TRANSCRIPTS: Gen. Clark on CNN on Nov. 5 commenting on the Ft. Hood shooting
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on November 6, 2009 - 12:27pm.
Wesley Clark
Hello Everyone:
The mass shooting incident at Fort Hood yesterday was a very horrible tragedy in my opinion!
In The Situation Room on CNN yesterday, Wolf Blitzer interviewed Gen. Clark about this incident. The interview is in four separate parts because CNN lost their connection with Gen. Clark the first time that they were talking with him and they had to interrupt him twice after that because of a news conference at Ft. Hood and because Obama was starting to give a speech.
Here are the two transcripts of everything that Gen. Clark said on CNN yesterday:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0911/05/sitroom.01.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Mass Shooting at Ford Hood Army Base
Aired November 5, 2009 - 16:00 ET
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: "Let's bring in retired U.S. Army General Wesly Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander. General Clark I know you've been to Ft. Hood. I know you know this area. Obviously this is a very sensitive situation unfolding right now.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (via telephone): Wolf, we don't know exactly what happened yet. As you said, most usually these first reports are inaccurate. Maybe these were soldiers. Maybe these were people who somehow infiltrated on to the base. We just don't know. Ft. Hood is the largest base in the army, as you said. It has close to 50,000 troops assigned to it. It has lots of families, a lot of retirees in the area. And it's a wonderful training facility there.
The people at Ft. Hood have been in and out of Iraq on numerous occasions and Afghanistan. I'm sure there's a lot of family stress in the area, there's a lot of fatigue, there's a lot of former soldiers who hang around the base. So it's all speculation at this point. It's a terrible tragedy no matter what are the causes and motivations behind it.
BLITZER: We're told, General, just to update our viewers, to update you, an army official tells CNN nine people are confirmed dead in these shootings. And perhaps as many as 30 people are wounded. We've been speaking with the Congressman from the district that includes Ft. Hood and the U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas. They both confirm that perhaps 20 or 30 are wounded in this incident. It happened inside a building. You know, how do you prepare for a situation, General Clark, like this? There's so many troops on a base. There are so many weapons on a base at any one time.
CLARK: You don't prepare for the situation. You rely on your chain of command to know the people in their units, to get them help when they need help and to deal with these situations. If this was a soldier, he reports to someone.
Someone's responsible in the chain of command for knowing what was going on. If it wasn't a soldier, well, then you have your -- you have your guards at the gate. They check the people who are coming in. If you're not a DOD, Department of Defense, person, if you don't have your car registered, if you don't show the right ID cards then they search the vehicle and presumably they'd screen this out.
I guess it's possible somebody could have walked on to the base, hidden in the location, somehow gotten in, set up an ambush for people. But if it was soldiers, and you have to start with the assumption that these were people who knew the military and had some connection with it, then they worked for people. They're part of an organization, a team, and a family. If it turns out to be that, of course, it would be a real tragedy.
BLITZER: As you watch this unfold, what's the normal standard operating procedure after an incident like this on a huge base like Ft. Hood? We're told there's a complete lockdown. Elaborate a little bit on that. :
CLARK: Well, there is no standard operating procedure because these things, they just don't happen on bases. They never happened on a base certainly when I was there. What a lockdown would be, would be get people off the streets. Basically, put people back where they belong. Get accountability on the people. Find out who's where and who has been...
BLITZER: I think we've just lost connection with General Clark. We'll get back to him. General Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander helping us better appreciate what's going on...
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: General Clark is still with us. Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander. It's a big difference, General Clark, if they were authorized to wear uniforms or if they weren't. They were just pretending to be members of the United States military. Isn't that right?
CLARK: That's exactly right, Wolf. You know, we had one of our young people in Arkansas gunned down by a terrorist who was apprehended at Little Rock, Arkansas, and he was motivated to kill people in uniform. That would be -- that's terrible. But I have to say as a former soldier, when I -- I'd almost rather it be something like that than something from our own people. And it's just a terrible tragedy, and unprecedented.
You know, I know we've got great leadership at Ft. Hood. We'll get to the bottom of it as rapidly as possible. I think they did exactly the right thing by telling the soldiers to go back to their bases, go back to their barracks, back to headquarter, get people accounted for, get them off the streets, get them safe.
BLITZER: If, in fact, these were ideological killers who had some sort of commitment to kill as many U.S. troops as possible as opposed to an American soldier who just may have gone berserk and decided to go ahead and start killing people, if it's an ideological issue here, terrorism, then you have to wonder are there others out there who are planning or plotting to do the same thing.
CLARK: Right. There's a lot of questions something like this raises. But, you know, the important thing is for everyone is not to jump to conclusions. Take the immediate steps, get people safe, and get your soldiers and family members accounted for.
BLITZER: General, I'm going to interrupt for a moment. There's a news conference at Ft. Hood right now. I want to listen in...
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. There the part of the tape that we missed at the top. Lieutenant General Bob Cone briefing all of us just seconds ago on what has happened at around 1:30 p.m. Local Time, Central Time zone, in Texas. He says a soldier opened fire killing 12, wounding 31, all U.S. military personnel. There are two other soldiers who are determined to be suspects right now who have been arrested. Out of an abundance of caution, they're continuing the lockdown to make sure that everything has been resolved.
But he clarified for all of us exactly what they know right now. And I just want to report that, remember, these are all initial reports. He's getting his information from individuals. This is obviously subject to change. But let me bring in retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander. You heard lieutenant General Cone explain what's going on, General Clark. He did clarify a lot.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (via telephone): He seems like he's got as good a grip on the situation now as you could possibly expect. Obviously there's going to be an intensive investigation to determine what the motivations were. Who are the suspects? Are they really soldiers? And who else might have known about it. There'll be a lot of -- lot to come out of this over the days to come. The most important thing for him right now and for Ft. Hood is that the incident is over. And that the other soldiers are all accounted for.
BLITZER: That was the good news. Let me just update our viewers here in the United States and around the world what's going on. We have been covering the breaking news out of Ft. Hood, Texas, now for the past hour here in THE SITUATION ROOM. And this is what we know...
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0911/05/sitroom.02.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Rampage at U.S. Army Post
Aired November 5, 2009 - 17:30 ET
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, I did want to ask -- is the general still with us -- Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: General Clark, are you still with us?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, U.S. ARMY (RET.), SERVED AT FORT HOOD: Yes, I am.
FOREMAN: General Clark -- General Clark, it's good to speak to you, but not under these circumstances, of course.
A question for you -- when you are in command of a base like this, at a moment like this, what are you trying to accomplish at this moment?
CLARK: You're trying to establish order. In other words, you're trying to separate out fact from fiction, get your people accounted for, get the family members safe. And the chain of command is all out there hustling and working and trying to make something happen and get the facts. So he's being besieged by lots of reports, lots of ideas. Mostly first reports...
BLITZER: All right. I'm going to in...
CLARK: ...are wrong.
BLITZER: I'm going to interrupt, General.
Here's the president..."
This was the end of Gen. Clark being interviewed. After Obama's speech Wolf Blitzer brought in retired Army Gen. Russel Honore. Gen. Honore was soon interrupted by Christopher Haug, the chief of media over at Fort Hood.
I was really glad that CNN brought in Gen. Clark to ask him questions about this horrible tragedy.
Mitch Dworkin
http://mitchdworkin.com/
Check out my political website!
http://www.securingamerica.com/
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16039
RESOURCES: Speeches, Articles, and Career Highlights to help define Gen. Clark!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on July 7, 2008 - 2:51pm.
http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program: An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight back against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda!
I completely agree with you about Gen. Clark that "It was a relief and comfort to hear his calm and reasoned voice." I wish that Gen. Clark would get a lot more time to talk on the cable networks!
I really hope that Obama and Hillary have Gen. Clark's phone number at the top of their list of people to call for serious advice before any major foreign policy decisions are made that will have long term consequences!
Here is the CNN Larry King Live video link where the interview with Gen. Clark and Gen. Barry McCaffrey starts at about 20:00 into this video and goes to the end of it at 24:44:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/crime/2009/11/06/lkl.massacre.long.cnn.html
Fort Hood massacre 24:44
Larry King and panelists discuss what happened at Fort Hood, where 13 people were killed and 38 wounded by one shooter.
Added On November 7, 2009
Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/crime/2009/11/06/lkl.massacre.long.cnn.html
Here is the CNN transcript of Larry King's interview with Gen. Clark and Gen. McCaffrey in this video:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0911/06/lkl.01.html
CNN LARRY KING LIVE
The Latest on the Fort Hood Massacre
Aired November 6, 2009 - 21:00 ET
LARRY KING, HOST: "Joining us now is retired US Army General Barry McCaffrey. General McCaffrey served as commander in chief of the US Southern Command, was special assistant to Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell. And we should mention he's also a member of the Dyna Corp International Board of Directors.
Here in Los Angeles, we're joined by retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clarke. General Clark is a NATO Supreme Allied commander, senior fellow at UCLA's Center for International Relations.
Your first reaction to this, General Clark? Aside from shock?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK, US ARMY (RET): Well, it's just a terrible tragedy. And you ask yourself how could we have missed the warning signs of this?
KING: There were warning signs?
CLARK: There had to have been warning signs. Somebody would've seen something. There would have been something unusual. Some inability to relate. Something has to have been there to have -- that the chain of command must be asking themselves right now.
KING: General McCaffrey, do you agree with that?
GENERAL BARRY MCCAFFREY, US ARMY (RET): Well, certainly the facts that are coming out -- I'm reading AP wires and CNN.com, that sort of thing -- seem to indicate clearly this fellow was starting off track badly. And there were some religious overtones to it. The Army's going to be very circumspect, Larry. They're not going to want to contaminate a criminal investigation and they're not going to want to cast doubt on the thousands -- 3,500 plus Muslim troops serving in uniform.
But I think Wes is right. This looks like the hard questions are going to be need to be asked.
KING: Now, how will commanders at bases and in other areas around the world deal with their Muslim officers and men?
CLARK: That's the next big question. What would it take for you to feel comfortable now? For most of these men, they're in a very cohesive unit. They know each other. They know the families. They know these soldiers very well. They live with them 24 hours a day. They know them off duty and on duty.
The medical profession's a little bit different, because the doctors are more professional. The command is less close knit. They're treated more as individual specialists.
So it's not surprising, if it was going to happen somewhere, it would happen here. But my guess is that, up and down the chain of command, people are asking all those questions. They're reassuring their soldiers of Muslim faith that you're a part of our team; we love you, you're part of us. And they're looking for the bond to be reciprocated.
KING: And are they also, General McCaffrey, worried about some soldiers taking action against Muslim soldiers?
MCCAFFREY: Probably not. Larry, you go to a place like Ft. Hood, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, these are incredibly safe environments, perimeter security, disciplined units, lots of families on post.
The Army and Marine Corps, in particular, have been under tremendous stress for eight plus years now. They know and love and trust each other. So I think this is a kick in the gut, as General George Casey said, our Army chief today. But 43,000 killed and wounded, this is a combat hardened force already.
KING: General Clark, does the general at Hood feel any guilt?
CLARK: Well, I think he's certainly going to be concerned. And I think, you know, he's going to be asking himself did he do everything he could've done? And all of the chain of command will have to ask themselves these questions.
I don't know if guilt's the right word, because it may be that there was nothing he could've done. And he may have talked this same issue.
But I know in the circumstances where I've had fatal accidents and other injuries like that to the troops, you always carry a measure of that burden on yourself. No matter what.
KING: Have you had that, General McCaffrey, lose men under you in circumstances not related to war?
MCCAFFREY: Oh, yes. You know, this is also a dangerous profession they're in. Just the training environment is ferociously aggressive. Night operations using live ammunition. So this is a very complex business to acquire.
But by the way, Lieutenant General Bob Cone, the corps commander, is one of the most remarkably talented, determined and dedicated officers I have run into. So just out of combat in Afghanistan a year ago. So I think, look, you got 55,000 soldiers, a community of 100,000 people.
This is a problem, but it certainly isn't at General Cone's level. What we've got to ask, though, is -- we educate this guy for six years. Who knew what about him? And did they put it all together? Did the FBI really investigate Jihadist kinds of comments on the Internet? Was he really having patients shunted away from him by other officers? Those are the questions that have to get asked.
KING: Some remaining moments when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Usually in these circumstances when the -- when the suspect dies, we don't learn anything. It's kind of reverse, but we're lucky he's alive.
CLARK: We are. We're going to learn a lot from this guy, if we can keep him alive and if he'll talk. And as one of your previous guests said, it's physical. It's psychological. It's spiritual. It's social. We're going to learn a lot from this.
And we're probably just scratching the surface of the enormous conflict that must be present in so many people in this country and around the world.
KING: General McCaffrey, we only have about 30 seconds. We must assume there's other Hasans around, right?
MCCAFFREY: Certainly not in the armed forces. I mean, 3,500 Muslim troops -- clearly we have problems. It's 2.4 million men and women in the Department of Defense. There's some one percent or whatever it is that are unstable or criminal. But this is the one off data point. This is the worst tragedy that's hit the peace time Army ever, domestic base.
So there may not be a lot to learn from it, to be blunt. This is a tragedy without much rationale.
KING: Thank you both, very much. Two outstanding servants of this country, Generals McCaffrey and Wesley Clark. This has been another special edition of LARRY KING LIVE..."
Its clear that King got the memo from his CNN bosses and and did his best to raise doubts about Muslim troops.
Clark made a good point (at one I've thought of) when he said:
The medical profession's a little bit different, because the doctors are more professional. The command is less close knit. They're treated more as individual specialists.
So it's not surprising, if it was going to happen somewhere, it would happen here.
Of course King ignored that and asked about retaliation against Muslim troops.
Barry
Our departure point is the present, our goal is the future... it is for us to determine.
I heard Wes while I was watching yesterday. It was a relief and comfort to hear his calm and reasoned voice.
This is a terrible tragedy. I'm deeply sorry for those whose hearts are hurting because of it.