Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC
May 15, 2008
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: And next to Myanmar. Almost two weeks now since the cyclone and still only a small fraction of the aid needed has gotten into the country. Four U.S. Navy ships are right off the coast with doctors, shelter, food, fresh water, and helicopters ready to ferry it all to shore.
Today, Jonathan Karl talked to Adm. Timothy Keating, the highest ranking U.S. military officer to visit Myanmar since the cyclone hit.
JONATHAN KARL: For Adm. Keating, getting help to these people is a personal crusade. He traveled halfway around the world this week to accompany the first planeload of U.S. supplies. On the ground, he met with the head of Myanmar’s navy and made a plea: Let us help your people.
ADM. TIMOTHY KEATING [Commander, U.S. Pacific Command]: You know, there was a general air of “things aren’t all that bad” we got from him.
KARL: Of course, things are desperately bad. Only 13 U.S. planeloads have been allowed in and all those Navy ships are waiting just 50 miles offshore. Why won’t Myanmar let more in?
KEATING: There is a sense in the Burmese junta leadership that once countries are in in military form, that those countries may not leave. I did my personal and professional best to assure him that we will leave no fingerprints, and as soon as our work there is done, we will leave.
KARL: But given all the suffering, what about going in without permission?
KEATING: We have no intention of, quote, “invading” their country or penetrating their air space, doing any of that, landing any ships or any Marines without the explicit approval of the government of Burma.
KARL: Is there any hope of getting that approval?
KEATING: I would not be surprised if in a day or two we don’t start, you know, sling-loading, putting H-46s with cargo nets underneath them and get permission to carry those relief supplies to where they’re needed. I think we’ll get permission.
KARL: Hopefully, the admiral is right. But privately, U.S. military officials tell me that it is, quote, “sickening” that two weeks after the cyclone hit, all that aid is sitting there, all those people are facing disease and starvation, and Myanmar’s military leaders seemed most concerned about their own survival.
Jonathan Karl, ABC News, Washington.
May 15, 2008
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: And next to Myanmar. Almost two weeks now since the cyclone and still only a small fraction of the aid needed has gotten into the country. Four U.S. Navy ships are right off the coast with doctors, shelter, food, fresh water, and helicopters ready to ferry it all to shore.
Today, Jonathan Karl talked to Adm. Timothy Keating, the highest ranking U.S. military officer to visit Myanmar since the cyclone hit.
JONATHAN KARL: For Adm. Keating, getting help to these people is a personal crusade. He traveled halfway around the world this week to accompany the first planeload of U.S. supplies. On the ground, he met with the head of Myanmar’s navy and made a plea: Let us help your people.
ADM. TIMOTHY KEATING [Commander, U.S. Pacific Command]: You know, there was a general air of “things aren’t all that bad” we got from him.
KARL: Of course, things are desperately bad. Only 13 U.S. planeloads have been allowed in and all those Navy ships are waiting just 50 miles offshore. Why won’t Myanmar let more in?
KEATING: There is a sense in the Burmese junta leadership that once countries are in in military form, that those countries may not leave. I did my personal and professional best to assure him that we will leave no fingerprints, and as soon as our work there is done, we will leave.
KARL: But given all the suffering, what about going in without permission?
KEATING: We have no intention of, quote, “invading” their country or penetrating their air space, doing any of that, landing any ships or any Marines without the explicit approval of the government of Burma.
KARL: Is there any hope of getting that approval?
KEATING: I would not be surprised if in a day or two we don’t start, you know, sling-loading, putting H-46s with cargo nets underneath them and get permission to carry those relief supplies to where they’re needed. I think we’ll get permission.
KARL: Hopefully, the admiral is right. But privately, U.S. military officials tell me that it is, quote, “sickening” that two weeks after the cyclone hit, all that aid is sitting there, all those people are facing disease and starvation, and Myanmar’s military leaders seemed most concerned about their own survival.
Jonathan Karl, ABC News, Washington.