses of the Baath Party officials and soldiers who committed this horrible crime are well-known. They live just up the road in Babylon.
Mu’teez Hussein – Massacre victim’s brother 28.40 – 28.53
Subtitles - ‘No-one can get away with this. For us bloodshed can never be forgotten. We must find the criminals and punish them’.
28.47 Q: ‘If there is no proper trial there will be retribution?’
28.51 - Subtitles – ‘Of course. An eye for an eye’.
28.53 – 29.22close up of helicopter flying over Najaf – barious shots of Najaf Mosque (Pre-bombing of Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim). 29.22 – 29.41Crowds in Najaf Mosque hailing return of Ayatollah al-Hakim – scenes of now deceased Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim flanked by guards on balcony above crowd. UPSOT helicopter with music28.57 - Suspicion of America’s motives runs deep here in the Shia holy city of Najaf. Back in 1991, President George Bush senior incited the Shia uprising against Saddam. But because America feared it could lead to an Iran-backed Islamic state, US troops were ordered not to intervene as thousands of Shiites were slaughtered.29.25 - Soon after Saddam Hussein was toppled, the powerful Iranian-backed Shia Ayatollah, Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, returned to Najaf. An immensely powerful figure, the Ayatollah was a force for unity among the majority Shias - offering a moderate voice for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim 29.46 – 29.57
Subtitles - ‘There is no doubt that I would like an Islamic Government but we agreed with the Governing coalition authority that there should be a democracy that shall respect Islam’.
29.57 – 30.29scenes after assassination of al-Hakim at Najaf mosque after car bombing – victims helped away from the blast – fires burning. UPSOT; people screaming .. 30.00 - For many Shiites that dream died last September when Ayalatollah al-Hakim was blown to pieces by a massive car bomb as he drove away from prayers outside the sacred Najaf mosque.UPSOT30.17 - The authors of this carnage clearly hoped it would set Iraq alight – pitting Shia against Sunni. And as each month goes by, the temperature rises.
30.31 – 30.41INT Car driving along highway towards Fallujah – speedo doing 140km/h 30.42 – 30.59 General street scenes Fallujah – people close up – money changing hands 30.31 - But an hour south of Baghdad, down the highway locals have tagged the ‘Death Road’, is the town most Americans see as a front-line in this insurgent war ….. Fallujah. 30.45 - The people here are mainly Sunni Moslem - the strand of Islam that accounts for about 20 per cent of Iraq’s population. Many here were staunch supporters of Saddam Hussein.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi – Fallujah Cleric 30.57 – 31.11
30.57 - Q: Are Americans safe if they now come into Fallujah?
31.01 - A: English Translation: ‘ No, not at all. The truth is, every time they enter Fallujah you will hear the massive explosions’.
31.11 – 31.52 Fallujah Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi taking prayers in mosque – scenes in mosque people praying. UPSOT: Praying calls .. 31.15 - We’ve come to Fallujah to meet this man. One of the town’s most revered religious leaders, Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi. He’s no Saddam loyalist. He was banned from speaking in mosques when he predicted after the First Gulf War that Saddam’s behaviour was inviting an American invasion. 31.36 - But Sheikh Abdullah argues that since there are not the weapons of mass destruction here that America – and Australia – used to justify the war, then the invasion was illegal and so is the continued occupation.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi – Fallujah Cleric 31.51 – 32.46
31.51 - Q: So do I take from that that you believe that the fight against the Americans is a good fight?
31.58 – English translation A: ‘In my opinion, it is only natural that you would want to fight invaders and drive them out of your country’.
32.07 – Q -‘When the Americans liberated, as they say, Iraq from Saddam Hussein, were you not a supporter of that?
32.16 – English Translation – A: – ‘ Not only me but most Iraqis initially gave credence to what they were saying but after the Americans occupied Iraq, they changed their tune. Instead of hunting Saddam Hussein, they were here fighting terrorism. They ruined our country, committed human rights abuses, violated our cultures and traditions. All these things negated any credibility they once had.
32.46 – 32.55 Street scenes Fallujah – Central Mosque – tanks on guard. 32.55- 33.22scenes of US soldiers raising their rifles and pointing them at an angry crowd – general chaotic scenes US soldiers under pressure – crowd shouting at them – crowd seize US truck looting and ripping open boxes jumping and shouting. 33.22 – 33.45exterior scenes Fallujah police station, (before recent attack by militia and killing of policemen) – Iraqi police with rifles pointing at camera – heavily fortified positions with police guards looking out. UPSOT street scenes and music32.49 - The way the Sheikh tells it, American commanders broke promises not to enter Fallujah in military vehicles. 32.56 - Violence escalated when locals, including women, were stopped and searched. 13 locals died and scores were wounded here when US troops opened fire on a rowdy demonstration.UPSOT: shouting 33.10 - Now nearly every one in Fallujah wants the Americans out. When terrorists attack US military vehicles it’s a time for celebration.UPSOT more shouting 33.22 - Late last year, US forces handed their base in the town centre to the Iraqi Police., who, as we found, don’t like cameras.33.34 - Just a few days after we filmed here, 23 of these men were killed when guerrillas attacked the base with machine guns and rocket launchers.
Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi 33.44 – 33.58
Q: What if, even under a new Iraqi Government the Americans are still here in two- three- five - years time?
33.54 –Subtitles- A: ‘Then this Government will be slaughtered before the Americans’.
33.58 – 34.332nd Armoured Cav Night Patrol prep – WS Humvees line up; Two soldiers checking each other’s webbing clasping hands - checking guns - putting on body armour34.33 – 35.36int humvee on patrol through streets of Baghdad – street scenes at night – rubbish piled up – patrol stops man in street. 35.36 – 36.52US soldiers on night patrol stop and search car with three young Iraqis - AK47 found in back of truck - Iraqi with hands raised looks to sound of AK mag being cleared- Soldier tells them to get back in truck and go .. UPSOT: US Soldiers: ‘Don’t stop for checkpoints. .. don’t stop for checkpoints..34.05 - It’s late on a hot, close, Baghdad night. Soldiers from the US Army’s 2nd Armoured Cavalry are doing their final gear check before going into the city on night patrol.34.21 - Lightning Troop has suffered no casualties since it fought its way into the city two months ago. But for these young men the war is still on. 34.36 - Other units have been losing men in hit and run attacks by Saddam loyalists almost every day. So no-one is taking any chances.UPSOT: Radio talk: ‘Yeah about seven o’clock, one shot fired. 34.54 - We’re joining the patrol on sweeps intended to quell the rampant violence and looting that is raging out of control here.UPSOT: US Soldier: Hey you want a ride? .. Yes .. (Arab man talks to soldiers).. 3513 - It’s after the 11pm curfew. Everyone’s regarded as a potential threat. UPSOT: soldiers stop cars .. Arab voices calling out.. 35.27 - This is tense and often dangerous work. All vehicles are stopped and searched for dangerous weapons. UPSOT: US Soldier: ‘Stop .. stop .. stop 35.47 - Units have been attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. Everyone in Baghdad it seems has a weapon.UPSOT: 36.00 - ‘Hey, what’s this .. ahh an AK .. what the hell’s that huh? .. Ask him? ..stay over there … you two put your hands up’36.27 - The excuse offered for the assault rifle and Browning pistol is the usual one: the threat of thieves or ‘Ali Babas’ as they call them. The guns are confiscated and they’re allowed to go.UPSOT: 36.38 - US Soldier: ‘You want me to cuff you . you Ali Baba you. . Get in the truck and drive away’ Arab man saying, ‘ I’m not Ali Baba…
Sergeant Conquest patrol commander on street 36.47 – 36.59
Q: They’re obviously saying they need it to protect themselves against thieves. What do you say to that?
A: I can’t really tell you, I mean, half of them are thieves anyway that are running around here with their vehicles.
37.58- 38.27Int humvee on patrol through streets chasing truck - truck stuck in alley with houses on both sides – Soldiers walk up to driver, search truck - driver in profile with soldier pointing weapon at him – soldiers find weapon offcamera as soldier watching driver – driver escorted back up alley. 37.04 - Minutes later we’re in hot pursuit of another truck that’s tried to avoid the roadblock.UPSOT: 37.20- US soldier shouts: ‘Where ya goin’ buddy?’ (Car horn sounds) .. 37.28 – ‘Get out of the truck .. let’s go’37.35 - In the attempt to get away, this driver has wedged his vehicle in an alleyway full of raw sewage. UPSOT: 37.52 - US Soldier: ‘Come here . stand over there ..hey, you got any weapons?.. no..?’ [Iraqi shakes head].38. 04 - No weapons, he says. But he’s lying.UPSOT: 38.09 - US Soldier: ‘Wha’ya got? .. we’ve got an AK .. ahh you got no weapons ehh.. for the baby? Stand there’ ‘AK47 – broken off the stock.’
38.27 – 38.51US patrol quiet Baghdad streets at night – shots from Humvee – close up guns soldiers – jeep to jeep shots through streets… 38.51 – 39.06busy street scenes jeeps and soldiers in traffic and watching from footpaths .. close up gun and soldier 38.30 - US forces now find themselves in a law and order role that is often more difficult than the all-out combat they faced during the War. It’s the worst kind of conflict for an occupying army: fighting a small but well-armed and fanatical insurgency…The great fear is that, facing increasingly bold attacks, a twitchy US military could unleash a blood-bath. It’s a concern now being voiced by America’s most loyal supporters, including the head of the Iraqi National Congress, Dr Ahmad Chalabi:
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 39.04 – 39.34
A: My biggest fear is of some serious acrimony developing between the Iraqi people and the US military.
Q: Is that a possibility?
A: Yes. I think this is uh a possibility and I am very very concerned about it and I want to prevent it.
Q: What would provoke that kind of acrimony.
A: The ingredients of that acrimony would be violence against US troops. Their uh acts to defend themselves.
39.36 – 39.48Police car through traffic - INT Police car en route to bomb - 39.48 - 40.06APTN: Bomb exploding near US soldiers standing next to tree 40.06 – 40.15Iraqi bomb squad checking metal devices .. shots of squad checking car in car park – 40. 26 – 40.40shots of interior police car with hole in the floor after bomb attempt. 39. 35 - But if there is room for optimism in Iraq’s future it’s in the dedication of Iraqis like the men of Baghdad’s bomb disposal squad.39.46 - All over Iraq so-called improvised explosive devices, or IEDS, are frequently left by terrorists on the side of roads to kill Coalition soldiers.UPSOT 39.58 - Booooooom!40.02 - These two GIs had a lucky escape but hundreds of US soldiers and Iraqis have been killed or wounded. The bomb squad have a busy time of it.
Reporter Piece to Camera 40.15 – 40.51
Well this is the first call of the day for the Baghdad bomb disposal squad and they’re responding to what was an assassination attempt on a top Baghdad Police chief. The driver of that police four wheel drive over there was on his way to collect a local commander when the rear of the vehicle suddenly exploded. He escaped unscathed but the Police bomb squad are now checking to see if there’s another bomb hidden in the vehicle. It’s all a typical day for Baghdad. This event probably won’t even warrant a mention in the news. It’s difficult and dangerous work for the bomb disposal team.
40.50 – 41.00Iraqi bomb squad checking package by side of road. 41.00 – 41.07US Robot in street on road and down into tunnel – hundreds of onlookers with US soldiers nearby. 41.07 – 41.18Iraqi men inspect bag by roadside. 40.52 - There’s a splendid madness in the heroism of men who defuse bombs in minutes with wire-snippers ……while US teams spend hours using a remote-controlled robot. 41.07 - Hundreds of Iraqi policemen have died on the job in the last year and bomb squad officer Hazim Kadhim also has to live with the fact that his work makes him a target for the terrorists.
Hazim Kadhim 41.18 -41.32
Subtitles - ‘I consider them to be people who have nothing to do with Islam. Their aim is to destroy this country and they don’t want to live in peace. Because of them, this country will never be safe’.
41 32 – 41.51Baghdad street scenes muddy footpaths – donkey drays – kids in street – traffic scenes, old cars etc. 41.34 - Though billions of American taxpayer dollars are being spent to get basic utilities running again, many here complain their quality of life is worse than when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. And for that they blame the Americans.
Paul Bremer 41.51 -42.05
I think it’s clear that we were not prepared for the state of the devastation of the infrastructure here. And I don’t know why that is – whether our intelligence wasn’t good enough, whether our analysis wasn’t good enough. I don’t know, but, again, the historians can deal with this problem.
42.05 – 42.22bloack of flats with broken windows – sat. dishes – people close up on balconies – hundreds of wires from street pole into backyard shed with petrol driven generator running. 42.22 – 42.34Power pylons in countryside with broken wires hanging – variouos close up pylons and wires in PTC 42. 07 - A big issue for Iraqis are power cuts that leave most homes with just a couple of hours of electricity a day. 42.16 - Those who can afford it are wired up to back-up generators run by locals. 42.23 - But one cause of the continued disruption of power supplies isn’t too hard to find.
Reporter Piece to Camera in front of vandalised power grid lines 42.30 – 43.01
All over the country national power grid lines like these are being chopped down and stolen by thieves. We’re told that a couple of weeks ago a gang of 30 men turned up to this site with Kalashnikov machine guns and quite literally blasted the cabling out of the sky. It’ll make those thieves a tidy dollar on the blackmarket. But as the Americans and the new provisional government are now realising, it’s going to cost billions of dollars to repair.
43.01 – 43.26Men working at Daura Oil Refinery South of Baghdad – various pipes, workers - tracking shots of oil tanks at Daura - 43.04 - The same goes for the oil production that is meant to help pay for Iraq’s revival. Though it is nearly back up to pre-war levels, there aren’t the troops to protect the thousands of kilometres of pipeline from terrorist attack.
Dathar Al-Khashab – Daura Oil Refinery Manager 43.21 – 43.35
‘Well this is a puzzle really. Because unfortunately they were damaging their own property they were damaging the things that could sustain life after the wa’.
43.35 – 43. 56Daura flare at dusk in distance, (shot from Baghdad suburb) – various flare close ups.43.56 – 44.05Reporter walks through refinery with manager al-Kashab44.06 – 44.20shots of refinery flare 43.38 - On the edge of Baghdad, the huge burning gas flare from the Daura Oil Refinery is a potent and constant reminder of the untold riches at stake here for those now jostling for power.UPSOT: 43.56 - Dathar al-Khashab walking with Reporter: ‘Our main concern was to keep this refinery in one piece and if they get in to steal, the result we know is ..’ (fades off). 44.01 - For the refinery’s general manager, Dathar al-Kashab, keeping this flame alive for the people of Baghdad during the American invasion became a life and death struggle against marauding looters.
Dathar Al-Khashab – Daura Oil Refinery Manager 44.15 – 44.30
‘When they see the flare on, they are relieved. They think ‘the refinery is running’ – meaning there is gasoline, fuel is coming up. If they see the flare is off they will be in a very bad state you know’.
44.31 – tracking shots of refinery – large pipes 44.30 - In early April, as Iraqi forces collapsed, Dathar found his refinery under attack from armed local looters. American troops had rushed past to take Baghdad, leaving the refinery unprotected. So Dathar handed weapons out to his workers.
Dathar al-Kashab – Daura Oil Refinery 44.49 – 45.23:
‘We had to fight it off and sometimes they shot, during the shooting we I got one of my crude tanks on fire and I had to fire-fight at the same time fire-fight also outside. This is funny!
Q: Did you ever think you were going to die?
A: When I set myself to those objectives I thought I am going to die at any moment. Because there is a lot of stray bullets around.
Q: And one bullet could have sent this place sky high?
A: Yeah’.
45.23 – 45.32Reporter and al_Hashab walk around oil tank45.32 – 45.55various shots oil tanks – refinery plumbing – stacks with belching smoke 45.23 - Now Mr al-Kashab is heavily involved in the planning to rebuild Iraq’s shattered oil industry. Iraq has the world’s third largest proven oil reserves. It also has the largest probable oil reserves. When that oil begins to flow onto the world market in several years, its impact on the OPEC oil cartel controlled by the World’s main oil producing nations will be dramatic – perhaps slashing the World price of crude oil.
Dathar al-Kashab 45.55 – 46.38
Q: ‘The conspiracy theory has it that what the Americans are all about is gaining control of Iraqi’s oilfields – the world’s, I think, second-largest oilfields – so they can force down the price of oil and break OPEC?’
46.14 - A: ‘This is a result, the result. This is not a conspiracy. I mean once you are talking about getting the second reserve in the world, obviously the result is to control the prices, or at least you can control the prices when you like. Iraq will be a very big contender to the Saudi portion of production’.
46.38 – flares from refinery – oil lake with bubbling oil, tanks etc, 46.41 - When Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was hit with sanctions after it invaded Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia – the world’s biggest oil producer – picked up the bulk of Iraq’s oil quota.
Francis Brooke – INC Political Advisor 46.55 –47.41
Q: ‘ Is there any possibility that Iraq would consider taking itself out of OPEC’?
A: ‘Yeah, I think there probably is. Again I think that’s a decision the Iraqi people are probably going to have to take for themselves. But there certainly is a strong moral argument that OPEC nations who absorbed Iraq’s production capacity and turned it into their own production capacity over the intervening ten or twelve years have some responsibility to Iraq. And I would be surprised if there isn’t a mechanism where by they can all come to a mutual agreement. But if there was no mutual agreement I think Iraq would be well within its rights and would be only serving the interests of its own people to go ahead and set production levels in their own interests’.
47.41 – 48.00various shots refinery at dusk yellow sky – smoke/steam from stacks – silhouettes machinery, stacks etc. 47.44 - Already the US is being accused of abusing its power here in Iraq – by awarding, without tender, the major oil infrastructure rebuilding contract to US construction giant Haliburton.
Hoshiar Zebari Spokesman Kurdish Democratic Party and CPA Foreign Minister 48.01 -48.19
We are concerned really. We believe that this contract should have been offered and given by an Iraqi entity, I mean, the speed of granting this contract immediately after liberation I think questions the real motivations.
48.19 – 48.40shots during Gulf war, broken oil pipeline 48. 22 - Iraq’s oilfields are totally devastated by years of sanctions, war and now looting. Apart from the rebuilding contracts, the glittering prize for foreign companies here will be the lucrative production agreements needed to open up these massive fields.
Thamir Ghadhban –Oil Ministry advisor and former Oil Minister 48. 41 - 48.56
We will make sure that we extract the best price for the Iraqi barrel so that it will be an open bid, ok, there will be no more discount or favouring anybody else.
48.56 – 49.13exterior Baghdad Oil Ministry – US soldiers at guardpost on steps of Ministry 48.57 - But the aspiring political leadership of Iraq has different ideas. To Iraqi National Congress leader Dr Ahmad Chalabi, the oil contracts will be an opportunity to hand out the spoils of war to those countries who helped liberate Iraq.
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 49.13 – 49.28
‘From my own point of view Americans should get first call on contracts in Iraq because they were they led the effort to liberate Iraq and I think the US will give us a fair dea’l.
49.28 – 50.06Shots of interior meeting of Dr Chalabi with Arab village chiefs and supporters – after meeting, mingling with supporters 49.31 – When Chalabi was triumphantly returned to Iraq by his Pentagon supporters, he was widely touted as a future leader-in-waiting… 49.42 - And for the moment, Chalabi is also claiming he doesn’t want to ever lead Iraq. But no-one doubts that this wily politician is doing anything other than keeping his powder dry. It’s better for him to let the American regime take the blame for Iraq’s current woes.
Francis Brooke INC Advisor 50.00 -50.19
‘Dr Chalabi is a free and independent actor. He is not buyable. Which is an important fact in the intelligence world. Some people are buyable. Dr Chalabi is not buyable. He also doesn’t take orders from anybody which is one of the reasons I like him. I think people like that are admirable.
Dr Ahmad Chalabi 50.19 -51.12
Q: ‘The conspiracy theory about Dr Chalabi is that you’re all about doing the neo-conservative agenda of denationalising the Iraqi oil industry and parcelling it out to multi-national US oil companies’?
A: ‘I say to that. My response is this. Who has used who. After all, whose army is in the other’s country liberating them? The US is here liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein. That is victory enough for me and it is something that you should think about.
Q: But long-term sir –
A: Wait a minute! As for the matter of oil. The US needs oil and we need to sell oil and I don’t think the US is going to buy our oil at reduced cut-rate prices. They will pay fair prices for our oil
51.12 – 51.34Street scenes Baghdad soldiers convoy through streets – US soldiers patrol on foot through Baghdad streets. 51.15 - Most Iraqis are convinced the only reason America and its Coalition allies invaded, was because of the strategic value of Iraq’s huge oil reserves.America though is adamant it will leave once Iraq’s security is guaranteed.
IV Paul Bremer 51.32 -51.54
‘We will not leave until we achieve the vision that the President and the prime ministers have which is to turn over to Iraq a democratic political system operating in a stable and secure environment. And stable and secure is not there yet and we’re not going to leave until that job is don’e.
Q; ‘How long do you think will that take. Years’?
A: ‘It’s clearly a matter of years not months’.
Reporter Piece to Camera at al-Asad Airbase Control Tower 52.04 – 52.58
What’s fuelling at least part of the antagonism towards Americans here in Iraq from ordinary Iraqis is the growing suspicion that the Americans aren’t being entirely honest about their long-term strategic intentions with this country. There’s talk of permanent American military bases here in Iraq and once you’ve seen this sprawling Al Asad airbase three hours west of Baghdad – another of Saddam Hussein’s follies – it’s not hard to see why if you were an American policymaker, you wouldn’t be leaving in a hurry. 3416 Israel’s just minutes flying time by jet in that direction. Syria, same thing in that direction. An unstable Saudi Arabia, about ten minutes by fighter in that direction. And Iran about the same time over there. Indeed, why would America be leaving in a hurry.
51.54 – 52.05shots of abandoned Iraqi fighter planeswide shots al-Asad airbase near Baghdad52.19 –52.34 shots of airbase, runways, control tower 52.59 – 53.17various shots airbase, US helicopters parked, blackhawks fly in formation towards landing, wide shots hangars53.18 – Montage of: library footage of bloodied US tank soldier dragged from tank – Blackhawks fighting in Fallujah – US soldier carried on stretcher and into jeep – night shots US soldiers running into a house nightshots – night patrol soldiers in Humvee – silhouette US soldier against car headlights on Baghdad street… 53.18 - This on-going war is likely to cost American and other Coalition taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.But America and its allies are also paying in blood. Hundreds of young men and women dead, many thousands injured.The pretext for this war was Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. With none yet found, there are many taxpayers now questioning whether their own countries are a safer place since last year’s invasion.
Paul Bremer 53.52 – 54.25
Q: Why is the world a safer place because we have toppled Saddam Hussein?
A: It is a safer place because we have gotten rid of one of the most awful dictators in the region. A man who was at war with all of his neighbours at various times and at war with his own people all the time.
Q: So you disagree with the notion that this was a sideshow in the war against terrorism?
A: Oh this is an essential front of the war on terrorism. We have more and more evidence of terrorists having been here before the war and more and more terrorists here since the war. This is the front. This is the central battlefield of terrorism.
54.29 – 54.44 US Funeral Service – soldiers fire salute - rifles & boots & helmets on podium 54.28 - The dying goes on. .. Another memorial service for Americans in Iraq.
US Soldier standing by memorial 54.35 – 54.44
Two good soldiers. Always talking about families. Living life to the fullest. Never questioned the war.
54.44 – British Memorial Ceremony at airfield - British Soldiers carry coffin from Helicopter to C130 for transport to Britain – shots of British soldiers lined up by door of plane 55.38 ends.C130 ramp door closes into darkness 54. 46 – In another corner of the country, a farewell for British comrades. .. America and its Coalition allies are locked in step marching into an uncertain future. (55.00 VO ends )
ENDS 55.38